Windows [Update v0.80.0] Village Monsters - A Monstrous Life Sim Game

WarpDogsVG

Member

There’s no way to actually prove this, but I’m 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.

There’s a lot to draw inspiration from, and if it seems the tone of this post is overly negative it isn’t because I don’t like fishing mini-games… it’s 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 I’ve finally settled on a system, and I’m super excited to talk about it.

But first let’s 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 doesn’t 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. You’d be presented with a side view of the body of water you’re 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 wasn’t 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. That’s the Dash, referring to how you must quickly hook the fish before it gets away.


After hooking the fish it’s time to Mash, which is exactly what it sounds like. Your job is to reel in the fish as fast as possible. There’s no subtlety required, so mash that reel button as hard as you can. A little fishing meter tracks your progress.


Of course, most fish won’t be too pleased about the hook in their mouth and they’ll 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 you’ll 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 fish’s 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.

What’s Next?
Finalizing any gameplay mechanic is sorta like writing the 1st draft of a story – it’s a great feeling of accomplishment, but there’s lot of editing and polish to do.

Now that I have all these levers and nobs to play with it’s time to give each fish a “personality” – heavy fish that are hard to reel in, fish with extremely quick ‘hook windows’, and so on.

There’s 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.

You’ll be able to play with the new fishing system yourself once the latest Village Monsters demo hits later this month.

 

WarpDogsVG

Member
Hello Villagers!
There's a new demo coming to town. It's nicknamed Pumpkin Pie and it's out today!

It's silly for me to keep saying things like "this is the biggest and most full featured demo yet!" After all, if I'm making forward progress then by definition each demo will be bigger than the one before it.

And yet... this is seriously the biggest and most full featured demo yet. It contains tons of new things and improves loads of existing things, but more than that it's finally representative of the kind of game you can expect next spring.

Latest Download
Beta 3.0 “Pumpkin Pie” (November 30th, 2018)

Windows | Linux | Mac

Here's some of the headlining changes.

New Fishing


The fishing hobby has changed – again – but this time it’s final. I promise!

You dash to hook the fish before it escapes. You then mash to reel it in as fast as possible. And when the fish fights back, you clash for victory.

Grab your fishing rod and head to any body of water to test it out.

Mushroom Gardening


A new hobby has been added to the game: Mushroom Gardening.

Mushrooms are grown from spores you can purchase from the general store. Once planted they require very little effort and will happily grow by themselves. Grown mushrooms can be harvested and then sold, eaten, or cooked.

To get started check out the mushroom plots over in the Agrarian Acres. Check out the book “Mad for Mushrooms” in the library for more info.

Cooking


Another new hobby has been added to the game: Cooking.

Of all the hobbies this one is the least finished (you can only cook basic soups for now), but future releases will add to your cookbook.

To get started, visit the kitchen in Overflow and interact with the cooking pot you see there.

House Purchase


You are no longer stuck at the inn! The shack east of town has been put up for sale and the deed can be purchased from the general store.

Keep in mind it’s not cheap – even this basic plot of land costs 10,000 Skull Silver. You’ll need to find a way to make some money; catching and selling fish and critters is a good place to start.

Effects


A new “effects engine” has been added to the game. You’ve always been able to quaff potions, but this is an entirely new system with complex interactions and features.

Many items now bestow different effects when used or eaten:

  • Eat a Snowberry Shroom and you’ll become chilled to the bone.
  • Stay up too long without sleeping and you’ll become exhausted and unable to run – though you can eat food to offset these penalties.
  • Drink a Potion of Fast Feet and you’ll zoom around the map.
Check the player page of your journal to see which effects you’re under.

Up All Night


Your unfair curfew has finally ended.

Instead of teleporting back to bed in the middle of the night you can stay up indefinitely. To balance things out you now have an energy meter that ticks down throughout the day.

Running out of energy makes you exhausted which has a bunch of negative impacts, so you’ll want to keep it up by sleeping or eating food.

You can sleep at any time from a bed you own. Sleeping will also quickly advance time.

Improved Interiors


Many interiors – including villager homes, the village inn, and general store – have been improved. Enjoy new furniture, cozier layouts, and more personality in each building.

macOS Support


This marks the first demo where Windows, Mac, and Linux versions will release simultaneously!

