discussion Water Lords - Omo Themed City Builder

[Tempura]

(TAGS: It won't let me add new ones, but 'omorashi, 'katakunaru', 'city-builder')

I wanted to try a city builder / management type game for a while (like Forge of Empires / Fallout Shelter), but omo/kata themed. The game set in a fantasy desert land, where you and a few others have escaped from guards while being transported between two major cities. You're now stranded in the middle of a vast area of sand with nothing much but rocks, dead trees, and a few creatures that will attack anything that moves. To make things worse, the sand in the desert can transform into quicksand when it comes into contact with any liquid and has been known to suck entire caravans of victims down to their death. Water (and any other liquid) is therefore highly valued as a scarce resources and is also very dangerous if handled incorrectly or deliberately weaponised.

You'll need to find a safe place to start building a shelter and then find a way to get the water and food your group needs to survive, as well as a way of disposing of any liquid the group produces to avoid creating deadly quicksand nearby. Luckily, you can hunt and eat various creatures and there are unusual types of cactus that grow near desert rocks that suck any moisture from the air and create a drinkable juice. Once you have a secure base, you can begin sending your team back out into the desert on scouting missions to collect resources or scavenge any POIs further away.

The resources you collect can be used to construct more complex items, machines, and buildings for your base. Most of these require liquid to keep running, so you'll need to keep any citizens in your base happy and hydrated through various means so that production levels stay high. As the base grows into a bigger 'city', it will attract the attention of other wandering groups/individuals in the desert who will arrive looking to trade, attack or join your base (these pop up as random quests that you can choose to accept or not). Some of these will be very desperate by the time they reach your city and you can choose whether to show mercy and let them in or not!

Once the above is finished, I can maybe add chat and basic multiplayer functionality to allow cities to ally/enemy with each other and visit to donate 'water' or interact in other ways. But that's OOS for the time being.

So far I've created the starting area of desert, added movement/interaction controls, zoom in/out, a grid map for the city ruins, terrain collision, and a basic UI layout with menus for quests and inventory (there will be one for your bag while you are exploring the outside and a bigger storage area in your base to keep collected resources). You can also zoom in/out from the focused character. I've also started adding in the mini tutorial for the start of the game. The character is one I made for a different game with a few tweaks, as the player will be able to customise how the main four NPCs look.

It's a lot of work, but much of it is repetitive, so once the main mechanics are in they get reused for each building/item/event. The hardest parts for me are the initial design (I'm used to working with wireframes other people create) and making the 1001 different models/icons for everything. Then writing the dialogue/quests, which I'm not great with (I'll try to find a writer to help with that part once I get to it).

 

[tias]

I enjoy strategy/management games, but it sounds like a central part of the game will be bodily functions that I just don't find attractive.
I can imagine that many people will feel the same, have you thought about making those parts optional?

 

[saalihum]

Hey man, I really like the concept! Omo and watersports games are a rare delight, and new city builders are always welcome in my book. Hope ya continue with this.

What you've described so far sounds pretty unique, especially the "water" donation mechanic. Haven't seen that in a strategy game before! Super hot, in my opinion.

The desert setting obviously seems inspired by Fallout, but also reminds me a little of Kenshi (a wasteland fantasy survival game with city-building elements), Caravaneer 2 (an old flash game about exploring a wasteland), and perhaps also Caves of Qud (another post-apocalyptic fantasy world where liquids are used as currency).

The visuals are looking great so far! I like the cactus model and the UI. As for creating more models/icons, there's no harm in using preexisting asset libraries to speed up the process and supplement your own models. This can save you a lot of time, especially for mundane stuff like rocks, building parts, and other set dressing. (Heck, even Elden Ring used a few store-bought assets for environmental design stuff.)

If you're looking for inspiration from other nsfw city builders, maybe consider checking out Freecities and XXXivilization, if you're not familiar with them already. Freecities had some interesting social/economic sim stuff, and XXXivilization had good implementation of tech trees.

As for katakunaru, I find the kink delightful. It's probably not for everyone who likes omo though, so maybe consider adding a toggle.

Might also be neat to have a morale system tied to policies in the city. Like, ordinances restricting how, when, and where citizens are allowed to "go". Like, holding it until a specific time of day, going in diapers, or fertilizing the cacti gardens...

If you're looking for collaborators, you could also try posting on the omorashi org site. I think the community there would be pretty enthusiastic about the premise, and some quality omo writers frequent those forums.

