Hello Villagers!

I hope everyone is enjoying v1.1 so far! If you've stumbled upon a bug or two or twenty then you aren't alone, though there do seem to be fewer bugs than I feared after unleashing such a complicated release into the wild. I am very sorry to those experiencing especially frustrating bugs, and I really thank you for your patience while I sort them all out. I am hard at work on v1.11. The original plan accounted for two patches between v1.1 and Thanksgiving, but I've decided to combine them into one large update. This will come out in the next 2-3 days.

On Apple

Speaking of changing plans, I need to talk about the Apple version. A big reason I haven't released a patch yet is that I've been trying to get the Apple version. It's been a major challenge and a huge, unexpected time sink. The setup I've used since 2018 is no longer working due to a combination of hardware issues, new GameMaker's poor compatibility with Mac, and my own ignorance. The Macbook I use is already very old, so every attempt I've made at a fix requires multiple hours of testing to see if it worked (and it hasn't worked yet). I know there are a lot of Apple players and I don't want to leave you hanging. However, I am only one dev, and I can't keep focusing all my efforts on something that just isn't working. I am not abandoning Apple support, but I need to push it until after v1.1 is cleaned up. Thank you for your understanding on this.

tl;dr

v1.11 will be a large patch update and will release next week. The Apple version of v1.1+ is on pause until further notice.

Current Known Bugs Fixed for Upcoming v1.11

• (MAJOR) Fixed crash issue when attempting to skip cutscenes
• (MAJOR) Fixed issue preventing some story cutscenes from triggering
• (MAJOR) Fixed various issues related to displaying (and viewing) your lovely historical society donations
• (MAJOR) Fixed perk costs using temporary / debug values instead of their intended costs
• (MAJOR) Fixed issue related to mending glitches immediately after a story cutscene or trigger
• (MAJOR) Fixed issue where quitting during a season change could result in some flags not triggering properly
• (MAJOR) Fixed issue where changing the time and date via methods outside of sleeping cause errors
• Fixed issue with villager schedules
• Fixed issue with overlapping SFX when Advanced Fishtincts was enabled
• Fixed issue relating to some story perks not properly flipping to Enabled after a cutscene
• Fixed issue with Pishky not properly stocking his shelves with all available items
• Fixed issue with visitors not leaving the inn
• Fixed cliff tile issues in Autumn and Winter
• Fixed various graphical issues in journal, particularly related to various subpage backgrounds not displaying correctly
• Fixed overcast filter not covering the full screen in some areas during some seasons
• Fixed village plaza not displaying correctly in some seasons
• (This will be ongoing, as it appears to be related to a change in the way GameMaker handles surfaces, and only seems to be an issue with some GPU setups)
• Fixed various strange vegetation placement in Summer
• Fixed exploit that let you fish in non-fishing zones
• Fixed various strange collision boxes for some vegetation
• Fixed various layering issues for all player sprites
• Fixed issue where music sometimes was too quiet or too loud during cutscenes
• Fixed unusual footsteps SFX in some situations
• Various typos / etc. / usual stuff cleaned up

[ 2023-11-19 16:00:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Welcome to Village Monsters v1.1. It's been awhile! I'm eschewing from sharing traditional patch notes because they'd be too long and, frankly, not that useful. Instead, I've broken things out into three sections: what this patch contains (generally), what this patch does *not* contain, and a brief FAQ. To celebrate the release of v1.1 I've also put Village Monsters on a weeklong sale for the low-low price of like $5. It's the lowest price ever! So tell your friends and tell your enemies twice. Enjoy!

What this Update Is

In a sentence, v1.1 is what v1.0 should have been. No more, no less. After exiting Early Access last year I created a number of patches in quick succession, but soon realized I needed to take a slower, more comprehensive approach. Unfortunately for me, life immediately got in the way and kicked me right in the nads, so things haven't gone as quickly or as smoothly as I planned. Thankfully I'm back on track - well, mostly. Many bugs have been fixed, including a large number of blockers and crash-inducing bugs. Some features have been simplified, merged, or even cut altogether if they just weren't working right. Text, art and music have been touched up or corrected here and there. To put a number on it, I have added, modified or deleted approximately 10,000 lines of codes and have done the same for ~425 assets (art, music, etc.) I switched from Trello to Jira and then back again, so I don't know how many tasks and specific bugs I fixed, but it's a lot.

What this Update Is Not

I have historically done a poor job managing expectations (including my own lol), so I want to properly set them this time around: v1.1 is a major new patch, but it is not a major new content update. On a scale from "General improvements to enhance the user's experience." to "Epic 30 minute video showcasing all the new features and content", v1.1 is firmly in the middle. While there are indeed some new features / content, v1.1 was always meant to be a comprehensive bugfix effort to clean up the pitiable v1.0. My go-to mantra has been "Would this have fit the scope for v1.0 if things were done properly?", and if the answer was "No" then I've tossed it into the future v2.0 pile. It may have taken way, way too long to get here, but the reasons for that have been well documented. Finally, v1.1 is not a panacea for either the game or my slapdash development style. There will surely be things I need to fix or work on more, and I have already carved out time for at least two Feedback Releases to address new bugs and complaints from v1.1. As much as I tried to test things myself, there's just no predicting what players will find on their machines.

What's the Future?

Here's my (tentative) calendar for the next few months:
As you can see, I'm expecting anywhere from 1-3 feedback releases as a result of v1.1. Then it's onto v2.0, and then sometime after that is the release anniversary.

FAQ

Do I need to start a new game? Short Answer: Yes, please do. Long Answer: It should be technically possible to load your save and continue, but a lot has changed in the backend. It may be the game tries to load data that is no longer relevant and causes bugs or crashes. And if your save file missed an important 'flag' that didn't trigger earlier than you might miss story content. Will there be another update / more content? Yes. After ensuring v1.1 is stable I will move onto v2.0, which is my catchall version for anything that's new. I am aiming to have that out by early 2024, likely January or February. v2.0 will likely be the final update to Village Monsters beyond patches and fixes. Can I still access v1.06? Yes. Subscribe to the Beta channel of Village Monsters by using the password "previousversion".

[ 2023-11-06 19:38:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

tl;dr

A progression-blocking bug was discovered in the final stages of QA. To prevent a repeat of v1.0's troubled release, and to ensure v1.1 is the proper relaunch Village Monsters deserves, I am giving myself a - *ahem* - bonus week to fix and re-test. The new release date is November 6th. That is unfortunately outside the Spooky Window, but I'm hoping it's close enough to be considered Spooky Adjacent. Previous Restoring a Villages: Week 0, Week 1, Week 2, Weeks 3 & 4

Scorpion's Frog

Here's the full situation. A few weeks back I discovered a progression-blocking bug in the late game. It was one of those bugs that I couldn't quite replicate, but I fixed what I thought was the cause. However, I ran into the same problem again on Saturday during my final wrap up, and this time I could reproduce it reliably. The good news is that I can fix it more easily now. It is my upmost priority for v1.1 to be as polished as possible. Finding a major bug like this so close to release has made me exceptionally concerned that there are others I've yet to squash, including bugs that may crop up as a result of the fix (which is more common than you'd think). I am delaying the release of v1.1 by exactly one week. This'll give me time to fix the blocker bug (among other smaller bugs discovered during QA), thoroughly test the fix, and then repeat my typical before-release testing. I'm trying to focus on the silver lining, which is that I get another week of more thorough testing and polish. That is why I am choosing to call this a Bonus Week.

Haha, isn't this the --

I know. I know. There's no sugarcoating it: this really sucks. I guess I should have seen it coming given what this release is and my own history, but I still hate that it came to this. I said last week that I was finally confident, only to find my foot squarely in my mouth yet again. One consistent bit of feedback I received after my hiatus was that people much preferred frequent (and well communicated) delays rather than waiting on patches. Obviously it shouldn't have come to this in the first place, but given the situation a delay seems like the best and only way forward. Thank you for your understanding, and I'll see you all again next week.

[ 2023-10-29 20:05:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

You'll likely notice that I missed last week. But can you guess why? I don't think you can, because it is one of the most unlikeliest, most stupid, and most cursed thing to happen.
Yeah. My entire house got COVID... again. Again! It hadn't even been a full month yet! Is that even possible? Well, I suppose it literally is given that it happened. Well, as much as I hate to do this, I am forced to once again make the hard decision to...

...announce a release date!!

Did I get you? That's right, baby! No more delays, no more tales of woe, no more excuses. I am beyond thrilled to announce that the oft-discussed but much delayed v1.1 finally has a release date: Monday, October 30th!
So yes, COVID sucks, but this time around I was able to huddle in my blanket and mug of TheraFlu and just cranked through my todo list day by day. It was like one of those perks from Fallout where your stats increase if you're sick with radiation poisoning. Now the Big Board sitting around 90% complete, so I'm giving myself a 10(ish) day buffer to finish that last 10% and test the hell out of it. No launch disasters this time!
I didn't want to announce anything until I was absolutely, positively confident. And, well, I am confident. Finally. Look for a trailer next weekend and a weeklong sale to celebrate. I'm planning on one last weekly update prior to the 30th to outline what additions and changes you can expect. And I'll try my best not to go for the COVID hat trick. But no promises.

[ 2023-10-21 15:38:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

tl;dr

Not even COVID can stop this train, though it gave a good run for it. The best part of this week beyond being able to implement missing Kickstarter backer rewards was the creation of The Big Board, which will track our progress towards v1.1. We are still on schedule for an October release. Previous Restoring a Village: Week 0, Week 1

The Good

Creation of The Big Board By far the biggest accomplishment was creating The Big Board.
Every single task I have left to do on v1.1 is listed, categorized, and now tracked via The Big Board. When the bottom bar reaches the right side were ready for release. Not all tasks are weighted equally (for example, art and writing issues are generally much easier than code / testing tasks, etc.), but its good as a rough guide. Code Refactor refers to slower and more measured manual code migration from the corrupted source. Features include testing / implementing / reimplementing features of the game. Feedback and Bugs are similar to each other. Both have been reported by players and testers in the last year, but the latter are defects, while the former represent suggestions or ideas to improve the game. Finally we have Art / Graphics / UI and Dialogue / Writing. They are probably self explanatory. Kickstarter Rewards Implemented All the missing Kickstarter rewards have been implemented into the game. About 30% in total were missing, which is too many though thankfully less than I feared.
There are a number of backers who never got back to me, or perhaps their responses were eaten up by KSs survey tool or email. In any case, as far as Im concerned theres no time limit. If you never sent me anything, or if you did but its still not in the game as of v1.1, then please reach out and Ill get you sorted.

The Bad

First Day Blues I discovered a number of crashes that could arise on your first and second day in the village. The reason has to do with the scheduler: villager schedules are purposefully simplified so nothing goofy happens while youre trying to meet everyone. But the scheduler wasnt playing nice with everyone, especially visitors, which could result in a seemingly random crash depending on the time of day and the visitor who was trying to barge in. Thankfully its fixed now, but what a mess that was.
Technical Slog 2: Electric Slogaloo The technical slog continued through this week and Im ready for it to end lol

The Weird

Terrible Night for a Curse Sometime last year I was joking with some friends and family that Village Monsters was cursed. Seemed like whenever I began to work on the game in earnest, something bad would happen in the real world to yank me away from it. Last week I made the formal announcement on Kickstarter and Steam that development has resumed, and what happens? Myself and nearly everyone I know gets COVID. The curse is nothing if not consistent! Thankfully everyone is fine. For the two kids it was just a bad cold, and for me it was an issue of extreme joint paint, a sore throat, and a killer headache. The weirdest part is that getting COVID in 2023 feels very othering. Absolutely nobody wants to deal with COVID anymore, and that includes doctors and nurses who seemed generally annoyed about answering questions. But I suppose thats a subject for another time.

[ 2023-09-30 20:59:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello... Villagers!!

Ive been putting off writing this post for far too long. That... probably goes without saying, eh? So lets jump right to the good news: active development has resumed on Village Monsters! The fabled v1.1 will release this October. If you want to know more of the details of my hiatus then please take a look at the following post on my website. I am so sorry to have abandoned the game without explanation. You deserved so much better than that, especially after the buggy mess that was v1.0. To be frank, the last year has be awful. Every plan I made blew up in my face, every decision I made was the wrong one. The last thing I want to do is wallow even more, so instead I want to focus on what I can for you and the game right now. From here until release I plan to release weekly (or more frequent) updates on my progress. Here's Week 1!

tl;dr

Everything is still on schedule for an October release for v1.1, aka the reboot, the restoration, the redo. Still gotta nail that name. This past week has been mostly a technical slog as I get back in the saddle. Its necessary but slow going work. Previous Restoring a Village: Week 0

The Good

Flyswatting, aka fixing the small (but annoying) things

First thing I did was update GameMaker and look at all the errors, warnings and suggestions it made to me. There were a lot.
Most of these are false positives or can be ignored, but going through them and fixing them was a really useful way to get back in the swing of things. The code base is now much more robust and should be less prone to breaking as I continue to bring it up to release condition.

Music and sound compression

One of the small bugs ended up turning into a bigger but worthwhile fix: many sound files (including music) were being incorrectly converted into a different format and then back again. This resulted in both crunchier sounds and audio bugs. Its fixed now!

The Bad

Slow Going

I had hoped this part would go faster. I know that its all so necessary and important to dig my way out of my self-inflicted hole. But I had hoped to be able to show off more things, while 80% of the screenshots I took this week are all of code or bugs. Blech.

Missing Kickstarter Rewards

While auditing something unrelated, I noticed that one of the Kickstarter backer messages wasnt where I knew it should be. I went and checked and found that many of them are in fact missing. I added almost all the KS backer rewards during a two week stretch in early 2022. Most were just text appends and I hadnt noticed their absence among all the other missing or corrupted files. This is a huge oversight and was not intentional. Ill need to re-add these items by hand and it is a priority to fix in this next week.

The Weird

When bad weather crashes the title screen.

Depending on the (in-game) season the weather on the title screen changes. However, some update or other changed how particle systems work when destroyed, and the punchline is this: bad weather could crash the game before it even started. Thats fixed now.

[ 2023-09-19 16:15:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

I'm not dead yet! Work continues on v1.1. I'll spare you the litany of excuses as to why every little thing is taking longer than promised. I'm sure you're as tired of hearing them as I am typing them. In summary, life has continued to be unkind, and I've needed to prioritize my family and health over everything else. The good news is that the septic tank hasn't exploded again. So, you know, I've got that going for me! In truth, the past couple weeks have been the best, most productive, and most tragedy-free I've had since last February. I'm a little nervous to admit it for fear of it going sour again, but I'm in a much better place than I've been in for a long time, and Village Monsters has benefited greatly from it.

What's New?

This post will not be a deep dive into what I've accomplished - I just wanted to get something out to assure you that I haven't forgotten or abandoned the game. Here are the quick notes:

• All milestones for v1.1 have been finished
• In total for this release, I've completed 100+ new feature tasks, 350+ improvement tasks, and 200+ bugfix tasks. The update notes are very long!
• The past week has been focusing on new and existing tutorialization, both in written form and via Odd Jobs in-game
• v1.1 is now in the hands of playtesters. Feedback and testing is expected to last a while

When is it Coming Out?

Clearly, I cannot be trusted to give an ETA anymore. Even whispering a date to myself in a darkened room feels like it'd be tempting fate to come along and teach me a lesson. I'm bending all my efforts and energy into getting it out before the end of the year. I can say this: it'll release soon, and with almost no warning. --- I hope everyone had a good week! For me, I had a very nice, if somewhat muted Thanksgiving, and now I'm working in my office enjoying the sounds of a November rainstorm. Until next time, villagers!

[ 2022-11-25 21:26:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

I have mentioned before my terrible luck this past year, especially when it has coincided with Village Monsters stuff. So it wasn't surprising to me when my entire family came down with the flu the literal day I published the last dev log. 2+ weeks of sickness, including an incredibly grumpy 3 month old? No surprises there! "Ha! This time I knew it was coming, so it doesn't bother me at all. Now it's out of the way and I'll have a funny anecdote for the next dev log!" Then our septic system failed, with everything that entails. Then, thanks to school starting, we all got sick again. I am unsure which god I angered or what my offense was, but I am very ready for this curse to be lifted. Still, the journey continues. Work has resumed on Village Monsters, and I have plenty of news to share, so let's get to it.

What's The Latest?

• The tools have been updated, the source code recompiled, and the debugger is chugging away once again. We're back up and running, baby!
• All feedback and bug reports reported since May (post-baby) have been logged, prioritized, and in many cases fixed
• All reported crashes and blocker bugs have been confirmed fixed
• Village Monsters v1.1 will launch this October. For real. No redos this time.

It has taken me a great deal of effort to get back up to speed, especially with all the gross distractions in the real world, but I am pleased with where I'm at now.
One idea I toyed with was splitting the work into two releases: one with priority bugfixes (crashes) I could get out soon, and then another, larger update that focuses on the more content-heavy things sometime later. However, I decided against it. Village Monsters is not a live service game, and it didn't seem like there would be much of a benefit to that. I also worry about the confusion of saying "it's fixed!" while also promising that more fixes are coming. The plan is to treat October as a relaunch of sorts and making v1.1 what v1.0 should have been. It's somewhat riskier (as all big launches are), and it requires more waiting, but I think it's the right move given the choices. I can't go back in time and redo the disastrous launch, but I can try to at least make up for it. It's like when you burn dinner while entertaining guests; it sucks, it's embarrassing, but people still need to eat, so climb out the window and go grab some burgers. Until next time!

[ 2022-09-22 17:09:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Hello again. It's been a while! If it's seemed like I dropped off the face of the earth for the last few months... that's because I did. In fact, I've barely left my own living room since May. Long story short, my 2nd son, Arlo, was born on May 17th. In fact, I was in the middle of writing a dev diary the exact moment my wife's water broke.
Note the timestamp. I never did get to sleep that night... nor have I slept since. Arlo is our 2nd kid, so we had a plan for what 'paternity leave' looked like. Or so we thought. I never imagined I'd be gone for months, and I certainly never wanted to disappear altogether. In truth, this has been a very hard time for my family. I don't feel comfortable sharing everything, but Arlo has had a heartbreakingly difficult start to his short life. We've were in survival mode, and there was no room left for anything else. I am so incredibly sorry to have been gone for so long. To release Village Monsters in such a sorry state - only to seemingly leave before I finished fixing things - is unacceptable. However, I had to prioritize my family over everything else. The good news is that things have finally calmed down, Arlo is happy and healthy, and I'm finally ready to get back to work in earnest.
Thank you so much for bearing with me during these difficult times.

State of v1.1

Work has resumed on v1.1, but it's going to take some time to ramp back up to full speed and knock off the rust. I've created a new public Trello board after the previous one was eaten by Atlassian. I'll update this board daily so you can keep track of my progress. In addition, I'll be resuming live streams over at my Twitch channel starting next week. Keep an eye out on Twitter for the schedule. --- I wish I could provide a more concrete schedule given how long it's been, but history has shown that's not wise. I'm bad enough at making plans, but I also have supremely bad luck whenever I commit to something. If nothing else, I can promise that - barring any unforeseen circumstances - this should be the last son I sire while developing Village Monsters. Until next time, villagers!

[ 2022-08-19 18:19:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Welcome to the 2nd State of the Village update, where I talk about how things are going with Village Monsters, as well as what's coming next.
To summarize the past month: the launch of Village Monsters was a supreme mess, and I've been trying to make things right ever since. However, I soon realized that releasing hotfixes every few days wasn't working - there were simply too many big problems to fix things in piecemeal way. I needed to change my approach. So I took a step back, regrouped, and began work on a larger, more comprehensive patch. Village Monsters v1.1, which I've been affectionately referring to as the Let's Try This Again Update, is the result of these efforts.

What's Coming in v1.1?

First and foremost, v1.1 will fix the multitude of bugs that have been reported since launch. Some of these bugs were preventing entire features from working, so it's been a real big effort. Next, I've gathered up all your feedback and have incorporated as many suggestions as I could. Expect many new quality of life changes, such as improved gamepad support, more sensible energy and time management, and more. Finally, a number of last-minute things cut before launch have been re-added back to the game. In short, Village Monsters v1.1 represents a complete do-over of the previous embarrassing launch.

When is v1.1 Coming?

Village Monsters v1.1 will be released within the next two weeks. Look for an announcement as I get closer to the actual date. --- it's been a messy year. A combination of technical issues, naivety, supremely bad luck, and good ol' fashion developer incompetence has lead me here. I can't redo the terrible first impression I made, but I can make sure to do things the right way going forward. I hope the results speak for themselves when you play v1.1.

[ 2022-05-02 18:51:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Village Monsters v1.06 fixes one of the most annoying bugs I have ever been responsible for: the dreaded duplicating cutscenes. It also cleans up a number of other major and minor bugs that have been reported. Work continues on the much larger update which I'm tentatively calling v1.1.

Bugs Squashed

• MAJOR: Fixed an issue where cutscenes would repeat indefinitely
• MAJOR: Fixed a crash with cutscenes
• MAJOR: Fixed a crash when interacting with tamed critters outside of the barn
• Fixed issue where skipping a cutscene could cause problems in other cutscenes
• Fixed seeds not properly stocking / restocking in the general store
• Fixed a number of issues that could prevent "flavor" critters from spawning
• Fixed various typos and other embarrassing gaffs
• Improved performance across Linux platforms

Note: There may be a rare instance in which you see a cutscene repeat one additional time. However, they should not repeat further after this. If they do, please report it as a bug. In general, any save older than Spring 10th is fixed.

[ 2022-04-06 18:40:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

It's been exactly one week since Village Monsters v1.0 was released. Village Monsters is my first ever creation. I am very proud of the work I did, and the many kind words I've received from players has been beyond heartwarming. I have notebooks from back when I was in 1st grade detailing a game where you live with video game monsters, and now nearly 30 years later... it's real! People are playing it! But, to be frank, Village Monsters is in a very rough state right now. I've already released 5 bugfix patches, and after looking at the reports on my desk, I have a long way to go. I want to use this post to address the biggest problems, how they came about, and what I'm doing to fix them.

