Greetings citizens and tourists!

Another month, another update! This latest build introduces a brand-new Pizza Delivery minigame, available once you’re hired at Two Pizzas. We’ve also improved how customer NPCs spawn during minigames, and completely overhauled our store system: items now tally up in a new “Cart” UI, requiring you to check out at the register before heading out. Behind the scenes, the inventory system’s been refactored to better support these changes.

This build debuted at the Toronto Game Expo on March 29–30, where Retroronto was shown to the public for the very first time! We had an amazing time and got some fantastic feedback from hundreds of attendees. It’s only been a week since the event, but we’ve already made a handful of changes in response to player input, like adjusting sprinting and tweaking car collisions to feel more natural.

Of course, there’s still plenty of work ahead! We left the expo with a big stack of notes, bug reports, and suggestions, all of which we’ll be digging into this month. If you’d like a more detailed look at everything we learned at the expo (and more!), check out our full, newspaper-style devblog here:
https://www.starspraystudios.com/devblog/retroronto-report-6

Thanks as always for the support, and stay tuned! Next month’s update should bring some much-needed quality-of-life changes as we gear up for even more showcases across Toronto this summer.

Changes/Fixes:

- Fixed sorting orders of TVs in apartments so player wont walk over their sprites

- Fixed interactive cashiers in stores, which would freeze player when talking to them.

- Adjusted recruiters so they'll be non-interactive after getting work from them.

- Fixed a bug where Help stations in food places would show up before applying/getting job.

- Fixed a bug where the Roommate NPC wouldn’t retain appearance when leaving and re-entering apartment.

- Adjusted dispensers in Pizza and Coffee place to be empty when minigame starts.

- Fixed bug where you could ride a bus/tram while riding a bike, eventually making player disappear with further interaction.

- Fixed bug where Lights on buildings during dawn/night weren't being affected by shaders when walking under building.

- Adjusted arrow/icon animations in interiors to be stepped instead of tweened.

- Adjusted border frame of game UI to account for different resolutions.

- Adjusted UI in Fridge sprite within Homes, as player would block front-facing fridges hiding item sprites.

- Fixed bug where camera wouldnt follow the player riding bus/tram if pause was active.

- Adjusted Library job board to show a bigger arrow everytime a resume is printed to encourage interacting with it.

- Fixed store bug where players would buy items multiple times for the same inventory slot, overwriting previous item.

- Fixed a bug where players could eat food produced during minigames.

- Fixed bug with Player Feedback that would constantly call it's coroutine with blank text.

Additions:

- Added Pizza Delivery Minigame, available when getting the pizza job and interacting with a special bike outside the pizza place.

- Customers will now keep spawning during minigames until the timer runs out, previously spawned a max 10 times.

- Customer spawn rates in minigames change based on time of day (busier during lunch hour).

- Revamped Stores with a Cart system, where picking up items will update a cart UI with total costs. Players must interact with the cash register to buy the item, use/consume it, and be able to leave the store.

- Refactored Target Arrow system with the Demo Manager, works better now.

- Stores now have randomized NPCs that patrol around.

- Updated inventory system so you can pick up and fill available inventory slots.

- Added a 'Controls' section in the Pause Menu listing in-game controls.

- Now have a target arrow spawn and point to your home after 8PM.

- Added an animated timer icon to minigame timer UI.

- Cars now slow the player down and expend more energy when colliding with them.

Removals:

- Removed Sprinting on-foot and on Bicycles based on UX feedback.