Dialogue Improvements


Dialogue took a backseat with this release, though this is because its systems are largely finalized.

One big change is how villagers talk before and after you become friends. Villagers may at first come across as rude or distant, while others might be overly formal or reserved. On the other hand, you may witness complete personality changes in some villagers as they warm up to you and become close friends.

Note that you won’t be able to see these changes in the demo as they happen over the long term.

Quality of Life


As always a host of quality of life changes have been added to the game. Here’s a handful of them:
  • The passage of time has been further slowed to make the game more relaxing
  • “Helper Text” has been added to even objects in the game
    • Doors now tell you where they lead
    • Items for sale now display their name
  • Many interactable objects now can only be interacted with when facing a specific direction. This prevents a lot of accidental interactions
  • You can now sell multiple items at once to the merchant
UI Changes

  • Inventory and System menus have been combined into an improved Journal
  • Many UI elements have been cleaned up and improved
  • New & improved fonts
And a whole bunch more

There’s way more changes than I can document in this post. More accurately there’s more than I want to document. But here’s a few more things you can expect:
  • New weather types and tileset for fall.
  • Trees and vegetation have been improved.
  • You can flush a toilet.
  • Lighting has been tweaked.
  • Loads of new furniture and decorations have been added to each home.
  • Bonfires and torches now extinguish in heavy rain.
  • Pishky bought a new hat.
  • New secrets.
 

ReidDC

Member
Love it man, absolutely love the style, art,mood,music, etc. has a cozy feeling to it and a hearty atmosphere. Well done.
one thing maybe, the characters you interact with feel to close together in a sense, like crowded I guess. Maybe if they
where doing something? Like walking around or interacting with the world in some way? Maybe you plan on doing this already, so.
 

WarpDogsVG

Member
Love it man, absolutely love the style, art,mood,music, etc. has a cozy feeling to it and a hearty atmosphere. Well done.
one thing maybe, the characters you interact with feel to close together in a sense, like crowded I guess. Maybe if they
where doing something? Like walking around or interacting with the world in some way? Maybe you plan on doing this already, so.
Definitely on the docket. Right now villagers just have idle sprites and very basic 'schedules', by next release the hope is to put in movement and proper scheduling so you can encounter them while you're exploring

Game looks awesome. Unique and I love the art
Aww, thank you!

wow! Congratulation for your KS! Very happy for you!
Thanks! Crazy to think that was a year ago already. Time flies.
 

WarpDogsVG

Member
Happy 2019, y'all. Consult your calendars - that's right, it's Year of the Monster! please ignore any calendars that state contrary information

As of today (the 13th) Village Monsters has officially been in development for 2 years, and 2019 is the year it finally releases. To that end, have another demo!

Downloads: Here!
Release Notes: Here!

And here's some screenshots! Wow!













 

WarpDogsVG

Member
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!

I’ve no doubt already spoken at length about the time system in Village Monsters as I’ve been tweaking and perfecting it since the very start, but I’ve yet to put it all in one place in an easily digestible post.

Until now.

Structure
Let’s 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. It’s 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 it’s far more granular behind the scenes, I purposefully kept it simple so it’s 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 I’m constantly tweaking. It currently sits at 12-15 minutes. This’ll be constantly adjusted right up to release, but my goal is a length that isn’t 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.



It’s not an exaggeration to say that every single piece of the game is dependent on the time and season. Here’s 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 it’s one of the last technical hurdles I have. It’s a humongous task and unfortunately I’m 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 that’s canonically coming apart at the seams. That means it’s 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 aren’t 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 you’re trying to find specific items or critters, fish, and mushrooms.

Finally, here’s 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 won’t bump against any kind of restrictions. Take as long as you’d like.

 

WarpDogsVG

Member
Every single day for the last 2 years I've hated my branding of Village Monsters and every single day for the last 2 years I've wished I actually did something about it instead of nothing

I am happy to report that dragging my feet for 2 years paid off. This piece by breakfastbat (Twitter) is absolutely perfect. It's beautiful and it captures the comfy cozy vibes that I am juxtaposing with goofy monsters. I love it so much. I hope you love it, too!

And if you do love it, why not wishlist this dang game on STEAM or ITCH?

