I like being an indie dev, but I’ll be the first to admit there is plenty – p l e n t y – that I know nothing about. You could even say I know nothing about video game development, but that’d really hurt my feelings.
I usually try to power through the things I’m ignorant in – either through learning or just getting by with my meager skills – but I can’t draw. I can’t paint. I can’t art.
I can hire someone else to do those things, though, and that’s where breakfastbat comes in.
His beautiful art combined with new lettering has resulted in a lovely new logo, and clearly I’m thrilled with it given I’m parading this thing around all over town.
Here are some of the images I sent breakfastbat when we were hashing out what the piece would look like. I think you’ll agree the good vibes match pretty closely.
Is this the last time I hire out work? Almost certainly not. It was a relief to delegate skilled work to a skilled person. Besides… this art certainly has a summer-like quality to it, don’t you agree? What about spring… or autumn… or winter? Hmm…
A new feedback release is now available. As with all feedback releases, this one is based on the latest demo and contains fixes and improvements based on your feedback!
Unlike previous releases this one is a great deal bigger and includes new features, some collisions improvements I had intended to include before, and a bunch of other stuff! Several OSHA Violations were also corrected.
Here’s the download links + patch notes are below. Wowsers!
Your player will now attempt to ‘nudge’ themselves around corners, meaning you’ll no longer get ‘stuck’ on them
The player’s default speed has been lowered a smidge to make navigation a bit easier (and to fit with the chill themes better!)
A number of minor adjustments were made to make collisions feel smoother
A mirroring issue with the sprite (and thus its collision box) was fixed
The minor placeholder has been added for mending the world. Check out the bridge in northern Firetree Forest to learn more
A prototype for world states has been added to the game. This allows you to create persistent changes to the world like mending the bridge or unlocking the shortcut to Memorial Meadows
A “Nice Catch!” menu pops up after catching a fish or critter. It displays its name, stats, and allows you to either pocket it or release it
A number of tool belt changes have been implemented
Reduced active tools to 1
LB/RB (A/S on Keyboard) now quickly cycles between tools when pressed and opens up the tool menu when held
A little helper is displayed when switching tools
Made notes outside of your room a bit more obvious that they can be read
Helper Text (eg., “Talk”, “Interact”) no longer disappear while you are facing a relevant object
Slightly brightened the fall tileset
When picking an item from your inventory (like selecting ingredients for cooking or planting spores) invalid items are now grayed out
Fish now have weights and lengths
Fish are now much more active when it’s raining
The vision cone at night has been greatly reduced
It will be expanded again in the future
Fixed
Fixed crash when donating to the library
Fixed crash related to low energy and eating
Fixed issue with Overflow exit
A few flowers had wonky layering issues. They’ve been corrected
Merchant items have been slightly adjusted to prevent strange placements
A number of tree collision boxes have been adjusted
An especially bad collision box (that was actually completely detached from its tree) deserves special call out: The wide dead tree in north firetree forest is no longer a problem
You can no longer clip through Town Hall
The walls in a number of houses have been fixed
Collision for flying critters has been temporarily disabled to prevent strange pathing issues
Fixed dialogue issue with Zero
Fixed dialogue issue with Glimmer
Fixed bad exit door in Mock’s home
Stopped the random splishy-splashy sound while idling in fishing
Hurry up and announce a Pikmin game for Switch already
APRIL SHOWERS
Week of April 23rd, 2017
WARP DOGS’ CORP LOGS
The state of our WARP CORP continues to hold steady at ~pretty good~
The Extinction-Level-Event (ELE)is holding steady at ~42 weeks away. Neat!
Not much new to report here, truth be told. Just keeping my head down and working hard. I still haven’t decided if I’ll do a May release or if I’ll plow ahead ’til June like I did with the combined March / April release.
Though it’s a bit far away, I’ve also been making plans for how I’ll handle PAX Prime. I’m in Seattle and can definitely afford to go there, so I think I’ll make it my first public outing for the game. Like everything in my life these days it’s equal parts exciting and terrifying, so I figure I should get a head start on preparing.
SPRINT GOALS
The goal is to continue on ‘core loop’ features for the next week. My success – or lack of progress – will probably dictate if I do another release soon. I’m happy with how the Pink Crow release turned out, but I’m still embarrassed by how barebones it it.
Much of it was spent on creating villagers to populate Luckstone with. A lot of these have existed in my head for some time, but I hadn’t had the skills to bring them into pixel form. Don’t get me wrong – I still lack those skills – but I know enough now where I don’t feel super embarrassed about it. Check below to see everyone!
