Village Monsters – Alpha 2 Release Notes

Here it is! The first Village Monsters demo of the post-Kickstarter era.

It’s called Alpha 2, and it’s hopefully a big improvement on Alpha 1.

If you’re a Kickstarter backer that has pledged $25 or above you should be getting an email soon with instructions on how to download it.

If you don’t fall in that category but still want to grab the latest demo then keep an eye out later this week for some news there.

As always, you can send feedback via the in-game feedback system, or to my email, or to my Twitter. I read it all, so send as much as you want!

Now let’s look at the big list of changes…

Village & Player Home

• The initial player shack has been redesigned to be less ugly
• The initial dog house has also been redesigned to be less ugly
• The mailbox outside of the player’s home now has a more obvious indicator when you have new mail
  • A new welcoming letter from the mayor has also been added to your first day!
• New decor has been added throughout the village
• Some Halloween decor has been removed, and some Christmas decor has been added
  • Big ol’ note: These decorations are all silly and small and not representative of the actual village decorations for holidays!

Villagers

• A new dialogue prototype that I’m tentatively calling the Dialogue Deck has been implemented for a handful of villagers
  • These villagers will have new things to say including general chit-chat, contextual comments, and even tutorial messages
• You can now walk away from people mid-dialogue to end the conversation prematurely
  • There are currently no penalties for doing so, but please understand that you are deeply hurting the villager’s feelings
    • As well as mine
• A basic scheduling system has been implemented. Some villagers will move throughout the village and surrounding areas as the day goes on
  • Note that this is still a very basic prototype
• Pixie Postlady has been given a name – Glimmer
• Wolferjack has been given a name – Hinter
• Cola Ghost has been given a name – Ebey
• Rainboy has been given a name – Boros
• Serin, the sentient tree living in Overflow, has been renamed to Acacia

Areas Outside of Village

• The beach outside of town has been made much bigger
• Additionally, the beach has seen some slight adjustments to its look and decor
• The coastal tiles on the lake have been improved
• A new area, the farm, has been added outside the village

Controls, Interface, & Usability Improvements

• The old inventory has been thrown into the garbage and set on fire. From its ashes rises a new, hopefully better inventory
  • New colors, new layout, quality of life changes, fixes, etc.
• A new contextual popup will display near objects that can be interacted with
• The time & weather clock has been redesigned and moved
• A new toolbelt quick menu has been added for picking tools
  • Each tool now has a name and description
  • New icons have been added for each tool
• The torch now automatically turns on when it become night
• It’s no longer possible to enter ‘stalking mode’ while wielding a non-bug net
• Most UI elements now have colored outlines
• A number of new SFXs have been added to the Journal
• A new icon is displayed when you can flip an item card to read the story on the back
• A new icon and contextualized message is displayed when an item can be used in some capacity
• The color and position of the “Hello!” blurb has been adjusted
• FIXED: In some cases the temperature would not be displayed. This has been fixed
• FIXED: When using a gamepad, the same key will now toggle the system menu
• FIXED: You can no longer flip a card that has nothing on the back
• FIXED: A common crash bug when selecting “No” in dialogue has been fixed

Fishing Changes & Improvements

• There is now a proper animation for casting your rod
• Casting speed is now much quicker and works differently
• The hook easier to control
• Fish have been completely redesigned
• Fish now behave a bit more like actual fish instead of just patrolling back and forth
• A new type of fishing tool, a fishing net, has been added
  • Press C / Y while fishing to drop a net
  • Any fish caught in the net will be ensnared, allowing you to hook them much easier
• Fish should no longer be attracted to the hook if another fish is already hooked
• Fish should be a bit more consistent in when they are hooked and attracted to the hook
• Many sound effects have been added to all aspects of fishing
• Many graphical improvements have been made to the fishing interface
• Fish should now better respect the ‘bounding box’ made by the fishing interface
• FIXED: Layering issues related to text have been fixed

Shopping

• The shopping process has been completely revamped
  • Approaching an item now brings up its name
  • Pressing Interact will then pop up the item card for that item as well as the merchant asking if you want to buy it
• Note: Selling remains the same: talk to the merchant to sell your items
• Bottes’ general store has been expanded and now has sections for each type of item
• Merchants now close their shops for the night – they’ll reopen in the morning, though!

Critter Changes & Improvements

• Many critters who had no / simple behaviors now have more complex behaviors
• The Capricious Cumulus now chases you with a bit more gusto
• Generally, critters should no longer have layering issues
• FIXED: Critters should no longer spawn in solid objects
• FIXED: Critters should no longer spawn in the water (unless they are flying!)
• FIXED: A bug that was preventing some critters from spawning has been fixed

Camera Changes

• The camera has been zoomed out. You can see a great deal more both inside and outside
• Draw distance for objects, weather and light systems have been adjusted for the new zoom levels
• The range / cooldown for drawing objects have been made more efficient
• The camera may now be zoomed between several different levels via F9 and F10

Player

• Player speed – walking, normal, and sprint – have been adjusted
• New sound effects for interior and exterior footsteps have been implemented

Items & Furniture

• Over 12 new furniture pieces have been created and added to the store
• Many furniture items have been re-iterated and re-colored
• A new item type, books, have been added to the game
• A new furniture type, instruments, have been added to the stops
• It’s no longer possible to pick grass
• FIXED: A rare issue where the house was considered exterior has been fixed
• FIXED: Fixed a bug where letters would instantly close upon opening

Trees & Vegetation

• Palm trees don’t dance quite as frequently
• Pine tree collision has been adjusted
• New vegetative decor has been added throughout the world

Time & Weather

• A new & vastly improved fog weather type has been added
• Two new snow weather types have been added: Flurries and Snow
  • Heavy snow will stick to the ground a bit, but not permanently………yet
• The night time filter has been adjusted to be a bit more purple / blue instead of straight black
• Similarly, lighting has been adjusted to be a bit more orange than ‘clear’ at night
• Weather has generally been adjusted to match the weather associated with this time of year

Music & Sound

• New music for all 4 times of day have been added
  • While still not final, these tracks better represent my vision for the soundtrack than the previous tracks
  • Music is by Josh Woodward who creates Creative Commons music: https://www.joshwoodward.com/
• New sound effects have been added throughout the game
• The little transitional sounds (bells, rooster, wolf) have been muted a tad

Technical & Other

• Lots and lots of small and big performance improvement
• Doors have been made more efficient – uh, don’t ask
• Collision for several external decorations have been adusted
• Collision for several furniture pieces have been adjusted