Hey lads!
Whenever I try to write a brief devlog, it always turns into an endless essay, eh... I trimmed it greatly, but it's still quite lengthy. Anyway, I’ll start with a bit of a rant, and you can find the game progress from the past 1.5 months at the very bottom.
Firstly, I want to apologize for the lack of the UiTC:R Demo recently on Patreon/SubscribeStar. Polishing it up for release right now would be too time-consuming, and I’d rather release something more substantial than just another character creation. There’s simply too much to address with all the upcoming features and core changes that need to be tackled as early as possible. Recently, we had to stop work on the front view and start on the side view because we couldn’t get past certain issues. We need all 3 character angles working to avoid a serious mess later on. Anyway, the next UiTC:R Demo will be ready within the first half of January with some short scenes to give you a better idea of what we’re aiming for and how smoother everything got.
Secondly, I haven’t been getting much sleep for over a month now, as I have two small kids dealing with teething, colic, muscle tension, and other infant problems. They tend to chain-cry for hours, waking each other up at night and taking turns crying. My wife and I are completely drained, exhausted, and feeling hopeless - like walking corpses. While the situation has improved big time compared to last month, it’s still ongoing. We’ve had to take turns sleeping and caring for the kids, so it’s been real madness. I have no idea how much longer this will last, but because of this, my work on the project slowed down greatly in December. Yeah, December was also pretty shitty due to how many things overlapped, so I did much less than I originally planned.
That said, don’t worry - despite the rough times I’m having - my artists, animators, and writers are working normally, and it's not like I stopped working myself, but merely slowed down.
Also, despite all the stress and even more stressful Steam release in November, I wanted to thank everyone who supported me and bought my game on Steam (especially the EX DLC & OST), as it will ease a bit funding the remastered version in the upcoming few months. Thanks a lot!
At some point I was receiving dozens of messages every day. As a single dev with game getting more and more popular, it's impossible for me to answer everyone, check all social media and so on. I try to visit social media from time to time, but I have all notifications turned off aside for Patreon & a few Discord channels (otherwise I would spend a lot of time writing instead of working, and I doubt you would want it), so if you have any urgent problem, I advise you to reach out to me there. Otherwise, you might wait days for me to answer. Sorry! Also, please don't ask me about the gameplay in PMs and please instead use search function to see if your question got answered already - it will really make my & yours life easier. Thanks!
I've hit a wall and reached my limit (kind of) to the point where working on this version of UiTC has become a real chore. Even small tasks take an unreasonable amount of time, and when people keep making demands and offering suggestions, my response is often, "Yeah, that's impossible with the current version", or "Adding it will take way longer than it should", or "It would cause too many issues". While the possibilities for content are endless in a project like this, unfortunately, the majority of what you're expecting is simply impossible to achieve on this outdated, messy foundation. That's why, if you want me to continue working for years and deliver a great game in the future, I need to release the remastered version.
I got "a few" unpleasant guys about UiTC:R not being already finished in December (lol). To be brief - UiTC took me a few years as a mostly solo & full-time work (had only one guy for art), had a few hundred of animations, even more art files, and over dozen thousands dialogue lines - so despite now hiring a skilled character artist & animator, and writer, it's simply undoable to port that stuff alone in mere 6 months, while we are expanding and adding multiple features, so game became so much more complex, thus work isn't that fast.
I think it's a good moment to briefly summarize my project's story.
Unaware of the World (UotW) was my first NSFW game, created with a small group of people during our free time. It was only available via Patreon. After the group disbanded, I renamed the game to Unaware in The City (UiTC) and continued working on it alone, picking up where UotW left off. The core code and events from UotW remained, as UiTC was essentially the same game running on the same engine.
Fast forward to 2024, UiTC still uses outdated code from 2018, except for an art update I commissioned by hiring a freelancer. At that time, I needed a loan to fund the updated art, as the game was earning around $1k monthly (gross/brutto), which wasn’t enough to make a living, let alone cover additional expenses like art assets. Thankfully, my hard work and the art update paid off, allowing me to eventually support myself through the project alone.
However, since the game was built on an outdated version of Unity and on a core codebase not designed for a big, feature-rich, open-world RPG, several issues emerged. The game stopped working on newer systems like Android (a significant portion of my patrons), and the code became an unmanageable spaghetti mess due to countless workarounds I implemented to meet player requests. This made adding new features or fixing existing ones increasingly difficult, if not impossible.
Seeing that the project might be nearing its limits, I asked my patrons if they wanted me to remake the game on the latest Unity engine using Spine for animations and with additional hired help. The overwhelming majority said "yes".
And so, here we are in mid 2024. I now have to find skilled, reliable people and figure out how to fund the remaster. Unfortunately, my earnings alone aren’t enough to make this happen, so I took out another loan and began working on two projects simultaneously: continuing monthly updates for UiTC to keep patrons engaged while developing Unaware in The City: Revisited (UiTC:R) in the background.