I'll be looking forward to seeing this develop! XD

 

[Tempura]

I enjoy strategy/management games, but it sounds like a central part of the game will be bodily functions that I just don't find attractive.
I can imagine that many people will feel the same, have you thought about making those parts optional?

Then it would just be a regular city builder game (which there are already many of). I specifically wanted to do an adult kinky version.

Hey man, I really like the concept! Omo and watersports games are a rare delight, and new city builders are always welcome in my book. Hope ya continue with this.

What you've described so far sounds pretty unique, especially the "water" donation mechanic. Haven't seen that in a strategy game before! Super hot, in my opinion.

The desert setting obviously seems inspired by Fallout, but also reminds me a little of Kenshi (a wasteland fantasy survival game with city-building elements), Caravaneer 2 (an old flash game about exploring a wasteland), and perhaps also Caves of Qud (another post-apocalyptic fantasy world where liquids are used as currency).

The visuals are looking great so far! I like the cactus model and the UI. As for creating more models/icons, there's no harm in using preexisting asset libraries to speed up the process and supplement your own models. This can save you a lot of time, especially for mundane stuff like rocks, building parts, and other set dressing. (Heck, even Elden Ring used a few store-bought assets for environmental design stuff.)

If you're looking for inspiration from other nsfw city builders, maybe consider checking out Freecities and XXXivilization, if you're not familiar with them already. Freecities had some interesting social/economic sim stuff, and XXXivilization had good implementation of tech trees.

As for katakunaru, I find the kink delightful. It's probably not for everyone who likes omo though, so maybe consider adding a toggle.

Might also be neat to have a morale system tied to policies in the city. Like, ordinances restricting how, when, and where citizens are allowed to "go". Like, holding it until a specific time of day, going in diapers, or fertilizing the cacti gardens...

If you're looking for collaborators, you could also try posting on the omorashi org site. I think the community there would be pretty enthusiastic about the premise, and some quality omo writers frequent those forums.

I'll be looking forward to seeing this develop! XD

Cheers! Yeah, there aren't many good omo games out there. Mostly VNs and a couple of Game Maker style ones (I have nothing against Game maker, but the graphics make me sad inside)! And most seem to have VERY young looking characters or incorporate ageplay/ABDL content, which is a turn off for me. So I wanted to do a regular game, but with an omo/kata theme (and yep, the kata side can be turned on/off). I've heard of Fallout, but not the other games you mentioned. So I'll watch a few playthroughs later on today for research!

I did post on a few pee-related sites originally, but I got a lot of 'likes' and no real collaborators. I think most people are there to consume rather than create games, so any gamedev posts quickly get lost in the weeds. But I've got a bunch of assets I've used for other games, so there will be a lot of recycling going on rather than building everything from scratch. And I have nothing against buying pre-made assets if I need to (I'm not a purist)!


Got the basics of the item pick up mechanics working. Also added a bunch of collectible/usable objects like stones, bits of wood, cacti, etc. I've added a few other menus to the UI, including a city management one (where you can set/organise things like your city population, religion, laws and punishments, palace harem, events, etc. Also worked on the dialogue system and inventory/bag, so you can click on each slot to view the item details, how many you have stacked, etc. As well as an objectives tracker that you can expand/hide depending on whether you want pointers displayed.

There's more landscape, ruins, farmable areas, and a starting quest where you find the area for your base and light a fire to signal the rest of the group to follow you over. It's just a plot of desert covered with stones and branches and other things you have to clear out of the way before you can start building. For anyone interested in the process, I broke up the city map into multiple 'plots' that can be cleared, rebuilt or upgraded by the player. I'll expand the crafting system later on. For now it's just a list of base materials (i.e. wood, ash, water, sand, etc) and what can be created by combining two or more of those resources. Then which of those secondary components can be combined to create more advanced items.

For example:

ash + water = clay
clay + fire = a clay bowl
a stone + flint = a stone blade
stone blade + wood = a spindle

That sort of thing.

I was planning to get all the NPCs working with a complex AI system, but decided to have more of a fixed layout to the city area (like old ruins) and let the player customise what to turn those old ruins into. Then choose the type of production for things like factories as they unlock different tech/craft knowledge and let players level up things like housing from a bunch of sticks/skins to an ornate looking family home. That way I can pre-program the AI routes for NPCs and cut a lot of the work, as it's only me working solo. So the focus will be more on resource/citizen management, survival and defending or trading with other settlements as you gain more power (and obviously the kink content!).