The Problems

My top priority right now is fixing the issues that were introduced during the final push. For context, a technical bug with my developer tools caused me to lose 2 months worth of work the literal night before the original launch date. It sucked. You can read more details here. I had already been crunching for months, so this last-minute disaster nearly broke me. In a fit of reckless optimism, I opted to manually stich the game back together over the course of a week. I had hoped adrenaline and the code being "fresh" in my mind would help pull off a miracle. I was stupid and exhausted. While my approach ultimately was "successful", it has (predictably) introduced far more problems into the game than before. Over the last week, I've identified two of the largest ones. Problem #1 World Flags are not working properly across the board. These flags control nearly everything in the game, such as holidays, events, and story cutscenes. The knock-on effects are tremendous, and it's my top priority to fix. Problem #2 There are many features that were disabled in the final moments of release. Some intentionally (due to time constraints), others due to bugs or source control issues. There are many lingering issues due to this. My next priority is to test, fix, and reenable these features.

The Solution

I've been investigating my code and player save files since last week. I have a really good idea of what needs to be fixed and how, and I've already started on working through it. Things are going very well, especially now that I've had a chance to sleep and regroup. You guys deserve a fixed and polished game, and no amount of words, roadmaps or timelines will get you that faster. To this end, I'll continue doing rapid smaller patches to fix crashes and urgent bugs, but I'll otherwise keep a low profile until I've finished the work necessary. I want to extend an enormous thank you to everyone who has supported me. From the very first Kickstarter, to 2019's Early Access release, to last week's v1.0 launch. I don't take any of you for granted, and I won't stop working on Village Monsters until it's in a state worthy of your support.

[ 2022-03-29 21:37:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Villagers Village Monsters v1.05 is now available, and it fixes exactly one bug. It's a terrible one, so I wanted to provide a longer explanation. The bug occurs during the Cool Stuff event in the Summer. It's bugged, and it loads a cutscene with no dialogue. To avoid crashing, the game attempts to pull dialogue from another source - in this case, debug dialogue. The dialogue it randomly chose is extremely inappropriate and contains offensive language. v1.05 disables the event entirely and removes all offending text from the game outright.

Why is this "inappropriate" text in the game at all?

There are two features in Village Monsters where I check for profanity and slurs. Players can send letters to villagers, and villagers attempt to "read" what you send them. I have profanity checks in place to see if you're sending them awful things and they will respond negatively if so. In addition, there was once a feature where villagers could reply back to your letters using the same words and language you used in the letter. It used a type of text generation known as a Markov Chain. I have further checks here to ensure that the simple AI used to create these letters didn't accidentally send something awful. To test both of these features, I had ~40 lines of text that I used for sending letters. 10 of these lines of text purposefully contain inappropriate words to ensure the game handles them correctly. The line in the Cool Stuff cutscene is one of those. --- Even though this text was never meant to be seen by a player, I should have taken far better precautions. To this end, I have deleted all offensive debug text I used for testing, and will use a different solution for this testing going forward. I am so sorry. It's beyond inappropriate that people had to see this. I hope my explanation makes sense, but obviously I understand any damage has already been done. I can only hope to regain your trust.

[ 2022-03-27 19:45:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bugs Squashed

• MAJOR: Fixed further softlocks due to incorrect flags in the intro
• MAJOR: Fixed further crashes related to skipping cutscenes
• MAJOR: Fixed crash when talking to Mock in the first few weeks of the game
• MAJOR: Fixed crash when talking to Zigi in the summer
• Fixed time staying paused when re-entering the town hall basement
• (The town hall basement, long considered haunted, has finally been expunged of evil spirits and associated curses and bad luck)

Investigating

The following are a list of reported (or discovered) problems that require more investigation. I will update ETAs as I understand more about the problems.

• There appears to be an issue with projects (Village & Home) that I am currently investigating
• Events (Holidays, birthdays, etc.) do not appear to be triggering.
• Console is not working correctly. The cause is under investigation

[ 2022-03-27 00:23:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Three patches in three days! ...I suppose that's not something I should be super proud of... I believe I've cracked the majority of the urgent bugs that crop up in the first few days of the game, so I'll now turn my attention to other matters. I anticipate releasing a new patch every 1-2 days as fixes roll in.

Bugs Squashed

• MAJOR: Fixed softlock caused by going back in the basement after finding the key
• MAJOR: Fixed crash caused by duplicate lost items
• Fixed progression issue related to trash and propaganda in the village
• Fixed incorrectly lighting from being used in the morning in some instances
• Fixed a large number of minor issues related to the transition from night to morning
• Fixed issue causing a huge number of treasure spots from appearing each day
• Fixed overlap bug for Pishky and Alistair in Overflow on day 1

Changes / Balance

• Reduced spawn rates for items in the village
• Added more details sent in the Report Bug feature to help investigate other bugs and issues reported

Investigating

The following are a list of reported (or discovered) problems that require more investigation. I will update ETAs as I understand more about the problems.

• There appears to be an issue with projects (Village & Home) that I am currently investigating
• Events (Holidays, birthdays, etc.) do not appear to be triggering.
• Console is not working correctly. The cause is under investigation

[ 2022-03-25 06:35:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bugs Squashed

• MAJOR: Fixed common crash when digging up certain items (they would appear as just a red X)
• MAJOR: Fixed instances were skipping a cutscenes results in a crash
• MAJOR: Fixed rare crash related to mail and packages
• Fixed SFX issue with the pick with the last swing
• Fixed issue where certain treasures had an incorrect sprite
• Various typos fixed

Changes / Balance

• Generally, digging spots takes a couple extra swings with a Level 1 pick axe
• Skipping cutscenes is now smoother and less jarring

Investigating

The following are a list of reported (or discovered) problems that require more investigation. I will update ETAs as I understand more about the problems.

• There appears to be an issue with projects (Village & Home) that I am currently investigating
• Events (Holidays, birthdays, etc.) do not appear to be triggering.
• Console is not working correctly. The cause is under investigation

[ 2022-03-23 23:20:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bugs Fixed

• Major: Fixed crash during the 2nd day when speaking with a villager
• Fixed a number of "flavor SFX" (birds etc.) from being incorrectly loud during cutscenes
• Typo Corrections

[ 2022-03-22 19:31:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Humans!

Sorry to keep you waiting! Village Monsters v1.0 - "The Big One" has launched! It is now available on all platforms.

What's New?

Everything!

Story & Progression

The biggest change in v1.0 is the addition of story and progression elements. You are a human who has arrived at Eidolon Village - a town of monsters - in surprising fashion. Unfortunately for you, humans aren't welcome in this world anymore. As you await your fate, you learn that the village has something more important to worry about: it's scheduled for imminent destruction. Soon after, your freedom is tied to the fate of Eidolon. The village is given a short two year reprieve, and now it's up to you - through court-mandated community service - to save the village and win your freedom.

More Stuff

There's more critters to catch, more fish to hook, more plants to grow, more treasures to discover, new secrets, new perks, new visitors, new events, new areas to explore, more dialogue, more cutscenes, more friends, more enemies. Chances are, if you liked something about Village Monsters before, there's even more of it to enjoy now.

Less Stuff...?!

Features and content that weren't working great in Early Access have been trimmed, simplified, or cut entirely. Some things may return in future updates - especially the things that were cut recently to avoid further delays. However, many are consigned forever to oblivion - and good riddance! I think everyone will agree that Village Monsters is a tighter and more complete experience without the extra baggage.

Quality of Life

An endless number of changes have been made to make the game easier, simpler, and more fun to play. The economy, energy expenditures, passage of time, and more have been tweaked and rebalanced to be smoother. Many new user interface elements have been added or modified to make things easier. Filters help you manage your inventory better, while new dialogue menu makes interacting with villagers more dynamic.

What's Next?

First: I'm going to get some rest. It's been a long [strike]week[/strike] [strike]month[/strike] year. I'm ready to catch my breath. I then immediately have jury duty to worry about on the 23rd. Seriously. It's been a weird few weeks, guys. Please expect a short amount of radio silence from me. I haven't gone anywhere, I'm just recharging my batteries. After that, I'll start on the usual round of bugfixes, quality of life changes, and incorporating your feedback. As always, you can submit feedback in game, send me an email, a Twitter DM, or a Discord message. I'm gonna level with you: I'll be spending a good deal of time fixing bugs. My list of "known bugs" is pretty big already, and I only expect it to grow after lots of new people start hammering away at this monstrous release. I realize that sort of thing isn't something you should admit, generally speaking. But it's not like I can hide it. I've been more than transparent (for good or ill) about the woes I've been dealing with getting this release finished. Don't worry, I'm here for the long haul. I got big plans for the future of Village Monsters. For now: welcome home, humans!

[ 2022-03-22 16:47:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Humans!

It's been a strange week! I began the week by sprinting confidently toward release, but just as I was about to cross the finish line I ran face-first into a brick wall. It sucked. A lot. But dwelling on it won't help, so I've dusted myself off and I'm ready to move forward.

Current Status

The manual workaround I spoke about last update has been completed successfully. I am now re-testing the final version. I expect this to take the remainder of the weekend. Devs aren't able to do a weekend release anyway, so this actually works out. Right now I am aiming for an early morning Tuesday release. This gives me the weekend to focus on testing, and then Monday I can wrap it up and go down my release checklist. I have confirmed that I can build the final version of Village Monsters and can upload it on Steam and Itch, so there will be no further obstacles. I will continue to post live updates on Twitter and Discord. I also did a developer live stream yesterday showcasing parts of the game while I tested things and answered questions.

What Happened?

I want to be as transparent as possible about what caused all this, but the details are pretty technical. In short, building the release version of Village Monsters caused my development environment (GameMaker Studio 2) to crash. I could run it just fine on my own computer using the virtual runner, but could not package it for release. This was a problem. After much testing, and pulling hair out, I discovered the root cause. An IDE bug was causing a large number of junk files to clog up my project directory. These files were (apparently) harmless, but would lead to a crash when I tried to build the final release. I use source control (git), but it was frustratingly unhelpful in this instance. The junk files were being created nearly every time I created a new asset, meaning nearly every commit since the bug was introduced contained junk files. In addition, I could not simply cherry pick the "good" files and leave behind the junk files. It was all too intertwined, and removing the files outside the IDE caused even more file system corruption. My only recourse was to clone the last good build of the game from January and manually port over the changes commit-by-commit. It was tedious work of nearly 300 commits, which is why it has taken me so long. In addition, testing has become an even more important priority, as manual work (especially performed by a tired, cranky developer) is far more prone to errors and mistakes. Thankfully that did the trick. I've gone through the entire release process multiple times with success. There should be no further issues.

[ 2022-03-19 23:07:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers

It's now 1:00 PM Pacific time and Village Monsters v1.0 still hasn't released. I wanted to explain what's going on. Late last night I encountered a very unexpected technical problem during the final stages of building the release. The good news is that it's unrelated to Village Monsters itself - it's a problem with my developer tools. The bad news is that until it's fixed, I can't proceed with the release. It's like driving 3,000 miles to photograph the Grand Canyon, only to find your camera suddenly stopped working. It's an agonizing problem. I have spent all day trying to find a workaround. Thankfully, I have one. However, it requires a lot of manual, time-consuming work. I can't find another alternative. I'll need ~20 more hours to complete this work, plus another round of testing of the (new) "final" release. This will force me to postpone the release by a few more days. I don't dare give another ETA until the final build is literally in my hands and ready for release, but the moment it's ready, it's all systems go. This has been a very exhausting experience. Thank you all so much for your patience and support throughout. The kind words of encouragement I've received through Twitter and Discord have been wonderful, and more than I deserve. Thank you!

[ 2022-03-16 20:26:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Humans!

Village Monsters has been in development for 5 years and finally releases this Wednesday, March 16th. I figure now is as good a time as any to reveal what you actually do in Village Monsters! ... I'm only sort of joking!
in all seriousness, five years is an awful long time, and the game has changed drastically since the original Kickstarter in 2017 and Early Access release in 2019. You'll hardly recognize it when it releases this Wednesday, so I think a reintroduction is in order!

Our Story Begins

Village Monsters starts out like most games: with the imminent destruction of a once-peaceful village. Eidolon Village is a community of monsters that has recently lost a fight against the most ancient of evils: an apathetic real estate conglomerate. The MTX Corporation own the land the village is on and believe it'd be better served if it was Involuntarily Redeveloped into a casino & resort. Most everyone in the village is resigned to their fate - that is, until you unexpectedly show up in town. A human. The first one this world has seen in centuries.
You're immediately arrested, of course. The many crimes of humanity are too numerous to list, and too obvious to dwell on here. The old laws say that all members of humanity must be exiled into the Glitchwood. Except Judge Ribberts has a different plan for you. You are instead sentenced to two years community service and immediately put into the employ of Eidolon Village. Your job: help the townsfolk restore Eidolon Village. Transform it into a respectable community that no one would dare dream of destroying. Prove that you're both worth saving!

Saving a Village

You'll have your work cut out for you. Eidolon Village is an old frontier village that has seen better days. Buildings are old and weathered, the villagers are demoralized, and nobody outside the village has even heard of the place, let alone cares what happens to it. Your finely honed gamer senses are probably kicking in already. That's right, each of the above problems represents a possible avenue to save the village.

Rally the Community

A unified community can stand up to anything. Unfortunately, this village is far from unified. Everyone is too distracted by their own problems to focus on anything else. If someone could just help them sort their troubles, then perhaps they'd be able to come together and fight. Do you like games where you can complete social links and make friends? Do you like giving gifts and doing odd jobs for villagers? Then focus on Community Morale tasks!
---

Become a Tourist Destination!

Out of sight, out of mind: it's hard to build a grassroots campaign for a podunk village most people have never heard of. But not even the MTX Corporation wouldn't have the gall to demolish a beloved tourist destination, especially one with a vibrant economy. Do you enjoy town building, mastering productivity loops, and tinkering with (and eventually demolishing) a game's economy? Take a look at everything under the Tourism & Economy!
---

Achieve Heritage Status

You're way out in the frontier which is full of undiscovered mysteries. A comprehensive survey of the flora, fauna, and artifacts of the area is sure to get the Imperial College's attention. They'll lend your their protection if you can prove that the village has historical and ecological importance. Are you a collector? A completionist? Then you'll love tasks marked as Heritage & Culture[
--- These three avenues are represented in-game via Community Service Tasks. Each completed task, regardless of category, awards Village Points. Earn enough points and Eidolon Village will level up, granting additional perks and bonuses. You don't need to reach max village level to save the village, so can pick and choose which tasks you find the most interesting - or the easiest for you to achieve.

Inspiration

This might sound somewhat unusual, but I'm actually basing this system one of my all-time favorites, Baldur's Gate 2 In that game, there's a section in which the party is tasked with accruing 50,000 gold and then set loose upon the city. How you gather that gold - via questing, thievery, monster hunting, etc. - depends entirely on your play style I wanted to bring this system to a life sim game. It allows the game to be open-ended while still providing guidance and direction via tasks.

Wait, hold on, I thought this game was about--

Shh!! If you've followed Village Monsters since the start you may have noticed some things that are missing. These elements are still very much present, but have been moved away from the forefront. You'll see. --- That's all for now! See you on March 16th!

[ 2022-03-14 21:09:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Let's start with the most important thing: Village Monsters v1.0 is looking fantastic! This time last month I came to you, hat in hand, apologizing for yet another delay. I'm very happy to say that won't be happening again. We are full systems go for next week's March 16th release. Look forward to it! With Village Monsters finally graduating from Early Access, I thought it was high time to go over some frequently asked questions. Please take a look!

FAQs

How long will it take to complete the game? The story of Village Monsters takes place over two in-game years. This will take you about 30-40 hours to finish. For people that want to do everything, you're looking at 50+ hours or more. Are there plans for future updates and DLC? Yes. Version 1.0 is the culmination of 5 years worth of blood, sweat, and Rockstar Pure Zero, but it's also the chance to look toward the future. If you've been with me for a while, you may remember the Feedback Releases of yore. These were a rapid number of updates that came out after a release in response to bug reports, feedback, suggestions, etc. I'm planning to spend the latter half of March and maybe even part of April on Feedback Releases for v1.0. After that? I have no shortage of ideas and plans for updates and DLC, but right now I'm 100% focused on getting v1.0 out the door, so you'll need to wait a little bit longer to hear the details. All future updates will be free for everyone and forever. Will there be a launch sale? Will the price increase? Yes, there will be a launch sale to coincide with next week's release of v1.0. I don't want to tell you how to spend your money, but if you don't already own the game then I would hold off purchasing the game until then. There will be no price increase. I originally planned to raise it to $20, but I believe $15 is still the sweet spot for games like Village Monsters, so I will keep it there. Will my Early Access save carry over to v1.0? No, with some exceptions. The game has changed drastically since the last publicly playable version, making it technically almost impossible to carry saves over. In addition, now that the game has a story and progression, starting fresh is the only practical way forward. However, you may import your Early Access save when starting v1.0 for the first time. This will carry over a small number of things as well as grant you a special reward for being an early supporter. Does the game have a time limit? Yes. After arriving to the village, you'll learn that its future is in jeopardy: the cruel MTX Corporation is planning on demolishing it in two years time. You must save the village before then. The time limit is an important part of how the game is designed, and I think you'll find it's more than enough to get the job down without causing undue anxiety. However, I know some people find the presence of a limit to be too stressful. As such, you may disable the time limit if you wish. Will v1.0 include Steamworks features like achievements, cloud saves, etc? Yes. Is modding supported? Personally, I am 100% in support of people modding the game as much as they want. Games belong to gamers. Unfortunately, the engine I created Village Monsters in - GameMaker Studio 2 - does not have much in the way of native modding support. I will need to investigate what is and isn't possible after launch. --- That's all for today! Until next time, humans!

[ 2022-03-08 23:07:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Next Wednesday was supposed to be the release of Village Monsters v1.0. Unfortunately, I still have too many things left to do, and not enough time to do them. This means I need to delay the release one more time.

Village Monsters v1.0 will now release March 16th, 2022.

I'm really sorry, everyone. This was not an easy decision. A number of new problems were found during the final rounds of testing. Some can be ignored or fixed later, but many are "Must Fix". This additional month will give me the extra time needed to ensure v1.0 is a finished and polished release worthy of its version number. Read on to learn more.

So, what happened?

This really sucks. For the last month I've been performing final "audits" on all the features and content in the game. And just like real life tax audit, it's been a painful process.
(An example of an audit. In this case, a bunch of fish. And they're all going to jail for tax fraud.) These audits revealed lots of very silly bugs, features I thought were finished but aren't, and even a save corruption issue. This is normal for every release, and I thought I had planned for it. But as the list grew and multiplied like a hydra, I realized I'd need to start crunching hard - even 18+ hours a day might not have been enough.
I think short term crunch is a necessary evil. But I've been crunching for awhile, and I just can't do that much more work in that short amount of time. The other option was to do as much as I could, release the game as-is, and fix the rest in a post-launch update. However, I'm very much against that. You've already had to wait a year+ for this release. The idea of releasing something called "v1.0" that's unfinished is frankly unacceptable. I'd rather take the reputation hit of a delay and release a finished product I'm proud of. I'm certainly no stranger to delays and schedule shifts - so much so that I made fun of myself in the announcement trailer - and I thought I was past making those mistakes. It's really disappointing to be making another post like this. But I know it's the right decision for the game, for you guys, and for me. So bear with me one last time, and look forward to Village Monsters v1.0 on March 16th!

[ 2022-02-11 18:31:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's announcement time!

After 5 years in development, Village Monsters has finally, mercifully, earned itself a release date. Please take a look! [previewyoutube=6OOAYOiAW4U;full][/previewyoutube] Village Monsters will be releasing on Steam, for PC / Mac / Linux, on February 16th, 2022! It's not easy to create a game, let alone finish one, but the support I've received from the community has always been tremendous. Thank you so much to everyone who has shared words of encouragement, advice, and excitement these past 5 years. Just a few short weeks remaining! See you on the other side.

[ 2022-01-18 22:13:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Merry Christmas, Villagers!

I'm sitting here at my desk while it snows outside. The kid is playing with his Hot Wheels, my wife is playing Picross S, and I've had way too many of those delicious Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes. It is truly a perfect Christmas. Hope you and yours are having a wonderful holiday time!

Winter Sale!

The holidays mean many things to many people. For game developers on Steam, it means a constant stream of sales from Halloween through New Years. On a related note, Village Monsters is on sale for 40% OFF for the duration of the Steam Winter Sale! https://store.steampowered.com/app/679830/Village_Monsters/

Release (Up)date

A release day update? At this time of year, at this time of day, on this website, localized entirely within this dev log? Yes! Well, sort of. Last week I posted a large update to Kickstarter where I shared a bunch of project updates. This included a detailed week-by-week schedule leading up to v1.0's release. You can head over there for the full details, but the key point is this: v1.0 is only weeks away.
The next couple weeks will be full of work and family time in equal measure, but after that we enter a period where the game could drop at any time. You could literally wake up on morning and bam, there's a brand new trailer and release day announcement on your timeline. It's been a long... long journey, and I appreciate you all so much for sticking with me. I can promise you one thing: Village Monsters v1.0 will be worth the wait.

[ 2021-12-26 00:17:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Happy Halloween! From now until 10am tomorrow, you can grab Village Monsters at a terrifyingly good discount of 50% OFF! https://store.steampowered.com/app/679830/Village_Monsters/ In addition, from now until November 2nd you can enjoy the special Halloween Event in-game. Look for Pun King Jack, new music, candy, and many spooky surprises. My work continues from sunrise to moonrise on v1.0. It's been a while since I've been able to release something new for you to play with, and although it's gone on far longer than I'd hoped, I can say for sure it'll all be worth it. Just hang in there a little longer, humans! Believe me, these monsters aren't going anywhere.

[ 2021-10-31 17:54:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Halloween is almost upon us and the power has flickered 4 times since I started this post. I guess Fall is officially underway, huh? Hope you're enjoying these stormy autumn days as much as I am. Onto the update!

Progress Check

Before anything else, let's look at the chart.
I'm down to 71 remaining required tasks. v1.0 is getting closer every day.

Cutting the Crust

This past month has involved just as many removals as additions. This is because I've been liberally cutting features and content that aren't up the snuff. And it has felt great.
If you're worried that I'm cutting important features or story content, or that I'm doing this due to time constraints, rest assured that is not the case. Village Monsters is a big game, but that means there are many things that are incomplete, tedious, or just plain shoddy. Here's an example. Until recently, each in-game week was 8 days long. This is because I wanted my world to feel unique compared to other games, and a slightly longer week - which also happens to be a power of 2 (you'll understand later) - was a small way to do it. But this "small" feature was a constant headache. It just never felt right! Play testers would regularly report that it kept tripping up their internal clock, and that weeks actually felt too long.
The main storyline of Village Monsters takes place over 2 years, so an extra day a week meant an additional 32 days, which translated to ~8 extra hours. That's a lot of padding for something people didn't even like. So I cut it. The calendar is now a much more standard 7 days long, and a small removal of uniqueness has resulted in a far cleaner and more intuitive game.

