Tuesday 25 August 2015

Newlife 0.3.9

Hello everyone!

Version 0.3.9 of Newlife is finished and I've released it on Patreon. Early-access Patrons can find it in the creations section here. The changelog is below.
That also means that the 0.3.8 release has been made public. I've updated the links here on the blog, so you can download it now from here. The 0.3.8 changelog is here.

As usual, saved files & templates from older versions probably won't work with newer ones. 


For new players - just use one of the links to the right to get either the jar or the exe version. You only need one or the other - not both. I recommend trying the jar first.

For either version you'll need to have Java installed. A lot of programs use Java so you might well already have it. If the jar shows up as an unrecognised file type, then you probably don't. In that case you can get it from http://www.java.com/
The exe should tell you if you don't have the right version on your computer, but you'll still need to install java to run the game.
There's a guide for new players here which includes some troubleshooting tips for installation & downloading.


Here's the full changelog for 0.3.9:
  • Fixes to text issues. Thanks to Cubano, Bagashi, Jenneke, atc, antage and OrangeJuice for reporting problems they found.
  • Added an option to sell your home decorations from the scene where you shop for your flat. You recoup half the money, and can then buy a different decoration if you want. This was suggested by The Observer on Fenoxo's forum.
  • Men can now always push you to your knees if you're too pregnant to have sex while standing – this should fix an issue reported by OrangeJuice where pregnant standing makeouts could go on forever if the player didn't take appropriate action to get the guy off. I also improved the logic a little for impregnator npcs and oral sex.
  • Fixed a bug I found while answering a forum question from freyja where stress reduction from taking care of your children with high childcare skill wasn't being properly handled and in some cases could actually increase stress. While there is still a random element, you will now never suffer a stress increase if you have a childcare skill of 80 or more.
  • Added a change requested by Herrzimm where you can lean over and use your mouth in the porn theatre. This requires your partner to have his cock out, and there are other requirements based on traits & behaviour.
  • Halved the duration of the nightclub dancing scene and rebalanced action effects & weights to compensate.
  • Changed the chance of an npc initiating nightclub dancing to be based on his dance traits. The probability for good dancers is the same as before, for average ones slightly lower, and for bad dancers very low.
  • Men who are bad dancers now have a chance of refusing when the player asks them to dance in a nightclub.
  • Fixed a bug reported by Secondarian in one of the last version's new scenes, where refusing to open your legs would cause an error.
  • Following a request from Zia, the escape key now lets you quit to the main menu from the week planner screen. This ends the current game without the possibility of returning so save first if you plan to continue it later.
  • Following another suggestion from Zia, your breasts will now be one size larger when you're in the second or third trimester of pregnancy.
  • Following a suggestion on Patreon, added a Charmless option in character creation which gives you -40 to your starting & maximum charm skill.
  • Added some new text for the “cup his balls” action when the player has the maternal trait and is pregnant with the man's child, or if she's fertile and he's already fathered a child on her before.
  • Added a new npc trait 'Misanthrope' which will sometimes appear for men with the Jerk personality – the chance is currently 50%. This puts a (fairly low) cap on the maximum he can like you – a change that may need balancing in the future. This should be interesting for people who want Jerks to continue being jerkish long-term, but it does mean that you're no longer guaranteed to be able to “win over” a man who treats you badly at first. It is still possible for him to fall in love with you, although liking does have some input into love calculations so there may be some cases where this is prevented.
  • Added a new friendship effect that can appear for misanthropes, although it'll be quite rare for them to actually become someone's friend.
  • One new breakfast option, as suggested by Cubano.
  • Fixed a bug reported over PM on Patreon where some of your clothing wasn't being removed properly in the impregnator's seduction story even when the text said he was taking it off.
  • Fixed the relationship browser not considering any men to be present in the gym scene.
  • Added a sexy new scene which can be accessed by going to the gym.
  • Added a different second scene which is also accessed by going to the gym. Get your sports kit on!

Enjoy the new version, and let me know if you find any bugs!

Friday 21 August 2015

A quick update

Hello everyone,

The 0.3.9 release still needs a few tweaks and a lot of testing. Unfortunately I need to take a few days away from Newlife for non-development reasons, so it won't be out before Monday. If it's any consolation, it will be a large release with some sexy content that I think you'll enjoy.

I'll leave you with this screenshot from a new scene I'm testing. Have a good weekend everyone!