So far, in terms of map areas (rough layout below as example):

* You can fit a minimum of 4 people in each housing 'quad'. They will spawn new child NPCs sometimes, which will show up on the citizens list. But you won't actually see any younger NPCs walking around.

* You can expand the size/type of buildings as you advance. For example, the 'bathroom' area starts off as a bowl on the ground and you can turn it into an outhouse, then upgrade further until it becomes an ornate public bath house with a pool area (like the Romans had).

* Industrial buildings you can choose what tech to unlock and then pick from those options each time you complete something.

* The city temple you choose a water deity to worship that will give a different boost to your city.

* Decorations are things like statues or ornaments dotted around your city that give small stat boosts to everyone (i.e. fountains will make your citizens want to pee more).

* There's a tavern where you can play drinking/card games and any visitors to the city can stay.

* A bigger area designated for entertainment (you can choose between things like an arena, a circus, etc).

 

[Tempura]

Adding in characters...

You'll be able to customise the player character with things like sex, hair style/colour, eyes, skin, etc. I'll play about with the UI and models later, once all the main mechanics are up and running. I'm just throwing things together for now as a prototype.

 

[Tempura]

First quest after you find and summon your group to the city ruins is to work out how to make a watertight bowl before Maria has an accident (or the male equivalent if you set it to that preference). Once she finishes peeing, you designate that area as the bathroom and unlock the building menu to start creating the rest of the city).

The farmable areas now turn into mud when a mix of sand and water (pee) is added to the dirt. The first crop will just be weeds. But once that is ploughed, you can add seeds to grow useful crops. If you set your city culture to hedonistic, farm workers will pee directly onto the soil to water it.

Added a few changes to weather for variation. It's a desert, so not likely to snow or rain like most other city builder games. But I thought randomised sandstorms would be a neat idea as an alternative. There will be seasons that still affect things like crop growth. But a certain time of the year will have a few sandstorms that vary in intensity and slow things down or cause some damage to buildings. A different season will increase the risk of fires due to increased temperature.

Starting to add other animations. Maria will now run to the corner of a nearby ruin once you create a clay bowl and squat and pee into it. The animation has her stand over the bowl, her underwear disappears, then she squats down, starts peeing a second later for a while, then stands back up when she's finished and her underwear reappears. That unlocks the city management menu, with this 'plot' designated as the first building.

I'll probably change a few things later on (add sounds, the bowl filling up, etc), but it works okay for now.

(She doesn't have anything 'down there' at the moment, so there's no point posting close up shots!)

 

[saalihum]

Got the basics of the item pick up mechanics working. Also added a bunch of collectible/usable objects like stones, bits of wood, cacti, etc. I've added a few other menus to the UI, including a city management one (where you can set/organise things like your city population, religion, laws and punishments, palace harem, events, etc. Also worked on the dialogue system and inventory/bag, so you can click on each slot to view the item details, how many you have stacked, etc. As well as an objectives tracker that you can expand/hide depending on whether you want pointers displayed.

There's more landscape, ruins, farmable areas, and a starting quest where you find the area for your base and light a fire to signal the rest of the group to follow you over. It's just a plot of desert covered with stones and branches and other things you have to clear out of the way before you can start building. For anyone interested in the process, I broke up the city map into multiple 'plots' that can be cleared, rebuilt or upgraded by the player. I'll expand the crafting system later on. For now it's just a list of base materials (i.e. wood, ash, water, sand, etc) and what can be created by combining two or more of those resources. Then which of those secondary components can be combined to create more advanced items.

For example:

ash + water = clay
clay + fire = a clay bowl
a stone + flint = a stone blade
stone blade + wood = a spindle

That sort of thing.

I was planning to get all the NPCs working with a complex AI system, but decided to have more of a fixed layout to the city area (like old ruins) and let the player customise what to turn those old ruins into. Then choose the type of production for things like factories as they unlock different tech/craft knowledge and let players level up things like housing from a bunch of sticks/skins to an ornate looking family home. That way I can pre-program the AI routes for NPCs and cut a lot of the work, as it's only me working solo. So the focus will be more on resource/citizen management, survival and defending or trading with other settlements as you gain more power (and obviously the kink content!).

