WARNING!
If you haven't played episode 6, there may be minor spoilers for you in this post.
This post contains minor spoilers for an updated feature in episode 7, but it's nothing that's story related.
Read at your own discretion.
This week's status update is a bit different than usual.
I wanted to present parts of an updated/new feature that will appear, starting episode 7.
Many of you have guessed it already, and for others, it might come as a minor surprise.
I have worked hard on updating the in-game phone to accommodate the future needs of the game.
The phone is updated starting episode 7, so it's not a retroactive change. The MC just got a new phone, and it's going to be an improved version of the old variant.
So, what I've done is a rewrite of the phone code. I've left functionality that works well, added new functionality that's needed, updated the GUIs, and more.
I could probably talk about the phone features for hours, but I have to limit myself and let you discover most on your own.
So, I'm not going to go overtly into details, as it's also a work in progress feature, but I will show you a few of the implemented features and my thoughts for them below.
The main GUI is completely new, but it should still feel familiar.
Note that the phone in the picture is from a playthrough without mini-games.
During free-roam events, there's a music bar displaying the name of the song that's currently playing. You can toggle this bar on or off if you'd rather see more of the wallpaper behind it.
In this picture you can see three new apps, and also notice the absence of some. Some apps may have been removed, some apps may have been merged.
The two new apps in this picture are 2D art and Pack Quest. You've come into contact with both of them in episode 6.
They will be handled directly from your phone starting episode 7.
With the exception of a few apps, most apps have been (or will be) revamped.
Two apps I'm particularly excited about are the Music and Bios apps.
In the Music app, you can now filter songs by genre, and I have included a genre for licensed music that many of you wanted to be able to play.
You can also set songs as favorites and have a playlist with just your favorite tunes.
This means that you can choose to have a customized playlist that you can play during free roam events.
I can't show you too much of the Bios app, but it's going to be a tilted version of the phone where each character will have their own screen with past choices and events.
Without getting into detail, a subset of other features that you can expect from the new phone are:
- Customizable/favorite/randomized wallpaper functionality.
- Simple emoticons in text messages.
- Animated transitions and screens.
The phone feels very modern and it's an enjoyable experience using it.
I hope that you will come to love it as much as I already do.
Have a nice weekend!
Dr PinkCake