Hey everyone,
I told you I want this next patch not to take too long again, so I'm pushing myself by releasing the progress report quickly. Now, before I continue I want to apologize. This patch title is... really bad. But this patch will introduce so many new features for the Dating Sim aspect of the game, and I looove "Love on the Spectrum" so much that, when coming up with the pun, it just... didn't go away. I really, really tried to stop myself, but... it was futile. So "Love in the Rectum" it has to be. I'm sorry. I'm a child, apparently.

Anyways, as I mentioned in the v0.7.7 release posts, the v0.7.x patch cycle is about strengthening the core gameplay, outside of any branches or Doomsday endings. A lot of the systems have already gotten overhauls, but there are a few aspects of the game that, in my opinion, still need stronger systems. Not all, but a majority of new systems in v0.7.8 focus on new features for the Affection and Dating aspects of the game.
So let's look at some of the new features of V0.7.8 - "Love in the Rectum":

The Club

Okay, let's start with the big one. BMO TV has had Affection and relationships for a very long time, but almost all of them are tied to the other contestants and their bigger storylines. And then your ability to have fun with those becomes a more complicated endeavor when the producers really want you to have a lot of fun, right? There has never really been a place where you can just go out, look at a bunch of hot men, and decide which one you want to get to know. People have been asking for more opportunities for actual sex, and this is my solution.

The Club is a new room you can visit during the evening. When you enter, it opens a dating interface with a different set of men each time. You can see their profile picture, your current Affection, and relationship level with them. Then you choose one, sit down with him in a booth, and start a real date conversation.

Now, this comes with a relatively large gamble. I've always said that adding a lot of sex scenes is not possible due to the sheer amount of graphics. But that is kind of changing with AI graphics, and I know AI art isn't very popular. But... my idea is to just use it to "redraw" all the layers we already have into the different body positions, while still having our artist draw all the sex character's body art, and then the AI just applies all the facial and body transformation features.

This is a pretty big experiment, but I think it can finally turn sexual dating content into an actual game mechanic rather than something that only happens in a few story branches. If it doesn't work out, we know, at least. I'm not putting in too many paid artist hours into this one yet before we know if it works, but I think it is a worthwhile experiment that could make us gain a looot of new sex poses over the next few months, and that could open the game up a whole lot. By cutting the connection to the current core gameplay, I can pull the ripcord if it doesn't work without too much hassle. Still, I see the potential and how it fits the game.

Gifting

The action inventory from the last patches was always supposed to become more than a place for cards and bonus items. So I'm finally adding proper gifts. This will not be a completely separate action. You put the item into the existing action item slot and then Chit-Chat with the contestant you want to give it to.

And I don't want all of these gifts to just sit in a shop. Part of the challenge will be finding the right things around the house. I'm adding items hidden inside actual room objects; for example, as you see in the GIF, an Idol card inside one of the locker-room lockers. If you find it and give it to Himari, she will obviously be very happy about it and reward you with Affection.

Different contestants will care about different gifts, and meals from the new cooking system can be given away in exactly the same way. I hope this makes exploring the rooms a little more worthwhile and gives you another way to work on relationships without just repeating the same conversation over and over again.

Cooking/Crafting

Okay, this one got a little out of hand. I originally wanted a small system for cooking a few meals that could then be eaten or used as gifts. Then I started thinking about ingredients, recipes, different qualities, experimentation, and what people would realistically find in a German kitchen. And now, the full design includes more than 100 ingredients, 260 finished dishes, and even crafted ingredients that can be used in other recipes. This is apparently what happens when I let myself design a "light" crafting system.

The new kitchen interface lets you search the pantry by category and select up to four ingredients. If you don't know what to make with them yet, you can experiment. A roll using your Cooking Knowledge can reveal some of the missing ingredients for a hidden recipe, and even a partial discovery will be remembered so you can continue it later. Once you know what you want, cooking uses a separate roll to decide the quality and how many portions you make.

Both experimenting and cooking cost a quarter of your energy. Finished food goes directly into your inventory, where you can keep it, eat it later without spending more energy, or give it to somebody. Some particularly good meals can even restore energy. I'm still balancing the exact recipes and results, and the implementation is far from finished. The game design for this one will become a more complicated factor. If this system works, I've been thinking about also adding a similar Crafting system for little things into the hobby room but that one didn't spark my imagination as much yet.

Energy / Time Advancement Rework

This is the huge system rework hiding underneath most of the other features. Until now, normal actions and all kinds of other events have advanced time automatically, which made it sometimes hard to plan around random events, or just in general, understand what was going on.

All of those things will now cost energy instead. You have two points of energy, and the system supports quarter steps, so a quick action can cost only 1/4 while something bigger uses more. The yellow fill in the two new top-bar icons shows exactly how much you have left. Time advances when you decide to move it forward, and doing that restores one point of energy, up to the maximum. Important scripted moments can still advance time where the story actually needs them to, of course.

I'm also replacing most blanket "you already did this" restrictions with diminishing rewards. Repeating the same activity in the same day is now possible when it makes sense, but it gives fewer positive votes each time. Traps, interruptions, compulsions, and random events all needed their own rules as well, so this touched a ridiculous number of old systems behind the scenes. The main logic is working already but it will need some more fine-tuning and balancing.

Y2K Styling Challenge

As I have said in the last Alpha & Beta releases, we're going to try to add one new selection of NPC clothing for the Styling Challenges with every patch from now on. The next one is Y2K, which gave me a perfect excuse to put everyone into the kind of aggressively early-2000s fashion that I love so much myself.

I wanted the clothes to fit their personalities while still making the group look like they are all taking part in the same challenge. These are also proper character graphics with the expression and pose layers needed for dialogue.

That means the contestants can wear the outfits while getting ready and talk about the challenge before the show again, just like with the Business Challenge. I think seeing what everybody else came up with was one of the big missing parts of the original Styling Challenge test, so I'm very happy that we're starting to build a real collection of these NPC outfits now.

Clothing Shop Character Preview

This is one of those improvements that feels extremely obvious once you see it. BMO TV is basically a dress-up game in a lot of ways, but the clothing shop currently asks you to buy an item from a little preview image and then go back to the bedroom mirror to find out what it actually looks like on your character. That's... not a great shopping experience.

The new version keeps your character visible while you browse and immediately previews clothes when you click on them. I'm also turning the selection into a small basket, so you can combine several pieces and colors into a complete outfit before spending any votes. Removing something from the basket restores whatever you were wearing in that slot when you entered the shop, and canceling the whole thing puts your original outfit back exactly as it was.

When you are happy, you can either buy everything and wear it immediately or send it all to the wardrobe. Clothing for locked slots can still be purchased, but they will neither be previewed, nor are they going to be wearable right away. To be honest, this became much more complicated than "just show the character" because of all the different clothing slots, accessories, and special restrictions, and that is why I kept sending it back to the ToDo's but I think the result will make buying clothes sooo much better.

And that's the main list for this patch. I have some more minor improvements on the list, like Appearance pressure reworks, item/object descriptions, and general rebalancing of all the new features. I'll try to be back very soon with the new Alpha release.

Best,
Jenni