So far, in terms of map areas (rough layout below as example):

* You can fit a minimum of 4 people in each housing 'quad'. They will spawn new child NPCs sometimes, which will show up on the citizens list. But you won't actually see any younger NPCs walking around.

* You can expand the size/type of buildings as you advance. For example, the 'bathroom' area starts off as a bowl on the ground and you can turn it into an outhouse, then upgrade further until it becomes an ornate public bath house with a pool area (like the Romans had).

* Industrial buildings you can choose what tech to unlock and then pick from those options each time you complete something.

* The city temple you choose a water deity to worship that will give a different boost to your city.

* Decorations are things like statues or ornaments dotted around your city that give small stat boosts to everyone (i.e. fountains will make your citizens want to pee more).

* There's a tavern where you can play drinking/card games and any visitors to the city can stay.

* A bigger area designated for entertainment (you can choose between things like an arena, a circus, etc).

Nice! The systems seem quite well thought out.

For upgrading plots, having different upgrade paths with different benefits and trade-offs sounds like a great plan. I like the idea of choosing between an arena and a circus for the entertainment area, or different upgrade options for the industrial buildings.

Roman-style public baths and gladitorial arenas are always cool!

Some suggestions for upgrades (feel free to ignore 'em): a ruined tower that upgrades into either a watchtower for protection or a library for research, a town square that could be upgraded into a forum or a market, and ranch plots that could be upgraded to focus on different kinds of livestock products (e.g. meat, wool, milk, or steeds for transport). For farm crops, given the desert setting, you could consider cacti, melons, and date palms, I guess? Love the idea of desperate workers stopping to "water" the produce

I like the approach to crafting. Keeping the combinations down to a few types of ingredients per recipe is a good idea. Too many games with crafting mechanics go overboard with the variety of different ingredients required per recipe, which can easily become tedious in my opinion.

The overall map layout looks good, but perhaps the fixed map could be made somewhat modular? Like, there are set zones and major buildings for the purpose of NPC pathing, but the placement of minor buildings and decorations within those zones could be alterable by the player. Like, in the residential zone, placing fountains and bathroom spots too far from the house plots could make the citizens have more accidents. And maybe certain types of decorations/minor buildings could give a boost or debuff if placed near certain major buildings? Like, lesser entertainment buildings (perhaps lemonade stands or something like that) could give a bonus to happiness if placed near the tavern, but give a debuff to work speed if placed near a major industrial building? That sorta thing.

In terms of implementing the decoration system without requiring too complex NPC pathing, you could create fixed "slots" where the minor buildings and decorations could go. So, on the grid of plots, certain squares are occupied by the fixed ruins that can be made into major buildings, and certain other squares could be reserved for the placement of minor buildings/decorative elements.

As for weather, sandstorms and fires both sound neat! Depending on the kind of desert you have in mind, you could add clouds of locusts in the spring (as a particle effect, I guess), and maybe some features on the landscape like wadis and watering holes that fill with water only during certain seasons.

Cheers! Yeah, there aren't many good omo games out there. Mostly VNs and a couple of Game Maker style ones (I have nothing against Game maker, but the graphics make me sad inside)! And most seem to have VERY young looking characters or incorporate ageplay/ABDL content, which is a turn off for me. So I wanted to do a regular game, but with an omo/kata theme (and yep, the kata side can be turned on/off). I've heard of Fallout, but not the other games you mentioned. So I'll watch a few playthroughs later on today for research!

Very true! I can't think of any completed 3D omo games other than RedSparrow and GaucheCheeks' projects, both of which were ABDL-focused. Ages ago, there was a 3D omo-themed wrestling game by heartfeltwarm and a couple 3D open world RPGs in early development, but I haven't heard anything about them in a long time, so it seems doubtful they'll ever get released. Lotta amateur GameMaker and RPGMaker stuff out there for sure, mostly with 2D tilesets or crude pre-rendered 3D CGs.

Yeah, Kenshi and Caravaneer 2 are definitely worth checking out if you like post-apocalyptic desert worlds. Kenshi in particular has a similar vibe to your prototype screenshots.

On the nsfw side, XXXivilization, despite its goofy name, is one of the best strategy games I've played. Simple mechanics, but just really tightly designed and fun. Had some creative ideas for buildings and upgrades, too.

Hope the recommendations are useful, or at least ya get a kick out of them!

But I've got a bunch of assets I've used for other games, so there will be a lot of recycling going on rather than building everything from scratch.

