Do you guys not have phones?

Cause if you do, you can now use them to play NetShag!

UI/UX updates for mobile devices

I've once again returned to the subject of adapting the game for small screens - partly because deep down I've always wanted to do it, and partly (and mainly) because, either due to system scaling or for some other reason, the stub about the impossibility of displaying the game on small screens started to pop up even on quite large screens.

I won't talk much about the interface elements: they are exactly the same as before, only smaller. But what is worth paying attention to is the controls. All hotkeys that were in the game work as before, but what to do when there is no keyboard? Of course, it would be possible to simply display a virtual keyboard on the screen (or its semblance, as NetHack mobile port does), but I can't call it "user-friendly interface" while keeping a straight face. 

(sidenote: no offence towards the NetHack porting team, they did as good a job as they could for such a complex game)

So, how does the control on touchscreen devices work:

1) Movement: tap in the desired direction.

2) Interacting with girls: move towards them.

3) Actions that do not require selecting a target: use the new menu in the bottom left corner:

As you can see, this menu has generally all actions available, so when an action requires you to select a target (e.g. sex), you have two options:

• first select the target (by moving towards it) and then the action;
• first select the action (in the additional menu) and then the target.

4) Сontextual selection: tap on an option in the console on the right to choose it (to cancel the contextual selection, when the game tells you to press Escape, you can press the Back button on your phone).

5) Story: when the game tells you to press Enter, you can just tap.

All of these additions work in the desktop version of the game as well (except for the menu in the bottom left corner - it only shows up on mobile devices).

That's probably it - the devlog is rather short this time. I encountered a number of technical challenges, but decided not to describe them here (you'd probably be bored reading about it, but if you're interested - more details in the weekly reports on Reddit / Discord). I've done a lot of optimisation work to make the game run on phones. The initial loading time can be quite long on mobile internet (you're probably aware of this, but just in case I'll remind you: traffic! I advise you to use wi-fi), but I haven't noticed any freezes / lags in the game itself. If you find a bug (e.g. text not fitting into the container allocated for it), or if you have problems with game launch / performance - please let me know. I don't promise to make the game run smoothly absolutely everywhere, and I also don't promise to fix all problems in a day or two, but I'll do my best.