2025 Retrospective: A Big Year for VirtualSociety! ✨

Hi folks!

2025 is already over… and what a year it’s been! For us at Cats & Foxes, it’s a real pleasure to take a moment to look back at everything that’s been accomplished.

As you may know, we recently hosted a retrospective live stream where we played the game live, showcased all the new features, and talked about what’s coming this year! If you missed it, you can watch the replay here:

The replay is available in both English and French!

This past year, VirtualSociety has made an incredible leap forward, both in its visual identity and in its tools and overall structure! Every day, we can feel the game we’ve dreamed of creating from the very beginning coming more and more to life: a creative, inclusive, and welcoming space where everyone can freely express themselves.

But this year didn’t just transform the game, it also transformed the team! We were lucky enough to welcome some new faces:

-Lenny, a developer hired after completing his internship;

-Logan, a developer on a work-study program;

-and Mathéo, for a 3 months animation internship.

Thanks to them, we’re now five team members by the end of the year, a huge milestone for a small independent studio like ours!

A year of solid construction… literally! 🛠️

On the building side, we made a massive leap forward! The big merge in September brought together months of hard work and helped stabilize a huge number of systems. Camera controls, snapping, object movement… everything became much smoother! These improvements were quickly followed by others: new roofs, the return of snapping for certain objects, an update to the floor creation tool, and much more.

When we think back to last year (no roofs, no stairs, and extremely basic floors), it’s honestly wild to see how far we’ve come in just one year!

Even if these improvements aren’t always immediately visible, they completely change how the game feels and make creation far more intuitive.

Walls, floors, textures: creativity unleashed!🧱

Wall and floor editing has also gained a lot more depth. You can now add patterns, install baseboards, change texture direction, or adjust texture scale.

These small details actually open up huge possibilities and help turn VirtualSociety into a true personal expression workshop.

More stylish characters… and more alive than ever! 💅

The character editor hasn’t been forgotten either: clothing is becoming far more customizable, with the ability to edit patterns, logos, and many other details. Everyone will be able to represent their identity however they want, something that’s absolutely central to our vision.

And animation-wise, things are moving! Many new animations were added this year, and even though there’s still a lot to do to make avatars feel fully alive, they’re clearly on the right path. Seeing characters move more naturally is incredibly rewarding.

The character is a core element of the game and still has a long journey ahead. But we haven’t forgotten about it, and we’re doing everything we can to keep pushing this part of the game forward as well!

Particles, physics… in short, expressive objects! 🙉

Some objects now feature particle effects that can be enabled or disabled depending on your needs. We’ve also reintroduced the ability to toggle gravity and physics, and even adjust collision sizes.

All these small tools will add a truly dynamic dimension to future creations.

Scripting, the future heart of gameplay 🎮

Scripting made huge progress this year. It’s never been closer to fulfilling its central role: allowing players to create mini-games, bring NPCs to life, or build entire scenes.

It’s one of the pillars of the upcoming gameplay, and we can’t wait to show you everything it will make possible.

A finally unified art direction 🎨

2025 was above all the year VirtualSociety found its true visual unity. Everything is finally starting to work together: textures, colors, shapes, interfaces… The game’s universe is more coherent, softer, and more welcoming, exactly as we imagined it.

Cel-shading and outlines strengthened this illustrated, cozy atmosphere, but what really changes the experience is the overall harmony.

In the same spirit, the entire UI was redesigned to match this new identity. From the character editor to the phone, landscape editing, home screen, and scripting tools, all interfaces now share a common style, cozier and much more pleasant than before.

In short: VirtualSociety is finally starting to look like VirtualSociety.

More and more objects for rich, expressive worlds 🌍

While the tech team was hard working, the artistic side didn’t slow down either! We added an impressive number of objects: enough to fully furnish a kitchen, decorate an office, enhance a garden, or even customize a building facade with gutters, columns, or chimneys.

In short, VirtualSociety is really starting to take shape as a creative sandbox where everyone can build a universe that reflects who they are.

A foundational year, with so many exciting things ahead 🌟

2025 will truly be remembered as the year of consolidation: artistic coherence, technical stability, and massive tool enrichment. A lot was put in place, sometimes behind the scenes, but always with the goal of offering a genuinely welcoming, creative, and fun game for everyone.

The game isn’t playable yet, but every step brings us closer to the warm world we want to share with you. And who knows, maybe some big announcements are already in the works for next year!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! 💜

We’re so happy to be sharing this incredible adventure with you!

A very special thank you to those who support us throughout the year, our patreons, but also to everyone else behind the scenes who shows their support by commenting on our videos and reading our articles!

And don’t forget: if you’d like to join us on this journey and closely follow the behind-the-scenes of development, you can support us on Patreon and wishlist the game on Steam. For a small studio like ours, every gesture truly means a lot and makes a real difference.

Happy new year, and we’ll see you very soon with even more news!

Cats & Foxes team 🌸