Minor Update

Sorry about the lack of posts or threads lately. I've been incredibly busy lately. I've had a chance to work on sprites a bit, but I don't want to post any sprites until I've finished more ideas. I'm still trying to decide which style to use.

I've put some thought into which programming language to use and Python seems like a good choice. That way I'll be able to make Milk Tea run on Linux distributions as well as Windows. I've heard that Python is very easy to use, so I'm hoping that using it will cut development time. I've heard that it's a bit bloated though (which makes sense), but I don't think it'll be an issue since the game will be 2D and it won't be a high speed game. If you're familiar with Python, please leave some feedback regarding this decision.

Oh, and in other news... I've heard some of you compare the idea of this game to games like Harvest Moon. A new game will be coming out soon. Should I purchase it for the sake of research for Milk Tea?

Hopefully I'll have more free time this week to put towards Milk Tea. I kind of feel bad when I don't update the blog... Please enjoy delicious tea when you've a moment to spare. I can assure you that I've had plenty lately.

Cats

This is a bit of a minor update and I probably shouldn't really even mention yet, but I'm definitely going to include cats in the game. I suppose you'll probably grow catnip or at least collect it since it is used in tea anyway. I just love cats too much to not put them into the game. I'll try to think of clever ways to have cats play roles in the game.

Activity Ideas & Status Report

Tell me which sorts of activities you'd like to see included in the game. Looks like there will be tea parties, flower growing, and school as far as major activities are concerned. Minor activities might be things like going out for tea with an NPC. Those are a few examples I've in mind anyway. Please tell me what else you'd like to do!

As for me, I've plenty of studying to do, unfortunately, but I'd like to get to work on some character sprite templates later today. Also, I've noticed that the thread 404ed while I was sleeping... I thought it would be okay, but there are more threads being made on /jp/ than usual. I think I'll make one after I've finished some sprite templates. After they're done, hopefully we can work together to make some more sprites. I'm considering all interested members of /jp/ as part of the development team for Milk Tea.

Graphics Suggestions

I'd like to make some sprites for the game, but it would be really helpful if I had some nice sprites to use as a base. I'm not really sure which style to use. One person suggested making sprites like the ones in Illusion of Gaia. They look pretty nice, but I don't know if that would be best for this game. Please let me know what kind of sprites you would like to see in the game. Perhaps you can suggest a game with nice sprites.

Edit: Art style has been settled.

Flow of time

I want the game to be pretty relaxing, so I don't want the flow of time to cause any sense of panic. As such, the flow of time will be easy to keep up with. I've come up with some possible ways for the flow of time to work out. Let me know if you've any suggestions.

At the start of each day, you are in your room (either at the mansion or the starting home). From here you can change your appearance. You can leave your room, then head out to talk to people in different parts of town. When you talk to certain people or enter the school building, you'll be offered the chance to choose an activity.

For example, entering the school building will allow you to learn some new things and possibly socialize with others. Going to a cook at the mansion will allow you to try cooking some food. Talking to someone else may trigger a fetch quest that leads you out of town. These activities will be optional (meaning you can choose either yes or no). Going along with the school example, by the time you're out of class, some time will have passed. It may be afternoon by the time you're done.

If you go talk to a maid at the mansion, she will ask if you're ready for your afternoon tea. If you select yes, that will trigger the tea party event. During the tea party (which takes place each day), you'll be able to talk to others that stay at the mansion or that have stopped by to visit. After this event, you'll head to bed after a brief night event (selected randomly), unless a special night event takes place (perhaps getting together with other girls for casual conversation or maybe some one-on-one time with someone). After this, the next day will begin.

So the days will pretty much be split up like this:
Morning -> Afternoon -> Night

Certain events will make time pass and the game will hint at this before you choose to partake. Other things won't make time pass. Going to school will make time pass, but talking to people and shopping will not. Special events with others will also make time pass. These events may include things like going to someone's house for tea. These events will help develop your relationships with others and may also lead to additional rewards.

Start of the game

After you've customized yourself a little and selected your name, the game will begin. You appear at the shrine near the edge of town. The shrine maiden welcomes you, then leads you into town to show you where you will be staying. You start off living with a moderately successful NPC(edit: the school teacher) that provides housing for all of the newcomers. You live there until they're ready for you to move into a room at a local mansion. While staying at the starter house you'll have to do some tasks for the NPC that owns the place. These tasks will help you become familiar with the people and places of the town to a certain extent, though the town will be pretty small (remember, it expands later). I may include the option for you to get your own house later on. Perhaps a small cottage.

Possibly dividing the game into 2 games

If I make the original idea for a piece of life without the adventure segment, I can focus on making the social segment.