Wednesday 19 August 2015

Prove me wrong - the results

Hello everyone!

As you might know, the voter-tier patrons have been deciding what to do about the "prove me wrong" milestone. For this one, I've promised an update dedicated to whatever they want me to do - subject to the obvious restrictions.

This particular vote had to be run in 2 stages - a simple pre-vote to filter the massive initial list of suggestions down to a managable size, and now a proper vote to pick a single winner.

The results of that vote are now in, and they bear a certain similarity to the last vote for non-core content, in that anal sex took second place and therefore probably will not be added. Sorry butt-fans, better luck next time!

For me, the biggest surprise was footwear, which came 4th - much better than I was expecting for a choice that didn't directly involve sexual content.

Well, onto the matter at hand. The winner of the vote was: Consensual submissive/masochistic content (e.g. rough sex, humiliation etc)

I'll be starting on that as soon as 0.3.9 is finished. 
A quick progress report on that one: I got a bit stuck on the essential scene that I needed to add, so I decided to add a second, similar scene in the hope it'd get things going again. That's worked quite well, but I ended up putting a lot of content in the second scene until it's nearly of a size with the big makeout scenes. 
So, long story short, I still need to put the finishing touches to both those scenes, and test them both too. That means the release will have to wait until tomorrow.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

Sleazy, Crude and Boastful

Hello everyone! One of my patrons sent me a message asking me to explain the difference between the crude, sleazy and boastful npc traits. I figured I'd put it here so everyone can read it.


Sleazy is a major trait that influences a lot of npc's behaviour. Originally it just started as something to affect npc's conversation, with the idea that a sleazy man who talks about sex a lot would be a good match for a girl with an overactive imagination who likes thinking about it. It has a conflict with refined girls, as they like things to be 'proper', which means they aren't so comfortable with overt sexuality.
It's also opposed to the charming trait, and the 'romantic' personality type. You won't see npcs with sleazy and either of these.


Since then, it's had a lot of extra content added – too much for me to give a complete list for this blog post. It's the trait I use anytime I want to add content that needs the npc to be very openly sexual, especially if it means going beyond what would normally be socially acceptable.


Basically, sleazy npcs are all about sex. They talk about it more, they'll show sexual interest very directly by e.g. staring down your top, they'll take sexual actions more often, including inappropriate ones like touching you up in clubs. When you make out with them they're more likely to grope you in intimate places than to give you a tender kiss. 


Crude is a holdover from the old days long before the game was online. I was planning to have a massive set of written dialogue for each personality, modified by traits and crude was to be one of these. The general idea was that crude men would be blunt, to the point, and somewhat rude. This would put them in conflict with refined girls, but it would be easier for the player to figure out their likes and dislikes.


This dialogue system proved to be a complete failure, and was entirely scrapped. By the time of release, I was very tempted to remove crude. It had only a couple of references in the game and I wasn't sure it justified its inclusion. It also had some overlap with sleazy which I mostly resolved by handing them over to the sleazy trait. Crude still has the same opposite traits – charming and romantic, although I wonder if perhaps it should only be limited on the charming trait and not the romantic personality.


Because npc traits don't require me to add UI elements to support them, I decided to leave it in and see if I could add useful content to it later.
This happened to some extent and Crude now has many more references in the code, but it's still a minor trait compared to sleazy. Most of its effects modify dialogue rather than changing an npc's behaviour or adding new actions.


Boastful is the newest of these traits. This means it has the fewest game effects, but also a quite well-defined role. Boastful men are proud, arrogant and like bragging about themselves. It has a varied effect on relationships – he might be an annoying braggart, or he might be so interesting that his boasting is fascinating. Boastful men go well with shy girls as they like getting to do all the talking.
Otherwise, they have a few special actions based on their arrogance. For example, if a man fancies you and you ask him to be your friend he might suggest becoming boyfriend & girlfriend instead. Most men won't do this if you already have a boyfriend, but a boastful man is convinced that he must be far better than any romantic rival, so he'll ask you to dump your current partner for him.
It can also lock out some content. The newest event chain in 0.3.8 involves an npc coming to you for help. Boastful men are far too proud to admit that they need someone else to solve their problems, so the event will never happen for them.

Well, I hope that was interesting for you. Now go out there and find a crude sleazy braggart for some sexy fun!