Background Daemons

Next up, I want to talk about Patchlings. These magical sprites are mysterious little helpers, and you'll need that help if you want to save the village.
True to their name, Patchings are able to patch up the broken parts of the world. In fact, they are the only way to clear any Glitchwood corruption you stumble upon. Fixing corruption is how you advance the story, access new areas, and unlock shortcuts. You can even repurpose the power of corruption to unleash your very own game-breaker powers. In short: you can never have too many Patchlings.
Patchlings are attracted to acts of kindness, and just about any positive action you do in the world has a chance of spawning a Patchling. This includes making friends, bettering yourself, restoring the village, performing odd jobs, and more. From a mechanical perspective, Patchlings allow me to gate content behind an all-purpose resource that can be balanced for all playstyles. So long as you are improving the village or your own character, you will see a steady supply of new Patchlings. --- That's all for now! Have a Happy Halloween, villagers!

[ 2021-10-28 01:42:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

This week, I reached a very exciting milestone: there are now less than 200 items remaining on my "Required for v1.0" to-do list! There were once over 1,200 items on this list, so being below 200 is a really big deal and signifies we're close to the end. To celebrate this milestone, I'm doing something I hope you'll find pretty cool: I'm making my entire Trello board public! This means that anyone can follow along as I grind down the remaining tasks for v1.0.

Wait, what's Trello?

Trello is a project management tool that many developers use for tracking tasks, ideas, goals, and other things needed to make a game. You can think of it as a big, virtual to-do list. And because it's virtual, I can easily share it.

Whoa, there's a lot there! Too much! What should I pay attention to?

Most people will want to stick to the cards in the first column of the board. They are labeled "Read This First!" and "Burn Chart"
The Read This First card will explain what you're looking at and how to parse my crazy chicken scratch. The Burn Chart is probably the most meaningful thing here. This is a graph that tracks how many items are left on the Required for v1.0 list on a day-by-day basis, as well as a forecast for future days.
This number serves as a countdown, and when it hits 0, that means Village Monsters is ready for release. For example, the above chart predicts completion by September 9th. Of course, some items are much harder to complete than others, and cards are constantly being added, modified, or removed from the list as new things are found and priorities shift. So don't be too surprised if you see this prediction swing wildly around. What we really want is for it to be consistently trending downward.

Does this board contain spoilers?

Sort of. Like I said, this is the same exact tool I'm using to keep track of development, so it's bound to contain info or hints about features and things you haven't seen yet. However, almost all of it is in my shorthand and wouldn't be easily recognizable unless you know what you're looking for. Still, if you want to go in fresh then you shouldn't let your eyes wander too much. --- That's all from me for now! The march to v1.0 continues, only this time you get to watch me marching from the comfort of your own home.

[ 2021-08-03 19:47:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

It's been awhile since I've released an update, huh? I wonder if I still remember how... That's not entirely a joke! You see, my laptop of 6 years finally gave up the ghost last week. Luckily, I was able to quickly replace it, but it's been a bunch of work to reinstall my developer tools and sync over the files for Village Monsters. I need to make sure my new PC can successfully update Village Monsters across all platforms, and I definitely don't want to find out there's an issue just before the big v1.0 release. That's why I opted for a tiny little release, just to shake the rust off. Speaking of which, work on v1.0 is still hard, fast and furious, and I'm on track for an end-of-summer release. Look forward to it!

Change Log

• Fixed rare crash issue when tending to plants during the first day of Autumn
• Fixed infinite looping issues when interacting with instruments
• Adjusted versioning and feedback details
• Fixed a number of typos and awkward phrasing
• General system stability improvements have been made to enhance the users experience

[ 2021-07-21 21:32:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Today I want to give everyone an update on the schedule of the upcoming Village Monsters version 1.0 update. I'm moving the release window from Spring 2021 to Summer 2021. Given that I'm posting this on the literal summer solstice... well, it's probably not a surprise. The game is in very good shape, and this decision wasn't easy to make. However, this small delay is ultimately best for Village Monsters and for myself, even if it's somewhat embarrassing to have to announce. Keep reading if you want to know more about the reasons behind this move.

So, what's taking so long?

Since April I've had real life friends and family playing the final game. It's been a ton of fun and extremely valuable, but their feedback has caused my "Required Before v1.0" to-do list to grow by leaps and bounds. By May, I realized that the math wasn't working in my favor. I put off announcing a delay in case I could crunch my way to victory, but it hasn't been sustainable, and it's not healthy for me or for the quality of the game. Villager Monsters is my first game, and it's incredibly special to me. I've been working on it full time for 4 years, but even years before that I was dreaming and doodling about the game. I know it's a fool's errand to chase perfection, but I still want it to be the best game it can possibly be. It has to be something I'm proud of, even if it means it takes longer to come out.

What's next?

My main goal is to finish work on v1.0. Everything else takes a backseat until then. However, relaxing the release schedule also means I can stop crunching as hard, which will give me more time for social media, Discord, and dev diaries. It's a somewhat tragic irony that the closer I get to the release the less time and energy I have to talk about it, so being able to to catch my breath is actually very important and valuable. I have a group of playtesters that I'm going to have play v1.0 in the upcoming weeks and months. This group will expand as the game gets closer to release, so if it's something you're interested in then keep an eye out. Until then, stay cool, villagers!

[ 2021-06-21 20:02:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hiya Villagers!

It's been awhile since I've done a proper devlog, so I want to start with something small. So small, in fact, that it's only 48x48 pixels: today I'm talking dialogue portraits! Portraits are an important part of any game with a lot of dialogue text, but for a solo project like Village Monsters it's absolutely essential. I have neither the skill nor money to create fancy animations or sexy cutscenes. Instead, I have to rely on writing and dialogue portraits to convey the personality of a villager and the tone of a conversation.
Until recently, the portraits in game were just a villager's overworld sprite scaled and touched up. It was a cheap solution, though a surprising number of people enjoyed the low fidelity look. But I knew I had to completely redo them for version 1.0, so for the last month or so I've been chipping away at my giant to-do list and improving portraits one by one. With over 32 villagers (and nearly that many minor NPCs), this has been no easy task! So let's take a look at a few examples of what I have so far.

Before // After

As you can see, I opted to give each monster a full makeover as I went through them. I'm trying to minimize how many "rework" type tasks I'm doing this close to release, but I'm really happy with how these updated portraits are looking. I limited myself to a 48x48 base, but villagers are allowed to exceed these boundaries if they have particularly large distinguishing features. I mean, these are monsters - you can't force them to fit into a box.

Lip Sync

Before I end today's post, I want to share one last thing I've been experimenting with: lip sync during dialogue! Here's an example:
The new portraits make it easy to add (basic) movement like this, and I think it makes conversations feel much more dynamic. However, I worry it may be a bit too distracting, so I may tweak or get rid of it altogether. What do you think? In any case, Village Monsters v1.0 can be seen on the horizon, so I'll have much more to talk about very soon. Later tater!

[ 2021-05-03 19:40:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

I'm thrilled to announce that Village Monsters is taking part in IndieWorldOrder Con! This is a unique (virtual!) convention hosting a huge number of indie games big and small. You can read more about it - and explore the islands yourself - on their download page! For the duration of the convention (April 2nd), you can grab Village Monsters for 30% OFF! Wow! https://store.steampowered.com/app/679830/Village_Monsters/

Hey, When is v1.0 Releasing?

Spring 2021! Actually, hold on - let me look at my weather app real quick.
Oh... oh I see. It's already spring! Things are still nice and on schedule. Right now I'm aiming for an early May release, though I'm sure things will be in flux right up until the end. I've been flying by the seat of my pants for the past 4 years - what's a few more weeks? Also, I know I've been somewhat quieter than usual. It's tricky balancing out work and communication at this stage, but I'll try to get some more dev logs out soon. Promise. We are *so close*, you guys! I'm super excited for the grand reopening of Village Monsters, and it's just around the corner. Talk to you soon! Real soon!

[ 2021-03-30 16:30:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello villagers!

Village Monsters v0.90.5 is now live on all platforms. This is a small bugfix / feedback release, and will likely be the final update before work begins on the full release (v1.0) of Village Monsters! More on that later. Have a good weekend!

Patch Notes

• Small improvements to the new library job
• Small improvements to the dump and Garboar
• Fixed item ratings / attributes being lost when stored or retrieved from your stash
• Fixed rotation issue with the calendar page of your journal
• Fixed crash related to the Sunken Treasure perk
• Fixed issue when giving gifts to Lindwyrm
• Fixed phantom door near Edmund and Calista's home
• Fixed a number of blank entries for regional drinks
• Fixed a further number of issues with pronouns
• Fixed a number of incorrect exhibits in the library
• Various other fixes and improvements

[ 2021-02-27 23:19:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a small bugfix release for Village Monsters v0.90 and makes the following changes.

Patch Notes

Greatly improved performance on Linux and Mac

Added several new odd jobs to the board listing

Worked and added new story cutscenes to the start of the game (New Games only)

Reworked how critter feeding works. In general, food storage now lasts much longer

Changed up critter food trough to visibly show when food is running low

Combined the Fish and Critter collection pages into one journal section

Added new titles for each hobby skill level

Moved the records page of your journal to the System tab and added a whole bunch of new records to track

NOTE: Some records for loaded games will be incorrect as they weren't being tracked until this release

Reworked how the pass out mechanic works

You are now given one last chance between losing all your energy and forcing yourself to stay awake. When you see the "Exhausted" effect it's time to eat some food or get some rest immediately

Improved the garbage dump

Villagers now universally hate being gifted trash

Added new winter variants for a number of buildings

Improved look of puddles

Improved the look of flower and grass sway

Improved the look and behavior of several critters

Added new nicknames to the critter name generator

Fixed "pest" critters (Fraley Snake, Tank Treader, Queenly Ant, and Sour Worm) from displaying erroneous sprites when stabled

Fixed a number of incorrect pronouns

Fixed a rare crash in Bonfire Beach

Fixed additional situations where the player's name wasn't used correctly

Fixed doughies displaying their descriptions instead of their names

Fixed graphical bug on the calendar

[ 2021-02-23 02:36:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a small bugfix release for Village Monsters v0.90 and makes the following changes:

• Fixed crash when talking with the Clam Before The Storm
• Fixed crash when attempting to change your name on Three Wall Island
• Stopped villagers from referring to you as "Josh"
• Fixed incorrect placement for the skill exp bars in some resolutions
• Fixed mail keys from not working properly
• Added the option to change both your character name and "username" at Three Wall Island

[ 2021-02-12 05:32:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

I am beyond excited to announce that Village Monsters v0.90 is finally done cooking. It's the biggest and tastiest update yet. (These notes are quite large, so I tried to focus mostly on the highlights. If you want the full scoop then I got you covered at the bottom.) To celebrate this release, and of course the Lunar Near Year, Village Monsters is on sale 40% OFF between now and February 15th! Before we get to the patch notes, let's get to a very exciting announcement...

Important Scheduling Update

Village Monsters v0.90 will be the final major update in Early Access. That's right: after this release is finished I'm hunkering down and working on version 1.0! I'm still planning a Spring release, but I think most people (myself included!) would love seeing the full game as the next update instead of a hypothetical v0.95. Now, let's get back to those patch notes!

A Living Land

The world is no longer a static place that remains unchanged throughout the year. Plants, trees, even animals and birds now change as the seasons go by. A new type of weather called extreme weather has been added to the game. During extreme weather, stamina drains quicker and you run of risk of getting sick (or worse!), but your chance at stumbling upon something rare and valuable is much higher. Do you take the chance and risk exploring? Or do you order a cup of hot coco and spend all day inside? The look and feel of all weather types has also been improved. Puddles form in the rain, packs of critters scatter during thunderstorms, and plants sway violently during storms. Several new weather patterns have been added to the game, especially during the stormy months of Autumn and Winter.
20+ new music tracks have been added to capture the mood of each season. Dozens of new sound effects and ambient noises to draw you into the world. New animals, bugs, and other small critters also now populate the world - as well as many other mysterious things you might stumble upon.

Village Improvements

Your village level now has a more tangible impact. At lower levels you may see trash outside (pick it up and dump it for a boost to your reputation!), while at higher levels you'll see more flowers, decorations, visitors, and improved buildings. A new Village Projects desk has been added to Town Hall. Here you can purchase projects that benefit the entire village, such as building a camp site for wandering monsters to stay in. Villagers now change their schedules depending on the season and weather. Everyone stays inside during storms, while most monstrum can be found on the beach during the warm summer days. Villagers also can now pursue their own hobbies, and you may catch them fishing, reading, or woodworking. Many new visitors have been added to the roster, including some that provide in-game services.

Villager Interactions

Several big changes have been made to how you can interact with villagers. Talking with a villager brings up a new menu where you can choose to talk, give them gifts, return lost items, and more. Villagers can now interact with each other via banter. You're free to eavesdrop, interact with them, or keep moving. In addition to banter, villagers will now more frequently hang out with friends and family, making the world feel alive even without your intervention.
There are many new ways to improve your friendship with villagers, and it's overall easier to raise your hearts with them. More Heart-to-Heart events have also been added to the game.

Hop on the Hobby Horse

Numerous changes have been made to improve and expand all four major hobbies. There are many more critters to capture, fish to catch, treasure to discover, and plants to grow. A new "Perks" system has replaced Skills / Abilities. As you gain experience in your various hobby skills (fishing, treasure hunting, and so on) you'll automatically unlock various perks that grant you new or improve abilities.
Dozens of community suggestions, quality of life changes, and bugfixes regarding hobbies have also been worked on. Mastering each hobby should feel more satisfying than ever.

But Wait, There's Lore!

I love finding and reading lore in the games I play - and it turns out I like writing it even more. Many new pieces of lore and backstory have been sprinkled throughout the game in the form of villager dialogue, books, interactions, item descriptions, and more. New types of artifacts called "GrimWare" offer a unique glimpse of what the world looked like prior to your arrival.

And finally...

Over 40 bugfixes! Improved graphics and lighting! Tons of new tutorialization and helpful controller icons! And lots and lots and lots more! Don't believe me? Here's the full list of changes!

Full Patch Notes

More Realistic World

• Re-added the concept of lunar phases. Each month transition from a new moon to a full moon and back to new
• Many new pieces of vegetation, plants, trees, etc. have been added throughout the world
• Trees, crops, plants, and other outdoor vegetation now change colors / types as the seasons pass
• Greatly improved the look of bonfires and torches
• Added a number of new trees in each area to better fence them in
• Improved the movement of 'flavor' critters like squirrels and chickens
• Rebalanced how fast time flows. Generally, it flows more slowly, and pauses more frequently
• Tweaked the flow of time for the first 3 days so that new players don't feel as rushed
• Made is far less likely for critters, birds, etc. to spawn on top of the player character
• Added an enormous number of new pieces of art
• Added an enormous number of new pieces of furniture and interactable objects
• Added a ginormous number of new lighting objects, like stone torches, torches, fireplaces, and so on
• Standardized many sprites in terms of how black outlines are used
• Exterior windows now display a wide variety of weather and lighting changes
• You can choose from multiple channels to watch on TV. Note that available channels change throughout the day
• Instruments now play music when interacted with

Dialogue & Villager Interactions

• Interacting with a villager now brings up a contextual menu
• You may use this menu to talk to villagers like usual, or select a number of new actions
• Dialogue choices now have icons to make each option more clear
• Players now have a "Reputation" that is increased for each good deed they do in the village, as well as naturally increasing over time
• Reputation provides a multiplicative increase to all relationship gains. This allows you to make friends much faster, especially during the mid-game after you've established yourself as a pillar in the community
• Villagers will now banter among themselves. There is a slight chance of being able to overhear it as you walk by them
• Banter can be ignored for no ill effects, and will auto-dismiss when you move far enough way, or after enough time has passed
• Villager schedules now properly change with each season and weather event
• A greater variety of choices have been added to villager schedules
• Check your current reputation in your journal
• You may now give villagers gifts via a new dialogue option
• Villagers now display a brief comment on getting a gift depending on how they like it
• You may only give a gift once per day via this method. You may send additional gifts via the mail
• Valentine has been given a new house in Avalon Acres
• Villagers now send a larger variety of responses to your letters. They may even hint at gift likes / dislikes, lore, and hidden gameplay mechanics
• Added pronouns to each villager's profile page
• Mail sent by villagers now has a sent date
• Gave Yggette a much needed makeover
• Villagers now periodically contribute to the community fund based on their friendship levels

Weather

• Snow Day: A new type of extreme weather during the winter featuring blizzard-like conditions
• Firestorm: A new type of extreme weather during the summer
• Hurricane: A new type of extreme weather during the fall
• Your luck is maxed out during extreme weather, making it much easier and likely to find rare things
• Items in the General Store are offered at a steep discount during extreme weather
• During extreme weather events, there is a high chance of getting a negative effect while outside
• These negative events cause a variety of annoyances on their own, but if you persist outside then you may find your day cut short after running out of energy
• Staying inside for a time is a good way to rid yourself of your ailment
• New (non-extreme) weather types and forecasts have been added throughout the game
• Medicine (purchased at the store) can also clear out an extreme weather ailment
• Greatly improved thunder SFX during storms
• Improved the look of rain, especially heavy rain
• Improved the look of the Autumn tileset, in terms of colors and brightness
• Improved the look and logic of puddles during rain storms
• Plants and trees now move more realistically during storms

Village Improvements

• Litter now appears throughout town at lower levels (it's most common at D/D+ rank)
• Trash can't be sold, but it can be brought to the dump. Not only is it the right thing to do, you'll even improve your reputation with villagers!
• Buildings now change throughout the season
• You can now fund village projects from the desk at town hall
• Lucy is a wandering artist who can help you change the dialog box's theme
• Ambrosia is a siren that can change the sounds made during dialogue
• Improved the look of livestock found in Avalon Acres
• Tutorial jobs now 'expire' if not taken before the 1st week

Hobbies

• Traps no longer disappear when you don't have the relevant tool category selected
• Critters and fish received from traps are now properly ranked
• Critter spawns have been bumped up significantly, especially after long period
• Guide books will now add 1-3 entries upon use, and they are all guaranteed to be new entries
• Fishing may now bring up non-fishy catches from time to time
• Improved the look and feel of the trophy screen (displayed when you catch a fish or critter)
• Added a number of new critters to catch, tame, and donate to the library
• Added some helpful text to the fishing minigame
• Fish can now be consumed (raw?!) to restore stamina
• Traps now "refresh" on a per-day rate instead of per-hour
• Digging out buried treasure now produces little piles of dirt to make your progress more satisfying
• Added a large number of new possible dig sites throughout the world and rebalanced spawn chances
• Rebalanced dig site HP. In general, spots with more valuable loot take longer (and more energy) to unearth
• Plant growth now "ticks" on a per-day rate instead of a per-hour. All growth and cultivation values have been rebalanced
• You now harvest multiple plants from the same plot. The text when harvesting displays the estimated amount you'll get
• The amount of plants in your harvest depend on the quality of the plant
• You can now change the soil before planting new seeds in your garden
• Different soils offer different benefits and maluses
• "Abilities" have been renamed to "Perks"
• Ability points have been removed. Now, perks are now granted automatically as you level up each skill
• Plant Quality is a new attribute that can be increased via better soil, watering, infusing the plant, and via your gardening skill
• Added the concept of Luck which can impact hobbies, friendships, money, and other random events
• Luck is determined at the start of the day, but can be modified by other factors
• Several new Gardening Perks have been added to the game
• Added a confirmation when pruning a plant from your garden
• Greatly improved the flow of dialogue boxes when managing your garden
• The spore extractor is back online, but you must first purchase a basement for your home to use it
• Stormy weather (especially extreme weather) now suppresses (and in rare instances, reverse) plant growth. However, the good news is that stormy weather will also clear out weeds - free of charge!
• Rebalanced experience points needed for each skill level

Lore & Worldbuilding

• Renamed Agrarian Acres to Avalon Acres
• Renamed Balefire Beach (back) to Bonfire Beach
• New items called GrimWares have been added to various treasure spots throughout the world
• The day of the week "Sanctuary" has been renamed to Ludosday
• GrimWares are enchanted books that were once used for communication. These relics contain conversations that greatly expand the backstory of the monsters of their world

User Interface & Quality of Life

• Items are now grouped together more frequently, so long as they are identical with an existing item (eg., same ranking, attributes, and so on)
• Improved the look of helper icons
• Added some new SFX to various interface windows
• Re-did moon phase icons on the clock and calendar
• You no longer immediately pass out upon losing energy or reaching the end of the day. Instead, there is a small minigame where you can resist falling asleep
• However, it gets increasingly harder to stay awake, so eat an apple or go to bed as quick as you can!
• Added "Available Skill Points" to the Skill page in your journal
• The mouse cursor is now visible when moving it
• Added more information to the Feedback / Bug Report email
• Added tons of new ambient tracks to the end-of-day summary
• Added new details to the Feedback / Bug Report email
• The "invisible" effect now greatly boosts chances of eavesdropping on villager conversations
• New options for dialogue "voice" SFX (like tapping and beeps, or just silence) have been added to the game

Bugfixes

• Fixed a rare crash in Bonfire Beach
• Fixed crashes related to fetching critters during specific times of day
• Fixed some Pishky-related issues at the General Store
• Fixed in-world dialogue so it is less intrusive
• Fixed a number of tile issues in Mock & Birdie's home
• Fixed seasonal music not playing when loading a game
• Fixed dialogue errors related to villagers talking about their current schedule status
• Fixed payment issue with the Test Subject odd job
• Fixed incorrect Hobby levels being displayed in your journal
• Fixed a number of bugs when tallying up experience at the end of the day
• Fixed a bug that caused dialogue boxes to persist when a cutscene started
• Fixed overlapping schedule issues for Mock & Birdie during rainy days
• Fixed issue where puddles and other weather effects wouldn't trigger properly
• Fixed several collision issues with furniture
• Fixed / adjusted collision against water
• Fixed a number of overlap issues caused by buildings
• Fixed Effect Icon placement in some resolutions
• Fixed a number of issues that could arise when a cutscene triggers while the player is doing something else
• Fixed issue where some weather types displayed an incorrect or no icon on the clock
• Fixed collision issue with the player bed in the first home purchase
• Fixed issue where certain items in the world would erroneously display a "Pick Up" text
• Fixed goofy movement issues with chickens, squirrels, etc.
• Fixed collision issues with some critters, like chickens, squirrels, etc.
• Fixed certain UI elements from not disappearing during cutscenes
• Fixed a number of issues with the end of day summary
• Fixed lost items from not triggering a conversation with its recipient
• Fixed the ability to 'permanently lose' a lost item by mistake (you can still dump it, though)
• Fixed Golbrick's placement blocking the seasonal cash back stuff in Pishky's
• Fixed Sprint / Walk toggles from resetting when changing direction
• Fixed a number of spots in Firetree Forest where players could get stuck while sprinting
• Fixed "Met So-and-So" from repeating over and over long after you've already met the villager
• Fixed issue where an empty garden could get overtaken by random plants
• Fixed a number of issues that caused the background music to overlap
• Fixed a number of wonky collisions in Bonfire Beach
• "" is no longer a valid name for your character
• Made it less likely for glitched trees to appear in impossible-to-reach locations

[ 2021-02-11 18:15:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

We're little over halfway through the Steam Winter Sale! You can still grab Village Monsters for 20% OFF between now and January 5th. https://store.steampowered.com/app/679830/Village_Monsters/ If it seems like there has been an endless stream of sales lately... well, that's because there have been. This is the 3rd major sale Village Monsters has been a part of since October. However, this is probably the last major Steam sale prior to Village Monsters hitting version 1.0 in Spring 2021, so I hope you take this opportunity to grab your copy.

