hi all!

another two months have passed so i thought i\'d write another blog post with some updates. i\'ll keep this one on the shorter side, since i want to keep some things secret and i want players to experience some lore details on their own.

first off, development is going pretty smoothly. working on a game alone is hard! burnout has gotten be a few times, but overall the last two months have been full of nonstop improvements.

second of all, follow me on tiktok (or instagram) at @studioapartmentgame! i started making videos there if you want more regular posting of content about the game.

the greenhouse district

our third district includes the greenhouse district, which as you can see, is in the shape of a hexagon (i wonder what that could be a reference to?). i really tried to take inspiration from the shorter buildings of san francisco, and i hope that it\'s reflected well here. obviously, this is still a beta and a lot of visual details are not quite finalized yet (which is why all the buildings look the same), but the generation feels great and i like the openness and change of pace this area provides. in addition, it looks pretty different than the other two areas, which is good.[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/42075011/d41e8aed45f38c984fd4f38557c904c77c0a9635.png\"][/img]

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/42075011/6821e5276985fe260df78b6cef9e87655cb6d1e7.png\"][/img]

furniture

i would be remiss if i made a life sim called studio apart(ment) without customization of said apartment, so i\'m really happy with this feature. it still is a bit clunky, naturally, but it feels really good to finally be able to place the furniture anywhere, instead of the basic apartment layout i\'ve been working with for months.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/42075011/7954d2132bc9c4b7c20757afbda22843cbba6a0b.png\"][/img]

cutscenes

i\'m slowly and surely getting through some important cutscenes in the game right now. making cutscenes is a lot more work than i originally thought, and my philosophy as a developer is always to give the player as much control as makes sense; this naturally creates a lower need for long, drawn out cutscenes, which is why i\'m hoping to streamline this process as much as possible. here is a sneak peek for now:

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/42075011/4a8a1989506c4c6bc1dde22394d798f55996bce9.png\"][/img]

on this note, the story is developing pretty nicely too! i\'m excited to share with people more details once i have it fleshed out. obviously, this is not going to be the kind of story you find in a zelda game, but i think it\'s simple enough to warrant its existence in such a strange combination of genres. naturally, these cutscenes exist to propagate and develop the story, as without this the gameplay loop would feel pretty contrived and random.

lastly, i\'ve been working on general visual updates. this includes texturing a lot of objects that might not have been previously, adding grass everywhere, finishing some areas that weren\'t done, and remodeling old models. this is pretty normal for a project this long, the style is bound to evolve and morph into something that looks better, and for that i\'m glad.

that pretty much summarizes my updates from this summer! going forward, i hope to finish one more district (which just needs some polishing before i actually implement it) and some more quest/lore work, and from there the game will be in pretty good shape.