This post specifies the expectations of the project in the coming months and the goals of the project. As this is a one-dev initiative and art and other assets are paid out-of-pocket, please understand this roadmap is heavily subject to change!
August 2026:
Mei Furukawa character art and variations completed
Mei Furukawa NPC added to game and world
Finish two variants of all Miyuki skill dialogues
More dialogue for Hiroshi
Some dialogue for Mei
Weather system
Re-do maps: Farm, Player House with new artwork
September 2026:
Character art and portraits for Hiroshi
General NPC pathing implemented for Farm, Furukawa maps
Basic economy fundamentals (sell, buy)
Fine-tune menus
OptionsManager implemented
October 2026:
Miyuki full Demo 1 schedule built out
Hiroshi and Mei Demo 1 schedules started
Scripted interactive tutorial started
UI added for AP, Lust, and other missing elements / AI update to clock and gold
H-action for Mei (animation) started (blowjob)
November-December 2026:
Finish fine-tuning systems
Alpha main menu added
Add Maps: Mori_Shop and Mei's Bedroom
Implement QuestManager
Finish Tutorial Quests
Current Goal: Build and release Prototype Demo 1 by late-January 2027.
This first demo will include all of Spring 1, but be limited to the Farm and Furukawa area maps. You will be able to do your daily grind: farming, some basic foraging, and building relationships with your extended family (Hiroshi, Miyuki, Mei). Sell for gold and buy more seeds, give gifts and interact daily to reach the goal of pulling off an H-action with Miyuki or Mei (or both!).
This demo will be a presentable demo used to help build interest in the project going forward, as anything after this will be mostly content rigging (more maps, paths, quests, characters and dialogue) and only adding systems later on.
If it gains enough traction, I will go the route of Patreon! I of course want to see this project through to the end, but right now paying out of pocket and working alone means I need to work on marketing to get an audience who definitely wants to play the game too. I am hoping this first Spring demo will catalyst that audience and prove this is a game fellow degens want as badly as I do :)
Please come along on this journey and follow me :)
I know you primarily design with RPG maker in mind. I think the pixel-dimensions should work, but I'm still a bit noobish to tileset sizing and scale: would this set work well with character sprites that are 16x32? I tried one of your free sets and they natively were massive (but I assume those free sets are a different scale)
Sounds good already then! Just a thought given the project, but yeah it would be a neat experience to have control of two protagonists both capable of real-time action. I've been playing Pragmata and it sorta does the idea between the hacking + shooting in real-time but not quite the right feel for what I was thinking. I will definitely track your project though, a cool idea all around.
Cool stuff! I am also interested in how the final control scheme and feel would be. I haven't played many games where one player controls two entities, but whenever it's an option it feels pretty half-baked. Not sure if this is how your project works, but I like the idea of controlling two characters at a time (one per stick input) and map their actions to a main button (L1 and R1 respectively) and maybe L2 R2 to handle a sort of auto-combo system. Something that would encourage never having to feel like you just move one character, put them down and then move the other one.
I unzipped the included Assets pack and placed it alongside the program in-folder and pointed the program to use it for the managed assets to test out the custom system. I see the files have graphics in them, it says it made the manifest and readme but it didn't seem to work. Readme is just null and manifest is mostly empty - none of the custom assets in the included pack show. I am obviously doing something wrong but not sure what?
Overview: 2D Farm Sim RPG meets spicy adult action! hmSpirit conceptualized from my desire to play a game like Stardew Valley and the like, but where the relationship mechanics go the extra mile and play more into the overall progression. You play as a college-dropout. Living in your parents apartment and struggling to find a job, an opportunity to help out on your uncle's old farm land comes up, and you are (forced) to take it. It will be a struggle, but as you learn the ropes and grow as a farmer, you must also grow (or revert?) as a person through the relationships you develop in this town. Some say passion is what fuels the life of the valley here. This is currently a pre-prod/hobby project I am doing in my free time when I am not occupied with my job.
What's done so far? - Have programmed some of the systems, currently in Gamemaker, such as systems to handle dialogue, interactions, a prototype of my social skill wheel (think of picking interactions like in The Sims), some AI pathing and controller boilerplate - Maintaining a running repository for game docs, code documentation in drafft-2 - Not an artist, but have concepted a few of the in-game maps - Master Game Design Document currently at 51 Pages, 9100 words with the foundations of all the skill systems, main progression objectives, concepts and character information laid out
Developer: - ZeroSenpai
Looking for: - a 2D Pixel artist/digital artist to concept and create character concepts, sheets, and in-game avatars - Update: to clarify, the character art for the character sheets and any concepting off of it, and the translation into a 512px avatar of this for the dialogue sprite - Ideally a fellow hobbyist and someone who could be confident moving into directing artwork in a later stage
Employment Type: - In this current phase, I will commission concept art/character art as "paid" on a prepared agreement with scope of work. So I am open to commission something if you are not interested in forming a team in this early stage. NOTE: I am looking for owner ship of delivered assets if paid, if you do not want to work on commissions with these terms, please refrain from contacting. Also, please have examples of human characters you are allowed to share on your portfolio. - If you are looking for more team-based work but to be paid, we can arrange a reasonable agreement but understand I am not capable of paying hourly. For the right artist at this stage, I am looking at a more structured contractual set up, where you can be paid an agreed sum per deliverables in each period. NOTE: You must have a portfolio of human examples and be confident to make creative decisions. It will need to be an iterative process. I will SOW for that. As mentioned, the art has been a blocker for me and as such art style and direction doesn't fully exist. Payment terms negotiable. This would be contractual work, not simply a commission. - If you are looking for more team-based experience and work, unpaid for now on a volunteer NDA (retain ownership, but provide use of the work contributed with crediting). More open to all styles and experience levels for this type of work. - I am not considering profit share at this time, because the game is in extreme early stages, and projecting performance of sales is not realistic. This can be a discussion with prospective team members in the future during a true production stage.
Work commitment: - The project - again - is a hobby-level project right now. I have every intention to take it to a published stage in the future, but being realistic we know life is unexpected. Commitments will only be based on what agreements we come to. You can work just as much as agreed, even more if you feel the passion, or if volunteering: just the amount you think is right for now. I typically work about 5-8 hours a week on this right now. - You will agree to a contractual agreement and NDA (for commission or paid contract work) or a volunteer NDA before onboarded to the project
Job Description: - 2D Pixel artist: Concept and Character Referencing the Master Design Document, you will create original concept and character (avatar/portrait) artwork assets for use as resources in the hmSpirit indie game project. You will assist in refining (or in some cases creating) the character design sheets for each character in the game, and prepare avatar resources to be used in-engine.
Additional comments: I post dev diaries on this project at my blog and cross-post those over on my itch.io (if you feel more comfortable accessing via there). You can see them at my site senpaijake.com Update: please digest the post completely before contacting. I am looking right now for what is explicitly being asked, please do not contact to upsell. This is still very much a HOBBY project with the intent to go further - I need to underline hobby here, I want to make sure the person I work with is in that mind-space. This is not a funded and officially running indie game right now. Outcome: concept/character sheet art to work with, an accompanying pixel art portrait based on that sheet. In-game dimension is currently aiming for 384x576.
Fetish/Kink Content warning: Please be advised that this project contains fetish/kink content in its material. There are planned instances of romantic and erotic interactions with a cousin/aunt character (should the player pursue this), as well as a lot of NTR (cheating) options, along others (panty theft). If any of these will make you uncomfortable, I understand and would suggest to send your services to another project more suitable for you to comfortably work in. Thank you!
