Seeing that you are taking your time with game development (no problem with that) i have my suggestions for Virtual Families 2.
Put from simples to most difficult (in my opinion):
1.Make homes more customizable (with in-game things, fan-made mods are something aside):
a.I think that when you buy an upgrade or new artifact, there should be different models (idea taken from games like Gardenscapes)
b.Customize rooms with things like wallpapers, pictures, indoor and outdoor plants. (e.g.: you can put an bubble, leaf, fire, etc-themed wallpaper in the bedroom, pictures of things like fish)
These things
don't have a function aside of decoration. Everything for in-game money, obviously.
2. NPCs (is that the appropriate name for this thing?):
Like the heathens in VV5, these persons can't be influenced directly (no click-and-drag), but can be indirectly with help of your people. Put someone with someone and they will make something such as play games or talk and the like.
More ideas about this:
+ make a "friendship" stat(kind of akin to "faith"), one for each member of your family, the more friendship, they will do a higher variety of actions (such as becoming a boy/girlfriend).
+ when you put put two people together, put some commands (>play video games, >play tag, >talk, >etc)(more like buttons, less like
command lines)
3. When someone dies and you choose to continue with the next generation, the previous owner(the other,non dead one) should continue in the house.
4.
Same-sex relationships OMG WHO SAID THAT?!? it wasnt me.
5. Family members being able to exit (temporary) the house:
It's kind of the pressing having persons trapped in home all their lives, so:
- People exit the map, you wait for them to come back (maybe a timer will be needed)
- Multiple maps, such as work, school, friend houses, park. When someone exits a map, enters into other. I am aware that this one is a lot more job compared to the other one.
6. Instead of making a bigger property, just make a small one with a house that has multiple floors. You can change floors with a button of the screen or the keyboard.