Village Monsters is releasing November 12th, 2019, and when it does it will launch in Early Access.
Hello Villagers!
Village Monsters is releasing November 12th (!!!) and when it does it will launch in Early Access. In this update I will explain more about this decision as well as what the next few months will look like.
Why Early Access?
Village Monsters has always been a large and ambitious game – especially for a solo developer’s debut project. Even still, this is my absolute dream game and I have a tremendous amount of passion and energy that’s been sustaining me for years.
But passion isn’t the same thing as skill, nor does it automatically grant you good sense.
One of my biggest weaknesses has been with planning. As a gamer myself I get annoyed when a Kickstarted game is indefinitely delayed or the creator gives the “it’s done when it’s done” speech. I think backers are owed more than that.
I sought to avoid this by giving short, aggressive timelines and… well, joke’s on me. Setting aggressive timelines meant I was always working aggressively. This has its benefits sometimes, but it’s not a sustainable way to work on a big project.
Each week I was getting a ton of work done, but I was rarely finishing things all the way through – I kept feeling tremendous time pressure to move onto the next task. This came to a head at the end of August when I sat down and evaluated the state of the game. Village Monsters was fun to play and had so many cool features, but things weren’t flowing well together. Everything felt so fragile and clumsy, like a Jenga tower missing many of its pieces. It was clearly not ready for release.
I needed to drastically change my strategy. I didn’t want to crunch for 16 hours a day to finish the game, and I didn’t want to have yet another delay – to be frank I’m not sure my bank account could handle it.
Early Access emerged as the best choice with the fewest downsides.
- It lets me avoid another delay which means you can play the game earlier and I can start supporting myself
- The community can act as a sounding board and become heavily involved to shape the finished game
- I can do quicker, smaller updates which let me constantly improve things
- It’s far easier to find bugs and experiment with new ideas
- It keeps me highly motivated and – more importantly – accountable to my supporters
I’m certainly biased, but I think Village Monsters is a pretty good game already, and with your help Early Access will make it even better. I went from stressed and anxious about Early Access to being genuinely very excited for it – I hope you’ll feel the same!
How finished will Village Monsters be at launch?
All major systems and features planned for the game exist in some capacity. What remains is a massive amount of iteration: expanding and adjusting features, adding new areas, improving graphics, fixing bugs, and lots of polishing.
If I had to assign a percentage I’d estimate Village Monsters is 70% finished. There’s actually a lot of game to play already – you have a big, cozy world to explore and relax in with a bunch of things to collect, secrets to find, and *tons* of villager dialogue and lore.
I’d compare it to something like a fixer-upper; it makes some strange noises, the faucet leaks, the appliances need replacing and the wallpaper is just dreadful. But the foundation is solid and with some tender loving care it could be something real special.
How will updates to Early Access work?
The overall structure of Village Monsters lends itself very well to frequent, incremental updates. As such, I am aiming for weekly updates while in Early Access. To keep this sustainable – which has been the key word in all my planning – I will be alternating between major (Sunrise) and minor (Sunset) updates.
Sunrise updates will bring big changes changes like new features and story content.
Sunset updates will focus on smaller changes, improvements and bug fixes – especially those related to new additions from the past week.
Longtime followers of the game may recognize this pattern from how I’ve released demos (each major demo was followed by a feedback release) so I know this is a model that works well for me.
How long will Village Monsters remain in Early Access?
It’s important for me to not stay in Early Access for a long time. It’s an easy trap to fall into which results in stagnation.
I predict staying in Early Access for one year. Unlike my previous estimates this one includes a great deal of buffer and accounts for both planned and unplanned work. My priority will be as follows:
- Finish remaining tasks to bring the game to 1.0
- Incorporate community feedback and fix reported bugs
- Balance the game and polish to a mirror sheen
- Work on additional extra features that aren’t necessary for 1.0
Future updates (2021 onward – wow, we are living in the future) are still planned and will always be free.
That’s all for now. Thank you all again for your support and love. There’s now just a month to go until release… so I gotta get back to it! Happy Spooktober!
Why Early Access?
Village Monsters has always been a large and ambitious game – especially for a solo developer’s first game. Even still, this is my dream game and I have a tremendous amount of passion working
Since starting work on Village Monsters in 2017 I’ve released 14 demos.
Games like Littlewood, Kynseed, My Time in Portia, Graveyard Keeper, and others. These weren’t just releasing in Early Access – they’re thriving, with fantastic communities that have helped shape the games in development.
Early Access is the right place to finish creating Village Monsters.
How will updates to Early Access work?
The overall structure of Village Monsters lends itself very well to frequent, incremental updates. After all, each in-game day brings new opportunities – some days more literal than others!
I am aiming for weekly updates while in Early Access. To keep this sustainable I plan on alternating between major and minor updates – I am dubbing them Sunrise and Sunset.
Sunrise updates will bring major changes – new features, story content, and so on.
Sunset updates will focus on smaller changes, improvements and bug fixes – especially those related to new additions from the Sunrise update.
Longtime followers of the game may recognize this pattern from how I’ve released demos (each major demo was followed by a feedback release) so I know this is a model that works well.
How long will Village Monsters remain in Early Access?
It’s important to me not to stay in Early Access for a long time. It’s an easy trap to fall into that can result in stagnation and loss of focus.
I predict staying in Early Access for one year. This includes the time necessary to finish remaining features while ensuring there’s plenty of opportunities for the community to shape the game in their image.
Future updates (2021 onward – wow, we are living in the future) are still planned and will always be free.