Greetings citizens and tourists!

This month’s build adds some exciting new systems to Retroronto, laying the groundwork for more story content and gameplay variety!

The generic pause menu has been fully replaced with a new in-world Phone Menu, giving you access to apps like your inventory, map, and more. We’ve also introduced a task system, a way to receive missions and objectives while navigating the city. Some tasks are educational, guiding you to real-world landmarks in Toronto, while others are tied to gameplay, like the current gym quest or your first task near Union Station.

To support these changes, NPCs now populate the overworld, ready to offer dialogue or tasks, bringing more life and interaction to the streets of Retroronto.

We’re also gearing up for our busiest event season yet, with plans to showcase Retroronto at XP Summit, Giant Video Games, G.R.I.D., and the Seriously Fun Showcase, all happening during Toronto Games Week this June! It's a huge push for visibility, community building, and feedback, and we’re excited to see how players react.

As always, full details (and a few fun extras) are in this month’s devblog. Thanks for playing, and stay tuned for July’s update!

As always, you can:

🕹️ Play the demo: https://starspray-studios.itch.io/retroronto

📰 Read our devblog: https://www.starspraystudios.com/devblog/retroronto-report-8

📣 Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/KyCAE4YRaS

CHANGES/FIXES:

- Fixed bug where “full hands’ feedback would be given every time when grabbing items from fridges

- Fixed some areas where door sounds wouldn’t play or get interrupted

- Fixed previous bug where players could keep items produced during minigames

- Fixed bug where players could open pause menu while map was open

- Player name and look now reset when going back to main menu

- Updated text during Demo sequence to mention item swap controls

- Target arrows should now point at home apartment after 8pm (if they’ve leased an apartment)

- Fixed crowd spawn previously existing but were invisible

- Adjusted some Demo objective texts

- Fixed target arrow sprites showing up over interior environments on occasion

- Fixed Demo bug where players could deposit more than asked and not advance the sequence

- Changed access to map through the new Phone UI

- Gym fetch quest for retrieving a soda is now a ‘Task’ players can engage in

- Made some small adjustments to the overworld (moved old town hall up a bit from the street)

ADDITIONS:

- Added a “Closing Time” Feedback at 8pm

- Added overworld NPCs that randomly spawn all around the city, either as generic dialogue or beggars

- Added 3 overworld NPCs that give the player the ‘Landmark Hunt’ task, which enable a few landmark places to discover and learn information about

- Landmarks now have several lines of dialogue about it’s history and cultural significance, only during the ‘Landmark Hunt’ task

- Created an overworld NPC that now starts the Demo Task sequence for leasing an apartment and getting a job

- Replaced pause menu with a new ‘Phone’ UI, with a new ‘Tasks’ selection, revamped ‘Controls’ section, and Map access

- Updated game HUD to always show inventory, instead of only when gaining or swapping items

- Phone ‘Tasks’ menu updates with Tasks available to player when given by talking to certain NPCs. Otherwise will show “No Tasks Available”

REMOVALS:

- Removed ‘Day Count’ in base UI to make room for Money and Inventory UI