After the unfortunate delay last year, I immediately began working coming up with a plan to resolve the progression and content issues mentioned. The plan was worked out fairly quickly, but over the holidays work just generally doesn't get done. But I went hard for the prior two months to get the release, so I guess that break was needed. Come January though the plan is put into action and going well! At this point, it's basically mandatory the full story up to Act 4 is included in the EA launch. The reason is the progression system is well integrated with the story now. And this isn't just a surface level addition, it also resulted in some change in philosophy with how "Events" play out and if some scenes need dialogue or not. But I think it's becoming more of what people expect. But there's still a lot of work to be done! And this added complexity on top of the other sim aspects means a lot of testing is needed even after everything "works".

What to expect?

The short of the story is thanks to a misunderstanding Naomi is a guest in your home. This is sudden so initially she doesn't trust you at all, but as the relationship grows you get closer. Before this was just simple story progression, but now it's based a bit more on additional factors. Requiring some engagement with sim elements. But once things progress to the point of H content this progression affects things more broadly. I'm vague on the stat names for now cause they may change before launch.

• A stat will affect what outfits Naomi is willing to wear/Outfits you can purchase with "Spare cash", and later on what outfits she'll wear "going out"
• A stat may trigger an event where Naomi approaches you more directly rather than vice versa
• A stat may increase how much extra money you have at the end of the week
• A stat will unlock more positions the player is capable of, or affect how many times you can cum in a single session.
• Naomi's experience with certain activities will unlock more things to do in that activity

At the moment though while these stats will affect much of gameplay, for now there's no plans for a significantly branching story. It's more focused on allowing you to access content you're interested in, and reward engaging with Naomi in different ways. This is a first project of this type for the people working on it, so we don't want things too complex but know complexity and depth is where the fun is. As for when in the game H content is unlocked, I can't give an exact play time yet, but the goal is not too fast and not too slow. I can say there's a prologue and several acts before things kick off properly.

When is release?

We'll make a proper announcement soon, probably end of this month we'll set a release date or at least narrow it down. Like I said much testing and polish will be needed to ensure these interlocking elements work and aren't too easily broken, and the addition of the story content requires an attention to quality too with some new environments and assets being added.

Thanks for your patience!

I know a lot of people were disappointed in the delay, but the response was very positive and I hope you guys are happy with the release when it comes. More news soon! ~sacb0y

Before I go into details let me make something clear, it's not that the game is bad or broken exactly. It's more that upon release, based on what people have said they expect and how the game has been presented. As things are Our Apartment may disappoint people on the initial launch, not meeting expectations set. Not simply expectations by what I've shown, but of the genre in general. Also I'm sorry this announcement is coming so late, this realization kinda hit me hard and I had to sit on it a bit to figure out what to do. I also needed to get some work done to prepare for those changes. So that said, the Steam release of Our Apartment won't come until next year. Considering the changes needed and time for those changes, it simply won't be ready by any acceptable release window this year.

What's missing

This is the key point, what's missing. And when talking with the publisher and other people what's missing is a sense of progression. And while it is sort of there it's long been background. In my mind these things weren't quite necessary at least for Early Access. They're there, but compartmentalized, and largely hidden. I did this to try to stay within the boundaries of what's feasible development wise. More global use would require more conditions to be factored, more balancing, more play throughs, more programming, more testing. This might have been over caution. But originally Our Apartment was supposed to be a "trainer" game. And still the reality is Our Apartment presents itself as a "trainer" game and is likely generally expected to be a trainer game. Not a VN with scattered compartmentalized sim and trainer elements. And both as the release was planned, and as the release would have been betrays that perception. Additionally, my plan to scale back for the initial EA release to start in Act 4 further betrays the perception of the game. I can understand if people are disappointed, I know I said I would announce a proper specific release date soon. And I fully had intention to do that, and pushing the release back is one of the harder things I've had to accept. But hopefully people will see it's for the best. Cause releasing it as it is, and not meeting expectations even in early access could legitimately harm the project long term. And the game may never become what it is intended to be or what people want it to be.

What's being done

I know before I talked a lot about content and I actually did meet most of those goals. The main goal missed was having the game start from the beginning. But even if I pulled that off as intended this delay would have happened regardless. So besides those goals, the major focus is bringing progression elements to the forefront and making them more global. Bringing more importance to daily events and other sim elements. As I said we already had some of this, some progression in sex sim, stuff like blow job training evolving over time. But now these elements will inter-connect more. Before basically no stats were visible, only the results of those stats, so we'll have to add that. And overall this will be done with the goal of having a more objective and tangible progression than just story progression. And if you read that and think "wait that wasn't already there" then all the more reason to hold off on this release. If not, then maybe for now consider getting the game on Itch.io .

Conclusion

Hopefully this brings some clarification to the delay. Once again I'm sorry for all this, For now the release is planned for 2022 and no further details will be given until a release range is for certain. I wish I could be more specific, but that's just not a good idea for now. If you want to follow development consider following on my (sacb0y) or Momoirosoft twitter, the game page on itch, or the discord which I also run polls and do other things for feedback.

Tonight I'm streaming Our Apartment animations! Thanks to the heat and some unfortunate issues with the AC I am now nocturnal, so I will stream all night. EDIT: Stream ended earlier cause I only now realized NSFW streams are not allowed lol. Please instead watch on picarto! https://picarto.tv/SacB0y

I wanted to give people a heads up on what to expect with Our Apartment come the Early Acess launch. Right now, the game is still in very active development, and we’re holding off the steam release until content reaches an acceptable level. On top of this there’s many “Quality of Life” features and functions needed and we don’t want people to potentially wait months for those features to be added post EA launch. So, we won’t have a definitive EA launch date until that content is in and we’re confident in a stable user-friendly release. There’s a different standard applied here than other sites and services the game is currently on, and I thank you for your patience on this. All that out the way, the following represents the current plan for the EA release. Things may change a little, but I think the current plan is well above whats needed for the release. So even if something doesn’t make it to launch it should still be a solid release and said content can come shortly after. A lot of this is stuff I’ve written elsewhere, but because I haven’t really made an update on steam before I want to give a full picture. If you’re familiar with my posts on other sites previously you’ll know this is gonna be a long one.

