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Nov 10, 2025 03:05 pm
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Summer In The City Season Two Development Begins
Hi everyone,
hope you're all doing great! If you like it or not, I'm back! For those who have just joined recently or missed the news: I have been on vacation for the past three weeks, hence the lack of activity on my part. I have also moved into a new apartment, which is an ongoing process and almost as stressful as developing an adult visual novel... almost.
This post is going to be a rather big one, there's a lot to talk about. So let's get to it then, shall we?!
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Summer In The City Season Two Development
Today I will officially begin the development of Season Two. I have already worked on the script for "Episode One" during my vacation and finished roughly half of it.
New and improved storytelling structure
New updates will be called "Episodes" with a distinct name for each. Each episode will focus on one or two themes. For example, one episode will cover Summer and the bunch spending a day on the beach, another episode will focus on Summer's secret birthday party disguised as a housewarming party. You get the idea. This will give Summer the opportunity to have more meaningful interactions with other characters, forming deeper connections and relationships. There will also be two overarching themes for Season Two of course, mainly getting the Fuckstation back on track and involving Summer's mom Lydia and her bestie Lilly in her new life in the big city!
The first episode will focus on introducing Lydia (Mom) & Lilly to Summer's new friends and showing them around. A new character taking on the role of the main antagonist will also be introduced.
Animations
I dabbled quite a bit with creating animations lately and I have to admit, it's much more time consuming and tedious than anticipated. I really want animations to be part of Season Two though. Someone recommended to play and check the new AI animations in a game called
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. I have to admit, the AI animations in this game do look great and they even manage to keep the character's distinct appearances intact, for the most part at least. You can still notice some of the typical AI quirks here and there though.
It's tough for me admitting that they look great since I have a rather strong stance against using AI specifically when it comes to art in game development (or any other field using art for that matter). I'd rather pay a skilled and starving animator than shoving my money into any of these mega AI corporations. The cost effectiveness as well as the time saving aspects are hard to beat when using AI for animations though, that's something I can't deny. I feel like we're currently living through a shift from handmade old school animations to fully AI animated scenes created from mere still images. I'm wondering if it's still worth it spending countless hours into learning the animation craft nowadays. I'd love to hear your opinions regarding this matter. Feel free to discuss this on our community Discord too.
New and improved renders
The original renders in Season One had a native FullHD resolution of 1920 x 1080. I am going to increase the resolution for the new renders and then downscale them back to FullHD which will give them a more crisp look and add sharper details. Creating a full 4K version of the game isn't viable with my current system unfortunately unless I'm willing to increase the development time tenfold... which I'm not and I'm sure most of you aren't either. I will also get rid of the sprites/background renders as mentioned in a previous post, making room for a more "cinematic" experience and an easier and faster coding process.
New UI elements
Summer In The City's UI will receive a full overhaul. I've already worked on the overhaul during my vacation because I really enjoy working on stuff like this. You can expect new and better looking choice cards, a new main menu design. The character images I've posted are part of the new main menu slideshow background. I can't wait to show you a preview of what I have come up with soon.
Streamlined development
Even though I have learned and improved a lot during the development of Season One, I'm still not fully content with my workflow. I'm just having too many ideas and too little time. This mostly goes for bonus stuff like special/custom renders as well as other exclusives on Patreon/SubscribeStar, promotional stuff, etc. I'd like to try out a new workflow schedule this development cycle and see how it goes, therefore I will have to change up some things in order to make it possible with realistic expectations. I will list the planned changes below:
Special Renders
- I will create one special render set in 4K (roughly 10 to 15 images) per month and divide it into lower tier and higher tier segments. The higher tier segment will be of the more kinky/naughty side of course. Each special render set will be posted in the beginning of the month starting in December 2025. There will be a poll each month on which character(s) should be part of the next set. Special holiday renders (Christmas, Easter, etc.) remain exclusive and will be posted regardless.
Custom Renders
- I have not been able to keep up with the demand lately, therefore I will have to change how custom renders work entirely. Shitballs and Shitballs Deluxe members will be eligable to share ideas for custom renders which will then be voted on in a poll by all paid members. The idea with the most votes will be rendered and posted for all paid members. Depending on my workload I may even be able to render two custom ideas. The actual game development will always be the priority though.
- This will be a test run for now. Thanks for the idea, Spanky! Let's summarize:
- Shitballs Deluxe tier members can submit two ideas for one custom render per month
- Shitballs tier members can submit one idea for one custom render per month
- Ideas can be submitted via DMs either here on Patreon/SubscribeStar or via Discord
- Ideas may include a maximum of four characters or less from the game
- All paid members can vote on which idea will be rendered at the end of the month
- The idea with the most votes will be rendered
- Please keep your ideas realistically managable for a solo dev. I am dependent on available assets.
If you have any further questions regarding custom renders, feel free to ask anytime via DMs.
News cycle
- I am planning to share news about the development progress (including previews) at least once a month. This depends on how much there is to share. Could very well be twice a month if there is enough cool stuff I'd like you to see or read. There are also slower periods every once in a while and I prefer not to bother you with useless information. By the way, did you know that Pope John Paul II was made an honorary Harlem Globetrotter?
Summer In The City: Season One Performance
Well. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that
Summer In The City's full release performed extraordinarily bad without Steam. Besides the regular subscription revenue, the game made a whopping $800 extra the first month after release in form of new subs, mostly on Patreon, temporarily exceeding the $2000/month mark. This achievement was short-lived though. The majority of these new subs have already been cancelled by now, so I'm roughly back to previous numbers from before the full release. It is heartbreaking and I can't deny that my motivation took a massive hit too. I won't sugar coat it. This is even worse than what I had anticipated. I knew that I would have to lower my expectations by quite a margin after the rejection by Valve, but this outcome is just horrible, plain and simple. It puts me into even more dire straits if that's possible... but it is what it is. I hope I will be able to gather some more support with the release of Season Two's first episode in the near future.
My next immediate step will be trying to put Season One in the GOG's store. I'm going to send it over to the GOG staff sometime this week. I'll keep you updated on any progress of course. Wish me luck.
And please don't get me wrong. I am and will always be extremely grateful for everyone who supported and keeps supporting my little project. And no worries, I'm still not ready to give up despite the immense hardships. Summer deserves her place in the AVN world and I'm determined to keep it that way.
Much love!
Flip