The Journey to v1.0: The Pitstop to v0.90

Back in September I announced a major update that I was calling "The Living Lands". I split off a small chunk of it for October's big update, but I've been hard at work on the original scope of features ever since. The update is big. So big, in fact, that I'm now comfortable labeling it version 0.90 - in other words, one of the last big releases before we hit the fabled v1.0.
So what's coming? Well, here's a partial list of things to get hyped for:

• The promise of a "living, breathing world" finally realized
• Exciting changes to the world triggered by the seasons, weather, and game progress
• Village events and holidays, including tons of new visitors and event NPCs
• More Village Restoration Projects and rewards for increasing your village level
• Fleshed out lore and backstories, including many new Heart-to-Heart events
• Villagers follow robust schedules which can include shopping, banter, and hobbies
• New critters, fish, birds, butterflies, weather, treasures, wines, scrolls, cupcakes, and much more
• Tons of new music, sound effects, and ambient noises
• A boatload of bug fixes

The one downside of a big update is that it takes me a big amount of time of finish. But things are looking really good so far, and the plan is to release it in January. More on that (and a more proper dev diary) as we get closer. That's all for now! It's been a good year for Village Monsters (and not much else), but I'm really looking forward to what's coming in 2021. Hope everyone had a great holiday time, and I wish you all a happy new year!

[ 2020-12-30 23:19:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

This is a small technical update which upgrades the underlying engine of Village Monsters. This release doesn't include new features, but it should resolve a number of technical bugs and other oddities that have been discovered since the major release back in October. Of particular note on users on Linux and Mac. An enormous number of fixes and improvements have been made to the engine for these platforms. If you've had problems on these platforms in the past (especially with regards to crashes, save problems, music problems, and more), then I encourage you to check the game out again. Have fun!

[ 2020-12-21 01:35:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

This is a small release that fixes a number of bugs reported in v0.81. As always, thank you to everyone who reported bugs on Twitter, email and Discord!

Additions & Changes

• Fixed major crash related to gardening after the 1st year
• Fixed major crash related to the weather forecast during the winter and spring
• Fixed rare crash when a monster didn't have appropriate dialogue for a situation (eg., a mind reading effect)
• Finally, finally fixed all instances of traps giving duplicate prizes. This time it was when you had no more traps to restock it with
• Fixed opacity issue with armed traps
• Fixed missing UI / lighting in Firetree Forest
• Fixed Stapes only ever having one thing to talk about
• Fixed weird tile issues in Balefire Beach
• Fixed typos and formatting issues in Vara's speech
• Fixed resolution issues (especially full screen) on certain displays
• Adjust color of the autumn tileset

[ 2020-11-01 17:43:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Halloween is upon us, and what better way to celebrate than by staying inside and playing video games? Village Monsters v0.81.0, also known as Bright Bonfires, is now available. It introduces real world holiday festivities (starting with Halloween, of course!), a brand new fishing mechanic, lots of bug fixes, and more. To celebrate, Village Monsters is 25% off for the duration of the Halloween Sale!

Halloween Festivities

The Halloween Event is now live in Village Monsters! This is a "real world" holiday that is not celebrated by the monsters themselves, but that won't stop Jack, the Pun King Pumpking, from bringing the spooky festivities to town. Enjoy a number of Halloween-y graphics, music, items, and other fun things between now and November 2nd. This update also lets me test a number of future features regarding real world and in-game holidays, so look forward to a much expanded version next month.

• Added support for real world holidays
• The first real world holiday is Halloween, celebrated between October 29th and November 2nd
• Enjoy talking with sponsor of Halloween, Jack the Pun King, at his location in the town square
• Certain Halloween-appropriate fish and critters will now spawn outside of their normal season during the Halloween event
• Spooky ghosts, black ravens, and terrifying(ly cute) spiders spawn throughout the day
• Special Halloween items have been added to the general store and bakery
• New Halloween-y music replaces the standard town themes throughout the day
• New Halloween-y weather patterns will now show up for the duration of the event
• The lighting at night is now ~~extra spooky~~
• Don't care for Halloween? Talk to Pun King Jack to disable Halloween effects. Note you'll need to do this each time you play the game during halloween days

Fishing Changes

The fishing minigame has been drastically overhauled to be both less tedious and more interesting. Instead of waiting to mash the button when the marker is in the hit zone, you can now move the hit zone freely and simply hold down the button to reel it in. Fishing is now less about the speed of your mashing and more about your patience and timing. I'll be tweaking fishing throughout the next few days to get it to feel just right.

• Fishing has been completely overhauled
• During the minigame, the fish icon will move back and forth across the screen. Line up the hit zone (Right / Left) with the fish and hold Z / Down / Up (Keyboard) or A / Down / Up (Controller) to reel it in
• You no longer need to mash the button. Simply hold it - though be careful about holding it outside the hit zone! That's an easy way to break your line
• Fish now move somewhat more erratically
• The fishing marker decreases with the fish's HP, making it more challenging to reel in as the fish thrashes around
• The HP of your current line is now displayed
• The HP of your line ticks down slowly after hooking a fish. Try to reel it in quickly and efficiently to give yourself the most time
• Pressing these buttons when the fish it outside the marker will result in damaging your line. Too much damage and it'll break

Other Additions & Improvements

• Traps no longer disappear when you don't have the relevant tool category selected
• Critters and fish received from traps are now properly ranked
• Guide books will now add 1-3 entries upon use, and they are all guaranteed to be new entries
• Re-added the concept of lunar phases. Each month transition from a new moon to a full moon and back to new
• Removed the Patchling and Map sections of the journal until the features are more finished

Bugfixes

• Fixed rare crash with traps loaded after v0.80.4
• Fixed rare crash in dream sequences
• Fixed rare crash with the Patchlings section of the journal
• Fixed broken date formats in some instances
• Fixed issue where players could go into a negative balance when buying multiple home upgrades
• Fixed broken spawn logic with dig spots and forage spots
• Fixed issue that could cause players to get stuck when moving between the Crossroads and Main Street
• Fixed issue where the top-most item in the General Store upgrade couldn't be purchased
• Fixed a number of collision issues in the northern part of Firetree Forest
• Fixed a number of bugs related to critter and fish IDs
• Fixed a number of grid issues with the fish and critter lists
• Fixed many fishing minigame bugs
• Fixed a large number of typos in critter and fish descriptions
• Fixed a large number of typos in villager dialogue
• Added a debug Item Add feature when Developer Mode is activated

[ 2020-10-29 18:06:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

I have just a quick update for you today on the next couple releases. I've been hard at work on the Living Lands update, and lately I've realized that it's getting to be a bit... big. Huge, in fact. The last time I had a release this big I tried to force it to work and ran into a whole bunch of problems, including a delay and plenty of bugs we had to deal with.
I want to avoid making the same mistake twice. As such, I've decided to split up the Living Lands update. Thankfully this doesn't necessitate a delay - just a reshuffling. The update coming out in October is now called Bright Bonfires. The main feature of this release is the inclusion of real world holiday events - with Halloween being the obvious first one to celebrate. They say that it's only during the most spookiest time of the year that the enigmatic Jacko will pay visit to your village and transform it as he sees fit... This update will also focus on several suggestions that have come from the community - like reworking the fishing minigame, new odd jobs, bugfixes and quality of life changes, and much more.
This release will also lay much of the groundwork for November's release, which I'm still calling Living Lands. I'm going to experiment with what are called dark features (a suitably spooky name for the season) in Bright Bonfires. These are features which are technically present in the game but are hidden from the user. This'll allow me to do some passive testing and ensure that November's release is buttery smooth. Well, as buttery smooth as a single indie dev can reasonably accomplish. That's all for now, but you'll be hearing from me again very sooOOOOoooOOOoon. Until then!

[ 2020-10-22 01:48:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

The next major update coming to Village Monsters is already well underway, so I wanted to share a dev diary outlining some the cool stuff I'm working on. I'm calling this release the Living Lands update, and its focus is on making the world of Village Monsters feel immersive and alive. After all, it may be a virtual world, but that's no reason it has to feel artificial! The Living Lands update will come out at the end of October. Let's take a look at the new things it'll bring with it.

Holidays & Events

While the calendar itself has ostensibly been full of events since launch, you may have noticed that they never seem to actually... happen? That'll soon change as holidays, tournaments, festivals and feasts come out of hibernation. For this particular release I'm aiming for at least 4 major holidays and a handful of tournaments and minor events sprinkled throughout the year. In addition, you may even see some interesting changes during real world holidays as well. I wonder if there are any of those coming soon...

Villager Interactions & Hobbies

Villagers will no longer stand around twiddling their thumbs (or claws) while they wait for you to talk to them. Your monster palls will now pursue activities and hobbies just like you. They'll go fishing, catch up on books at the library, head to the general store and bakery, and much more. They'll even change up their routines depending on the season or weather. For the first time, villagers will now have conversations with each other instead of just with you! Feel free to eavesdrop on them to learn the learn, or just keep walking.

Bigger & More Interesting Seasonal Changes

Currently, the changing of the season is largely a difference in aesthetics: you get a new tileset, new music, slightly different colored UI elements, and so on. We can do better! New and more dramatic changes are coming to give each season an unmistakable feel and identity. From seasonal items at the general store to season-appropriate hobbies and activities, you can actually look forward to the changing of the calendar.
A new type of seasonal weather called extreme weather will challenge your common sense - will you brave the obviously dangerous blizzards and hurricanes in search for extremely rare items?

Travelers & Visitors

Travelling bards, merchants, and even the occasional ne'er-do-well will now frequent the village more often. And they'll finally start leaving their rooms at the inn! Better yet, you'll even start encountering NPCs out in the wilds. Perhaps if your village is attractive enough they'll consider sticking around for an extended stay.
In addition to the above, I'm also planning on fleshing out the lore and history of the world. I don't have a ton to share quite yet, but you can expect many new secrets to discover when the Living Lands update drops at the end of the month. Until then!

[ 2020-10-08 20:05:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is another small patch update fixing some of the more urgent bugs found in v0.80. As always, thank you to everyone who reported bugs via email, Twitter and Discord!

Full Patch Notes

• Fixed major crash related to a miss object (Rough Diamond). You may have encountered this when attempting to withdraw or sort your stash
• Fixed a number of unhandled errors in the skill list that
• Fixed a number of issues with traps, such as getting infinite critters / fish
• Fixed issue causing the bakery to appear closed beyond the intro segment
• Fixed a number of tile issues in Firetree Forest
• Fixed lighting issue when fishing at night
• Fixed a number of duplicated exhibits descriptions
• Fixed UI elements from staying disappeared upon wakeup
• Fixed a number of embarrassing typos in the Exhibits descriptions
• Fixed a number of embarrassing typos in dialogue
• Improved the display of the fish name with the Fishstinct line of skills
• Adjusted entrance to Violin Valley to prevent softlocks
• Removed the ability to open the tool menu with Shift + A / S. It was causing issues in certain configurations

[ 2020-09-19 20:45:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a small patch update fixing some of the more urgent bugs found in v0.80. As always, thank you to everyone who reported bugs via email, Twitter and Discord!

Full Patch Notes

• Players are now able to donate to a Community Fund when the village reaches a certain rank
• Added a number of new treasures
• Birdie has new things to say when she is working on a project
• Fixed major crash issues stemming from a particularly troublesome octopus
• Fixed major crash issue resulting from certain critters
• Fixed being unable to enter the Bufferwood from Pioneer Square
• Fixed a number of tile issues in town
• Fixed strange tile overlapping during Autumn and Winter

[ 2020-09-14 00:22:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

It's time for another major update! Welcome to Village Monsters v0.80, also known as Part 1 of the Village Restoration Project. This release is all about the village and how it can change and evolve over time. It also includes frequently requested features, like donating items to the library, character customization, and improved fishing and critter traps. Unfortunately, I had to shelf several features I had planned to include. There are also several incomplete features in this release. This is because the release was already taking much longer to finish than I had predicted, and I knew it was better to release what I had now rather than making you all wait even longer. Adding "Part 1" was a last-minute change that I thought might help set expectations. Let's take a look at these tasty patch notes!

Library Exhibits

The biggest change in this update is the completely renovated library! The library is finally accepting donations for all kinds of artifacts, critters, fish, plants, and everything else that you can find around town. The library expands its exhibits as it levels up, and over time you'll even start seeing rewards for your patronage.

• The library has been greatly expanded with the addition of 5 new exhibits
• Players can donate a wide variety of items and creatures to the library. Talk with Library Services to learn more
• Exhibits can be visited and each display can be interacted with for info, trivia, and more
• The library starts out small, and will expand its floor space as it achieves higher ranks
• Contributing to the library now raises its level. You'll unlock special bonuses as you increase its rank
• Books, scrolls, and other readable objects can be read by interacting with them
• Added a huge number of new artifacts to discover
• (Identifying artifacts in the library now serves an actual purpose!)
• Expanded the Library Services desk with new explanations and tutorials
• Added a number of new jewels, amulets, rings, etc. to discover
• Lindwyrm and Ruby now work on an actual schedule
• Improved the look of the library

Player Customization

At long last, you can finally change the appearance of your character! By far the most requested feature since launching in Early Access, players can now freely switch between 5 different 'presets' of looks. Assuming there are no problems found with the new sprite system, more types will be added continuously through Early Access.

• You can now, finally, change the appearance of your character
• Currently, you can select your new appearance from several presets of various genders, skin color, and clothing options
• New players can select their appearance during the intro cutscene
• Existing players can change their appearance via a special device near the Wall of Text (north side of town) or via the basement upgrade for your home

Village Restoration Project

The village now changes and evolves over time. Stores will improve their stock the more you use them. Visitors will start appearing in the inn and town square. Villagers will plant flowers and set up decorations as they begin to feel pride in their town. Your village now has an overall rank depending on your completion of all various goals and projects available to you. This rank will ultimately have story and gameplay impacts, though this is yet to be implemented. This release is considered "Part 1" of the final Village Restoration Project. Part 2 will release later this month and will include even more features related to village progression.

• Parts of the village will now improve and change over time as your rank improves
• The general store will now renovate itself into a larger, more impressive store after reaching a certain level
• The bakery starts out closed and opens up sometime after the initial town meetings
• The bakery will start offering more advanced items as it levels up
• The stock of items sold at the general store changes with its level
• Changes, improvements, and additions to the village will trigger as each building 'levels up' via usage
• The current Village Rank is now displayed on the end of day summary

Home Improvements

Several new home upgrades have been added for purchase at Pishky's. In addition, the interior and exterior of your homestead have been steadily improved.

• Added the Stash to the list of purchasable home upgrades
• Added a Home Expansion to the list of home upgrade projects
• Added a Basement to the list of home upgrade projects
• The expanded home includes new furniture and opens up even more upgrade options
• Basements have no immediate use yet, but will be a great place for workshops and storage

Hobbies

A large number of various changes to hobbies are also included in this release. You'll enjoy some long-awaited improvements to traps, energy costs, spawn rates, and more.

• Greatly reworked how fishing and critter traps behave:
• Traps are no longer a separate tool. Instead, trap locations will be displayed when you have the 'main tool' (Net for critters, fishing rod for fish) equipped
• Interact with a trap location to learn a bit on how they work and to arm them if you have the appropriate number of traps
• Added a new ability to help you predict when a trap will finish catching a critter or fish
• You can now inspect in-progress traps
• Rebalanced the energy costs for fishing
• The length of time it takes for a trap to catch a critter is now variable
• You can now view the number of remaining traps you have via the toolbelt menu
• Increased the amount of experience gained from catching critters
• Decreased the amount of experienced gained from fishing
• Added a number of new dig spots throughout the world
• Rebalanced spawn rates for buried items
• Added a large number of new foragable items
• Removed journal pages for treasure hunting and gardening
• Rebalanced how often critters spawn by default
• Removed the concept of "subtools"
• Improved collision of garden plots
• Improved animation and hitbox of the shovel

Additions & Improvements

And like always, I also added a whole bunch of other new stuff that didn't neatly fall into a category. These changes range from graphical improvements, improved UI and controls, or brand new features.

• Added a large number of new furniture and interactive objects
• Added some new interactions to the end of day summary
• Re-balanced how fast time flows
• Added a number of new potions to the Pots & Pie stock
• Added a number of new gift items to the store
• Seasonal changes now have a greater impact of vegetation and trees. Flowers and crops come and go, trees and bushes have snow on them, and so on
• Added a large number of new flavor critters that you can encounter on your journey
• Greatly improved how stairs look and operate
• Added the option to quit during the end of day summary
• Added a number of new interacting and flavor text
• Added proper winter variations for each tree and bush
• Certain flowers now change their look depending on time and weather
• Shift + A / S now brings up the toolbelt menu
• Improved interacts / inspects near the player's feet
• Improved the look of the winter tileset
• Improved the look of a large number of new furniture and interactive objects
• Made a few 'canonical' glitches (like Valentine's way of speaking) more obvious
• Save files from v0.75 are placed in a special backup folder - just in case

Bugfixes

• Fixed major issue that was causing villager sprite issues during Summer, Autumn and Winter
• Fixed armed traps accidentally trapping tamed critters
• Fixed traps from replenishing for free with each load
• Fixed certain critters acting strangely when approached
• Fixed sprite issues for a number of critters
• Fixed issue preventing payment after a Dr. Klaus job
• Fixed seasonal weather not working correctly during the first day after a load
• Fixed being unable to fish in Pioneer Square
• Fixed layering / overlap problem with buried items
• Fixed time not pausing properly in several situations
• Fixed the test subject job from granting you the same effect each time. It won't be that easy!!
• Fixed the Village Projects journal page from displaying incomplete / blatantly wrong entries
• Fixed wonky collision issues with the homestead exit
• Fixed a number of unassigned variables in dialogue
• Fixed the suitcase and bed from remaining behind in Overflow after you purchase a house
• Fixed wonky issues with shoveling animation
• Fixed the UI not displaying after the end of the day
• (Please note that Valentine has a certain of talking, and you can assume it's intended)
• Fixed possible collision issue with the dock in Bonfire Beach
• Toned down the intensity of the Theme Song effect

[ 2020-09-10 21:31:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Phew, it's been a while, huh? Seems like summer is already over. In today's dev diary, I'm going to talk about the most substantial update I've worked on so far: Village Monsters v80.0, aka the update that finally implements the long-awaited Village Restoration Project. And it's releasing soon: September 8th! But before I get into that, let's address the elephant in the room.

Kept you waiting, huh?

Back in June I posted a roadmap for the updates I planned to do this summer. At the time, this particular update was scheduled for July. Well, it's now the end of August... so... what happened? The problem was twofold. First, I had far less work time this summer than anticipated. All the uncertainties with COVID (and my wife being a teacher) meant that we tried to cram as many chores and appointments as we could into the summer. It left little time for steady work.
But more importantly than that, the features I've been working on for this update are by far the most crucial aspects of the game. Seriously, I can't afford to mess this one up. As such, I've been much more careful in both my design and testing. All this extra pressure has, predictably, resulted in a much slower work schedule.

(Re)building a Village

As mentioned up top, Village Monsters v80.0 is all about the Village Restoration Project. In the story, this refers to the community effort to revitalize a struggling town. However, it's really just a catch-all term to describe all the features and systems that let you improve or upgrade different parts of the game. I love town building in games, and when designing Village Monsters I was heavily inspired by the likes of Suikoden, Animal Crossing, Dark Cloud, and Xenoblade Chronicles. I'm a big believer in progression systems that constantly add new features or options to a game as you advance through them. In fact, you could argue that the entire game loop of Village Monsters is designed around the core concept of improving your friendly monster village. Just take a look at this helpful [strike]octopus[/strike] chart for proof:
Every aspect of the game - whether it's improving your friendships, donating items to the library, or even just upgrading your home - feeds back into your village rating. This means you'll rarely need to go out of your way to contribute to the village - these are things you'd be doing anyways! You'll notice that several of the features in the above graph are actually already in the game. What Village Monsters v80.0 really focuses on is tying it all together and making your progress much more tangible. It's no fun improving a village if it still looks and feels the same after you're done, right?

Save our Library!

Let's look at a more concrete example to help explain how progression works: the village library! The library, like every other part of the village, is at its lowest point when you first start the game. It begins as nothing more than a dusty ol' collection of books in a rarely visited part of town
However, the library plays a very important role in the Village Restoration Project. The library's main goal is to prove out the historical and ecological value of the town and surrounding area. In gameplay terms, it serves as the place to donate and display everything that you can collect (via hobbies or discovery) in the game. There are spots and exhibits for fish, critters, plants, history, treasure, and of course books.
As you donate new items, the library will expand with additional wings and exhibits. While it's always fun to just admire your collection, you'll also enjoy some real tangible benefits as the library 'levels up'. For instance, any item you donate will sell for more silver in the general store (think of it like your items being properly appraised). At a certain level you'll even start receiving weekly deposits of silver automatically - your share of the revenue that your contributions pull in.
The core 'loop' of the Village Restoration Project is as follows: level up a building, relationship, or other aspect of the game -> Receive rewards and new features that make leveling things up even faster -> Repeat! Each area of town requires a slightly different method to level up. For example, some stores - like Pisky's general store - simply require you to buy and sell items like you normally would. Over time, as the village becomes more prosperous, Pishky can expand his store with new items, new services, and much more.

