So I boasted the game would have a character creation screen. Being a new developer, I've had to swallow the realization that doing that is just too extensive for my limited HeeHoo monkey brain that has seasonal allergies to C#. What I may end up implementing in the future instead is a character selection, where there are pre-made characters that have various styles that people can chose from, but until I reach a breakthrough on the actual creation screen and how to have Unity's somehow limited handleability handle that, right now the only thing present in the main menu as far as "character customization" is going to be preferred gender identity and preferred orientation.

For today's update, I'm currently adding polish to the menu (even though literally none of the rest of the game is built yet), because I want it to sparkle like a new car (minus the new car smell) for the demo. Scene transitions are set up, and I'm refining the music's main theme to be reworked different ways so it can be utilized... well, in more than one way -- I know that sounds confusing, but once you actually hear the music, you'll know what I mean, haha.

New concepts that were finalized recently are:

- 3 different play modes, (1) the initial experience where you create an identity and have your first playthrough, (2) an asexual experience where you don't necessarily "romance" characters, but get closer to them, interactions will be less "suggestive" (less kissing and holding) and more platonic, (3) unicorn mode, which was already planned to be implemented, this mode is unlockable once you've romanced specific characters, and it allows you to romance every single character regardless of your identity/preferences in a single playthrough.

- Friendships/best friendships: not every character is romanceable. Each character will only be receptive to you if you're a specific gender/orientation. Alex is pansexual, she likes you regardless of gender, but if you identify as a gay male in game, there are no options to romance her at all. For characters who you won't date/won't date you due to your identity preferences, you will be able to be "best friends" with them instead of romancing them. This will allow you to experience everyone's story without having to start a new game and change your preferences every time you want to romance different characters. This feature will not be implemented until we've finalized the romance paths for all characters.

- Single scene ("level") game:  This is less of a concept the player can experience and more of a programmer/developer concept. We're using a single game scene to play the game. With limited knowledge, limited human dollars (so many assets to buy omg), and with Unity's (again) somehow limited handleability with certain concepts/functions, having a single game scene/level made the most sense so that "saving" and "loading" is smoother to program. As mentioned previously, the options menu and the save/load functions will be unavailable for the demo.

- Redesigning character sprites:  for some absolutely unfathomable reason, I can't for the life of me find tutorials/instructions on how to exchange facial expressions for characters. Instead I found a single video where a Japanese guy shows off how he figured it out, and then made no attempt at following it up with his methods, which was frustrating. So now I have to "redesign" the character sprites so that I can simply swap the "happy" Alex with the "angry" Alex, since I can't seem to figure out how to do it via Fungus/Unity. Each character has 3 outfits currently, and 15 expressions, which means I need 45 sprites now, instead of 18, for each character (and don't get me started on any characters who need extra outfits because of specific story points, and when I do the Halloween costumes)

- Halloween costumes: All characters will have Halloween costumes on the in-game Halloween (can't wait to draw Alex in a giant banana costume)

- Birthday messages: If you give a character a gift on their birthday (gifts not available until the 1st update after the demo release), they will mention they're happy you remembered their birthday

- Different friendship/best friendship/romance levels will unlock special graphics, and pieces of information in the FriendPulse app on your in-game phone. Romance graphics will be more risque. 

- Doomed storylines: there have been 2 characters who've been selected for termination (AKA, their stories lead to their deaths, whether you romance/befriend them or not). Their stories are bittersweet. After the first in game year, both characters cannot be found anymore.

- Minigames: unfortunately the mini-games are facing the chopping block. I just don't see a real use for them, other than the cooking mini-game where if you want to give certain characters the gifts they like most, you do have to cook them yourself, this was planned to just be a simple "match 3" puzzle game. I may still keep this one, but it seems silly to have more then that when I can't think of a purpose to have the others. I want to focus more on interacting with the characters, rather than being stuck trying not to fail a "match 3".

- Character hints: for those who are following along, there are a planned 4 secret characters that can be found in game when certain conditions are met. I was planning on just forcing people to figure it out, but decided I'd add in hints. *surprise pikachu face*. As a side note, secret characters are only romanceable, you can't be best friends with them, and if you mess up their story, you never see them again.

That's it for now. Sorry that every devlog is a wall of text. Eventually I'll start condensing these into videos, haha.