April Devlog - Lots of Catgirls

Hello again and welcome to another devlog! I've been really productive this month, so there's a lot to share for Catgirl Care Chibi. Let's dive into it!

New Features

First up, I want to show off a few new improvements to the UI and the new checkup screen.

Originally, the UI was more modular in that menus could be spawn on any side of the screen but I decided that it should be more static. Certain menus (like the event log or the new schedule system) spawn on the left or the right while the taskbar is now static at the bottom-center. This should make the game easier to navigate and develop.

This GIF also shows the new checkup screen. At the end of the week, the new checkup screen will let you set tasks for your catgirls and reward you for the last week's tasks.

In the top left, there's now a new time-of-day and money tracker.

Currently, the time is in 4 segments - morning, day, afternoon, and night. Every morning you'll set a schedule for your catgirls which they will then follow throughout the day. Once that's set, you can choose where you'd like to visit or advance time from the "Leave" menu.

 And the latest addition is stat-raising minigames!

When you visit places outside of your home, you can play brief minigames that will allow you to raise the catgirl's stats. This first minigame, a simple dice-based game, will raise your catgirl's "Smarts" stat. The way it's played is taught in game, but the goal is to find the catgirl's path by following +-1 dice values. This was originally going to be a word-finding game but I decided dice were more universal.

What's Next?

These new features are a lot, but there's still a bit to go before things come together for the next beta. I'm planning to make a couple more minigames, add the shop and paid locations you can take your catgirls to, and give the game an audio makeover.

I'm not sure if Catgirl Care Chibi will be in a release-able state after that or if I'll keep developing it, but the core gameplay will be there with the next demo. I still believe that I'll need to try a few things before I "find the fun" but it shouldn't be long before I can start full-time development on Catgirl Care proper.

Other News

Sabrina and Lobelia are out! You can check out their debut comic here (and the lewd follow-up). These two were a lot of fun to design and write and I hope to do a lot more with them in the future.

That said, once I finish the next Chibi demo, I'll be spending some time focusing on building Rockin' Resort. I don't know if that'll lead to a demo or alpha right away but I think it'll be important to leapfrog development. If nothing else, it'll keep gamedev interesting.

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As always, thanks everyone! I really couldn't spend the time developing these games if it weren't for the support you all give me. If you'd like to try out the alpha build, you can still try that out here.