Hello, lovely players! I’m Ya Mao, and here’s the March game development update for *Shiba Sweet*.
This month, most of my focus has been on creating the most important element in the game—the "Recipe Book." This includes programming the 3D page-flipping logic and designing the book’s content. It really feels like I’ve published an adorable little baking book, except this one exists only in the game for players to flip through and explore delicious dessert recipes.
A. Development Highlights for This Month:
a. Completing the Recipe Book’s Page-Flipping Logic
I initially attempted to solve the page-flipping logic a few months ago, but I ran into persistent bugs that I couldn’t fix no matter how hard I tried. So, I decided to set it aside and work on other parts of the game, giving myself some breathing room to ease the frustration of development.
When I reviewed my to-do list this month, I felt it was a good time to revisit this challenge. Taking a fresh look at the problem, I finally identified the pain points. This is where the flexibility of solo development really shines—I can rapidly switch between programming and 3D art to test things on the fly. If the page-turning animation felt unnatural due to clipping, I could go back to Blender and adjust the skeletal rotation. If the layering effect wasn’t working as expected in the code, I could experiment with different formulas to refine the flipping logic. Every trial and error was a small step toward the right solution.
b. Naming the Adorable NPCs
In the game, NPC customers will visit your shop to place orders and purchase dessert bento boxes. You’ll also see them strolling through the streets, adding to the lively atmosphere of the town.
This month, I finally gave names to the NPCs I created last month. Rather than generic labels like “Orange Cat,” “Frog,” or “Tiny Mouse,” they now have charming names inspired by their personalities and favorite things—introducing Pumpkin Meow, Froggu, and Brie!
c. Designing the Official Recipe Pages
In last year’s game trailer, you could already see the creation process for the first three desserts. This time, I made small upgrades to the design, making the layout cleaner and easier to read. My goal is for players to follow the recipe steps smoothly and successfully bake their own delightful Shiba-themed treats.
During this process, I realized just how crucial sketching out a layout beforehand is. Having a clear draft helped me efficiently refine the final design while ensuring everything remained organized and intuitive—preventing me from getting lost in a chaotic mess of layouts!
d. Creating the Recipe Book’s Material System
Some desserts in the game come in multiple flavors, which posed an interesting challenge when designing the recipe book. I explored different presentation options and ultimately decided not to create separate pages for each flavor. Instead, all variations of the same dessert share a single page, and players can switch between unlocked flavors using a button. The page will then dynamically update to show the correct recipe steps.
This decision dramatically reduced the book’s expected page count—what would have been over 200 pages shrank to just a quarter of that! However, this meant the material system had to be extremely flexible, allowing content to dynamically change based on available flavors. Implementing this was quite a complex design and coding task, but it was also incredibly fun and rewarding!
B. Wrapping up
Game development often feels like taking two steps forward and one step back. Even when I meticulously list out my to-dos and tackle them one by one, there are still moments when the end goal feels impossibly far away. But despite that, I’ll keep moving forward, pouring all my passion into this game. Because when the day finally comes that I reach the mountaintop, I want to look back knowing I gave it my all—without any regrets.
Thank you for reading this far. See you in next month’s devlog!
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