Sweet! Sounds like you're in a good spot, then. What I see in the screenshots looks really good in terms of model work and environmental design.

First quest after you find and summon your group to the city ruins is to work out how to make a watertight bowl before Maria has an accident (or the male equivalent if you set it to that preference). Once she finishes peeing, you designate that area as the bathroom and unlock the building menu to start creating the rest of the city).

The first scene is looking good so far! Thank you for sharing

 

[Tempura]

Some suggestions for upgrades (feel free to ignore 'em): a ruined tower that upgrades into either a watchtower for protection or a library for research, a town square that could be upgraded into a forum or a market, and ranch plots that could be upgraded to focus on different kinds of livestock products (e.g. meat, wool, milk, or steeds for transport). For farm crops, given the desert setting, you could consider cacti, melons, and date palms, I guess? Love the idea of desperate workers stopping to "water" the produce

Yeah, those are good. I'll definitely add the crops to the list. I have a gatehouse that acts like a watchtower and a market and university you can upgrade to later on.

The 'rough' building types list I have so far:
* TAVERN: Where any temporary visitors or homeless citizens can stay, drinking competitions, card games. City courtesans (if allowed).
* CENTRE STONE: Central meeting point of your city. Post, notifications, new quests and other events take place here.
* HOUSING: Sleeping/living areas for citizens. If strangers put in same house, they will sometimes fall in love and have sex.
* COURT / DUNGEONS: Where judgements are made and citizens are punished. Political advisors/ambassadors.
* WATER TANKS: By the river. Store and clean pee into drinking or usable water for industry and other things.
* FARM AREAS / PROCESSING: Can plant seeds and water them once you have soil.
* BATHROOM: Designated areas to pee... (a bowl > pit latrine > outhouse > public bathrooms > bath house > ornate bath house).
* GATEHOUSE: Waiting area for city visitors. Some very desperate when they arrive and happy to donate to your city supply. Arrange scouting expeditions to gather resources or explore new areas. Toggle to follow city or scouts (like Fallout).
* INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS: Can choose what to study/produce in these. Requires skilled citizens (have studied x points) and the tech is unlocked in the knowledge tree.
* MILITARY CAMP: Run by the Champion NPC. Where mercenaries and gladiators are trained/healed.
* STORAGE: City inventory. Can move items in and out of personal bag and storage to use. NPCs will transport items from storage when building/crafting.
* UNIVERSITY: Run by the Sage NPC. Where researchers and professors develop/teach knowledge in different subjects.
* GUILD HOUSE: Run by the Crafter NPC. Where various light craft items are designed and produced.
* PALACE / HAREM: Where Leader NPC runs the city. Manages palace harem. Allows player to give themselves title (Lord/Lady, King/Queen, etc).
* CITY TEMPLE: Religious building to a chosen deity, where temple acolytes live/work. Can hold festivals/events at certain times of the year.
* ENTERTAINMENT: Decide what type of event to hold (i.e. gladiator arena, market, circus). Will encourage more visitors to your city.
* DECORATIONS: Statues, ornaments, plants dotted around your city that give small stat boosts to everyone (i.e. fountains will make your citizens want to pee more).
* BALLOON PORT: Once your city is thriving, you can fly out to scout other cities on the world map.
* RIVER: Seal up the old riverbed with clay to create a flowing river through your city.
* HIDDEN TUNNEL: Later on you discover the entrance to a hidden tunnel leading underground somewhere.
* MARKET SQUARE: Area for citizens to sell and buy goods and services.
* UNDECIDED: Areas that have no preset use. Perhaps street entertainers, criminals, refugee tents when balloon is active. Windmill, communal oven, trading post, workshop.

The overall map layout looks good, but perhaps the fixed map could be made somewhat modular? Like, there are set zones and major buildings for the purpose of NPC pathing, but the placement of minor buildings and decorations within those zones could be alterable by the player. Like, in the residential zone, placing fountains and bathroom spots too far from the house plots could make the citizens have more accidents. And maybe certain types of decorations/minor buildings could give a boost or debuff if placed near certain major buildings? Like, lesser entertainment buildings (perhaps lemonade stands or something like that) could give a bonus to happiness if placed near the tavern, but give a debuff to work speed if placed near a major industrial building? That sorta thing.

Yeah, that's sort of the idea. I have fixed building 'types' for certain bigger structures. But decorations can be more dotted around in whatever available spaces are left. The buff/debuff thing is good too!