Grading on a Curve

Your village is graded on a scale ranging from D to SSS. Each grade has a + version resulting in ten distinct levels you can be ranked at. You can check your current grade any time by visiting the town hall. You can also learn a bit more about how to improve the village in case you want some clearer direction.
Everything you do in the game contributes to the overall village grade, but not everything is graded equally. For example, improving your friendship with one villager will have a smaller impact than purchasing and completing an expensive community project. This is where the village suggestion box (also called the Vox Monstrum, or "voice of the people") can come in handy. The suggestion box provides you with more specific hints directly from the villagers on areas that lacking.

Multiple Choice

Your village grade serves one last major role: it dictates which of the 4 different endings you get. It's way too early to talk about them in any sort of detail, so you'll have to wait a bit longer to find out more about them. Of course, I should put quotations around the word "ending" - this wouldn't be much of an open world sandbox game if it ended after the credits roll! You'll be able to continue playing the game for as long as you'd like, and that'll include increasing your village rating to hit the max level. --- That's all for today! Village Monsters v80.0 releases on September 8th. I'm really looking forward to having you all play it!

[ 2020-08-28 22:31:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Its now officially summer! Maybe for some of you its been summer for awhile already, but here in Seattle, summer always starts later than youd hope.
This is a very important summer for me! These next three months will be spent on working as hard as I can on Village Monsters to prepare for the release of version 1.0 this fall. With todays dev diary Id like to share the roadmap Ive been working in preparation for whats to come.

Roadmap

In case you missed it, Junes big update the Foundations Update released a few days ago. You can find the big ol list of changes here. But were not here to talk about the past! Lets look to the future.
The next major update to Village Monsters will be coming in July. This update will focus on four very related features.
First up are library exhibits aka a place to finally record and display your marvelous finds & creations! Next are projects for restoring the village and improving your home. These features already exist, but they need to be added to, expanded, and connected with the story. Ill then wrap the month up by finally adding in player customization which is by far the most frequently requested feature (and rightfully so!)
August will be spent on wrapping up the two biggest remaining features: villager schedules (including movement and activities), and special events and holidays. Both of these things should go a long way to making the village feel less static and more alive. New activities, part-time jobs and minigames will also be added in August including villager hangouts. The common theme here is that I want there to be much more to do and see in a given day. This will also be the month I finish implementing all the contributions from the very generous community of Kickstarter backers. This means new visitors, interactive furniture / items, holidays, and more.
Its hard to forecast this far out accurately, but I anticipate September being entirely focused on release prep. This will be the month for any last minute additions, changes, and testing. September will also be when I decide if I can hit a fall release. The last time I made a release prediction I was overly confident and stupidly naive. This time I want to be completely transparent which is why I wanted to share my roadmap! I am optimistic about releasing version 1.0 this fall, and I hope this roadmap shows you that this is a realistic goal. But many things are still up in the air, and I wont know for sure until September.
October is the big boy month. There are two possible outcomes: me losing my mind with excitement and nervous energy as I prepare for my first-ever game launch, or me drowning my sorrows in a bucket of fun-sized Kit Kats while I attempt to figure out a new release date. THERE WILL BE NO IN BETWEEN.

Future Release Freeze

Ive been averaging a new major update every three weeks (with minor patch releases in between) and its been working really well. However, once September hits I plan to put a freeze on new releases. This would mean no new (public) updates until I hit version 1.0. There are a bunch of practical reasons for doing this. Getting together a new release takes a lot of time and energy, and its an enormous interruption to working on the game itself. Im going to need all the focus I can get in September and October. Theres also the issue of spoilers (both story and mechanics) that I really want to avoid. A freeze will let me to add the biggest, juiciest secrets to the game without having to worry about them leaking out before release. Finally, I would very much like all players existing and new to experience the full game with fresh legs and enthusiasm. Village Monsters 1.0 should be an exciting and anticipated release, not just another patch.
Its going to be a busy summer, but I am absolutely ready for it. Until next time!

[ 2020-07-01 21:32:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

A big release is always a magnet for new bugs, and yesterday's update was no different. Today's patch is a hotfix to address all the bugs that were reported (mostly cutscene related) in the last 24 hours. As always, a huge thank you to all the players who reported bugs via Discord and email!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed major crash when a cutscene is triggered during a room transition. The cutscene will now wait until a room transition is completed before triggering
• Fixed a major issue where a cutscene would freeze or crash during the cleanup phase
• Fixed major issue causing some cutscenes to have enormously large pauses between actions
• Fixed major issue that was corrupting gardens and resulting in unpredictable behavior, including crashes
• Corrupted plants are lost forever, but they've been replaced by a mutated Uhoh Plant that you can sell for a high price as way of apology
• Fixed a potentially major issue that could result in stabled critters from also being corrupted. There were no reports of this, but this should prevent it from happening in the future
• Fixed a number of collision issues (including getting stuck) when fishing against objects
• Fixed a number of embarrassing typos. Story of my life

[ 2020-06-27 00:01:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Welcome to Village Monsters v0.75! This is a major update to Village Monsters - it's so big that I decided to call it The Foundations Update. This is because v0.75 lays the foundation (get it?!) for some of the biggest parts of the game: story cutscenes, Heart-to-Heart events, player abilities, village restoration, and more. Today is also the start of the Steam Summer Sale in which you can grab Village Monsters for 15% off! Stay safe, keep cozy, and have fun! Twitter: https://twitter.com/VillageMonsters Discord: http://bit.ly/ChattyMonsters Email: josh@warpdogs.com

Story and Cutscenes

Several new story moments, dialogue, and cutscenes have been added to the game. These new story features will provide some much needed context about the world of Village Monsters and your overall goals.
While these cutscenes are primarily meant for new games, I've retroactively added them to existing save games so that you don't need to start a brand new game to view them. You may also chance upon new items called Celestial Texts that you may find buried in areas outside the village. These reveal pieces of the meta-story of Village Monsters.

Heart-to-Heart Events

There are 32 monster pals in Village Monsters that you can befriend, but there hasnt been much of a benefit to friendship beyond watching their little heart icons fill up. Well, this update changes all that!
As you deepen your friendship with a villager you may sometimes trigger special events called Heart-to-Heart conversations. These are unique cutscenes with each villager where they open up to you about a problem they have or a goal theyre working on. Most Heart-to-Hearts take the form of a short story arc for that character, and no two events are ever the same. Please note that the bulk of my work for this release was laying the foundation to support Heart-to-Heart events. This means that of the nearly 100+ planned Heart-to-Hearts events, only a handful of them are included in this particular update. However, many more Heart-to-Hearts will be added throughout Early Access.

Player Abilities

Access the new Abilities section of your journal to purchase several new abilities to make your life in the village even better.
Most abilities are tied to hobbies and can be purchased with Ability Points that are gained as you level them up. Other abilities may be granted in special situations. The majority of time for this update was spent on laying the foundation for Abilities. As such, only a few have been implemented in the game. New abilities will be added throughout Early Access.

Full Patch Notes

Story & Cutscenes

• A large number of new story cutscenes have been added to the game
• New Cutscene: Introducing the arbiter and the fate of the villager
• New Cutscene: The introduction to the Town Restoration Project
• New Cutscene: Meeting AAAAAA and learning how to clear corruption
• Cutscenes can now trigger in a variety of situations, like entering a certain room, the clock striking a certain hour on a certain day, and so forth
• Some cutscenes may be temporarily delayed via a dialogue option if you don't wish to view it yet
• Added a large number of new story dialogue to villagers. Consider talking with villagers after major events
• In general, a cutscene will not trigger until you are ready (eg., it will wait until you are done fishing, finished speaking with a villager, etc.)
• New abilities can now be granted after viewing specific cutscenes
• If two or more cutscenes are scheduled to fire at the same time, only one will be selected. The rest will be "punted" until later
• The time / date of new games have been adjusted for story purposes
• Added a major new story character, the Arbiter
• Missing a scheduled cutscene for any reason will simply delay it by a day
• Intro story events will trigger retroactively for ongoing save files

Heart-to-Heart Events

• Added the concept of Heart-to-Hearts, special events between you and a villager as you build bonds
• Not all villagers have Heart-to-Hearts implemented yet, and many storylines are unfinished. New Heart-to-Hearts will be added throughout Early Access
• Heart-to-Heart events should trigger retroactively for ongoing save files
• A special icon (known as a Lockheart) will be displayed on their their heart level to indicate a new heart-to-heart is ready to be viewed
• Your relationship level with a villager will not advance while a Lockheart is in place
• Your relationship does continue to grow behind the scenes, and once a Lockheart is removed it will "catch up" to your progress

Skills & Abilities

• Added Abilities to the game. Abilities unlock new features, improve existing actions, etc.
• Leveling up a hobby now grants Ability Points. Spend these to unlock new Abilities
• Changed how the hobby leveling process works. You now level faster, but the level cap is higher
• Some abilities are granted via story events
• Improved the look and functionality of the Abilities page in your journal
• Removed WIP / placeholder abilities from the Abilities page
• Additional abilities will be added throughout Early Access
• You will retroactively gain Ability Points after this update

New & Improved Features

• Added a new Stash object outside of the player's home (when purchased)
• Use the stash to store items out of your inventory that you want to keep for later
• Added the concept of NPC side stories. These are unique daily stories that involve multiple villagers. You can explore these stories by talking with the involved villagers
• Made the day length slightly faster
• The frequency and type of visitors now depends on the village rating
• Added a new type of rare treasure called Celestial Texts
• Interact with Celestial Texts from your inventory to read them
• Added new wings to the Library, though they are still under construction
• Improved the number of existing cutscenes
• Made several improvements the forecast service on TV
• Several relationship values have been rebalanced
• Made interacting with / picking up small objects easier
• Changed interaction text on a number of objects to reflect story changes
• The jackrabbit is now available as a catchable critter
• Added support for a Price Table to rapidly re-balance the economy through Early Access
• Rebalanced the buy and sell prices for a number of objects
• Added an ETA for the next major version to the title screen

New & Improved Graphics / UI

• Added a number of new directional sprites for several villagers
• Improved the look & feel of friendship hearts
• Added a progress bar to the clock so you can see how close you are to a time change
• When available, villagers will now turn and look at you when speaking
• Improved the look and feel of thunderstorms
• Improved the look of a number of job and minigame locations
• Improved the look of the area notification element
• The Abilities page of your journal is now much more useful
• Toned down the lighting for Early Morning and all interior lighting at night
• Made it more obvious when there are multiple pages to browse in the journal + added UI icons to show you how
• Added a short description when using certain items from your inventory (like trap packs and books) to make their effects more obvious
• Improved the black space / buffer in interiors to prevent villagers / furniture from being hard to see
• Improved the layering of many loose items to prevent strange overlapping issues

Bug Fixes

• Fixed major crash (and other weirdness) related to sending letters. If you've noticed odd crashes or issues when trying to go to bed then this bug was likely to blame
• Fixed rare crash when going to bed early and there's a visitor coming to town
• Fixed crash from pruning certain plants
• Fixed major issue where players could move while some menus are open
• Fixed major issue where a buried item would be impossible to dig up
• Fixed major issue in which visitors were arriving every day, often in a row
• Fixed major issue that could "corrupt" your garden and result in bizarre outcomes
• Fixed multiple issues with critters getting stuck by temporarily eliminating critter collision checks
• Fixed the camera getting stuck when fishing in some situations
• Fixed bug where all food in the critter food bucket would be emptied out regardless of how many critters you had
• Fixed music overlapping in Memorial Meadows
• Fixed bug that was causing some village buildings to "level up" into unfinished assets
• Fixed collision issue when talking to certain villagers while moving
• Fixed bug that caused you to get stuck between a rock and a hard place the the Agrarian Acres pond
• Fixed journal rotation issues
• Fixed bug that caused Mayor Ludo to repeat his intro dialogue
• Fixed a number of tile issues with the non-Spring tilesets
• Fixed the "Low Energy" effect not being removed when going to bed early (ironic)
• Further fixed collision around a number of exterior and interior objects
• Fixed collision issues in Dio's home
• Fixed "jittery" collision when moving during dialogue
• Fixed a number of slight graphical issues with buildings in the village
• Fixed incorrect text wrapping on a number of journal pages
• Fixed placeholder abilities from being displayed (they would show up as "-1")
• Fixed incorrectly formatted text when attempting to go to bed
• Fixed the Transparency effect being incorrectly dismissed on area transition
• Fixed dialogue text from starting before the dialog box is fully displayed
• Fixed odd collision issue with the stairs in Vara's house
• Fixed a number of collision issues in Memorial Meadows
• Fixed hotkeys from opening menus when filling out feedback via the Send Feedback main menu option
• Fixed icons getting cut off in some lists
• Fixed the long-standing typo where "Lakeweed" was erroneously displayed as "Lake"
• Fixed rare sprite issue in the intro cutscene
• Fixed a number of typos in item names and descriptions

[ 2020-06-25 17:21:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Let's talk friendship. There are 32 monster pals in Village Monsters that you can befriend, but until now there hasn't been much of a benefit beyond watching their little heart icons fill up. That's about to change. Today's dev diary is going to feature one of the biggest and most exciting new additions coming in Village Monsters v0.75: Heart-to-Hearts events!

Heart-to-Hearts

As you deepen your friendship with a villager you may sometimes trigger special events called Heart-to-Heart conversations. These are unique cutscenes with each villager where they open up to you about a problem they have or a goal they're working on. Most Heart-to-Hearts take the form of a short story arc for that character, and no two events are ever the same - they depend heavily on the villager themselves. Bugs needs your help in hunting down a rare (and very deadly) critter. Mayor Sudo wants you to "volunteer" as campaign manager for his reelection. Golbrick is trying to find ways to deal with his pessimism. Oponna has a lead on where to find the lost treasure of Pine Tar Percy.
Heart-to-Heart conversations can also result in the personal growth of the villager which can change many things: their personality, their daily schedules, even their involvement in story events. This feature didn't make it into v0.75, but it's something that I should be able to finish in the next big update. I don't want to get too into ~spoiler territory~, but you can expect multiple Heart-to-Heart events with every single villager. Yep, all 32 of them! It's quite the undertaking, and the initial release will only include a small handful. New events will be added throughout Early Access (including retroactively).
I expect that for many players, unlocking and enjoying Heart-to-Heart conversations will comprise the bulk of their playtime.

Lockhearts

While talking with a villager you may notice that they have some sort of "lock" placed on their heart icons.
These are called Lockhearts, and they represent a blocker that stops villagers from further opening up their hearts to you. You'll be unable to progress your friendship any further until it's cleared. Don't fret! It's not a bad thing, it just means the villager is busy processing their own personal situation. In fact, Lockhearts almost always indicate that a new Heart-to-Heart event is ready to be viewed. These events let villagers address their problems and deepen their friendships with you
However, there are other situations where a Lockheart must be cleared via another method. Some villagers may just need a little extra time to pass, others may require you to first reach a specific friendship level with another villager, while some may even require a special item, village upgrade, or something else entirely. From a game design perspective, Lockhearts allow me to make villager relationships more natural and meaningful. More Lockheart features will be added in later updates.

Romance?

I've promised you monster romance. You're going to get monster romance. But not yet. Dating villagers will use a very similar system as normal Heart-to-Hearts, but I'm not quite ready to reveal this in a public release. You'll have to wait just a little longer. But you won't need to wait very long for everything else I've described. Village Monsters v0.75 is releasing this Thursday, June 25th.

[ 2020-06-22 23:46:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Thanks to an influx of new players I've received dozens of helpful new bug reports. This release fixes the more urgent bugs that have been discovered. If you reported a bug that isn't listed below then you can expect it to be fixed in the next major release (2-3 weeks from now) Thank you to everyone who helped find these bugs!

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed a major issue in which players could nap but never wake up
• Fixed a major issue in which players could move and open menus in a number of incorrect scenarios
• Fixed rare locking issue when entering Three Wall Island
• Fixed a number of issues related to sending mail to villagers
• Fixed issue with kitchen sink that could result in players getting stuck when toggling it
• Fixed a collision issue where players could get stuck when talking to Bugs in Overflow
• Fixed issue preventing feedback from being sent
• Fixed several debug commands that were erroneously available to players

[ 2020-06-07 23:23:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Welcome to version 0.72! This release was originally going to focus only on home and village improvements, but I somewhat accidentally found myself hunting and destroying dozens of bugs instead. Frankly, all this bugfixin' work was long overdue, so I decided to change gears and make it my new priority for this update. In total I fixed around 50 bugs which should go a long way to making the game feel more stable and professional. I'll continue working on home / town building in the next release. Anyway, here are the full patch notes!

Home Improvement & Town Building

• Vastly improved the look of the player house exterior and surrounding area
• Redid the interior (tileset and furniture) of the player home
• Redesigned and moved shops on main street to prepare them for future upgrades
• New Homestead Upgrade: Clean out the polluted pond so you can use it for fishing
• New Homestead Upgrade: You can now move your garden from Agrarian Acres to just outside your house
• Added a new system that can change the look and feel of the village as it evolves over time
• The village is now evaluated and ranked each week. Speak with Jaclyn in Town Hall for more info

Graphics & UI

• Redesigned and improved many of the buildings and decor of Main Street
• Added chimney smoke effects to buildings in the village
• Added a large number of new external lanterns and street lights
• Improved interior lighting of many villager homes
• Improved the look and colorization of the interior tileset
• Improved the shadowing for trees and other vegetation
• Improved the look of "New Dialogue" notification
• Improved the look of room transitions
• Improved camera movement when used in cutscenes
• Improved dialogue box movement in cutscenes

New & Improved Features

• Modified the fishing minigame so that the hit bar doesn't shrink as much
• Drastically improved how 'flavor critters' (like butterflies, squirrels) look and behave
• It now takes substantially longer to unearth treasure if you're exhausted (eat or nap to get rid of it!)
• Added a number of new Critters and Fish to catch
• You are no longer able to move away from a conversation if there are dialogue choices coming up - this solves a few bugs
• You can now speak to an NPC during part time jobs to hear tips or quit early
• Drastically improved state management to smooth things out and prevent you from being 'stuck' in a specific state (eg., being stuck in the casting rod animation)

Game Feel

• Improved player collision. In general, collision should feel cleaner and less fragile
• Your energy is restored to full when starting a tutorial from the job board

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed crash related to UI elements dimming in cutscenes
• Fixed a crash relating to sending following critters back home
• Fixed crash related to certain cutscenes
• Fixed crash when backing out gift selection when writing a letter
• Fixed a major issue in which the camera could become "detached" from the player during some room transitions
• Fixed a major issue in which you could bypass certain areas by walking through them mid-conversation
• Fixed a major issue in which cancelling a letter would cause the gamepad keyboard to display and be unable to dismiss
• Fixed several major issues that resulted in becoming "stuck" after certain transitions (cutscenes, jobs, new areas)
• Fixed a large number of situations in which you could sequence break while performing an odd job
• Fixed jittery collision when performing a job or chore
• Fixed issue where exterior lighting would appear to change during a cutscene
• Fixed some jerkiness / stuttering during cutscene and job transitions
• Fixed issue where players could still move / act during a cutscene
• Fixed issue where players could move while during an area transition and cause it to abort
• Fixed incorrect door collision
• Fixed notes not having a dialogue portrait
• Fixed large number of state-related bugs
• Fixed large number of issues related to purchasing a new home
• Fixed a few weird issues (like orphaned pixels) in the interior tileset
• Fixed collision issues near the Balefire Beach entrance
• Fixed gaps in collision around the edges of Balefire Beach
• Fixed certain UI elements not dimming during area transitions
• Fixed a number of debug commands that were erroneously enabled
• Fixed player house from erroneously changing sprites at night
• Fixed issue where homestead upgrades could appear missing upon entering the area
• Fixed a number of issues with the interior of the player home
• Fixed an issue where the player house would not update to a "fixed up" sprite after purchasing
• Fixed issue where buying a house put you severely in debt
• Fixed layering of the Donkey Fly critter
• Fixed an issue where UI elements would appear partly transparent
• Fixed collision bug in Carefree Crossroads that would cause you to get stuck between a tree and a hard place
• Fixed issue where a temporary 'ghost' item could appear after making a purchase
• Fixed issue where players could release critters that are currently following them
• Fixed a number of discrepancies between gamepad controls across PS4 / Switch / Xbox controllers
• Fixed a large number of lingering issues with flavor creatures (like butterflies, squirrels, and other critters you can't catch)
• Fixed a lack of title on the Villager page of your journal
• Fixed an issue where placeholder items from the bakery, Pots n' Pies
• Fixed issue that was causing weeds to be surprisingly tricky to pick
• Fixed incorrect control labels
• Fixed issue where mail was still being delivered to the mailbox outside of Overflow even after moving into a new house
• Fixed a number of instances of text overextending beyond the dialogue box
• Fixed a number of typos
• Various other misc. technical and stability improvements

[ 2020-05-28 21:58:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Happy May Day! Village Monsters v.0.70 is out now for all platforms. I had two goals with this release: completely overhauling the gardening hobby, and redoing how the game saves and loads data. One of those probably sounds a lot more exciting than the other, which is why I'm calling this [strike]The Changes to Game Saves Update[/strike] The Gardening Update! To celebrate the release, Village Monsters is 10% off all weekend! [previewyoutube=1aboaKGsUhc;full][/previewyoutube]

Game Saves (Important!)

As I warned in a previous news update, any saves made before this release are not compatible with the new stuff. This means you'll need to start a new game, though you will be able to import some key items (your wallet, inventory, etc.) from your old save. This should be the last time I have to break save comparability while in Early Access.

• The entire save / load system has been redone to be more robust and even faster for slower systems
• Players who have an existing save can import some items - like silver, inventory items, etc. - into their new save by interacting with the suitcase in the player's room at the inn
• The previous version, v0.65, will remain available as a Steam beta branch. Password: previousversion

Gardening

The vast majority of my time these past 4 weeks has been spent on improving the shamefully neglected Gardening hobby. To call it an "overhaul" seems an underestimate - the old system wasn't just improved, it was deleted and replaced entirely by something more fun and interesting. The changes are too big and numerous to fully capture in a change log... but I tried to anyway. Grab some seeds, head over to Agrarian Acres, and take a look yourself! If you want to know more, check out this post on the Village Monsters blog.

