(Also available on my website : https://www.michaelpstanich.com/blogpost/2024-03-31_MarchMonthlyUpdate.html)

After 31 days of eating nothing but sugar cake, I can say that this certainly isn’t a sustainable diet! I’m been shaking non-stop, I can’t sleep, and I can see into the 9tth dimension! I’m definitely ok though, I’m sure this will all play out well into the future, just look, I can shake up a smoothy REALLY well now!~ No more tired arms, I just… shake… endlessly… (I my have a sugar overdose). BUT I MUST PREVAIL, THE POST MUST GO ON! The keys, so close together, but I have a backspace key, let’s get this going!!!

> The project of goodness that is a sugary Cake <
Project Sugar Cake 0.0.3DEV (Latest Release Links) :
GDrive : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vYfgMom7UJs2OmJ5B4FGQTMYEOR0n9Vr?usp=drive_link
LoversLab Dev Thread : https://www.loverslab.com/topic/225549-project-sugar-cake-sex-and-stat-framework-gameplay-mod/

I just couldn’t help myself spending nearly all my time on Project Sugar Cake! Well, ok, ‘most’ of my time on Sugar Cake, but still, some major progress this month! SCake saw the release of 0.0.3DEV this month which not only has the multi-actor animations from 0.0.2DEV (also new this month) but also a custom JSON parser to make importing animations easier than ever! Huge changes under the hood but finally SCake is at a point now where I can make smaller additions and fixes and after the UI base gets implemented then I can move to the smaller updates with quicker output rather than the longer drawn out update cycle we’ve had since the initial launch. Bigger news however, since SCake now has all the animation systems in place and easier importing quite a few animators (and people hoping to get into animating) have gained interest in making stuff for the project, and many of us have been collaborating over in the Discord to make it all happen! This is effectively the starting point for SCake where we’re seen animator support and the framework is properly usable, however that’s not to say SCake is even remotely close to ‘done’ as there’s still a lot of work to be done. Systems to finish, methods to polish, and an API to expand, there’s more work but now development can focus a bit more on extra features and polish since we’re past the ‘minimum viable product’ phase. Overall really excited!

(Also a huge shout out to everyone that’s been collaborating and being supportive over in our Discord! I hope we can continue to inspire more people to be creative and friendly!)

> How to make your sugar cake even more delicious <
How to set up and import animations for SCake guide) :
Website Link : https://www.michaelpstanich.com/article/SCake_HowToMakeAnimsGuide.html
GDrive Link : https://docs.google.com/document/d/19lh8IooHKKpmVTixP2scgWIVfZboUedNf2JDmJp5hsA/edit?usp=drive_link
LoversLab Link : https://www.loverslab.com/topic/228416-guide-scake-how-to-set-up-animating-and-import-animations-for-project-sugar-cake/

Although the method for importing animations for SCake has been vastly simplified with the introduction of the JSON parser (you just import your animations and montages in UE5 then use JSON to configure them, no scripting or blueprints required now!) getting everything set up and understanding how things work is still a bit of a learning curve. As such, to ensure we have a great resource to point people to (and so people that don’t want to communicate still have a resource to look to for help) I’ve created an in-depth tutorial starting from knowing nothing about Palworld modding, to importing animations for SCake and getting them going in-game! The guide in total is pretty long, however if you’re already experienced with Palworld modding a decent amount of the getting started stuff can be skipped or skimmed over. It may look long and demanding, but the processes are relatively simple, so if you’re interested I recommend giving it a look!
Additionally, this is the first article publishing to my site with the new formatting! I haven’t the generic stuff like the nav and footer, but this gives an idea of what articles will look like on the site going forward. If you get the chance to check it out on my site, please let me know your thoughts!

https://www.michaelpstanich.com/
I did a lot of research and internal development for the website (and a potential second web project, but I won’t bother talking more about that till I have something to show since it may never actually exist at this stage). Development on the site redesign for michaelpstanich.com has been a bit slower than I would have liked since I’ve been spending so much time on Project Sugar Cake, but I’m slowly nailing things down. One major leap this month was setting up format translation layers so that uploading, updating, and general maintenance of blog posts and articles is much simpler. With these new systems in place it should be a lot quicker and easier for me to start posting updates and articles over on the site without huge time investments. I still need to set up proper template systems, but I’m focusing on the main page and navigation for now. I will most likely be overhauling the main page with a temporary landing page that has links to all my modern stuffs and features a list for posts, while hosting the old site at michaelpstanich.com/old so it’s still accessible while I refresh everything and migrate any content I see desire-able. (I really want to get things set up enough that I can use my own site as a distribution source, Project Sugar Cake, several articles, and image posts do not currently meet my goal of 3 distribution platforms.)

