ALifeLived
patreon
The new feature (spoilers, dont read unless you want to know)
🕑 Added 2024-06-16 15:30:34 +0000 UTCSo hopefully you have all had a chance to play the new update, and possibly get to the end of the quest.
So a few points I want to make at this time.
Firstly, i am developing the game with a concurrent playing style and less so about following a single thread. What I mean by that is particularly apparent to me with the new feature. The content in the new feature is drip fed to the user. So its easier to appreciate this content by dipping in and out of it while doing other things.
So the new feature is being able to access an npc's mobile phone. Firstly I want to stress this is not going down the route of being able to control the npc via their phone. The game 100% sits in the real world. So while some other games do that (and REALLY well).. I am not trying to recreate that... I have been thinking about doing this feature from pretty much day one, but it was about getting the timing right.. Im really happy with how clean it all looks, considering i have had to build all of it from scratch.. and also I am happy with how easy it is for me to add extra content to the the current set up..
At current you can only access 1 of 4 npcs phones.. in later releases I will expand (through later quests) your options to access the 3 you did not choose, and a few more other npcs.
As I was building this, I was originally only going to use stock people as the contacts.. but in the last week I changed that all up and ended up using either current NPCs or new NPCs from people in the industry.. This gives me the chance to introduce some of these new NPCs into face to face contact with the MC..
I have little mini side stories going on between the NPCs and their contacts, and you will be able to view how they progress.
The new feature has two main features at current.. Read only access to the NPCs photo gallery and text messages.. Both work in a similar way.. When you view the photo gallery it sets a random number of days between 1 and 5, when the next picture will appear. The same happens for each contact in the text section. However some text conversations will only proceed once another one has passed a point (as they relate)... Also some conversations have the ability to introduce a new contact for that npc.. Both those last two features, I have not used too much of, but wanted to make sure they were possible..
Future possible updates might include the ability to send a text(pic) from the npcs gallery to one of their contacts. Access the phones camera.
The issue with both of these features, is making it viable that it each gives a result often, or some way of limiting when the user can do it.
I want to point out the home button on the phone works like a back button.
Minor changes that are coming in the next update..
I want to make the MCs phone to look like the new feature.. So it will look better. and more like you are using a phone, this includes making all messaging and photos into the new style.. I also intent to give the mc more apps in the future, which will appear on the MCs phone desktop.
I want to add two minor features to the NPCs phones. Firstly I want to add a dot next to the contact list to indicate if a new message has been unlocked.. This should be fairly easy (I think).
Secondly I am not really happy with right side text in the message.. its right aligning and what ever align I choose is not great.. So I am going to play with that, see if I can make it more appealing.
Thirdly and this is the hardest part.. I dont like the way you have to keep scrolling down the text each time you open it.. I would love to be able to some how get the scroll bar to jump to the start of the next bit, and if you want to scroll up to the older text you can.. I dont think I am going to be able to do this.. At best I can probably just make it jump to the bottom(im not sure I can even do this having given it a bit of a go).. but that means you could be scrolling up to read the start of the new text.. So I dont know.. it might just stay as it is...
I have managed to get the latest photo to always appear first in the last and work backwards in date.. so at least the gallery works how I wanted..
If anyone has any suggestions to anything they like or dont like about the new feature or anything new regarding a phone that they would like to see added, i would like to hear.
Comments
Zenney Darkstar
Yes.. I agree, I think its very likely that in the future you will be able to either send a message or pic to one of their contacts to get them into trouble or encourage something.. and like you say, maybe pretend to message the MC. Which could be the start of a quest.. This is in the most part, going to be a side feature to the main game.. I am also trying to build up the sense of whole chars, from the NPCs. like they have a whole 3d world, where you are just a part of that, or maybe you are not even a part of it yet.
Kevin Daley
As of right now I don’t have any suggestions. I understand what your are doing and based on other games can easily see where this can go. If I was to give a suggestion my suggestion would be to use the text option on their phone to set them up. Aka send and delete messages to and from their phone to other phones or your phone. Use them to benefit you and or get them in trouble or in contact with others. Pull some strings in other words. And don’t just restrict it to their texts. Chip their phone so you can hear their conversation. Posting photos on their feed or even just butt dialing someone repeatedly should be enough. Usually these types of games use mind control to do that. This game that aspect is out by replaced by an mc that actually leaves the phone. This device is thus great for 2 things. Spying and messaging with them for your benefit/fun.
