Hello, lovely players! I’m Ya Mao, and here’s the April & May game development update for Shiba Sweet.
Development in June was relatively slow because one of my close family members was injured and had to stay in the hospital. I spent a lot of time taking care of him and staying by his side. It was only when he began to recover that I was able to return to my desk and continue working on Shiba’s unfinished journey.
I hope everyone can stay healthy both physically and mentally, feel joy and peace in your daily life. And continue to love the people around you who love you in return.
Here is a more detailed look at this month's progress:
1. Game Development
(1) Building the kitchen wall decoration system
All 3D wall decoration assets and their data were completed on schedule previously. So the main focus this month was to build the full decoration system, write the necessary code and logic, and sync the coin balance and decoration score when players make a purchase.
As the chef levels up, players will be able to unlock and buy more adorable wall decorations for their kitchen. It would raise the overall decoration score and make the kitchen feel lively and cozy. I hope this function may turn every baking session into something fun.
(2) Uploading the developer demo to Steam for testing
As you know Shiba Sweet is my first official game, I have been handling everything myself. This includes from setting up the Steam store page to uploading the game build. At the moment I ran into problems, I worked through them step by step on my own as well.
I already had a developer test build available for local testing, and this month, I successfully uploaded the playable demo to Steam following the required steps and was able to test it using my Steam account. It was incredibly exciting and emotional to see the game I built piece by piece running properly. It made me feel that all the effort was truly worth it!
(3) Sketching “Grandma’s Ultimate Journey”
For some reason, when I first planned this game, a travel-loving grandma became an essential part of the story. She’s always sending warm messages from somewhere in the world.
This month, I finally sketched out the postcard illustrations based on previous travel notes and added some new travel scenes so this grandma. She has an unstoppable spirit for adventure and always enjoys a grand journey during the process. These sketches will also serve as great composition references when I create the 3D art later on.
2. Releasing a new game trailer
At the beginning of June, Shiba Sweet released a new game trailer. It showcased more in-game moments including Shiba’s adorable sleep auto saving system, new dessert designs, a cute animation for the donut in the logo, the new ingredients shop, outdoor decoration systems, and the trophy upgrade scene. It featured many new, rich pieces of content that were recently completed. If you haven’t seen it yet, feel free to check it out on Shiba Sweet’s Steam page.
3. Wrapping up
In June, Shiba Sweet participated in Wholesome Direct 2025 hosted by Wholesome Games. It was such a magical experience to see my indie game showcased alongside other cozy games and receiving support from players who added it to their wishlists. It made me feel so grateful and happy! For sure it has given me even more motivation to keep moving forward and to help Shiba Sweet grow a little each day as I continue working toward the goal of completing the game.
I just wanna say thank you very much for your support!
Thank a lot for reading this far. See you in next month’s devlog!
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