The Parenting Simulator- Now Available on iOS, Google Play and Amazon!

I’ve been trying to insert rebelliousness into a lot of scenes in a smaller way, but a more specific one of the kid digging in on some issues could be interesting.

I just had the notion of giving the MC a chance to get a second job now that the child is old enough to have some independence. Uber driving, game streaming, that sort of thing. Any interest in that? I will likely ratchet down annual earnings soon since 500 is too high, but this would give an option to boost it up in the late game.

Oh, art folks (@Isa @Nikki @Delphi), I intend to look at everyone’s profiles and such, but if any of y’all already have works that show babies or children, or people with obscured faces/a behind the back perspective, it would definitely be a timesaver if you can post or PM those specifically, as that is what I am going for here. My initial thought a sketch sort of style with splashes of color, but if I see or hear of something that looks even better I’ll bail on that notion. I do know for sure I want to have at least 3-4, and possibly 5, smaller images without showing a face (except for the one of the child as a baby with its head laying on a shoulder, we would see the baby’s face there but not that of the parent holding it). I don’t want to ruin things for people by predefining what their child looks like. I’ve been burned by that before.

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could also have the child talking about having a crush on someone and getting to help them with it. That is unless you had already planned something like that for another year

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For the collage images, I’m not sure if it’s codeable, but have one of the images be the child’s activity, and have the image change on what the activity is. E.g. they chose to do gymnastics, so that image appears instead of the baseball image.

I suggest having another of the collage images be the child’s first day at school.

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I like the idea of the MC potentially getting a second job

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Maybe a long vacation in year 14 (if that isn’t too similar to the other parent visit)?
Or perhaps an activity based event (chess tournament, art show, science fair, sports game)?
I also like the second job idea.

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Oh man. How did I forget the vacation? Answer: I added it for an earlier year and then skipped it due to space. So with that and second job we’re humming along. If I do those combined with the continuation of the parent drama that should fill out 14 nicely.

Activity won’t come up much in 14 because 15 will deal with it heavily.

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Maybe if the child is a girl, she can have her first period? I think for most girls remember their first period pretty vividly so yeah. I don’t know what the boys could have as an alt scene but I think this would be pretty nice.

And about the art, all my back facing art are kinda messy sketches (because painting faces are the fun part) so I will happily do a 30 min sketch and send it over if it’s fine.

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I love that idea! vivid flash backs

((Well, but in all seriousness I would not know what to include if the child were male. But if you are keen to throw in some extra-representation, you could look up intersexuality and have a randomized possibility that your child is intersexual which will come to play during puberty as oftentimes intersexuality in some internal form is overseen? But I also see how this could be a too huge branch for the game, if you include health check-ups and the likes. Just thought I would throw it in here :D))

And I can actually agree to what delphi said on the back facing art matter and would tag along with that offer hehe

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Ah yes, the horrifying scene of looking down and seeing blood… please do add it in :’)

Maybe for the boys, they suddenly experience tons of voice cracks? That of course could never possibly match the discomfort of the horrid thing that is “the period” but perhaps it would be a good substitute? That or sudden body hair might fit an alt scene.

And an intersex option sounds pretty cool but it might be difficult to add in this deep into the game considering how much it could change the child’s life. And talking to someone actually intersex would probably also have to happen in order to have accuracy. If you’re able too, I absolutely encourage it (inclusivity yay ( •̀ᄇ• ́)ﻭ✧)

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@hustlertwo
In year 3.

of $!{aname} licking his fruity frozen treat,

The bolded word should be:

{ahis}
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Even if it isn´t a big event in the game, I think it should get at least a mention, because as @Delphi said, it´s a pretty important thing for most girls

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Have you done a “shopping for school” scene yet? You could show off their personality based on what bookbag they get or put a bit minor rebelliousness in there by having them disagree with whatever the parent chooses. :laughing:

It could also have an effect on a bunch of different stats like popularity, money, education, etc. Like if you get the $100+ scientific calculator over the normal one, or folders with characters from popular shows. :thinking:

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This game have RO’s?