Story, Function, Quality of Life

So, as you may have read “Our Apartment” is a Slice of Life Simulation Game, where you interact with Naomi a girl who, thanks to bad timing on your part, is homeless and has to live with you. The current ideal plan is to have the full story introduction to be implemented. This might sound like a simple task but most dialogue is intended to be presented in a at least somewhat cinematic manner. So, it’s not a simple matter as implementing dialogue with some basic dialogue animations. There’s context, and variety most of the time, with a more standard VN setup used when a cinematic setup doesn’t make sense to do. If that doesn’t happen expect a skip to somewhere later in the relationship until that content is added. After that story introduction, the “Daily System” represents the core gameplay loop. While some functions are still in the air. You can expect to interact with Naomi freely through various Lewd and Non-Lewd options, while various story events play based on the time and highlighted activities. You’ll get to know Naomi, obtain new outfits (of which there are 100’s of items and variations currently), do everything from watch TV together to having sex in a variety of positions and much more over time. (Note "Web Store" is not a real web store, thats just the canon way clothing is obtained.) This daily system is infinite, meaning it’s designed to let you play it as much as you want until you’re ready to continue the story or until new story content is added. Ideally this means your save is persistent through updates but this may be a problem at times given the nature of active development. I can only say we’ll do our best to avoid problems here. During the daily system Naomi and the player (which you can name) will do their thing, and various random and contextual dialogue will trigger based on story progression and other factors. Naomi will change outfits daily, and may even initiate options for events herself. Obviously, some daily dialogue may repeat when more story related events have dried up but still, we intend for there to be a solid variety. Which brings me to the “Quality of Life” that I mentioned before. Due to the nature of the game, with dress up features and such, some QoL features have been noted as needed. So, functions like turning off Naomi changing outfits in most cases, or quickly saving the last outfit so it can be quickly reapplied is needed. Additionally, a “Quickie” mode for players just wanting a quick session would also probably be ideal. I do want to note, besides Naomi’s outfits and customization, Player customization is important but does not affect the story or gameplay. It is intended to look largely symbolic rather than detailed. There will be many things you can look like, and various dicks human and non-human. Some aspects of the character are static (like overall size), but appearance I want to give a good amount of freedom when it comes to variety.

Content

As I mentioned before were holding off release until there’s more of a solid content offering. That mostly pertains to lewd content and some outfits. Reminder this is current objectives and may shift. To specify:

• At least 8 Sex Sim positions, 10 Ideal or at least including major dialogue driven cinematic scenes
• More casual clothing, sleep clothing, and underwear mostly needed for daily mode. Later swim suits.
• A solid offering of daily mode events outside the main story.

It’s worth noting each sex sim position includes a variety of sub animations including gropes and holds, various cumming, and various dynamic conditional dialogue triggers and ending scenes. And each compatible with all clothing items for both the Player and Naomi, and other adjustment options like free camera and x-ray. Upon assessment the final number may be less possibly due to pushing for higher quality in existing scenes. There’s a lot of factors, but obviously more will come even if it doesn’t make it to the EA launch. It might not seem like it, but 8 sex sim positions, given the sim functions, outfits and other variants, can be a good deal of play time. The goal is single position won’t be the same every time you play it. And given that’s at least 102 additional animations needed from whats currently in the Preview (2 positions, 17+ animations per position) it may be more work than we expect. But as stated this is the current goal. I hope reaching this goal is more than satisfactory to new players of Our Apartment.

Price

The Early Acess launch price will be $10, and the price will increase over time as the game reaches closer to completion. The target final price exiting EA is a minimum of $20 aiming higher based on content and quality achieved. As such the final price is undetermined, we’re just doing our best until then. To better understand this target I’ll briefly go into some long-term content goals.

The Long Term

Forgive me if I keep this vague, I mostly just want you to understand more of what we’re aiming for. Our Apartment is largely a vanilla relationship game, and the current plan for the story is for it to take place over the course of around a year in the relationship ending at a final climax. The story is intended to be fairly long, with the pacing of the relationship feeling natural. Additionally, the games interaction does not take place only in the apartment, down the line you can take Naomi out to various locations. BUT while it is a largely vanilla game there is fetish content of various kinds planned. There is a certain planned point in the story where they experiment more. So, for example, fetishes like foot job, mild exhibitionism, mild BSDM, anal, etc. should find their way in to the game when that makes sense for their progress in the relationship and character. But what exactly that content will be is not determined right now. It also should be mostly optional. Secondly “Role play” is intended to be an option, as there’s a lot of outfits in the game and customization options for the player. I’ll explain more about these in the future, but this concept leaves things open for a much broader variety of content than the current more real-world setting.

Conclusion

I hope reading through all this gave you some clarity on the game. If you have any questions by all means post on the forums or in the comments here. And I’ll try and keep up with making news posts here so the status of development, and the eventual EA launch is clearer. We’ve had A LOT of wish lists, and that really motivates me to make sure Our Apartment reaches yours and my own expectations. Additionally I will be streaming some dev this month on Picarto, so be sure to follow there to see some live animation creation. Thanks again! ~Sacb0y