Devlog #1 - The phone
Hello everyone! Welcome to our first devlog for Rovering to Sussex.
Introduction
Before I go into the details of today's post, let me introduce myself. My name is reflexbound (or RFB for short) and I'm the writer and programmer behind our upcoming game Rovering to Sussex. Zargon might provide you with information about the progress or preview images, but I'll be using this place to give you a more technical glimpse on the game. But fear not! This is not about programming the game, but rather about the gameplay mechanics and features that you will encounter when you play Rovering to Sussex.
The phone
This devlog is about something that you will discover right as you start a new game: The phone. It is almost always right there for you to use on the bottom right of the screen:
Even without opening it, you already see one of its uses: It displays the current time and date. Note that the time is a hint to you around which time of day a scene is set and how far apart different scenes are. During one scene, the time usually is not updated (it might be in some longer scenes).
The apps
Now let's click the phone to open it (click the image for full size):
Not only do we get a better view at the time and date now, we also got access to nine apps that I'll discuss in more detail below. When you start a new game, some apps might not yet be usable and thus grayed-out. This is because they require you to actually get to know some people first. However, you will be able to use them very soon after.
The apps are divided into three rows of three each. We'll start with the first row. These apps give you information about the game and let you interact with it, but they are also just fun for you to use. You can only access these features through the phone.
Contacts:
Click the first icon to get a list of your contacts, i.e., all people you know. You will see their image and name. And if you got their phone number, you will also see a message icon to text with them. Of course in the game, nothing will be blurred, but I don't want to spoil the characters just yet.
You can click on a contact to open their details:
This gives you information about their age, their physique and their relation to you (more on the latter in a future devlog). The lower part of the screen is reserved for notes about the person. These notes will appear during the game when you interact with people or get to know things about them.
Clicking the message icon next to a contact lets you text with them, but that's a topic for another devlog.
Personality AI:
The second icon on the top row is
Personality AI. This will be the main topic of the next devlog, but for now just know that it is a way to check your own profile and stats.
Games:
Next up is minigames. Well, it is just one minigame for now, called
Chicksaw. As the name suggests, it is a jigsaw type puzzle game. Playing this is totally optional but gives you access to some bonus images. There are five levels of increasing difficulty there and if you want to get all bonus images, you have to play all of them. In the future, we may or may not add more minigames to the phone, but the idea will always be the same: Beat the game to get access to bonus images.
Let's get to the second row of apps now. Here you will find rewards that you unlocked while playing the game. These are available from Renpy's usual menu (i.e., from the main menu or via right click) as well, but here you can access them quickly.
Replay:
The first one is your traditional replay for lewd scenes. Click the scene you're interested in and play it again. Of course you'll get an image and name for the scenes once you unlocked them.
Using the toggle on the left, you can choose whether you want to have access to all scenes you have ever unlocked or only the scenes that you got in your current game. The buttons above let you select only scenes with certain characters.
Bonus Images:
Bonus images is just the same, but for those images you can unlock playing the minigame(s). As the name suggests, these are only images, no full scenes (i.e., no dialogue or choices).
Achievements
The third icon on the middle row is a page of your achievements. We'll talk in more detail about achievements in a future devlog. This page lists the ones you got (and what you had to do to get them) and each achievement has an additional image as a reward for you.
Coming to the bottom row of apps on your phone, you'll find some more for quick access for functions from the main menu.
Settings:
The first is your regular Renpy settings page where you can choose to play in fullscreen mode, what can be skipped pressing Ctrl and how loud the music and sound should be.
There's a few options that you don't see everywhere though: You can choose to disable the character images next to the dialogue if you don't like them. You can also choose whether you want to get notified when your stats or relationships change as a result of your decisions. Finally, you can adjust the textbox from fully transparent to almost black for enhanced readability.
Content Settings:
This page looks empty now, but it gets filled as you progress through the game. Here you can adjust things that influence the gameplay itself. For example, you will be able to permanently opt out of some more controversial fetishes (again, more details in a later devlog).
As you start the game, the only option available here is whether you want the game to give you a visual indication when someone orgasms in a lewd scene. You enable this independently for your main character and for all other characters. You can also choose whether that indication should be the screen shaking or flashing.
Save Game:
As it implies, the last button on your phone takes you directly to the save screen (which has some special features that we will talk about in a later devlog).
With this, we've come to the end of this first devlog. We hope you like the phone as your central way to access different features of the game.
See you next time!
RFB