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@Isa if y’all want to come up with something original for a proof of concept rather than using your existing stuff, that’s great. I didn’t want to ask for that, seemed pushy (like I said back when I announced it, I don’t know a lot about how this works). If someone does a sketch like that and ends up not being the artist I go with, I would love to put it up as additional art on Twitter and/or the forums here with the artist’s permission and full credit once the story is released.

On that note, the lengthening of these chapters makes me wonder if end of April is still possible. Year 13 is at about 8,000 words and I only just started social media. It will be short, but I still doubt I get out below 9,000 (so yes, that means it will be over 9,000). This is happening often enough that I have to expect the rest of the years to be more like this than the 5,000 word early chapters. And the end…phew! It’s gonna be something. As such, let me go with mid to end of May as a timeframe for submission. Definitely no later than the anniversary of turning in NPT in June.

Periods and puberty would be interesting to include, albeit awkward to write for the former (and hard to top the best handling the subject I can recall, Aisle 8A from King of the Hill). But whether it is right or wrong, I am fairly confident any mention of menstruation is going to cost me that coveted family-friendly rating. I highly doubt NPT’s violence putting it in a PG-13 sort of realm cost me a ton of sales, at least compared to bigger issues like it being in a niche genre or having set protagonists. But I’m not taking chances this time. Quite simply, I can’t afford to if I want this to be more than an absurdly time-consuming hobby. I will at least have an oblique reference to them going through puberty (I could even do it at the end of this year or the next) and how that too has sparked some of their rebellious ways and such. But content anyone would even remotely consider adult, mature or controversial is likely to be jettisoned for the sake of insuring the largest possible readership.

School shopping could be good, as a year-end snippet perhaps at the end of 14 to lead into the high school stuff.

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Here is my suggestion for the composition (naturally the details and shading isn’t fully rendered out e.g. the hand, arms etc, but I wanted to get the general feel across, so I included more basic colours and shading).

Portrait view (smartphone)

Landscape view (tablet)

Edit: To make the parent more anonymous we could add some sort of headwear that blocks out most of the face or just increase the contrast even more. | Additionally: I chose to make the parent glance at the child as I thought it would come across as more loving and caring (than if the parent truly looked forward, which on the other hand would increase anonymity.)

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wow, that’s a long time to complete. though the idea is cool, and for such long time to make, i think i can enjoy the content too. i have played a simulation game which has the similar style on APKnite called Virtual Families 2. it’s not the parenting things but the idea and the style are the same, great experiece and thebest is that the kids have thier choice to make, and i hope the game has something to do with it too(at least)

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cool things to sahre

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Not that I’ve seen, no. But there will most likely be some for your child, though.

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@hustlertwo (Sorry for the double post) In the allowance scene, after the child starts begging for the toy dog, and you decide to buy it for them, later on once you’ve decided what the amount of their allowance will be, the option to change your mind is “Sigh. You know what? It might be easier that way. Let’s go to the store tomorrow, and forget this whole allowance thing.” Is it just me or is this a continuity error, since I thought that ‘going to the store tomorrow’ would be going there to get the dog, even after you had already.

Continuity error: I never gave Lucas an allowance in this playthrough.

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Some big stuff coming in the next day or two! But for now, a poll, to continue data-mining this thread and selling the information to Facebook and Google…errrr…to get input from my beloved readers and testers! Regarding cover art for The Parenting Simulator, would you prefer the figures be indeterminate as to race, gender and so on in order to protect self-insertions and headcanon (in other words, by having it look like no specific person it is every person), or would you rather see a bunch of different looks for the child in the four subimages to convey the different ways a child could look? I know things like skin color and body type are not necessarily selectable in this game, but they are implicitly whatever you want them to be and the cover art could be used to display as many possibilities as is feasible. Or a single look could be chosen for the child and that way the sequence of events would look more chronological.

  • Obscure faces and keep things vague to preserve headcanon
  • Show a variety of skin colors, body types, etc. in order to cover all the bases
  • Pick one look for the kid and stick with it through the sequence
  • Pie

0 voters

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