November Devlog - Catgirl Care + Chibi

Hey there, welcome to a new devlog! With the number of releases I've managed to put out this year, it feels like I haven't done too many of these.

With last month's Lust Potions Halloween Update post, I mentioned I would be discussing my plans for Catgirl Care in more detail in this post. I'm happy to report that I have a lot of plans to discuss! This project has been a long time coming, so let's dive into the details with a FAQ-style.

The Catgirl Care icon (from this doodle).  Eventually, this will become part of the logo.

What is Catgirl Care?

Catgirl Care is a game where you raise catgirls. In genre terms, it's a 3D first person raising sim. The goal is to give players the opportunity to raise a catgirl while also showcasing why catgirls are such a fun trope.

The current mascot for the project is the catgirl from my original visual novel project named Rain. If I can, I'd like to include a small story-mode for her in the final game.

What is Catgirl Care's gameplay like?

The current plan for the gameplay goes like this:

• Explore in first person
• Choose activities to raise stats
• Reach weekly stat goals
• Catgirl evaluation

To expand on that:

As a player, you will start out with one catgirl living with you that you can choose to dote on and train. The game takes place in first person (without any guns, sorry), so you'll be able to freely roam to interact with the catgirl(s) and environment at your own pace. Raising catgirls will require choosing the right activities to balance keeping them happy and healthy with finding time to raise their evaluated stats.

You will have a limited budget each week which you can choose to spend on supplies, clothes, toys, and activities around town. To influence your budget, you will have goals for your catgirl(s) to achieve. If they can reach the goals set for them, you'll earn a little bonus. These goals will mainly be stat targets but they may also be to perform specific activities as time goes on.

Your job is to train catgirls for their eventual evaluation. Here, they'll take a collar-earning test to earn job licenses and be given a lifestyle recommendation. At this point, assuming the catgirl likes you, you can choose to allow the catgirl to continue to live with you (to keep training her, develop a relationship, work a job, or just let her live with you for free) or set her free. Either way, you'll be given a license to take in an additional catgirl.

This is a very surface-level overview of the project, so if there's any specifics you have questions about, feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back to you!

Additionally: You will be able to pet the catgirls.

How long with the game take to finish?

That's somewhat impossible to tell at the moment.

My current development plan is to make a smaller project called "Catgirl Care Chibi" to finalize the planned gameplay loop and iterate any changes faster. The final project will be more in depth than Chibi, but it should allow me to iron out the project better.

What is Catgirl Care Chibi?

Catgirl Care is a tiny version of Catgirl Care that I'll be developing in order to develop the backend for the catgirl AI as well as helping me polish the gameplay for the final game.

The philosophy goes like this: If it's not fun to take care of a catgirl in 2D, then it won't be fun in 3D.

As of posting, Catgirl Care Chibi is coming along nicely. I only have a few days of development done and I've had a few breakthroughs that I'm very happy with. You can see a few of these in the above gif:

• The navigation mesh which is generated at runtime, which should allow for player room customization.
• The camera, which attempts to keep all of the catgirls on screen while keeping in mind the center of the room. (This won't be part of the 3D project, but it is neat!)
• The catgirl AI, which is currently a simple node-based state machine.

Godot makes developing prototypes like this very simple, so I am hopeful that I will having something for Patrons to play around with in the coming months. Expect significant changes to this project as development goes on.

What about other projects?

I have a bunch of projects I still plan to get to! Of those that are sitting unfinished: Stellar Fantasy, Rockin' Resort, Batty Roommate, and Heart Island are still going to be completed in time. I've been committed to developing Catgirl Care for several years so I plan to develop this project first. That said, as development continues on Catgirl Care, I will likely have time to dig into those other projects between larger updates.

I also plan to release Date a Mink 3D publicly by the end of the year!

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Anyway, I could keep typing forever about Catgirl Care. As I said earlier in the post - if you have any questions you would like to ask about Catgirl Care or my other projects, feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

More than anything I'm just happy to be able to continue developing games thanks to your support here on Patreon. Thank you so much, everyone!