Beyond that I added a shop and shopping mechanics, plus some weird and tangential stuff – like scratch tickets you can buy at the store. I also began work on a female main character – a long overdue task I’ve been putting off on account of my inability to make good looking characters.
There’s also been a lot of Persona 5, which is a Good Game. So, maybe go buy and play that, huh? You’ll see a lot of Persona influence in Village Monsters…daily activities, personable monsters from all walks of myth and legend, and maybe even anime waifus!*
The state of our WARP CORP continues to hold steady at ~pretty good~
The Extinction-Level-Event (ELE)is holding steady at ~43 weeks away. Neat!
I mentioned in last sprint’s retrospective that the week of a release is always incredibly motivating – the same can be said for the week after.
I haven’t had much feedback on the release I put out last week…to put a finer point on it, I’ve had actually no feedback. Like, at all. That’s probably not good, but I also don’t think I can read too much into it.
Things are going fine from a financial perspective. Not much to say – same as before
SPRINT GOALS
With much of the systems nailed down I’m now shifting focus to more “content” – things like creating villagers, populating different screens and other areas to explore, iterating over what I already have, and so on. Frankly, it’s been a ton of fun, but I am having a harder time finding a rhythm to the whole thing.
Technical stuff has a clearly defined endpoint – the thing works, the bug fixed, and so on. Not so with creative stuff…I could iterate over his fat dwarf forever, but should I? Probably not.
Anyway, the main goal this week is to start mapping out and working on the main gameloop. I have systems, but nothing really fits together yet. A few thoughts on how to tie it all together:
A shop in which you can buy and sell stuff
A house in which you can furnish and display items in
A quest system (what I’m calling ‘Mysteries’) to drive you forward
I think it’s possible to at least get started in all 3 of these before the end of the week
It was a big week, y’all – it’s a new release! Of my game! Village Monsters!
Release weeks are always going to feel rad, and this one was no different. I love that rush of excitement I get in the lead-up to the release – I absolutely do my best work when I know people are going to play what I’m making
I’d like to say it’s some due to some sort of motivational thing, but in reality it’s all about, uh, shame – “ugh, people are really going to see thisterrible thing I made? Guess I have no choice but to make it less terrible, huh?”
Regardless, you can go experience my shame for yourself if you’d like – if you do, I’d love your feedback!
Welcome to another edition of Feature Friday! Yet again I’m here to take you all on deep dive into one of the many wonderful features and systems you can find in Village Monsters
Today, I’m going to talk about holidays.
Save the date
As you may already know, there’s a full calendar system in Village Monsters – every day is different than the one before it, whether it’s shop schedules, weather, seasonal items, and all sorts of other stuff.
Of course, a big part – and indeed, perhaps the best parts – of any year are the various events and holidays that pepper the calendar. Village Monsters is no different!
There are many events to discover each month, and they can range from as big as major holidays that overall the entire town, to reoccurring events like fishing tournaments, to very local events like villager birthdays, bowling, and Anime Night.
Indeed, the calendar is so important that there’s an entire tab in your Compendium that keep tracks of the various happenings around town. You’ll definitely want to check this section periodically so you can keep track of what’s coming up – for instance, you don’t want to show up to the fishing tournament with a crummy rod and amateur fishing skills, right?
As with most things, everything here is WIP
It’s a holiday in Cambodia
Each event will bring some new wrinkle to village life – new activities to enjoy, exclusive items to buy and collect, and visitors to talk to.
As you can likely guess, many of the holidays and events in game have analogs in the real world, though each one is sure to have its own unique twist.
For example, the Good Egg Day – which occurs the end of Early Spring – will seem pretty familiar and, ahem, relevant to certain events going on this weekend.
ORIGINAL HOLIDAY, DO NOT STEAL. TM TM TM.
Major holidays won’t just introduce new visitors or activities – in some cases, the entire village, background music, and even the UI will get a themed overhaul. Villagers will of course take part in the festivities as well, and even areas outside the village may have some secrets to find during certain special days.
Above all, I want holidays to feel like a big deal, something that you genuinely look forward to. I think it’s easy (for both designer and player) to fall into a checklist-trap – you wake up to a new a holiday and think, “Ok, new items bought…check. Holiday activities exhausted…check. Now what?”
That stuff is part of it, of course, but I don’t want it to be the only things you think of when a holiday rolls around. I’m hoping that if I can make it seem like the village itself is genuinely excited about holidays then you, the player, will be too.
