Learn The Heart v0.2.4

Hello everyone! Here are the new added things and changes to Learn The Heart v0.2.4

UI
In the earliest stages of development, I never thought about designing a good UI, and all I cared about was that it just worked. As the game got deeper into development, the UI became so cluttered that it left new or returning players confused, and the screen had so much going on, just like a common mobile gacha game. It needed to be simple and have easy navigation, so the UI has been improved.

Phone UI
I pick the most common UI, which is a phone, since we use it every day and it has basic functions. With this new UI, I can also come up with new ideas, and I also had to make this in order for the new mechanic to work.

Date UI
The date UI has also been reworked, making it simpler and easier to understand. Rather than having many buttons above the partner, I made it just a dialogue and a follow. All the functionality of interaction is moved into the choices in the dialogue.
 

New Date Mechanic Photo mode
Photo mode is a newly added feature in the dating system. You can make them do unique poses, move the character to a location, and take a picture to earn date points. The pictures you take will be saved on the phone, and you can choose to delete them or not. This new feature is my proudest work so far because it enables player creativity in what they want to see in a picture. You can choose to be serious about it or just do whatever you want with it.
 

Added a mouth
Upon finishing the photo mode and testing it, there was one problem: the main character doesn’t have eyes or a mouth. For me, a photo without an expression is just bad. The main character has always been anonymous, but it’s hard to have an expression with a blank face. I made a poll in my Patreon and Discord about whether to add eyes and a mouth to the main character, and it was unanimous that people wanted it. Some people still wanted to remain anonymous, including me, and I decided to just add the mouth. Almost all the main character sprites now have mouths added except for h-positions, for which I need more to add.
 

Next update
The game had a problem with dating replayability, but the game has gone through many updates, introducing new mechanics and giving the player many ways to do what they want on a date. While the problem is still not fully solved and I still need to create more mechanics in future updates, all of the mechanics that were introduced are now enough for the game's replayability. Next month, all partners will be given new stories, and the game version will be set to version 0.3.0. If I have enough time, I might create new content that I have in mind.

If you want to help this game grow and make me implement more things in the game, consider supporting me so I can buy food.
Patreon

Lastly, if you encounter any bugs or glitches, please report them here or in my discord so I can immediately fix them. Thank you.

Learn The Heart v0.2.4 Changelog

• Added a phone UI
- Check out photos you’ve taken during dates.
- Check out the achievements you’ve earned.
- Moved the dev notes to the Phone UI, including the cheats.
- Moved the partner tab in the Phone UI and renamed it to contacts.
- Improved the tutorial
• Date UI reworked
- Removed date limit icons
- Replaced the date meter
- Moving near the partner now only shows dialogue button and follow button
- Upon clicking the dialogue button, you will be given choices on how you interact with them
- There are still limits on how much you interact, and the partner will trigger a dialogue when the limit is reached
- Hearts spawn when the partner has a good or bad interaction
- When a date meter is not full and you haven’t moved to another location yet, it will trigger a choice of whether you want to end the date immediately or not
• Added new date mechanic: Photo mode
- Take pictures without restrictions
- Player and Partner can be moved by clicking and holding in any direction.
- Player and Partner can changed its poses and can be flipped
- Camera can be zoomed and moved using movement controls and has mobile movement support.
- Photos taken that are kept will be seen in the Photos menu on the phone
- Can only take photo once every location
- Photos are shared throughout all save files
- Adds date points
• Added number beside the choices and a key-bind with it.
• A lot of sprites have been improved and changed because the main character now has a mouth.
• Added a seal in the beach side
• Added a dog right beside the ice cream trolley
• Reworked positions:
- Sherryl Main beach pos 3 (Also added a perspective)
- Mary Livingroom pos 2 (Also added a perspective)
- Eul Livingroom pos 2 (Also added a perspective)
- Caroline Bathroom pos 1 (Also added a perspective)
- Mary Bedroom pos 4
- Sherryl Main beach pos 3
• Added 1 new achievement
• Added a notification when clicking the joystick button
• Moved Mary and Eul Library position 1 to the unused button in Gallery (Players are confused why they can’t unlock the library scene because they don’t read patch notes.)
• Replaced the transfer button from image to text
• Updated the credit page
• Fixed the date interaction able to proceed the interaction by just clicking it