• Mushroom Gardening has become simply Gardening
• Gardening is now performed via a special UI that's accessible when interacting with a garden bed
• Garden beds now show a little preview of what's growing in them (including any weeds)
• Each plant can be inspected and interacted with via this new screen. Your options depend on your Gardening Abilities
• You may now Cultivate plants in your garden. This allows you to perform actions such as watering the plant, adding items to the soil, etc. in order to encourage its growth
• Cultivation effects linger (usually a day or two) after being implemented. Look at the plant's details to see how long it lasts
• At first, you can only water your plants to provide a modest boost. As you level up you'll gain new ways to cultivate your plants
• You can also cultivate soil with any item in your inventory. This provides a random effect, and may be better - or worse - than just watering them
• Plants can now breed to create new plants automatically
• In general, your garden needs one open space, a male plant, and a female plant in order for plants to breed. Both parents must also be a certain level of growth first.
• Basic crossbreeding has been added: the look and base plant attributes are based on the mother plant, while growth rates are based on the father plant
• There is a very rare chance that the offspring plant will instead be a Hybrid. This is a new type of plant specific to the pairing
• Hybrid are rare and very valuable. They are, however, "infertile" and cannot be used to breed again
• A huge number of new plants can now be grown in your garden
• A small number of existing plants have been eliminated or combined with other plants
• All plant sprites have been improved and in some cases completely redone. This includes both mature and in-progress versions
• Each plants now have one or more Tags. These specify certain attributes for that particular plant
• Plants are now rated like critters and fish. Ratings depend on your skill as a gardener, and a higher rated item sells for more silver
• A number of new seasonal plants have been added to the forage list
• Plants can now be pruned from your garden. This allows you to remove a still-growing plant
• Pruning has a chance of refunding plant seeds back in your inventory (higher chance if just planted)
• This new screen can be used to plant new plants, inspect existing plants, clear out weeds, and more
• A new info screen now displays key details about your plan including its stage, what each stage looks like, when it was planted, whether it's under any special effects, and so on
• Spores / Seeds have been renamed to simply "Starters"
• Wild mushrooms and plants now spawn a little more rarely
• Growth rates for all plants have been adjusted. In general, it takes longer for an untended plant to grow to maturity
• The Spore Extractor has been renamed to the Seed Extractor, and it's currently out of order
• The existing mushroom growing spots in Agrarian Acres have been replaced
• The spore extractor found in Agrarian Acres now takes several days to produce usable starters

New & Improved Features

• Fleshed out the main Player page of your journal. It now lists your rank in each hobby and some general information
• Added several new catachable critters, like the Foliage Elemental
• A new type of chest has been added to the treasure rotation
• The "Spicy" effect has been changed to be a bit more useful
• Added several new "flavor critters", like a spider, parrot, and more
• Changed player sprite transitions in some situation
• Improved look and behavior of cloud shadows
• Increased spawn rates for items on the beach
• Added large number of new items, furniture, and decorations. Look for them in villager homes throughout the village
• Added concept of Elemental Affinity
• Renamed Bonfire Beach to Balefire Beach

Changes to Graphics & UI

• Forageable items now have a sparkle to differentiate them from plants / objects that are decorations
• Added a slight drop shadow effect to all dialogue text
• Add transparency to dialog boxes
• Improved dialog box title and choices UI
• Improved the logic for selecting the next active item in a list
• Greatly improved the colors and look of your journal
• Added commas to large numbers, like your current cash
• Adjusted some UI terms and wording to be more consistent
• You can now rotate tools (via the tool menu) using Left / Right on the D-Pad when playing with a controller
• Random Name Generation - currently used for naming tamed critters - has been greatly improved
• Altered music logic somewhat
• Adjusted notification placement to prevent overlap when a lot of stuff is happening
• Player names are now restricted to 12 total characters

Changes to Game Feel

I'm still grinding away to find that sweet spot in game feel - something that's both evocative of retro games (which is especially important given Village Monsters' story) while still taking modern games into account.

• Player acceleration has been modified so that you move in whole pixels
• Most other "partial pixel" actions are now rounded up to whole pixels
• Default player speed has been somewhat increased
• Further adjusted player acceleration and friction
• Reduced player speed when stalking with the net
• You can now control movement via the d-pad (I have no idea why I didn't have that before!!)
• The camera now tightly follows the player

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed a major bug in which the world state wasn't being properly saved
• Fixed a crash when pressing "P" on your keyboard in some situations
• Fixed a crash related to cutscenes not properly being set
• Fixed the player sprite not changing when you transition rooms
• Fixed a variety of collision issue with outdoor decorations, like benches
• Fixed several collision issues in Memorial Meadows
• Fixed a few issues with garden weeds
• Fixed issue where beach shells would disappear
• Fixed apple trees still providing apples during off seasons
• Fixed an issue where critters would not flee properly if you approached them from certain angles
• Fixed an issue where swinging a net drains stamina too early
• Fixed some minor issues related to when the player character was in between states, or paused
• Fixed the "Exit" option not working on the title screen in some instances
• Fixed a graphical glitch in Dio's house

[ 2020-05-01 17:37:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

We all neglect things they really shouldnt. Maybe its a hard task you dont know how to start. Maybe its just cleaning your room. For me? Its the mushroom gardening hobby in Village Monsters. Its technically been in the game since releasing in Early Access 6 months ago, but you wouldnt know it. Ive barely touched it since then and most players arent even aware it exists. That changes now. Lets talk gardens, and then afterward lets clean our rooms!

Gardening

What was onceMushroom Gardening will now be known as simply Gardening. Yep, you can now cultivate all sorts of new plants beyond just fabulous fungi! But dont expect to be planting boring crops like turnips or corn. No! Instead, youll be growing suitably monstrous plants: man-eating pitcher plants, never-ending creeper vines, fruit that glows eerily in the dark, and yes: mushrooms. To help you with growing all these new plants, garden management has received a complete overhaul in both look and design. Check it out:
Each garden now has its own plot (above) that you can interact with to manage all the plants inside. From this screen you can plant new seeds, view the status of growing plants, cultivate the soil, and eventually harvest any mature plants. Youll be able to purchase multiple plots of varying configurations, but at the start youre limited to the basic 22 model. Your garden wont require a lot of attention if you only care about the basics. You may need to weed it on occasion, and cultivating it with water and fertilizer will definitely help it grow faster, but gardens are otherwise self-sufficient. After all, gardening is meant to be a passive and relaxing hobby. Of course, there are all sorts of benefits if you want to be an active gardener lets look at them now.

Breeding

Im super excited to talk about the new plant breeding mechanics! Thats not weird, right? Youd tell me if that was weird?? In all seriousness, I love breeding plants in video games. Im not sure why its not like I have much interest in real life botany but I always get really into it whenever its offered. Adding this feature to my own game was a no-brainer. In Village Monsters, getting started with plant breeding is actually super easy. You just need a male plant, a female plant, and an empty space. Nature can handle the rest! Your experience as a gardener governs how fast plants grow and crossbreed, and in the beginning of your career it will be pretty slow; plants take several days (and in some cases longer) to grow, and new starter packs are quite expensive and sometimes hard to find.
Dont fret, though! Gardening is designed for exponential growth, and over time a skilled gardeners can completely outpace the other hobbyists.

Hybridization

Hybrids are a very rare type of crossbreed where two plants combine to form a brand new plant.
As you can see from the chart above, hybrid plants generally inherit the shape of the mother plant + the color / design of the father plant. It takes a lot of skill & patience to successfully breed a hybrid; theyre often considered the end goal for most gardeners. There are dozens of unique hybrid combinations, so youll be plenty busy trying to discover them all. The uniqueness of a hybrid makes them highly sought after, and Pishky will pay you very handsomely when youre ready to sell. Better yet, youre almost guaranteed to win any Garden Festival if you put one of these guys in your display.

Future Gardens

There are two more big features Id like to add to gardening, but they wont make the next release (v0.70). Still, this is a dev diary, so I may as well talk about em. The first feature is something Im tentatively calling Symbiosis. The idea here is that gardening should provide benefits to all your other hobbies and vice versa! Everything is connected. For example, you should be able to use certain plants as bait to catch rare fish or critters. Other plants could help you see hidden treasure in the dark. Maybe domesticated critters could provide fast-growing fertilizer for your plants (dont think about this one too much.)
Itll take some time to get it all sorted out, but you can expect this in a future update before release. The second upcoming feature is called Mutation. Mutations will be similar to hybrids with one key difference: they are completely random! Randomized names, randomized look, randomized benefits, and so on. Procedurally generated plants! Thisll take some time, and it may even have to come in a post-launch patch. Ill keep you updated.

Hey, isnt this like

Yes, almost certainly! I really love playing video games, and Im proud to wear my inspirations on my sleeves. Ive borrowed tons of elements from games like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, even Cookie Clicker and Monster Rancher. If you recognize a gardening element from one of your favorite games then it almost surely is on purpose. Video games rule.

When can I play with the new gardens?

Very soon! Everything I described above will be available in Village Monsters v0.70, which will be releasing in the next couple of weeks. Look forward to playing it then!

[ 2020-04-22 20:17:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

How're your gardens doing this year? My physical garden has been shamefully neglected (per the usual), but as for my virtual garden...?
It's literally never been better! Since my last update I've working super-duper hard on the next version of Village Monsters - which, incidentally, will feature a brand new Gardening hobby for you to enjoy. It should be ready in a couple weeks, but before then I have a bit of bad news to share.

What's the issue?

Save files created in the current version of Village Monsters (v0.65) will no longer be compatible with this upcoming version, v0.70. This means you will need to start a new game once the update is released.

Are there any workarounds?

Yes. I will continue to make v0.65 available for those that don't want to start a new game:

• Steam players will be able to opt into a beta channel running v0.65
• Itch.io / GameJolt players can simply download the older version

In addition, I'm working on a Save Import feature where certain items from your old save are carried over into a new game. I'm not sure yet what exactly I'll be able to bring over, but you won't need to start fully from scratch if you don't want to.

But why break saves?

Your save file is a snapshot of what's going on at a given time, and in a game like Village Monsters there's a lot to keep track of. This becomes a big risk for a game in active development - large changes to the game can cause older saves to become incompatible. It's something I've been able to avoid so far, but the changes I'm making to the game are only getting bigger and grander. For example, I've completely revamped the Gardening hobby so much that any mushroom gardens in your current saves are no longer compatible. There are mushrooms you planted that don't even EXIST anymore, man! So the question for me was this: do I continue to break things feature by feature from now until release, or do I rip it off like a band aid and get it over with? Well...
[/figure]

Will save files break again?

Save files should not break again while in Early Access. The point of breaking them all at once now is so that we don't need to go through this again later. There is the question of what to do about transitioning from EA to 1.0, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Until next time. Stay safe, keep cozy, and have fun!

[ 2020-04-08 23:11:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Well, there's no denying we're living in some strange times right now. I know some vague platitudes from a no-name indie dev won't do you much good, but I promise you that this isn't forever. If you're feeling stressed, panicked, depressed, whatever - that's normal. Give yourself grace and patience. Just chill out at home and play some relaxing games - I can think of a few :D On a personal note, although I live in one of the hardest hit US states (Washington) I have no plans on suspending work on Village Monsters. One benefit to being a solo indie dev working from home is that I've been following all these social distancing requirements for many months now. Anyway, enough doom and gloom. Time for some patch notes!

Game Feel

Since November I've received a steady stream of feedback that the game feel isn't quite right yet. This is to be expected for any unreleased game, but I don't want to wait to the end before polishing things up. Here are some changes I've made to improve the game feel of Village Monsters.

• Drastically adjusted the inspection range to improve behavior and make it easier to inspect the object you mean to
• Player movement now has acceleration and friction, meaning movement should now have more "weight" to it and feel less swim-y
• Improved interaction points with merchants / services NPCs
• Improved the deadzone when using a gamepad
• Made camera a bit more dynamic and smoother
• Added support for changing the camera speed to account for fluctuation in FPS
• Lowered player's default max speed slightly (sprint is unaffected)

New & Improved Features

Every update brings more features and systems online. Here's a few of them new to v0.65

• Villagers now reply to your letters. Their response depends on what they thought of your letter / gift
• Your mailbox is now properly saved on game exit - you will no longer miss new mail if you quit the game before reading it
• A new Odd Job for Treasure Hunting (Tutorial) has been added
• Sending Feedback / Reporting Bugs is now accessible via the main System menu
• A number of new gifts have been added to the store
• Added a large number of new potions. The most useful might be the Potion of Agreeable Affections which makes it easier to befriend people
• New entries for villager profiles have been added
• Added a large number of new effects for the Dr. Klaus Human Experimentation job
• Added a huge number of new treasures to find, including new rings, amulets, and more
• Added or improved description and lore of existing treasures
• Each region now has their own distinct list of treasures to find
• Added a new message for unlocking post office boxes and added more items to discover inside
• Dig spots now spawn at a slightly higher rate

Cutscenes

Village Monsters now has cutscenes - it's finally like a real video game! Most of my time was spent creating the infrastructure itself to support cutscenes, so there aren't many in the game yet, but that'll change soon pretty quickly.

• Added the concept of cutscenes to the game
• There's a new intro cutscene involving the mayor when starting a new game
• There's a new cutscene that plays when encountering the glitched bridge in Firetree Forest for the first time
• In general, story cutscenes will only trigger for new game files. In the future, other cutscenes - like for villager relationships, etc. - will trigger for existing files
• Cutscenes currently can't be paused or skipped, though that will change in the future
• Cutscene conditions are saved between sessions - meaning you'll never risk missing one before bumping into its trigger

Improved Graphics & UI

I improve the graphics with every release, but for this one in particular I spent a lot of extra time with art assets that have been around since the early days - this includes UI elements like the timepeice, many villager sprites, critters, shadows, and more.

• Improved the sprites of many villagers, notably Umbrae, Edmund, Bugs, Trundle, Lindwyrm, Mayor Ludo, and others
• Added movement sprites to a number of villagers
• Added a brand new clock & calendar UI element and retired the old one
• Added a new "virtual keyboard" for gamepad users
• Completely redid the exterior and interior of the village library
• Added an enormous amount of new furniture and decoration
• Greatly improved Dio's home interior
• Greatly improved Zigi and Bug's room
• Improved the Active Effects page + descriptions for each effect
• Improved various tiles in the spring tileset
• Improved the look of several critters and fish
• Changed (and standardized) a large number of fonts
• Improved the look of a large number of buildings in the village
• Improved a number of "flat" sprites by adding proper outlining or shading
• Upcoming World Modifications are displayed in the End of Day summary
• Added new & improved keyboard and gamepad icons
• Updated a number of portraits for non-NPCs
• Improved journal fonts across the board
• Most list elements (like the main menu and dialogue choices) now properly loop

Bugs Fixed

As usual, I took the time to fix an absolutely shameful amount of bugs. The following will no longer plague the land.

• Further reduced memory footprint by booting unused data structures to the curb. Get a real job, losers!
• Fixed text formatting issue with the Donkey Fly
• Fixed name and description of the Mail Key treasure
• Fixed issue where player character could interact with objects during the end of the day transition
• Fixed a number of instances where Zigi was incorrectly referred to as Zero
• Fixed a large number of typos hiding in some new idle dialogue
• Fixed an issue that could result in infinite confirmation boxes when performing Odd Jobs
• Fixed villager relationships not increasing the proper amount when receiving gifts
• Fixed portraits for a number of inanimate objects, like mailboxes
• Fixed rare issue when the mayor would erroneously send cancelled holiday letters in the mail
• Fixed issue where fish would not bite in the ponds of Firetree Forest
• Fixed a number of missing words and typos caused by Valentine's textual glitches
• Fixed a collision issue with ladders and other rotated objects
• Fixed coloring issues in Vara's house
• Fixed some furniture weirdness in Mock & Birdie's house
• Fixed wallet display issues
• Fixed collision box surrounding player mailboxes
• Fixed tile issues in Saley & Stapes home
• Fixed issue where UI elements would overlap objects in Saley & Stapes' home

Stay safe, keep cozy, and have fun!

[ 2020-03-16 21:47:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Happy Day-After-Valentine's-Day, villagers! This is one of the best days around if you like discounted chocolate and red-and-pink colored tchotchkes. This is yet another big update addressing basically every facet of the game. However, the main focus was on villager relationships (to go along with Valentine's Day!) so you'll see a common thread throughout the update notes below. Have fun!

Pen Pals

One of the larger updates this time around is to the village post office - in the sense that the village post office actually has a function!

• You can now send mail to villagers from the Post Office located in Town Hall
• Sending nice letters will improve your relationship with the villager you sent it to
• You can also attach gifts to your letters to increase your relationship
• The General Store now stocks a variety of gifts to send to villagers
• Villagers now have simple letter parsing and gift preferences, so try to be nice!
• A new UI was made for picking villagers (eg., sending them mail)
• A max of 5 letters a day can be sent
• Fixed an issue where social networks would cause you to "meet" a villager before you actually met them
• Stopped relationships from going into the negatives

Critter Catching

The Critter Catching hobby was in need of some love and improvement, so I dedicated a bit of time this update to making it more fun to catch & tame creatures. I also was able to fix a large number of bugs.

• You can now pet critters that you've tamed
• The happiness level of a critter is now displayed in the interaction dialogue
• You must now add one food item per tamed critter per day
• Failure to keep tamed critters fed will result in them running away
• Critters must now reach a certain happiness level before they'll follow you
• Changed critter fleeing to be percentage-based depending on how "aggressive" (speed) the player is moving
• Critters may now flee even when you're stalking them, so act fast
• Critters will now permanently flee (disappear) a bit more quickly than before
• Added helpful text to the critter trough to help you manage your critters' food needs
• Added a new indicator above the critter trough when it needs to be filled with food
• You can now permanently dismiss critters via an interaction option
• Fixed: Resolved crash related to the Boo Bee critter
• Fixed: Critter poop will no longer spawn so dang frequently
• Fixed: Redid critter food code to resolve a large number of logic bugs
• Fixed: Food added to the critter trough will now be used
• Fixed: The critter trough now has a name
• Fixed the critter collection display in your journal

Flavor & Worldbuilding

• A new system of daily bonuses called World Modifiers has been added to the game
• World Modifiers add bonuses to one or more areas of the game - for example, "Jumping Fish" makes fishing easier, while "Good Vibes" allows you to build friendships faster
• Several item and creature descriptions have been updated with new lore
• A number of new flavor critters - like squirrels and jackalopes - have been added to the game

User Interface

• (Request) Your available silver is now listed while in a merchant's shop
• The Villager section of your journal has been overhauled. In general, most info starts off hidden and becomes revealed over time
• You'll gain more knowledge and gradually fill in your journal as you get to know each villager
• Each villager page now lists their likes, dislikes, and where they're generally located
• Icons have been added to the villager list
• Fixed: Solved a problem where villager text and icons appeared over non-villagers

Improved Graphics

The journey to improve the look and feel of Village Monsters is never-ending. Here are a few things I worked on this time.

• A number of Valentine Day's items and furniture have been added to the game
• As usual, a large amount of new furniture and decor have been added and sprinkled throughout town
• A number of villager sprites have been improved
• A number of villager homes and other buildings have been improved
• More color changes and improvements. I'll get there one day

Other Changes & Fixes

• Made fishing a bit easier by slowing down fishing marker and altering its initial spot
• Slightly lowered the default fish spawn rates, but increased fish spawn rates during the morning, evening, and while its raining
• Resolved a crash related to selling all your items down to zero and pressing up / down
• Cleaned up a number of data structure issues that could potentially cause crashes or mismatched data
• Improved memory footprint in Linux and Mac versions
• Corrected a number of typos and awkward text
• (Request) You can now cancel and leave in-progress Odd Jobs by pressing Escape or Start
• Stopped bad artifacts from appearing in the identification process
• Fixed a rare issue where you could go out of bounds when exiting the residential section of the village
• Fixed an issue where the shrine outside of town expected 100 bits in some situation

[ 2020-02-15 22:41:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Hello hello! Are you all having a good new year so far? Has anyone abandoned (or maybe completed?!) their resolutions yet? My 2020 has thus far been full of snow and sickness, though thankfully both gradually disappeared earlier this week. I'm very excited to release update v.0.55 - aka the first update of the year! It's a real big one this time, so I've decided to make this update a bit more fleshed out than usual. The march to v1.00 gets ever closer! Thanks for stickin' with me.

Relationship Changes

A number of new relationship systems have been added to the game. This is to make building friendships with villagers more interesting and consist of more than just talking to them until their hearts increased to max. The two primary features are social networks and Lockhearts.

• A behind-the-scenes "social network" feature allows for your interactions with villagers to influence other villagers related to them
• Villagers now have relationship values with each other as well as the player
• You can now negatively impact your friendship with a villager with actions they dislike
• Several villagers now have Lockhearts that prevent your friendship from deepening until they're cleared
• (Note that many methods for unlocking Lockhearts are not yet available)
• Relationship values have been rebalanced
• New dialogue has been added for every villager, especially for higher friendship values
• New visitors have been added

Player Progression

Players now earn experience as they perform hobby actions. Experience is earned on a per-hobby basis; this means that fishing makes you better at fishing but it won't make you better at growing mushrooms (like in real life!) I had hoped to also add ability trees but ran out of time. You can still gain experience and ranks in each hobby, but for now it's mostly superficial.

• Players now earn XP and rank up their skills based on their actions
• Stamina has been re-balanced - generally, most actions require more stamina than before
• Stamina restoration from food has been increased
• Lowered sickness chance
• Added a number of new dialogue interactions related to your experience and hobby rankings

Art & Graphical Improvements

My never-ending war on art rages on unabated. This time I tried to focus on colors and interiors. Beyond improving the look of the overall game, the main goal has been to reduce the overall number of colors to make things feel more consistent. I also added a huge amount of new furniture and decorations to give rooms more interesting and completed looks. Houses are still a bit generic, but it's improving quite significantly. This will be continue to be a constant point of emphasis leading into the final release later this year.

• A number of trees have received seasonal sprite changes
• The spring tileset is overall more spring-like
• The summer tileset is now more saturated and colorful
• Colors in general should skew more pastel
• Lighting has been adjusted in a number of spots
• Adjusted a number of bad shadows
• Added tons and tons of new furniture items and decorations
• Color and dimensions of more furniture items have been standardized

User Interface

Improving the UI is as important as improving the overall art of the game. I've made a series of small but important changes this release.