My idea is that most of the game will take place within a large town with a fairly sized (and constantly expanding) community. The game will take place in a fantasy world in which people don't age. There will be a designated area (Edit: a shrine) where new characters will spawn from time to time. That will be where all people originate from, including you. As more people gather, the town will expand and you'll have more things to do. There will be shops, a school, and other places that we come up with. Just to clarify, the majority of the population will consist of little girls, though there will be some exceptions.

If I were to include the adventure segment within the same game, it would be difficult to make both segments rewarding while still leaving the adventure segment as optional. Therefore, I think it would be in the best interest of the game to leave the adventure segment out for now. It can be made as it's own game or maybe as an expansion later on. Please let me know what you think of this proposition.

Edit: I still like the idea of at least allowing the little girls to leave town occasionally to go on walks. There will still be some exploration, but without enemies.

New Edit: When I said 'constantly expanding', I didn't mean infinitely. The population and town will expand as time passes and as you complete various tasks. It'll stop expanding eventually though.

Comments

Thank you for leaving comments on this blog. It is helpful to have others to discuss ideas with and even more helpful to have those ideas posted on this blog since the comments will be permanent here whereas comments in a thread on /jp/ are not. Please continue to leave comments from time to time. Your encouragement and participation will help make sure that Milk Tea turns out well.

Adventure ideas + graphics

The foes that you encounter within the adventure segment of Milk Tea will mostly be ghosts. Your goal will be to help them find inner peace so that they may move on to the spirit world (or wherever we decide they go). Ghosts can appear in various forms, so the idea will allow for much creativity. As for how you help the ghosts, it will vary depending on the ghost. Most ghosts will be easy to deal with so you can use one of your basic abilities to deal with them. For boss-type ghosts though, you will need to deal with them differently. The idea is that each boss will be unique, so we can really get creative with them. Perhaps some bosses can be defeated by solving interesting puzzles.

As a final note, I'm still unsure about what kind of abilities the little girls could possibly use. Maybe dancing, cute poses, and magical items could be used primarily. I don't want to use generic magical items though. Let's come up with some unique magical items.

Oh, and before I forget to mention it elsewhere... The perspective of the game will be a top down view along the lines of The Legend of Zelda. As for the specific sprite design, that hasn't been decided yet. I'd like to use a style that doesn't include really large heads though, so not like the sprites used for The Legend of Zelda. Hopefully I'll have some images posted sometime this coming week that show the general style that I have been considering. Although I'd originally considered 8-bit, I've since then changed my mind. The different outfits wouldn't work out as well in 8-bit form.

Development

I'd really like to try making this game with either Java, C#, C++, or Python. I'm currently studying Java and C# at school, but I don't believe it'll be too difficult to learn how to use C++ or Python outside of school. If I don't feel that I've the skills to develop the game though, I may resort to using a game development program such as Multimedia Fusion 2 or RPG Maker (unless someone else would like to help deal with coding the game). I'm not too concerned about coding at this particular moment though since I'd like to plan the game really well before starting to code anything.

Edit: Seems like I'll probably be using Python.
Edit: The programming language hasn't been chosen yet.

Dreams

So when I asked /jp/ about ideas for this project, which I shall refer to as Milk Tea, I ended up hearing some ideas that really would lead the game in a different direction than I had in mind. However, I may try to include some ideas in the game in the form of dreams. In the dreams (or perhaps even nightmares) of the main character,  many different things can happen that may not make as much sense otherwise. I'm hoping that Milk Tea will be considered a project for anyone that would like to help rather than a project for just me, so please feel free to share any ideas that could be used in dreams in the comments.

Edit: Perhaps this is how danmaku could be included.

Major segments of the game...

At this point in time, I'm planning to make the game have 2 major segments to it. The most important will be the social segment in which you develop relationships with other characters, enjoy tea, and other simple things. This is where you'll be able to really take it easy. The location for this will primarily be the hub-like location. Perhaps it'll be a town or a mansion in which many little girls live.

The other segment will be the adventure segment. I plan for this to be completely optional. You'll explore various parts of the world (forests, caves, etc.). Whether there is combat has yet to be settled, but you will compete with foes one way or another. There will be new items to discover as well to help with other parts of the adventure segment. Considering the target audience, perhaps it would make sense to include some danmaku (please leave you opinion regarding this in the comments section).

Edit: At the start of the game, you'll be able to create your own little girl. Throughout the game you'll unlock more options to customize yourself including various hairstyles, skin colors, clothing, etc. You may also choose to be a futa or trap, though I'm not certain how this will change the game at this point in time since there will not be anything too lewd.

'Hello world.'

This blog will be dedicated to my piece of life game project. I'll post updates here related to various aspects of the game. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments sections on this blog. Expect more information to show up shortly.