In terms of implementing the decoration system without requiring too complex NPC pathing, you could create fixed "slots" where the minor buildings and decorations could go. So, on the grid of plots, certain squares are occupied by the fixed ruins that can be made into major buildings, and certain other squares could be reserved for the placement of minor buildings/decorative elements.

That's more or less what I have so far. The plots are designated to certain building 'types' but within that the player can choose between different specific buildings (i.e. a glass maker or a potters workshop).

As for weather, sandstorms and fires both sound neat! Depending on the kind of desert you have in mind, you could add clouds of locusts in the spring (as a particle effect, I guess), and maybe some features on the landscape like wadis and watering holes that fill with water only during certain seasons.

I like the watering holes and locusts idea! That wouldn't be technically difficult to do. It's a fantasy desert, so I can use creative license! Then they eat a bunch of the crops if you don't take precautionary measures in time (cast nets over your farm areas or something - I need to research how you stop locusts eating things!)

Hope the recommendations are useful, or at least ya get a kick out of them!

Yeah, definitely. I'm halfway through watching a playthrough of Kenshi atm! That was very useful.

 

[Tempura]

Time/Day/Season system working behind the scenes. This will calculate the age of each citizen, as well as height of sun in the sky, atmosphere, crop growth and seasonal events.

Also added a bunch of data structs and tables for a randomised NPC spawning system (they will never all appear in one go like this).

 

[saalihum]

Time/Day/Season system working behind the scenes. This will calculate the age of each citizen, as well as height of sun in the sky, atmosphere, crop growth and seasonal events.

Also added a bunch of data structs and tables for a randomised NPC spawning system (they will never all appear in one go like this).

Wow, looks like the prototype is coming along smoothly! That's super fast for an update.

Yeah, those are good. I'll definitely add the crops to the list. I have a gatehouse that acts like a watchtower and a market and university you can upgrade to later on.

The 'rough' building types list I have so far:
* TAVERN: Where any temporary visitors or homeless citizens can stay, drinking competitions, card games. City courtesans (if allowed).
* CENTRE STONE: Central meeting point of your city. Post, notifications, new quests and other events take place here.
* HOUSING: Sleeping/living areas for citizens. If strangers put in same house, they will sometimes fall in love and have sex.
* COURT / DUNGEONS: Where judgements are made and citizens are punished. Political advisors/ambassadors.
* WATER TANKS: By the river. Store and clean pee into drinking or usable water for industry and other things.
* FARM AREAS / PROCESSING: Can plant seeds and water them once you have soil.
* BATHROOM: Designated areas to pee... (a bowl > pit latrine > outhouse > public bathrooms > bath house > ornate bath house).
* GATEHOUSE: Waiting area for city visitors. Some very desperate when they arrive and happy to donate to your city supply. Arrange scouting expeditions to gather resources or explore new areas. Toggle to follow city or scouts (like Fallout).
* INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS: Can choose what to study/produce in these. Requires skilled citizens (have studied x points) and the tech is unlocked in the knowledge tree.
* MILITARY CAMP: Run by the Champion NPC. Where mercenaries and gladiators are trained/healed.
* STORAGE: City inventory. Can move items in and out of personal bag and storage to use. NPCs will transport items from storage when building/crafting.
* UNIVERSITY: Run by the Sage NPC. Where researchers and professors develop/teach knowledge in different subjects.
* GUILD HOUSE: Run by the Crafter NPC. Where various light craft items are designed and produced.
* PALACE / HAREM: Where Leader NPC runs the city. Manages palace harem. Allows player to give themselves title (Lord/Lady, King/Queen, etc).
* CITY TEMPLE: Religious building to a chosen deity, where temple acolytes live/work. Can hold festivals/events at certain times of the year.
* ENTERTAINMENT: Decide what type of event to hold (i.e. gladiator arena, market, circus). Will encourage more visitors to your city.
* DECORATIONS: Statues, ornaments, plants dotted around your city that give small stat boosts to everyone (i.e. fountains will make your citizens want to pee more).
* BALLOON PORT: Once your city is thriving, you can fly out to scout other cities on the world map.
* RIVER: Seal up the old riverbed with clay to create a flowing river through your city.
* HIDDEN TUNNEL: Later on you discover the entrance to a hidden tunnel leading underground somewhere.
* MARKET SQUARE: Area for citizens to sell and buy goods and services.
* UNDECIDED: Areas that have no preset use. Perhaps street entertainers, criminals, refugee tents when balloon is active. Windmill, communal oven, trading post, workshop.