• Most notifications now appear as a proper UI element on the side of the screen instead of over your head
• Notifications now persist between screens
• The opacity of several UI elements has been adjusted so it's easier to read
• A few areas of text aliasing have been removed
• The End of Day screen has been reworked and should flow a bit nicer
• IMPORTANT: The game is not saved until it tells you the save is complete, so don't close out until you see that!!
• Certain text and phrases have been standardized

General New Stuff

For this update I tried to break out each major feature into its own category. These are items that are still important but don't otherwise fit anywhere.

• Added a number of new "flavor" creatures throughout the world
• Fish health bars now reflect their remaining HP (before it would decrease at a set value)
• Added a number of few fish, treasures, and critters to collect
• Added a number of new forage items (herbs and flowers)
• Flavor creatures now have more complex behavior
• A number of villagers without homes are no longer homeless

Technical

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) the majority of work I've done in the past few weeks has been under-the-hood type of stuff. It's not glamorous or even interesting work, but it's necessarily to set a strong foundation in order to launch v1.0 later this year. The more immediate upside to this is that I've surely (though inadvertently) fixed a number of bugs, performance issues, and other technical snags in the process.

• Fixed a rare crash related to thunderstorms and blizzard weather types
• Fixed rare crash related to selling some usable items (like food or medicine)
• Fixed a large number of collision issues, particularly with interior furniture items
• Fixed performance issues for lower end Mac and Linux platforms
• Improve randomization elements
• By request, I've added a new feature to Three Wall Island that lets you enable Dev Mode
• (Dev Mode) Press Page Up while in Dev Mode to advance time
• (Dev Mode) Press Page Down while in Dev Mode to advance season
• (Dev Mode) Press F2 while in Dev Mode to bring up debug teleport
• Added a message to the Three Wall Island raft to make it less abrupt
• Steam icon now links to forums, not the Store page
• Fixed camera weirdness when trying to cast your rod
• Fixed a few issues with Glimmer collision and layering while in the mail room
• Fixed several embarrassing typos
• Cleaned up a huge number of other bugs I didn't bother to document because I am a bad developer

[ 2020-01-23 02:42:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a small update - so tiny I thought about skipping notes entirely - but I suppose that's to be expected with the holidays sapping so much of my time. I ended up spending most of my time hunting down a crash bug people had been reporting since launch. Turns out it was related to toggling full screen for certain situations and resolutions (like 1366768 using integrated video cards) I'll be back at it sometime after Christmas. I may try to squeeze in one more release before the end of the year, but if not then I'll package up everything with a release in 2020. Have a good holiday break!

• Added several new furniture items and display knick-knacks
• Improved the look and feel of the date display
• Improved the loot found in waterlogged chests in Bonfire Beach
• Fixed: Solved an issue with full screen causing a crash for some resolutions
• Fixed: Solved a bug that prevented certain treasure chests from spawning
• Fixed: Corrected tutorial description which incorrectly referred to the wrong key binding for Use Tool

[ 2019-12-20 03:23:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Today (12/12) marks the one-month anniversary since Village Monsters was released! Thank you all so much for your support, bug reports, love, and feedback! This is still early on our journey together, but you can start to make out a distant outline of what the end looks like. And I think it looks real dang cool. Anyway, onto the patch! This update is mostly focused on improving the look & feel of the game. Instead of improving any one specific area I just threw a (metaphorical) dart at the board and improved whatever it (metaphorically) landed on. You'll see many improvements to furniture, vegetation, weather, and more, but there's still a lot more to do to many other areas of the game. The game's visuals will contentiously improve throughout its time in Early Access. Important Note 1: In order to fix some player home bugs I had to alter your saves. This means you may lose ownership to your home upon loading the game. Don't fret! There was actually one particular bug we can all take advantage of: the game never deducted any money when you bought the house the first time! (oops) It's a complete coincidence, but this means that even if you lose your home you'll still have the funds you had before to buy it. Just buy it a second time... no harm, no foul. Important Note 2: There is now a dedicated key for using your active tool (ironically X on both keyboards and gamepads). Don't forget! Improved Look & Feel

• New furniture assets have been added to each home and building
• The initial homestead interior has been altered and improved
• New exterior props have been added throughout town and the surrounding areas
• While trees are still geometric ( a thematic choice), they now are spikier, more leafy, and overall more tree-like
• Added a large number of flavor critters and animals throughout the world
• The look and feel of the dialogue box has been improved
• A new option exists to switch between multiple dialogue box styles
• Improved the look of various weather effects
• The item description font is now much more readable for all resolutions
• Many furniture items have been standardized in size to give a more consistent sense of scale
• The player character now has a mild idle animation to match villagers
• Improved System menu's look and feel

Hobbies

• Using a tool is now mapped to the X key (Keyboard) / the X button (Gamepad). This will prevent issues such as accidentally swinging your net at a villager when you want to talk with them
• Fishing while low on energy is now much harder. Consider napping or eating food to restore energy
• You can now earn multiple levels in certain hobby-related goals
• New fish, critters, and treasures have been added to the game

Odd Jobs

• The Critter Catching tutorial now allows you to try and catch all 3 critters
• The Fishing tutorial now requires 2 fish to be caught
• Villagers have been added to each tutorial offering additional tips and info

Other New Stuff

• An ATM has been added to the general store which allows you to access your brand new bank account! Deposit, withdraw, and even earn interest on your hard-earned Skully!
• Interest is earned on a weekly basis and increases with town prosperity. Check your mail for statements! Wow, just like real life!

Secrets

• [strike]Secrets[/strike]

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed a crash related to removing an effect when you have multiple active effects
• Fixed major (and often unpredictable) issues related to purchasing a homestead
• Fixed major crash related to an audio memory leak. Should finally fix the longstanding crash in Agrarian Acres
• It is no longer possible to erroneously dismiss Odd Job dialogue in a way that traps you
• Resolved a rare situation where you could have 2+ "Low Energy" malus effects has been resolved
• Fixed issue where you couldn't purchase some items if you entered the store without the required silver, even if you later sold items to afford it
• Fixed music volume issues for seasonal tracks beyond Spring
• Fixed issue where your new home's door would stay locked even after purchase
• Purchasing the home deed now actually deducts silver from your wallet
• Fixed large number of furniture collision or layering issues
• Fixed issue with deleted spaces in trophy descriptions
• Player sprites / states now properly reset to normal at the end of the day
• Improved overall performance for extremely low end laptops
• The trophy screen was incorrectly cloning the caught fish or critter. This has been fixed
• A number of incorrect or strange tree collision issues has been fixed
• Some white assets were incorrectly colored gray in certain situations. This is now fixed.
• Fixed wall collision and layering in the player's home
• Fixed issue where toolbelt selections would occur in incorrect places + improved the code in general
• Powering up a longer rod cast no longer shakes the whole camera
• Stopped tool UI from disappearing while in relevant Odd Jobs
• Fixed the "Uh oh!" description when buying a house. It was not a proper Uh Oh Moment!
• Resolved a few performance hiccups and random misc. bugs
• Fixed various typos

[ 2019-12-13 04:47:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello villagers! Today marks the release of the first major update to Village Monsters. You'll notice the version number is now set to 0.5 - is this officially the halfway mark?! This update was guided by players like you! Last week I asked what I should work on next and you weren't shy in giving me an answer: bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and improvements to Odd Jobs. Part of these changes were already released last week, so this week's patch is meant to cap that one off! The next planned major update is for Friday, December 6th. I've yet to send out a poll on what that should include, but I should have that out later this week. Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow US villagers! NEW

• Something is causing villagers to suddenly misplace items. If you find a lost item you should return it to its owner for a nice relationship boost.
• A large number of new villager conversations have been added to the game
• Fish and Critter ratings now alter their price - the higher the rating, the higher the sell price
• Tutorial Odd Jobs have been added to the game.
• A new option has been added to make dialogue text instant

IMPROVED

• Made the first attempt at re-balancing the economy. In general: individual items are worth a great deal more money, but you'll see fewer of them per day. For example, critters spawn less, it's harder to fish, and so on.
• System Options (Music levels, sprint toggle preference, etc.) are now properly saved
• Caught critters are now given a rating like fish
• Doubled the rate in which you gain relationship points with villagers
• The day and season of your save is now displayed under the Continue option
• The dialogue box now fades away a bit slower when you walk away from the speaker, and fades up a bit faster when you walk back toward them
• Notifications now trigger for additional actions (like giving away an item from your inventory) to make it clear something triggered
• Stamina only decreases during the Attack phase of fishing. Bad attacks expend more stamina, while critical attacks are free
• It now requires more stamina to clear weeds from overgrown garden plots
• All available Odd Jobs are now listed at the Job Board. You can still only take one one job a day (for now)
• Odd Jobs that have a timer will now give out partial rewards when the timer runs out
• Certain Odd Jobs will stick around for a bit instead of changing out each day to give you a chance to take them

FIXED

• Fixed issue where music levels would reset themselves when changing areas
• Fixed crash related to checking Critter / Fish traps after loading your save
• Fixed crash when placing a Critter trap
• Fixed crash with the Weeding job
• Fixed issue where mushroom plots would appear to "switch" on area transition
• Fixed issue with trap visibility
• Fixed issue with music sometimes changing to the wrong track on area transition
• Fixed potential performance issue in Town Hall
• Prevented occasional issue where you can act (and cause errors) as an Odd Job finished
• Adjusted controller deadzone to prevent certain movement errors
• Fixed notifications from spawning in strange spots
• Stopped casting your fishing rod when fishing traps are equipped
• Stopped controller rumble while fishing when a keyboard is being used
• Fixed issue preventing a few fish types from spawning
• Tweaked collision of a number of items to make them easier to pick up
• Fixed a few issues related to foraged items spawning incorrectly
• Cleaned up collision on Three Wall Island
• Cleaned up collision on a number of external objects
• Stopped fish from incorrectly stating you could eat them for stamina
• Stopped Seaweed from appearing in freshwater
• Fixed Komatoa collision in Overflow
• Fixed collision issue in Baba's Bakery
• Fixed issue with Odd Jobs not sending you back to the right place
• Fixed flavor text issue for tamed critters
• Fixed issue with "flavor critters" spawning in incorrect locations
• Fixed occasional issue with teleporting home at end of day
• Stopped critters from spawning when time is paused
• Improved Odd Jobs in general to be less error prone
• Usual misc. fixes, performance and stability improvements
• Usual misc. typo corrections

[ 2019-11-28 00:58:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

I was originally slating for an update this Friday, but I've seen quite a few bug reports that would be fixed by the version I'm currently working on. I figured there was no reason to wait - being in Early Access means I can be flexible! Starting with this version your game will now automatically backup your saves. Here's how it works: - Upon selecting "Continue" the game will load the data in your save - At the end of the day your old saves are moved to the "bak" subfolder. Only the previous day is kept as a backup - The game then saves the new data and the next day begins This won't impact many users, but if an update breaks your saves then this is one way to get them back. It's still a good practice to manually backup your saves if you want to be extra super sure they aren't lost NEW

• Your save files are now automatically backed up before each day's autosave
• Inventory items now group themselves together when possible. This does not apply to items that can have unique attributes, like fish or critters
• You can now view your Patchling and Battery balance directly from the inventory screen

IMPROVED

• Odd Jobs board is now located by the inn
• Greatly improved look & feel of Odd Job: Weeding for Valentine
• Added concept of timers to some Odd Jobs to reward quick completion (and penalize layabouts)
• Various graphical changes and improvements

FIXED

• Fixed major issue in which the items in your inventory would appear to change into other items or objects. This fix only applies to new items. Old items should be safe to sell or use despite their strange appearance, but you may want to dump them if they give you problems
• Fixed major crash related to the last item in the Patchling Goal section
• Fixed various crashes related to the Capricious Cumulus critter
• Fixed crash when going to sleep when a critter is following you
• Fixed critter names resetting themselves each day
• Fixed collision issue with the "Sleep" / "Nap" prompt
• Fixed large number of collision issues with geometry
• Fixed various typos
• Fixed various technical issues
• Disabled Buzzsaw Mode which was erroneously available

[ 2019-11-20 17:12:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today's patch brings a whole host of fixes and improvements. My focus was mostly on Goals and Patchlings (aka how you progress through the game), but also I changed plenty of other things based on player feedback. The next patch is planned for November 22nd. You can vote on what you want to see included in this patch right here! NEW

• Many big changes have been made to the Patchlings / Goals system
• All successfully completed Goals grant a minimum of two Patchlings
• Many Goals now have levels and grant even greater Patchlings as it "levels up"
• Several new Goals have been added to the game, including Patchlings related to hobbies, meeting all the villagers in town, and more.
• All unearned Patchlings now display a description so you can find out how to unlock them
• Added new notices for unlocking Goals and earning Patchlings
• You can now sort your inventory by Item Name by pressing C (keyboard) or X (gamepad). Press again to reverse the sort

IMPROVED

• Improved the loading of various data structures to make them more robust
• Improved the look of Main Street
• Added a number of schedule changes for rainy weather
• Double the rate relationships improve
• Added a note to better explain why holidays won't working
• Various economy tweaks
• Various fixes to villager placements
• Various misc. graphical and UI improvements

FIXED

• Fixed occasional crash related to opening your inventory
• Fixed issue preventing villager schedules from updating
• Fixed issue preventing some stats from being saved
• Fixed issue that sometimes resulted in notifications overlapping each other
• Fixed issue related to relationship levels not properly being calculated
• Fixed issue with scrollbar placement in the inventory
• Fixed holiday description placement
• Stopped the mayor from sending you blank letters in the mail
• Fixed scheduling issue that occasionally prevented Mock from showing up
• Further fixed issues with "meeting" Jaclyn
• Fixed various typos etc.

[ 2019-11-17 22:16:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another quick patch tonight. Mac and Linux versions are now properly uploaded and supported - though let me know if you have any trouble with those versions specifically. It's not as easy to test for me. Also fixed a number of bugs + improved a few things based on feedback.

New

• Enabled Mac and Linux versions

Improved

• Renamed "Exit" to "Quit Game" and added a note about Autosave to the system menu
• Lowered the volume levels of music across the board
• Improved a number of art assets

Fixed

• Fixed occasional crash related to the title screen
• Fixed issue preventing you from reaching Quit Game by pressing down
• Fixed issue where you couldn't adjust volume
• Properly paused time during the intro "cutscene"
• Fixed issue where you couldn't properly "meet" Jaclyn
• Fixed various typos

[ 2019-11-14 05:55:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

I know I shouldn't be excited about a patch (especially for one that's mostly bug fixes), but it's pretty cool to push out an update that actual players will benefit from! Having a released game feels pretty cool. Here are the patch notes for version Early Access 0.48.8.

New

• Added an option to toggle Sprint / Walk instead of hold
• Improved save model for mushroom plots and "workshop" objects (spore extractor, etc.) to fix crashes and be more robust. However! Any item you had in a mushroom plot or workshop prior to this save is lost :(

Improved

• Adjusted spawn rate of forageable items
• Adjusted spawn rate of treasure items
• Adjusted growth rate of mushrooms

Fixed

• Fixed major crash related to mushroom plots in Agrarian Acres
• Fixed major crash related to spore extractor in Agrarian Acres
• Fixed occasional crash with the town garbage
• Stopped mushroom plots from reporting erroneous overgrowth
• Fixed issue where a mushroom would not disappear upon harvest
• Fixed collision of merchant table in the general store
• Corrected a number of typos
• Misc. technical cleanup and fixes
• Properly updated version ID

[ 2019-11-13 05:13:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Let's talk Early Access. One of the biggest flaws with Early Access is how broad of a classification it is. Some games in EA can barely be called tech demos, while others are practically all finished and just need a bit more polish. It can be tricky as a consumer to know which variety you're going to get. While I can't speak for other games, I can speak for Village Monsters. This dev log will dive into what's available in EA so you can make an informed decision come November 12th! Did I mention November 12th is when Village Monsters releases? That's right. 11/12. Has a nice ring to it. November 12th.

More Finished Features

These are features and systems that have seen the most work.

Core Game Loop

Village Monsters is a game about goals. You have small goals, like "I want to catch a bigmouth bass", and big goals, like "I want to mend this broken world so my monster pals can be happy." It's up to you how you want to play the game, but everything you do contributes in some way to accomplishing a goal and improving yourself; talking with villagers makes you better friends, fishing makes you a better fisherman, and so on. Achieving goals earns you rewards that in turn let you progress in the game or accomplish other goals faster. I'm calling this the core game loop and it is (as you might expect - or hope!) one of the more finished aspects of the game.

Hobbies

All four main hobbies (Critter Collecting, Fishing, Treasure Hunting, and Mushroom Gardening) are implemented in the game, though some features are more finished than others.

Seasonal & Time Changes

The simulation parts of Village Monsters were the first things I worked on and are some of the most complete.
There are 128 days in a Village Monsters year split across four seasons. Each season brings about new tile sets, weather, decorations, dialogue, flavor, and much more. The days themselves are split into four chunks (morning, afternoon, evening, and night) with many things also changing depending on the time of day.

Villagers & Dialogue

There are 30+ villagers to befriend and all of them are available at launch. Each one has their own unique personalities, relationships, likes & dislikes, and secrets to hide.
They also have a lot to say - there will be over 2,000 lines of dialogue at release! Dialogue is highly contextual and is designed to rarely repeat even on subsequent playthroughs.

Exploration

The village itself is quite large, but that's only the start of your little adventure.
Of course, the world in Village Monsters is in rough shape. You'll need to find a way to fix things before you can go too far. There are currently 10 areas outside the village for you to explore. Each area has their own look and feel, things to discover, and lots of unique critters, fish, and treasure.

Music

Each season has four tracks (one for each time of day) and many areas have their own unique tracks as well. They're all very good, and I can say this because I didn't make any of it - Josh Woodward did!

Flavor

There are many ways to make a game world feel alive. I'm just one guy, so I can't rely on things like visual fidelity or complicated physics. Instead I've focused my efforts on injecting flavor into the world of Village Monsters.
For example, let's take something as simple as a rainstorm.

• You can hear muted rain sounds while inside
• You track mud when coming in from the outside
• Puddles form on the ground
• You can catch a cold if you stay out there too long
• The fish bite a little bit faster in the rain
• Certain flowers don't wake up without sun - and certain villagers don't even leave their house.

The game is full of these kind of details, and because I'm an absolute madman I'll be adding even more.

Less Finished

These are features that need more work and will benefit the most from Early Access.

Pacing & Balance

I mentioned above that the core game loop is mostly finished, but what I left out is that it still needs a great deal of balance. How many Patchlings should be required to fix a bridge? Is the economy working right? Is this item too rare or not rare enough? What about this fish? How long should it take to tame a Pocket Horse? These are questions that are very difficult to answer as a solo developer. Much of this balancing work will be accomplished through Early Access.

"Level" Design

Each area outside the village looks and feels pretty different, but they still need a great deal of work to be considered complete. Some areas may go through radical changes, and a few areas don't even exist yet.
The same can be said for villager homes. I want each house to have multiple rooms bursting full of personality, but I'm a ways off from accomplishing that.

Specific Hobby Features

Hobbies are some of the biggest activities you can do in the game. While all four of them exist in general terms, there's quite a bit that still needs work. For example, you can grow mushrooms but you can't mutate or hybrid them yet. You can unlock fishing abilities, but there's only 3 abilities to start.

Player homes (and customization in general)

While you can purchase a home, it's missing many of the upgrades I've planned for the future. You'll also be able to customize much more than just your home in the future, but none of those features will be available at the start of Early Access.

User Interface

UI work is always difficult and annoying, though I'm hardly the first person to share that sentiment. I won't make any excuses for the UI, but I can promise to continuously work on improving it while in Early Access.

Graphics

The way I do art seems to be different than most others. I like to implement art early and then iterate over it constantly until I'm satisfied. These aren't quite placeholders, but they also aren't finished.
It works for me, but the end result is that the game still has a bunch of rough art assets that will be improved with time.

Story

There are plenty of story elements and lore to find (especially among villagers), but the "main story" and the ability to roll credits will have to wait until the final release. --- Hopefully this dev log will help you understand what is and isn't finished in Village Monsters for its upcoming Early Access release. If you ask me it's a very fun game already and will only get better, but I'm perhaps not the most objective reviewer. See you on November 12th!

[ 2019-11-05 22:14:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

After three years of hard work (and hundreds of energy drinks) I am so dang happy to announce the release date for Village Monsters:

NOVEMBER 12TH, 2019!

It was back in January 2017 when I decided I reboot my life and make a major career change into indie development. An impossible amount of things have happened since then ranging from a successful Kickstarter for Village Monsters to the birth of my son (aka my first playtester). Now I'm getting ready to release my dream game into the world. It's an overplayed expression but yeah, life really does come at your fast.
Humans? Where we're going, we don't need humans

Early Access

When Village Monsters launches on November 12th it will do so in Early Access. This decision wasn't made easily. Despite me crunching hard since May it became clear that Village Monsters would not be fully finished by the fall. At this point Early Access emerged as the best possible option for everybody:

• I now have breathing room to finish the game without resorting to unsustainable crunch or cut features
• The community can influence and shape the game before it's finished
• It's much easier to test and iterate over new features and content
• Supporters can start playing the game right away and I can begin supporting myself

More info on how Early Access will play out will be available as I get closer to launch. Thank you all so much for your love and support!

"New" Trailer!

In truth this trailer is actually from the summer (and it's been on the store page since then, too), but I never actually made an announcement. That was silly of me, let's rectify that mistake right now! [previewyoutube=Y66OPJflePs;full][/previewyoutube] Thanks for reading! Hope you're as psyched for launch as I am!! - Josh

[ 2019-10-15 17:44:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

I really love the passage of time in video games. Day / Night cycles, seasonal changes, NPC schedules, and so on I eat that stuff up. There was a time in the late 90s and early 00s where it seems every game regardless of genre included the passage of time as a big bullet point. It was fantastic time to be alive! Ive no doubt already spoken at length about the time system in Village Monsters as Ive been tweaking and perfecting it since the very start, but Ive yet to put it all in one place in an easily digestible post. Until now.

Structure

Lets start with how time is structured! The calendar of Village Monsters is kept purposefully familiar: there are four months in a year which correspond to each of the four seasons. Each month has its own distinct vibe and flavor that makes them dramatically different from each other. A month has 4 weeks which in turn consist of 8 days. Here we deviate a bit from reality to include an extra 8th day called Baldursday. This new day is sandwiched in between Saturday and Sunday and is meant for relaxing and catching up on projects. Its often the day of the week that village holidays and festivals fall on.
A day in Village Monsters is split up into four main slices Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Night. While its far more granular behind the scenes, I purposefully kept it simple so its easier to keep track of things like villager schedules, critter spawning, and other time-sensitive tasks. The exact length of the day is incredibly important and is something Im constantly tweaking. It currently sits at 12-15 minutes. Thisll be constantly adjusted right up to release, but my goal is a length that isnt too rushed.

