hello everyone!

quite a bit of time has passed since i last posted an update (a year and a half!!). obviously, this is not ideal and i wish i was not so busy, but i have been working on studio apart(ment) the whole time! i swear! i really want to make monthly blogposts a thing, so here is my attempt at restarting this trend and providing some proof that this game does, in fact, exist!

as a quick reminder, studio apart(ment) is a roguelite x life sim game where you play 7 days of a life sim before the map resets, although you keep things such as your inventory, upgrades, and your apartment. since the last update, i've worked on many things, a lot of which i can't really show (unless anyone wants to see minor bug fixes and dialogue code). i'll show some of the interesting parts, though!

procedural generation

this is where the bulk of the work i've been doing lies. planning a city that feels immersive takes a lot of iteration, and as i've been working on this project for almost 4 years, the idea has gone through a lot. here's where we are right now. the game will start off with four main districts. the first two, which i've been working on over the past year, are the arts and the fishing district. let's first look at the arts district.

[img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/42075011/c8f8a9919bb7a9c560bef1dd87d1b85c85bfe7df.png"][/img]this is an example (unfinished) generation of the arts district. this was also the first area i wanted to tackle in my procedural generation overhaul, and it's probably also going to be the simplest. i want there to be a central park, which will be really important to the intro and how the story progresses. here's a look at what the player's building looks like:

[img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/42075011/d318baa63db0d85fd132b516e062f33c89efe3c5.png"][/img]

admittedly, there is not much to say or show here. again, much of the work is behind the scenes, and as i work on this project alone as a university student, i don't have much time to focus on making models and content. this part will come later, when i focus on adding content and polish to the game.

let's talk about the fishing district now! this district comprises of a mainland and several islands, connected by bridges (ignore the missing water, it is gone for optimization reasons).[img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/42075011/ded5ae60ddc1ef35d1508e053fb2e9aff4f8e713.png"][/img]

[img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/42075011/a9dfa3076e0c876c3aeb5702d10ce15f7b295bf6.png"][/img][img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/42075011/7d083bc6365ddeab7c9608781551e7abb4f187fa.png"][/img]making this district has been really fun! i think it looks really unique and feels awesome to traverse. of course, it is a bit barren right now, but it is still in development. coupled with the fishing system (which is already implemented and is really fun so far), i think this district has a lot of potential in terms of questlines, shops, npcs, and music.

[img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/42075011/6d4807ac9c1bb81728e913f2b3594dfa1237c946.png"][/img]ui updates

i wanted to share some ui updates! ui tends to not ever be very final for me, and i really love designing and redesigning ui. here are some comparisons:

dialogue

[img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/42075011/80d9198fb256ddd34e3ca44148e1dd971ddac3d5.png"][/img][img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/42075011/49deb9415a24a35fc41fa5dc0b421c23f921b4a4.png"][/img]quest ui

[img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/42075011/c5693eb9ec859e6d3c0badac93b4fd440d924601.png"][/img][img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/42075011/3a05935bbccb2efbf457cd89c589ca3fa4ac4b19.png"][/img]

dialogue changes

this is definitely the least flashy update i have, but i think it is worth noting. making a dialogue system is really, really hard. because of this, i ended up rewriting my dialogue system somewhat. writing npcs that feel interesting and unique is something i really care about, and one detail i really want to emphasize in comparison to animal crossing (which this game is heavily inspired by). thus, i've been taking my time creating a system that will allow me to quickly add in dialogue that is interesting and flows from the player perspective. i think i've gotten to a good spot, and i'm excited to create some fun characters to interact with.

closing

i think this is definitely not representative of how much work has been done since the last update (it's a LOT), but here's some extra miscellaneous things i've done:

• rewrote the traffic system completely to work on splines and to have intersections, collision detection, and realistic acceleration

• many intro quests

• reworked a lot of models to work with the art style

• SO many npc reworks including restructuring the classes, creating a state machine and and improved dialogue selection system

• written/modified a lot of shaders better

• many bug fixes including jittery player movement

• lots of planning

exciting! my goals now are to finish up the fishing district and get started on the next 2 districts! something exciting is that the time it took to finish (mostly) the fishing district was about 3 weeks, which is MUCH faster than the months it took me to get the arts district working, although that district needed the entire procedural generation system to be rewritten, so it took longer. i'm hopeful that the remaining 2 districts can be finished by summer's end, which will put us in an amazing spot to start playtesting and do demos! i am very excited for this and the game is shaping up amazing.

until next month, zai jian!