Nice! This is quite a solid set. I like it all.

Some further thoughts if you're open to more feedback:

-Pairing up NPCs through shared housing is brilliant.

-I love the balloon port idea! The image of balloons floating over the desert is very evocative.

-Secret tunnels also capture my imagination.... and seem like they would be useful to include from a design standpoint, since tunnels are so versatile in terms of possible functions. Like, a hidden tunnel could be repurposed later for a fast-travel system, or could be used as a means to introduce a new faction of under-dwellers, or just to expand the map after the surface gets full.

-In terms of the kinky buildings, I like the gatehouse idea in particular. A line of visitors desperately waiting for entry and relief is a great concept.

-Under "undecided", the communal oven idea seems neat. Would be fitting for a society where resources are scarce and fuel is precious. And windmills could easily be an upgrade for the farming/processing areas, milling grain into flour, pumping water, or powering an industrial process. (One might also expect to see wind power used for cooling purposes, like in a windcatcher.)

I like the watering holes and locusts idea! That wouldn't be technically difficult to do. It's a fantasy desert, so I can use creative license! Then they eat a bunch of the crops if you don't take precautionary measures in time (cast nets over your farm areas or something - I need to research how you stop locusts eating things!)

Awesome! I think that sounds like fun.

Might be the sort of problem the player could petition the water gods about?

(I'm not sure about traditional methods of locust control, but there are some crazy stories from the Plague of 1874... Anecdotally, even fire proved ineffective against a large enough swarm, since the sheer mass of bugs smothered the flame. )

 

[Tempura]

Wow, looks like the prototype is coming along smoothly! That's super fast for an update.

A lot of these components I've built before, so I'm luckily not having to start from scratch on everything. I've got all the 'easy' stuff out of the way. So now I have to do some actual work!

-I love the balloon port idea! The image of balloons floating over the desert is very evocative.

-Secret tunnels also capture my imagination.... and seem like they would be useful to include from a design standpoint, since tunnels are so versatile in terms of possible functions. Like, a hidden tunnel could be repurposed later for a fast-travel system, or could be used as a means to introduce a new faction of under-dwellers, or just to expand the map after the surface gets full.

That's the idea. Although it's more an opening for end game content later on, if I want to expand. For now I'm going to focus on the city itself in terms of gameplay, as that's enough content on its own.

-In terms of the kinky buildings, I like the gatehouse idea in particular. A line of visitors desperately waiting for entry and relief is a great concept.

I was watching a playthrough of Fall Out and they make travellers queue up outside the entrance when they arrive. Then after a certain time, they either leave or die or something happens. So I thought that would work well here, with a time limit on how long they can / will wait for a response. Some will walk off, others will wet themselves (and create quicksand as a result, so die), others might try to attack your city (if it's a raiding party and you refuse to bargain with them).

-Under "undecided", the communal oven idea seems neat. Would be fitting for a society where resources are scarce and fuel is precious. And windmills could easily be an upgrade for the farming/processing areas, milling grain into flour, pumping water, or powering an industrial process. (One might also expect to see wind power used for cooling purposes, like in a windcatcher.)

That's an interesting idea. Especially the windmill. I haven't thought about power generation outside of the river. But wind power could work in a desert setting.

(I'm not sure about traditional methods of locust control, but there are some crazy stories from the Plague of 1874... Anecdotally, even fire proved ineffective against a large enough swarm, since the sheer mass of bugs smothered the flame. )

Hmm... I may have to resort to creative license for this and just say 'nets required'! I'll probably get a few 'well aktually...' players. But I doubt most people are going to research locust control in that much depth while playing a porn game!

 

[Tempura]

Added a 'knowledge' system (which will later tie into the university when you build it). As you collect knowledge points (from quests, tasks, studying, etc), you can spend them to unlock various upgrades for your city. Some will be craft/tech related. I've added clay pottery as an initial test. Once you unlock it, a couple of extra items are added to your craft menu. One of these is a watertight clay bowl that becomes the 'bathroom' to start with.

 

[Tempura]

Been playing around with art. Added icons that appear above NPCs you can talk to or items you can pick up when you get closer to them. Also swapped over button text for icons (I'll tweak the size later on).