Impacts

As in real life, a ticking clock and changing calendar means big aesthetic changes. The sun rises and sets which changes the lighting. The tiles change with the season, as do the look of vegetation and buildings and decorations. Even the music changes to fit the mood.
Its not an exaggeration to say that every single piece of the game is dependent on the time and season. Heres some of them:

• Which types of of critters and fish you can catch change with the days and seasons
• Villager routines and shop schedules depend not only the time of day but things like the weather, whether its their day off, and so on
• Some tasks like growing mushrooms, training critters, and building / upgrading your home require time to pass
• Each season has unique weather systems and frequencies
• Visitors come and go throughout the year, and some may even show up during festivals
• Speaking of festivals, each season has multiple events ranging from town-wide celebrations, feasts, villager birthdays, and so on!
• Certain areas transform dramatically depending the time of day or season

Villager schedules have been a big priority these past couple weeks as its one of the last technical hurdles I have. Its a humongous task and unfortunately Im not yet ready to share what it looks like, but even the incomplete (and wonky) system has breathed so much life into the game. The final system is going to be pretty rad.

Control

The biggest draw to time cycles is creating a strong sense of immersion. But this is still a video game and in the case of Village Monsters, a video game thats canonically coming apart at the seams. That means its ok to break some 4th dimensional rules every now and again. There are a number of special items you can buy or craft that control how fast or slow time passes.
You may also find certain areas of the world that arent playing by the same rules of time; some areas may be locked into a certain season all year round. Others a certain weather pattern. This can be especially useful late game when youre trying to find specific items or critters, fish, and mushrooms. Finally, heres a question I get a lot: is there a time limit as far as the story goes? The answer is no! Story beats (and progression in general) are independent from the passage of time, so you wont bump against any kind of restrictions. Take as long as youd like.

[ 2019-03-11 00:18:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Theres no way to actually prove this, but Im pretty sure more people have played fishing mini-games than have actually gone fishing. You can fish in Zelda, in Nier, in Red Dead Redemption 2, in Pokemon, in Deadly Premonition, in Torchlight, in Yakuza. You can hardly walk into a Gamestop without tripping over a pile of rods and tackle boxes.
And of course fishing is especially prominent in life sim games like Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and Stardew Valley. Village Monsters is no different fishing was one of the first hobbies I added to the game. Theres a lot to draw inspiration from, and if it seems the tone of this post is overly negative it isnt because I dont like fishing mini-games its because of how intimidating they are! With so many different standards and expectations there are almost too many options, and this left me feeling paralyzed when designing the system for my game. The good news is Ive finally settled on a system, and Im super excited to talk about it. But first lets talk about how bad of a designer I am.

Failed Prototypes

I prototype every feature often before I even analyze or document it and fishing was no different. In a lot of ways prototypes are meant to fail (seeing what doesnt work is more valuable sometimes than seeing what does), but my fishing prototypes took the word failure to a whole new level. My very first prototype was similar to what you find in Breath of Fire. Youd be presented with a side view of the body of water youre fishing in and your goal was to guide your hook to a fish and reel it back to shore.
1st Prototype, 2017 It was fine. It was certainly unique compared to my contemporaries, but the more I played with it the more I realized this wasnt necessarily a good thing. It was equal parts clunky and boring, and I scrapped it shortly before the Kickstarter. The prototypes that followed were all over the place. I experimented with fish HP and rod HP, I put in timed button challenges, I tried out things like line strength and fish stamina and generated all sorts of random numbers.
Another fishing prototype I wanted to capture the full cycle of fishing the relaxation of waiting, the excitement of hooking, the struggle of reeling in a big one but nothing I tried was working. You might even say I was floundering heh heh ugh. Then one day inspiration struck. Perhaps it was Poseidon himself that whispered in my ear, or perhaps it was that 4th Monster energy I just drank. Whatever the case was, the outline of fishing should look like revealed itself before me anchored by three words

Dash, Mash & Clash

Fishing in Village Monsters can be broken up into three distinct phases which I lovingly call Dash, Mash, and Clash. After casting your line in a body of water the music dims and you can let your mind wander as the outside world fades into the periphery that is, until a fish bites. Thats the Dash, referring to how you must quickly hook the fish before it gets away.
After hooking the fish its time to Mash, which is exactly what it sounds like. Your job is to reel in the fish as fast as possible. Theres no subtlety required, so mash that reel button as hard as you can. A little fishing meter tracks your progress.
Of course, most fish wont be too pleased about the hook in their mouth and theyll often try to fight back. This leads to our next stage, Clash, which finds you being challenged with a series of button prompts as the fish attempts to get away. If you miss a prompt then youll start losing the progress you made reeling the fish in. Miss too many and the slippery fish will make their escape..
However! If you manage to get a Perfect during this stage then the fishs defenses are shattered which makes it much easier to reel in. This gives the clash stage a high risk / high reward component and acts as a test of skill compared to the previous test of stamina. These two stages cycle back and forth until the fish is caught or gets away. How often they cycle and for how long depends on the fish. Easier or smaller fish need less reeling in while legendary fish require several clashes before they submit. And there you have it! Fishing is finalized in forthcoming folly, Fillage Fonsters.

Whats Next?

Finalizing any gameplay mechanic is sorta like writing the 1st draft of a story its a great feeling of accomplishment, but theres lot of editing and polish to do. Now that I have all these levers and nobs to play with its time to give each fish a personality heavy fish that are hard to reel in, fish with extremely quick hook windows, and so on. Theres also an entire range of possibilities for upgrades: lures that attract fish faster or rods that make reeling in easier. Then I can start looping back into other parts of the game, like a potion that slows down the clash stage, or a mushroom that attracts rare fish when used as bait. Youll be able to play with the new fishing system yourself once the latest Village Monsters demo hits later this month.

[ 2018-11-27 00:33:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a big month for ol' Village Monsters. A new and gigantic demo, rebanding including a better (actual) logo and new trailer. etc. etc. But today? Today we're talking shrooms. --- About a year ago I revealed what was then a new in-game hobby Gardening. As I worked on the design I realized that while I knew what I didnt want I didnt want it to be like Harvest Moon, and I didnt want it to be just a mini-game I couldnt nail down what I did want. With no clear vision the work on Gardening unsurprisingly stalled. Later this year it fizzled out completely and I considered just cutting it altogether. Then one day I happened to be working on the village currency. I figured that monsters would be unlikely to use gold that has way too much human baggage, right? so I went with silver. Seems appropriately monster-y. It was then that it hit me. Monsters wouldnt grow turnips or flowers as hobby. Ridiculous! Theyd grow mushrooms!
In this weeks dev diary Im going to talk about this newly overhauled hobby.

Super Shroom

So you want to a Mushroom Gardener. Well first youre going to need some spores. You could buy them, sure, but you can also forage mushrooms out in the wild and use them in your garden. Spores must be planted in a designated mushroom plot, but apart from picking a soil type its pretty low maintenance. You wont need to water them or pick any weeds. Instead of focusing on the more mundane aspects of growing I wanted to free up your time to instead work on the fun stuff things like cultivating hybrids, discovering bizarre mutations, and cooking up all sorts of interesting effects.

Effects

Youve already seen many examples of effects in the form of potions, but Ive since overhauled the system so that any item has the ability to create some kind of effect. Mushrooms are now the primary way to access these effects. Having trouble catching a fast critter? Bait your traps with a Snowberry Shroom and youll chill (and slow) the critter that eats it. Use your mushrooms in Cooking to make a meal that restores energy, makes you move faster, and slows down time. (How can a mushroom slow down time? Ask you parents.) Theres a huge amount of effects to discover. Some are practical, others are just weird. Some break the game. Theyve been fun to program and test, so I really hope you can enjoy them!

Breeding Hybrids

I love the idea of making plant hybrids. Its like playing mad scientist, only instead of frankenstein you can make a seedless watermelon that resists the cold. In the world of Village Monsters mushrooms as highly malleable. This means that a talented mushroom gardener can create brand new species with just a bit of effort. All you need are two fully grown mushrooms in the same plot as an empty tile. Then you just let nature take its course. if you know what I mean.
Mushroom plots always come in sets. So long as theres both fully grown mushrooms and free spots in the set then hybridization is possible The most practical benefit of growing hybrids is that the resulting new offspring can contain the attributes and effects of its parents. For example, a Spicy Shroom is a fast grower and it can pass down this benefit to its offspring. Theres also breeding for aesthetics, like rare colors or glows effects. You can grow some pretty funky mushrooms, but some will require generations of hybrids to unlock. Best of all you can usually process hybrids for their spores allowing you to plant your new strain indefinitely.

Mutation

Theres one other thing that can happen to your growing gardening mutations. Mutations are similar to hybrids in that they create unique mushrooms, but mutations are more unique, more bizarre, and certainly more unpredictable. Mutations also dont require a parent mushroom and can occur to any mushroom thats still growing.
You can influence mutations by the type of soil you use and some unique upgrades. Like hybrids you can usually grab the spores from your newly birthed creation to permanently add it to your garden journal. Im considering adding a touch of procedural generation to get some truly weird mushrooms that even I cant predict, but that might have to wait for a future free update. Thats enough mushrooms for now. Youll be able to play with them yourself when the next demo releases later this month.

[ 2018-11-08 19:13:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

The past couple weeks were so focused on the demo release that I went on a developer diary hiatus – but we’re back today, baby! (Also, why not check out the demo if you haven’t already?) You’ll notice a definite trend in what I’ve been working on this week: villager interactions. This’ll remain a major priority for probably the next month and includes things like player-involved conversations, quests, schedules, villagers interacting with the world alongside you, and more. Let’s dive in.

Decisions, decisions…

Until now conversations have been a one-sided affair, but that’s changing with the addition of player choice in dialogue.
Do your choices matter? Well, sorta. They serve as a way to flesh out the personality of both your character and the villager, so there’s no risk of picking the ‘wrong’ option. Still, some options may be more important than others, so be sure to pay attention.

Talk to Me

The system governing when and how often you can chat with villagers has been improved. Villagers now gain new things to say as the day goes on, and they’ll even indicate when they want to talk via an icon above their heads.
No icon? Then they have nothing new to say right now so you can keep on walkin’, but check in with them later on.

Oh, Hello

If you’ve played previous demos you’ve hopefully noticed that villagers will occasionally say hi to you as you walk by. I liked this feature, but in truth it was pretty clunky and pulled from a tiny pool of generic things to say – that’s no good.
It’s been replaced in both look and function. Now each villager has their own things to say as you walk by that reflect their personality or situation. I’m also considering hooking it into the friendship system so that your relationship slightly improves each time you say hello.

The Landswill

You can sell practically anything at Pishky’s, but he’s a respectable merchant cat and has his standards. So what to do with all your failed cooking experiments, fished up trash, and other detritus that he won’t buy?
You head on over to your local Landswill, of course! Nobody knows where exactly Zabbal the Trash Hog came from, but he provides an important service by eating anything you put in his pen – no questions asked. It’s worth checking out even if you don’t have anything to dump; you never know what you might find. As they say: one hog’s trash is another man’s new teddy bear.

[ 2018-08-25 21:19:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

New demo coming July 30th I've got big news to share! The next demo of Village Monsters - code name Summer Sherbet - is coming out on July 30th. And for the first time since last year this demo will be made available to everybody! I've been working my butt off on this release since the end of spring, and it is by far the biggest and meatiest demo yet. I hope you look forward to visiting this little slice of village life at the end of July. Onto the dev log!

Just Say the Word

It's one thing to write a bunch of words. It's quite another to actually implement them in the game. The majority of the past two weeks has been spent adding dialogue to the game and making sure it looks and reads correctly. It's quite a bit of busy work, but it's also had benefits as it turns out some lines that seemed fine in my editor didn't have the same impact when spoken by the villager. I've done as much editing as I have implementing, and I think that's a good thing.

Reading Rainbow

Speaking of words: bookcases can now be interacted with! Have fun browsing hundreds of titles.

Foraging

Foraging has been in the game for a long while now - in fact, it was one of the very first features I created - but it's always been a silly little placeholder system that wasn't very interesting. Until now. Each season now brings its own thematically appropriate items to forage. Similarly, the items you can find in each part of the world are now different - you can find mushrooms in the forest, seashells on the beach, and vegetables at the farm. Foraged items are also far less predictable in where and how often they grow, so you'll have to do some exploring if you want to make a hobby out of it.

Camera Woes

I really, really hate dealing with camera issues. You're probably thinking, "It's a 2D game - what camera?", but when it comes to pixel art you need to make sure you can scale your display without any kind of distortion or weird looking pixels. This past week I ran into a doozy of a problem with scaling the UI, but there was a silver lining: the fix ended up solving a whole crop of other bugs. If you've experienced UI issues with past releases (such as the dialogue box disappearing, or the clock display getting cut off), then you'll be happy to know these are now fixed. There's also a very real chance I introduced a host of other camera bugs. I think I must have broken a cursed camera when I was a kid.

Long Weekend

Unlike past demos, Summer Sherbet is not unlimited. You have just three days to get to know the village and its surroundings, so make 'em count! There's at least one more dev log coming next week followed by a weighty patch list just prior to release. I'm so pumped for people to play this demo, so I'm going to stop writing these words immediately and get back to work.

[ 2018-07-20 23:25:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Welcome to another (slightly late) weekly developer diary of Village Monsters! Another productive week is under the belt and we’ve had so many of those in a row that our stomach is full to bursting. I let that analogy get away from me, so let’s cover our losses and proceed with the update!

New New You

If it feels like I’m making changes to the player sprite each week then that’s because I am. After some feedback on my previous update I’ve made some changes to the head and eyes. I’m slowly inching toward a final sprite ‘template’ which’ll allow me to create even more variations (so you can pick your gender, skin color, hair, etc.)

Villager Journals

You like invading people’s privacy, right? Of course! We all do. That’s why I’m giving each villager a journal for you to secretly read when they’re not looking. Some journals may be very well hidden, or in rooms that you won’t have access to right away. Be ever vigilant, you nosy parkers!

Movement Changes

I’ve made the following changes to movement. Overall the goal was to make things feel better – in this case “better” means easier and more precise.

• Default movement is now faster
• Sprint is now a toggle (will be an option in final version)
• When using gamepad, tilting the stick partway will result in walking
• Tilting all the way transitions to run automatically
• You can walk via the keyboard by holding Control

Helpful Helper Icons

I spent a lot of time coming up with little icons for each interaction. Unfortunately for me, I later realized I hated them all and they weren’t very helpful. They’ve been replaced by much more helpful button icons which tell you what you need to press. The helper text remains unchanged.

[ 2018-07-11 22:48:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

Welcome to another weekly developer diary of Village Monsters. It’s been a productive week over here at Village Monsters HQ. Maybe it’s because my area has escaped the heat that as seemingly conquered the rest of the world. Maybe it’s because my new developer pipeline is really starting to shine. Maybe I just had a lot more Red Bull than usual. I don’t rightly know, but I’m sure I shouldn’t question it. Let’s take a peek!

The Old Man and the Sea

Ask any master fisherman what his greatest tool is and he won’t talk to you about lures, hooks, or rods. No. He’ll instead talk about that nearly indescribable fisher instinct, or fishtincts as they’re called by the masters. These fishstincts are now finally represented in the game. A special icon is displayed and a distinct noise is played when it’s time to snag that tasty fish, and you’ll somehow intrinsically know whether your timing was too late, too early, or if the line broke.

History Books

The Historical Society has been renamed the Library, though it’s more than just a semantics change. You’ll have to see for yourself the next time you visit.

Skulliver!

Quick – what’s the village currency called? You don’t know, do you? Of course not! I barely do and I created the damn things. Well it doesn’t matter now as they’ve been replaced by silver coins known as Skull Silvers, more commonly referred to as skulliver or even just skullies.
You can earn skulliver by pursuing hobbies, helping villagers or working part time, and they’re used to pay for everything from your mortgage to a hot drink in Overflow.

How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters

Making friends with your (monstrous) neighbors has long been an important feature of Village Monsters, and this week was the first time in awhile that I tweaked how it works. You can now gain “Bonus Friendship” for actively maintaining your relationship with a villager by talking with them every day. Think of it like a combo streak: the more days in a row you talk to them the faster your friendships grows. The catch is that this bonus resets if you break the streak. You’re allowed to miss a day or two – I get it, we’re all busy – but after that your streak is reset. You’ll never lose friendships, but don’t let that keep you from being a good friend, human!

Begone, Bugs!

• Fixed an issue where a villager’s intro dialogue wasn’t triggering correctly
• Time now pauses while the main menu (or your journal) are open
• Fixed some goofy problems when sprites changed states

[ 2018-07-03 01:23:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers!

It’s a partly sunny / partly cloudy day here at Village Monsters HQ, and it’s perfect weather to reflect back on a productive week of work. I’m trying something a bit new this week: instead of a handful of items with detailed explanations I’m going for a lot of items with just a screenshot and blurb about the change. The idea is to make these logs easier to write and more entertaining to read. Let’s boogie.

Helpful Hints

Each release I like to add a big, goopy layer of quality of life changes. This week I decided to add many more instances of the little ‘helper notices’ that direct how you can interact with the world. These were in previous releases, too, but now you’ll see them for talking with villagers, picking up items, interacting with furniture, and much more.

New tool belt…

Speaking of quality of life, the tool belt menu has been lacking for awhile. To make it a bit friendlier I went ahead and removed unnecessary tools and changed up the size and transparency to make it look nicer.

…and new you!

The human (you) has received another face lift. Well, maybe it’s more of body lift? He’s now slightly wider, taller, and has new eyes. I get asked this a lot, so let me be super clear: there will be plenty of appearance options to choose from in the final game! You’ll be able to choose your gender, skin and hair color, and much more.

Swing City

While I was messing with the player sprite I took time to redo the net swing animation. My original intention was to always have something akin to Link to the Past, so I did just that! As I watch this gif it’s made me realize I need a little FX to play when a critter is caught, so that’s been added to the backlog.

Begone, Bugs!

There’s also a flurry of bug fixes that happen before a new release, and this one is no different. Here’s what I squashed this week:

• Collisions of exterior elements (like fences and trees) have been improved
• The camera is now less prone to “half pixel syndrome”
• Selecting items via the tool belt menu will no longer caused you to “interact” with whatever object you’re next to
• A number of dialogue typos have been corrected
• A number of temporary objects left behind in Beta 1 have been cleaned up

As usual I probably introduced a fun stable of bugs alongside the ones I fixed, so if you do notice any weirdness then be sure to send me a message!

[ 2018-06-24 22:54:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Summer, villagers! The days are getting longer and hotter here at Village Monsters HQ, and that makes it easy to tell I’m a game developer: all I want to do is spend my days inside working on a computer. As with previous weeks this is a very dialogue focused update, but I also managed to sneak in some new furniture and decorations, so let’s get to it!

New Decorations

Each release I try to at least make an effort at adding new furniture and decorations, but this past week I sat down with purpose and added a whole bunch at once. You can now find pumpkin garland, teddy bears, dinner plates, instruments, rugs, plants and a whole bunch more stuff. Villagers having many more options to decorate their homes means that you do, too!
(Not literally, though; I fixed the bug that allowed you to rob villager homes stupid of furniture and items.) Everything you find in a villager home can be bought at the store and used in your house, but if you see something you really like you could always wait until the Spring Cleaning event and haggle for it with the villager themselves!

Smarter Conversations

I’ve written lots and lots of dialogue so far, but that’s really only the first step – after all, you probably want to read dialogue in a game, not an Excel spreadsheet, right? Lately I’ve found that implementing dialogue has been a great way to come up with new ideas and systems. This has turned into a very jolly feedback loop where I’ll write some words, get an idea, prototype the idea, and then write even more words! Here are some examples of things I’ve worked on or plan to soon

• Villagers can now wake up in special ‘states’ – like being sick, grumpy, energetic, and so on. This’ll change their dialogue for the day.
• Certainly topics of conversations are now reserved for higher friendship levels. This includes personal stories, juicy gossip, and lore about the world.
• Spoken conversations are now more gradually reshuffled back into list of available topics. This further minimizes repetitious dialogue and encourages finding new conversations if you frequently talk with a villager.

The downside to all this is that testing new dialogue is becoming increasingly difficult due to the amount of it and the complexity of the systems. In my spare time I’ve been creating a dialogue testing tool to minimize the amount of manual confirmation I need to do.

Dialogue Don’t Stop

I talk a lot about dialogue, and it’s for a good reason: I’m writing an awful lot of it! But it’s not always easy to share screenshots of dialogue – it’s often not very interesting to read out of context, and of course I’d prefer you to discover villagers and their personalities in-game for yourselves. So! Here’s another way of sharing my work: stats and charts! Who doesn’t love stats and charts? Right? …right? :( Ok, well, let;s first look at dialogue sets I’ve created per villager
Here we can see that most villagers currently have about 20 different things to say – though some have far less and a few have far more. This is a result of my preference of picking a different villager every few days and writing a bunch of text for them while ignoring the others. My unofficial goal is to have 100+ different things for each villager to say, so I best get back to writing soon!
This next graph breaks out topics by category. Unsurprisingly, general topics are the most common followed by seasonal topics, story, weather, and village gossip. The goal here isn’t necessarily balance – after all, there’s only so many things you can say about rain – but I do want to make sure there are no underrepresented topics.
We’ll end with a simple one – a word count of the script. At 11,000 words we’ve smashed short story status and we’re all on our way into novella. Will we reach novel status before release? It seems terrifyingly likely. That’s it for this week! Before I leave you, check out a sneak peek of a few (very!!) work-in-progress pictures of the new logo. I’m not sure which direction I like most yet, but you can hopefully see where I’m going with it.

[ 2018-06-18 03:25:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Villagers! Did you know Village Monsters is on Kickstarter? It's true! And it needs your help! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/389391560/village-monsters-a-monstrous-life-sim-game The campaign will end on October 12th, which is just around the corner. There are still rewards left that let you create your own furniture, put your name or phrase in the game, or create a unique monster that will be added to the game. If you like the idea of Village Monsters and haven't backed yet, please consider doing so! As a reminder, all backers at $25 and above will receive access to future Alpha and Beta demos leading up to release. All backers will also have the option to receive a Steam key for their copy of the game.

[ 2017-09-26 21:47:17 CET ] [ Original post ]