Since May 2024, I’ve been crunching hard, working like crazy on both games to fund the remaster and pay off the loan next year. To be clear, this isn’t a plea for more money - just an explanation. All funds go into the project. It's totally different story when you work alone without any budget, and at best you need money only for a living, and when you try to hire multiple skilled people to help you out and who won't work for free, and will charge you extra (because that's how NSFW works), so yeah, developing UiTC:R burns funds like crazy and all money I earn go into funding it. Please don't treat it as asking for more money, as I have enough and I'm gonna work normally, so project isn't endangered by any means, but the speed of my freelancers creating new content (such as art, animations & writing) solely depends on funding, as the extra money won't go into my pocket but into the development at this point.
While UiTC was more of an art update for UotW, UiTC:R involves rewriting significant parts of the core code so I can work on it for years to come. It will address UiTC’s flaws (e.g., black screens, outdated art, clunky animations), introduce long-requested features (e.g., lesbian content, exhibitionism), and retain most events, NPCs, and locations from UiTC while improving and expanding on them significantly. You'll see it for yourself in 2025 because, as I always say, actions speak louder than words.
I promised my wife I wouldn’t keep crunching beyond the end of this year. Honestly, I’m exhausted, which is why UiTC will stop receiving updates soon. This will allow me to focus solely on UiTC:R and finally catch my breath. I stopped playing games, didn't watch any new anime in ages, and my social life went to hell... My health started getting worse as game dev took its toll on me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not announcing dropping game dev, but after New Year's Eve I'm gonna take it slower and spend a chunk of my time on family, hobbies and such. You know, I have no such thing as "weekend" or "free day", so every day is my work day, whether it's Monday or Sunday, but then again I have no typical work hours, so sometimes I work 4h, sometimes 8h, sometimes I take a day off - because I'm spending time with my wife or visiting family, but in overall I'm pretty sure my work hours easily exceed 300h monthly in the past half year. Game design, writing devlogs, answering people's questions, talking with team members the project - is all part of the game dev, because I have to do it and I'm doing it instead of working on the game, as I can't split myself.
And that’s the story behind Unaware of the World, Unaware in The City, and Unaware in The City: Revisited - a single game with a long, rough journey. For context, there are more changes between UiTC:R and UiTC than there were between UiTC and UotW.
Also, saying that UiTC won't be getting any new content with v43 doesn't mean that I'll also stop releasing bug fixes and some changes. By content I mainly mean sex scenes or animations, so really time consuming stuff, while I don't mind adding new traits or polishing & fixing the game. But yet again, the remastered version is my main focus, and I'm trying to be as transparent as possible.
You know, I’m not cut out for business, marketing, and similar stuff, so all these devlogs, sneakpeaks, and updates can be pretty chaotic and rough. I became a game dev because I genuinely love making games. While it’s great to make a living from it, dealing with the game’s popularity, social media, PR, and everything else feels overwhelming at times. Seeing people enjoy the game and recommend it to others is incredibly motivating and makes me smile, but I’ve never aimed for popularity - I’m an introvert to the core.
Recently, I created two polls asking about overall event length and skipping non-essential dialogue text. The results (using weighted votes) are in: about two-thirds of patrons were fine with the current event length, and one-third wanted them longer, while almost no one wanted shorter events. For the second poll, around three-quarters of people wanted me to skip non-essential dialogue text, such as "Jane enters the shower cabin". Your wish is my command! We won’t shorten events, and we’ll make some longer as we add additional features. Additionally, we’ll trim non-essential narration where possible. Cheers!
As UiTC:R Demo gains more features and core systems are implemented, everything is shaping up nicely - but it’s becoming harder to release something polished every month. We’re working on multiple things simultaneously, and turning off unfinished features for demo releases can get messy. This leaves us with two options: release the demo with weird and broken stuff everywhere, or finish some critical features and postpone the release until it’s more polished and presentable.
I’m sorry that everything is taking so long, but we’re reworking the game’s core to minimize the bugs and issues we hit later when expanding features. We’re trying hard to avoid repeating the mistakes of UotW/UiTC.
Oh, and if you remember me cursing about BSODs - good news! The kind folks at Intel replaced my CPU without any issues, so no more blue screens!
For those who supported me through Patreon/SubscribeStar with at least an Unaware tier or for 3+ months and would like a Steam or itch key, please contact me and share your username. I don’t have an easy way to automate the process right now.
Okay, enough of the rant - time for some updates! I want to include a short masturbation scene at home, a street groping event, and a train intro scene in the upcoming UiTC:R Demo, planned for release in the first half of January. Here’s a short (and very rough) video showcasing some WIP animations I intend to include in the next demo:
https://pixeldrain.com/l/2wqLvLXK
In November I’ve finally implemented the male character with most of the features from its female counterpart, such as character customization, clothing, shader coloring, and so on. It’s still pretty rough and needs a lot of polishing. I’ll also be using this tool for designing characters and bug testing, as in UiTC it was... Much less predictable and far more annoying.
P.S. Yet again, I'm NOT adding male as a playable main character, for god's sake! Male MC would mean at least half of the game making from scratch.
