hello everyone! another month of development has passed by so i'm here to write another update about the game's progress through august. it was an admittedly slow month but a lot of very important work for sure. as a quick refresher, studio apart(ment) is a life sim x roguelite set in a city, where at the end of every week the map resets and you can use your progress in the week to buy upgrades and improve your world (and maybe find out what the hell is causing it in the first place).

studio apartment

the main thing i've worked on this month has been the actual studio apartment. i'd be remiss if this was not in any of the betas i made so it's a priority for sure. i tried to really cram everything into the room and i honestly think i could make it smaller but i think it's pretty good for now. there's a kitchen area with a fridge and storage, a bathroom (not yet functional) and a bed and desk area. later in the game i will add room upgrades, but we have to start somewhere, and i'm really happy with how the studio apartment has turned out.

storage and closet space

to kind of demonstrate the polish i've been working on, i wanted to make a note about some minor things i've added to the apartment to make it feel more complete. naturally, any house has a closet for clothes. i decided to make this specific storage update its model as you add items. i thought this would be a nice and simple visual indication of storage space in the closet which adds to the cramped feeling of the apartment.

gearing up for a tutorial

no good game is without its tutorial, and studio apart(ment) is no exception. many of the changes i'm adding right now and in the coming months will be aimed at fleshing out a tutorial and setting player goals. some minor things that i'd like to share that i added are: naming prompts! similar to how in animal crossing (the older games) rover would ask you about yourself and where you were going, the intro cutscene will feature some form of this. obviously, this is just a test dialogue but i don't guarantee that npcs wont be this rude in the final game.
quest system?? definitely not the kind of game where you'd have long quest lines, but any good life sim gives you goals to complete and progress your relationships. the reason i'm working on this system now instead of later is because i'd rather have the framework in for when i start developing the tutorial than hacking together a bad system now and then regretting it later on. there's not much i can really show since i started it a week ago but here's an animation i made
that's it for august! over the next month(s) we're gonna add in quests, ui updates, cutscenes, and the first couple of characters. if you want to support to game, wishlisting is the best way currently and it greatly helps on release.

[ 2023-08-29 08:00:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

You just moved to a new city. Hooray. The rooms are small, the people aren't very nice, and there's nothing to do. Is there?

studio apart(ment) is a life sim meets roguelite where you play 7 days of a life sim and then restart. Not everything resets—your relationships, upgrades, and inventory persist. Explore a procedurally generated city every run filled with minigames, friendly (or not) citygoers, cars, buildings, shops, and everything you could want in an urban paradise.

• A procedurally generated city. No two runs will feel the same and the possibility of exploration is always lingering.
  
• Custom naming for villagers. Any villager can be named as you choose. Want to add your best friends into the game? Knock yourself out
  
• Explorable areas that get unlocked over time. Even if you have explored the city countless times, you can still find more to do
  
• A skill tree where you can buy upgrades and unlock new features