Newlife 0.4 release - voting candidates

Hello everyone!


The vote for 0.4 will be next month. 0.3 will be out either late Feb or early March, and 0.4 will take up the next big chunk of development time – probably up until May or June.


Only voter-tier patrons who successfully supported Newlife in January will be eligible to vote. That means that if you want to be involved in this vote you need to become a patron this month.
Patrons who join next month won't be able to vote for 0.4, but they will of course be able to take part in future votes once their pledges have started being properly processed.


Release 0.4 will be more focused than 0.2 or 0.3, but I'll still sometimes be making small tweaks and improvements that don't take much dev time even if they don't fit the theme.
I've put together a shortlist of major updates. This isn't every change that'll be in the final version of Newlife, but I think it gives a reasonable choice for voters.
You'll notice that some releases are bigger than others. Bigger updates have more content, but they'll also take more time to develop, so go ahead and vote for a smaller one if you want and don't worry that you're getting less stuff.


Some planned updates weren't added to the list because they have pre-requisites. If you've seen me mention a future major update and it isn't in the list, then you can leave a comment and I'll let you
know why – I might have just forgotten to include it in which case it'll get added if you remind me.


Two worth mentioning:

• A sex update is due at some point, with a stamina system and new traits. The game is already heavily skewed towards sex content though, so I don't want to do an update built just around shagging yet.
  
• Lesbians can't be added until the Friendship update is done.
  

There'll also be a new big sex or makeout scene as part of 0.4. If there's one that especially fits the theme then I'll do that, but otherwise I'll put options out for a vote – perhaps in March.

I might make some changes, but here's my preliminary list of the candidates for 0.4:


Work & Career

• Complete the Sales career with new events and branching promotions. The current elite saleswoman path will have an alternative where you become a sales team leader. This will use different skills and have different events.
  
• Add a special event chain for high-level sales jobs.
  
• Add a new management skill for the team-leader path.
  
• New events with worse consequences for poor job performance and/or high stress levels.
  
• Career-related activities such as spending your weekend on a training course.
  
• New career, probably office work. This won't be fully complete for 0.4, but it'll have a basic groundwork with some unique events. The new career won't be based on the Charm skill, so it'll provide an alternative for socially inept characters.
  
• Add a way of switching between careers.
  

Romance & Marriage

• New events for characters in relationships. Both romantic and otherwise.
  
• Marriage proposals.
  
• Weddings and wedding nights.
  
• Bad relationships – argue with your bf, let out your stress at him, dump him or be dumped.
  
• Some consequences for cheating, although probably just a simple system at first.
  
• Special traits & events for scumbag boyfriends. Is your man a drunk? A cheater? A cheating drunk? Now you can live out your dream life of being woken up in the middle of the night by your husband staggering home pissed and expecting to have his way with you.
  

Friendship

• No longer does every relationship need to be about love or sex! Now you can meet men & woman, build relationships with them, and make close friends.
  
• New activities, events, scenes, that allow you to make friends and spend time with them.
  
• A friendship skill that lets more outgoing characters have tons of friends, while shy mice can only be close to a few people
  
• Friends will give you passive bonuses based on their personality & traits from the little moments of socialisation and contact you get every week.
  
• Improved relationship system where making friends isn't based on sex.
  
• Female NPCs.
  

Storyline

• Help Ivy fix her machine, or be doomed to the life of a healthy and beautiful young woman... forever!
  
• Choose from a variety of tasks with multiple solutions. Maybe Ivy needs a special component – you could study so you can make it yourself, use your charm to convince a technician, break into a workshop and steal one... or use your feminine wiles to seduce someone into helping.
  
• Cackle maniacally as you learn the mad science skill and suffer yet more unforeseen experimental side-effects. The fools called you mad, but they are the ones who will be mad, mad with envy once you perfect your greatest invention!
  
• Once fixed, you can use Ivy's machine to adjust certain aspects of your new body.
  
  

Femininity

• A new life as a woman? But you're a man! Just because you have soft silkily smooth skin and full pert breasts doesn't make you any less masculine!
  
• Resist the change and act as manly as possible.
  
• Wear manly clothes.
  
• Most men might find this unappealing, but maybe you'll find one who likes tomboys and have a proper bromance together. You can have lots of sweaty sex in a bromance, right?
  
• Lots and lots of changes to existing scenes.
  
• Resist the change unsuccessfully, and give in to your womanly urges.
  

Homes & money

• Men will have jobs now, and different amounts of money
  
• Be given presents or treated to expensive dates by rich men... or eat fast-food on the street with poor ones.
  
• Move to new homes, with unique events for each neighborhood.
  
• Pay your rent, or suffer the wrath of your landlord.
  
• Call the handyman to fix broken appliances. Your fridge is just running sooooo hot and you really need him to inspect your plumbing.
  

Daily life

• Maybe you just want to go about your normal life, but better. If so, this update is for you.
  
• Get a pet and bond with it. You can't have sex with your pet (of course), but it might be able to help you in your love life. Different events will be added for different pet types.
  
• New stuff for your home.
  
• Hobbies for your free time, with new skills and events.
  
• Go to the park and feed the ducks.
  

I'll contact next month with information on how to vote. Until then, have a think about which updates interest you most, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you have.