I’ve fallen a bit behind on AI stuff lately given I’ve had my focus on much more creative projects lately, but I haven’t abandoned anything! This month I experimented more with how to continue with a custom trained model as I build a custom database for images. I.. can’t remember if I announced that project? Basically I’m still working on making AI models! Despite CivitAI staff trying to harass me and intimidate me into leaving the industry, I’ve not given into their vile behavior and still have ambitious goals! (seriously, I’ve had to block at least 30 Discord accounts from them constantly trying to harass me, it’s getting REALLY pathetic at this point.) I’ve also been making some moves to updating some existing AI models, although SD1.5 has been slowly falling out of favor with many moving to PonyXL and Animagine 3.1, many SD1.5 models still offer some incredible quality with unique styles and concepts not seen in XL models, and with my own models focusing on trying to be very different in style this holds especially true. SpiritMix - Soft and Cutesy will most likely be the next update in this regard as I’ve refined a lot of my systems since releasing that model, and have some additional mix knowledge/resources I think will improve the overall model to put it more in-line with my other output. Additionally I will be hosting my models on my own site as well, I have some concepts in my head but I’m currently investigating how to implement them before really refining the design.

Just wanted to leave a little note here about Succubus Heart! I had been planning to make some updates to Succubus Heart for a few weeks now, but I keep getting distracted and focusing on Project Sugar Cake, probably a bit too much in-fact. Just wanted to leave a note here that I’ll be pushing for an update soon and didn’t intend to go without one for so long, I know people are waiting! I’m really sorry about that! Although I do try to gauge interest for what projects I should focus on (with SCake having a huge amount of interest, especially when compared to Succubus Heart) I don’t do this with the intention of ignoring other projects. It’s really just that SCake is in early development and has a lot of fundamental features that need to be implemented, while Succubus Heart is, arguably, a fully featured mod that doesn’t ‘need’ updates to be usable. Either way, I still feel bad! >.<

> Palworld Mod : Project Sugar Cake <
Project Sugar Cake 0.0.3DEV :
 GDrive : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iAm8sPZO1t2aO2pKcBlWvxUNY1A2HsmU?usp=drive_link
LoversLab Dev Thread : https://www.loverslab.com/topic/225549-project-sugar-cake-sex-and-stat-framework-gameplay-mod

> Article : “SCake Guide : How to set up animating and import animations for Project Sugar Cake” <
Website Link : https://www.michaelpstanich.com/article/SCake_HowToMakeAnimsGuide.html
GDrive Link : https://docs.google.com/document/d/19lh8IooHKKpmVTixP2scgWIVfZboUedNf2JDmJp5hsA/edit?usp=drive_link
LoversLab Link : https://www.loverslab.com/topic/228416-guide-scake-how-to-set-up-animating-and-import-animations-for-project-sugar-cake/

Statement : Project Sugar Cake Related : “See you all in ‘5/10/15’ years when all this is actually released!”
Response : So this has been a re-occurring sentiment I’ve been seeing related to Project Sugar Cake, and it’s a bit disheartening. Now I’m not telling people to not expect long development time for stuff like this in a usual sense, and it’ll take a while to get animations rolling for all the combinations people may want, but to say we’ve made so little progress that it’ll take another 5+ years feels a bit mean spirited. SCake is released AND usable in its current form as is, and it’s been 2 months! We’re speeding through all this stuff in a VERY quick (and honestly kind of impressive) pace, and I’m very proud of the work I’ve been able to put in! I feel a lot of this feeling probably comes from people not realizing SCake is actually out however, I see a lot of comments about ‘when it releases’ or ‘whenever they finally put up the download’ but SCake has been downloadable since February? I’m wondering if people just assume it’s not available or if they’re getting projects confused? Either way, not really an ‘answer’ but more of a response so something I’ve found a bit puzzling, hopefully it’ll clear up eventually as currently it seems to be causing a lot of confusion, which could impact our appeal to animators since if they don’t think it’s available they may not be interested, when in reality SCake is functional and ready for animations!

Question : Project Sugar Cake Related : “Are you being paid to develop Project Sugar Cake?”
Answer : This question caught me off guard as I thought I was very upfront about the costs of the project, but let me re-iterate, Project Sugar Cake is supported entirely through donations (https://subscribestar.adult/michaelpstanich ^.-) and my own desire to develop the mod. I personally like taking on interesting projects and I saw Palworld as a potential candidate with “PSC” receiving the most interest out of all the projects I proposed. I also had a personal bias toward making Project Sugar Cake because I’ve been in the modding space a long time and have seen a very concerning pattern over the last couple of years where teams with ill intentions (or maybe those who are misguided) end up starting these kinds of projects but do so in a very closed off manner and end up shutting out other creatives from making similar content. The early Palworld modding scene was a disaster, quite honestly, and I saw that it was very likely the potential of Palworld modding in this category was going to be completely squandered by teams working in such a closed off and hostile manner. As such, a large part of my motivation is to offer a more open and community focused alternative, to show people that the modding scene doesn’t have to die off as some closed-off hostile wasteland, but instead we can encourage more collaboration and prop each other up to new heights!

Now, to be clear, it’s not like I wouldn’t like to receive more donations (making this kind of work my full-time job is a dream I’d love to accomplish) but I won’t push it on anyone. I put in the work to try and offer as much value as possible with the hopes that some day it may pay off, but if it doesn’t it’s not all that big of a deal. Life moves on, ya know? And if nothing else, I get some sick portfolio pieces!