Getting started
Summertime Saga is a dating game which allows players to explore places, meet interesting characters, and participate in many minigames. In order to fully enjoy your adventure, we invite you to take a look at the many gameplay elements and advices listed on this page.
Contents
General advice
Talk to people! (And when I say talk, I really mean listen!)
Most of this game is about interacting with the different characters, and the dialogue is the main way to receive information about what you should do next. Pay attention and act on any hints you get, even when the Main Character is just talking to himself.
Go places and click on stuff
Explore different locations on the map: look all around for interactable objects and additional screens. Things you can click on become highlighted when you move your cursor over them, so move your mouse all over the place.
Come back at night (or the next day… or just later in the game)
Revisit a character or location at a different time of day to see if anything changes. The biggest changes happen between daytime and nighttime, but you should also pay attention to the difference between morning and afternoon. See the next section Time for more details.
Also check in every once in a while to see if anything has changed based on the day of the week or previous events you have completed.
Come back with money
The solution to many game's objectives is to buy an item from the various shops in the mall, and that means you're going to have to take on some summer jobs. Starting out, you are be stuck working on Diane's garden minigame for a wage around $90 per minigame. Over the summer, as your story with Diane progresses, you will get a raise for the milk delivery. You also have the choice to invest in a delivery bike that allows you to work for Tony's Pizza. Last but not least, the fishing minigame rewards you with fish to sell at the pier.
Until the very last stages of the game, you'll always need money for something; so if you have some free time in the day, go earn some!
Level up your stats
Another barrier between you and tits is low stats. Many dialogues and objectives rely on your skills. In order to progress, take some time to train yourself! See the next section Stats Tracker for more details.
Time
In this game, each week is split into seven days from Monday to Sunday, and each day is split into four periods of time: morning, afternoon, evening, and late night.
The current day of the week and time of day can both be found in the menu bar at the top of the screen. The day of the week is written in the text box under the room name, while the three blocks in the upper middle of the screen tells you the current time period.
Time of day
The most obvious changes are between the daytime and nighttime periods, but they all work a bit differently. Some differences:
- Daytime versus nighttime screens.
- All locations open morning and afternoon; some locations still open in the evening; many locations closed at late night.
- Quest items may be available only at nighttime, or only during daytime.
- Sneaking into places are done in the evening but no actions are allowed at late night.
- Characters follow a routine; for examples students are at school in the morning and practice their activitie in the afternoon.
Take a look at the characters' pages to find out where they are located at a specific time of day. Note that these locations may change depending on the route you are playing on.
Day of the week
The exact day of the week rarely matters — basically, just pay attention if a character or message tells you that an event happens on a specific day of the week. But weekends are quite different from the rest of the week. On Saturday and Sunday:
- School is closed. The students are doing something else (e.g. Erik is home all day), and any quests that takes place in school has to wait until Monday.
- As a consequence, if a character refuses to help because you have to go to school, he may be more receptive on weekends.
- There's a service at the church each morning.
- Mayor Rump has a stage set up at the mall.
- Lots of little dialogue differences.
- At least one secret event can't happen.
Also, don't trust the telescope in your bedroom as this object is still under development.
Pregnancy
In the course of your love stories, you are able to make a woman pregnant. From then on, the progress of some routes are paused until this event ends. The pregnancy evolves over 4 weeks until the birth. You have to wait another 2 weeks until the baby is sent to daycare and you can resume normal activities. Don't forget to read the phone messages as they are mandatory steps.
Fertility Pills
You can increase the success on pregnancy with the fertility pills. These pills are given by Dr. Priya Singh at the clinic and they raise the chance of pregnancy from 20% to 40%.
Stats Tracker
You need to improve the four stats of the main character to progress in the storylines:
- Dexterity — Follow Master Somrak's instructions in the gym. Part of Jenny's route.
- Strength — Train with Kevin in the gym. Talk to Kevin in the school cafeteria, then convince Erik to trade with him.
- Intelligence — Play the Maze Runner minigame on the computer in the main character's bedroom. You must have it fixed beforehand with the parts sold at Consum-R.
- Charisma — Win rap battles in the park at night.
These statistics are presented in the Stats Tracker, available in the Phone Menu at the top of the screen.
Goal Tracker
The Goal Tracker is a reminder of your current objective for each route. This feature can be accessed from the Phone Menu at the top of the screen. Note that this game feature is still under development and does not include hints for all routes. Some hints can persist after you've completed the route. Don't worry about it.
Achievements
Achievements unlock as you progress in the game and find secrets. This feature can be accessed from the Phone Menu at the top of the screen.
Cookie Jar
This feature allows you to check and replay the animated scenes previously unlocked. It can be accessed from the Main Menu of the game. The cookie jar is a persistent content that won't be erased when you begin a new game.
Change log
Curious to know what's new in the game? The change log has a dedicated page on the wiki.
Saves and persistent data file
Saves and persistent data file can be found in these locations:
- Windows:
<SS-game-folder>\game\savesand%AppData%\RenPy\SummertimeSaga - Android:
Android/data/summer.time.saga/files/saves - Mac:
/Users/USERNAME/Library/Renpy/SummertimeSaga(folder may be hidden) - Linux:
<SS-game-folder>/game/savesand$HOME/.renpy/SummertimeSaga - Other:
%USERPROFILE%\.renpy\SummertimeSaga
Save file naming
Save files look like 1-5-LT1.save. The naming format is as follows pageNumber-pageSlotNumber-LT1.save. For example, 1-5-LT1.save is the save file for the 5th slot on the 1st page, and 2-3-LT1.save is the save file for the 3rd slot on the 2nd page and so on.
1-5-LT1 (1).save is not a valid save file. In this case remove the last part "(1)" from the name of the file to use it.
Android installation
Make sure you've removed all previous installs of the game, there seems to be an issue when doing an update on android.