In November I also managed to update my animation system to work with LustFire’s Spine workflow. Here’s a quick preview of the same animation playing continuously, with both characters dynamically changing their body settings. So whether you make Jane a midget or the random guy a giant - it will work seamlessly regardless of the animation played! I've uploaded more spicy videos, so don't forget to check them as well.
And some more which we want to include in the game intro in the train.
Here’s the merged Kevin’s Diner location. As stated in the previous devlog, we want to eliminate loading times & black screens (fade ins), and make travelling seamless and more enjoyable.
One of the major changes in UiTC:R will be a new writing style - combining narration, dialogue, and even thoughts into a single dialogue line. Keep in mind it's just a random test sentence. Also, we won't force this system in every single dialogue line.
I want to introduce immersive tutorial elements throughout the game, where Jane will explain game mechanics, like in this case after interacting with the shower for the first time. Additionally, the Glossary from UiTC will return, with its keywords directly linked to the dialogue window, indicating that you can read more about them in the Glossary. If anyone finds the colored keywords distracting, there will be an option to disable them in the settings.
Since we want to introduce different looking NPCs and avoid clone wars, we are experimenting a bit with what they could look like.
I'm trying to make the world feel more alive, with more activities, real-time reactions to Jane, and an overall more polished and complete experience. There will be 2 kinds of NPCs - walking and standing. As well as 3 types of events - random events triggered upon entering a location, initiated by dialogues, and proximity-based events (inspired by RPG Maker games, as shown in the video). For example, NPCs may grope Jane if she gets too close, and nearby NPCs might stop to watch and comment if they notice something unusual. I’m building a comprehensive database and weighted system for these interactions. NPC bubble chat and groping events will depend on Jane's stats, skills, backstories, clothes, and more. Additionally, revealing outfits will increase the chances of NPCs targeting her (e.g., not wearing panties will make lower-half targeting more likely). A more corrupted Jane's mind will also allow strangers to escalate their actions, while the overall atmosphere and likelihood of events will vary based on location and NPC type. For example, Main Street will be relatively safe, unlike the RLD or Slums. A hobo will never offer money, but a wealthy businessman always will, and Jane can agree if her weighted stats allow it - like high Corruption, estrus state, financial desperation, or a bit of all. Players who wish to avoid these events will have options to lower their chances or prevent them entirely. By implementing this through a database instead of manually scripting dialogues, the system can easily expand with new backstories, traits, and other additions. You’ll see this in action in the coming months as things get more polished since much of this is still core-level work at the moment. P.S. This is still a very early work-in-progress draft. Also, please ignore any weirdness with the NPCs; we're currently in the middle of editing shaders and testing Spine's capabilities, so some things are broken, and it will take a bit to fix everything.
We aim to take sex scenes to the next level by giving you more control over how they play out, allowing you to change & mix positions yourself. Here's a small test featuring toilet & shower masturbation. Currently, it's just a quick preview of switching the right & left hand. This will be part of a bigger masturbation mini-game, which I’ll explain in more detail once the implementation is complete. Again, I encourage you to check the video.
I still didn't fully make up my mind on UiTC:R monetization method, but for now the current idea is - Patreon/SubscribeStar pricing stays the same; I'm not gonna increase it because of the new year approaching or UiTC:R release. I'll be probably sticking to the same concept as with UiTC, thus 3 versions - Basic, Cheats & Extended, so also no crap like "pay me $40 to get access a few days earlier than $20 tier". For now, as it lacks content, UiTC:R releases are only available to all patrons, but as it shapes and gets actual content, I'll restrict it to Unaware tier and later add CH & EX versions. Steam/itch releases will be one version behind Patreon, while free public versions will exist and be 2 versions behind Patreon. So whether you want to support me monthly, with one-time payment or not support me at all - you will still be able to play UiTC:R, so no worries! Also, while working on a long-term project, it's a common sense to have some DLCs or microtransactions to help with the funding, but since it's a Patreon-funded project, I believe I don't have to resort to such methods, so I'm pretty sure it will be only these 3 versions and that's it. If I have more solid info in the near future, I'll let you know, but that's it for now. Steam EX version had a serious price bug (my bad, as I accidentally overwrote prices, because I didn't fully understand Steam system) and some countries could buy it at the price of BA version. I won't be an ass and won't suddenly increase it out of nowhere, so treat is as Christmas/Winter present :P Anyway, I'll wait until Winter Sale ends, and then game will get around 20% more expensive.
I wanted to post this devlog on December 24th, but as you know Christmas time is a real mandess, so I didn't find time to finish it sooner. Either way, it was a crazy year, and since it's the last devlog this year - very late Merry Christmas & also Happy New Year, lads! May 2025 be a great year for you all!
Cheers!
P.S. Lovely Patreon decided to delete a big chunk of what I wrote and all the images I uploaded when I saved the draft post, making an even bigger mess of this already chaotic devlog :) At this point, I don’t even remember what I wrote or changed. Eh...