 

WarpDogsVG

Member

Hello Villagers!
I’m trying something a little different with today’s dev diary. Instead of featuring things I’ve added or improved I’ll be talking about things I’ve removed.

I think it’s fun to talk about the process of trimming the fat; examining how and why things were cut can be pretty revealing to the overall design of a game. There’s a whole wiki dedicated to this subject, so I guess I’m not alone!

Let’s take a look at a handful of some of the bigger removals in Village Monsters so far.

Beyond the Mundane
You know what the most my common reason for getting rid of something is? It’s just too… mundane.

Critter Catching was the very first hobby I added to the game and it worked exactly as described – you could catch flies, frogs, butterflies, beetles, etc. I also created a variety of weirder critters like the Candy Horn Beetle and the Fairy Doof, but it was a 50/50 split between real and imagined.

Things changed with the Pocket Horse.


Believe it or not I was trying to make a squirrel, but I had messed up so royally that I accidentally warped time and space and created a small, pocket-sized… horse.

I absolutely fell in love with it, and all of it a sudden it hit me – why was I putting so much effort into squirrels and butterflies when unique critters like this are far more interesting?


Most of the mundane critters were cut in favor of their more interesting cousins. But they didn’t quite leave the game – in some cases they now spawn as non-catchable critters that just add flavor to an area.

A similar situation happened with Mushroom Gardening which was originally just called Gardening. I think I can admit this now… at first I was just shamefully cribbing from likes Stardew Valley and Havest Moon. “People like farming, right? Then I gotta include farming!!”

But it never felt right. It was just so bland! Did it really make sense for snarky goblins and robotic cowboys to be growing bell peppers and turnips?


The only kind of monster rancher I want to see

Mushrooms felt far more thematically appropriate in every way imaginable. They were weird and underground – like monsters – and they allowed for really fun features like mutations, hybrids, and special effects. They’re also really low maintenance which helped fill the niche of a relaxing and hands-off hobby.

Keep it Simple, Stupid
It’s easy to cut something that’s generic to make room for something more interesting. It’s a lot harder to cut something that could be cool but adds a lot of unnecessary complexity.


This old GIF is from a 2017 demo

Such was the case with home customization. The original idea here was to give you complete freedom in how your house looked – any piece of furniture in the entire game could be bought and placed in any space you owned.

But it was messy. From a technical perspective I was constantly running into issues with collision and layering and saving your layout, and for the player it actually felt harder – not easier – to make a cohesive looking house.

So I made the decision to axe the feature entirely. It’s been replaced by a series of structured (or “pre-fab”) upgrades – like buying a completely furnished kitchen or attic, expanding your garden, and so on.


This focus on a more handcrafted home bled over to the villagers as well. I no longer had to worry about making simple homes with furniture and upgrades that the player could get. Instead I had the freedom to cut loose and give them all sorts of unique furnishings and layouts.

Another (though far earlier) complexity casualty was that of a more advanced time system. Oh man, you should have seen my early design notes – I envisioned a full 12 month calendar with each day having 8 distinct times ranging from “early morning” to “deep night”.

I wish I could tell you what exactly I was thinking. I guess I assumed more granularity meant for a stronger and more rewarding simulation? I don’t know. In the end I boiled it down to the most important features. I talk a bit more about the time system in this post.

Too Much Work
So there are things that are cut because they’re too boring and there are things that are cut because they’re too complicated. Then there are things cut because they’re simply too much work – and boy, do these hurt the most.

You won’t find me saying too many nice things about Dragon Age 2, but one thing it experimented with wonderfully was the notion that butting heads with a party member was just as valid a relationship as pandering to them.


There was already a deep relationship system in Village Monsters, but this idea of a so-called “Rival” really appealed to me and fit really nicely with the theme of “a lone human in a world of monsters”.

After all, this is a village of over 30 quirky monsters; it’s entirely reasonable that you’ll find a handful of personalities you simply don’t jive with. I wanted to give you another option to talk with these villagers without feeling the need to be friends. You’d even get unique cutscenes and dialogue if you became rivals.


The original levels of relationships

But it was simply too much. It’s already a nearly insurmountable task to write dialogue and cutscenes for 30+ villagers as they become friends with you. The idea of writing even more dialogue as they become rivals… ugh, I just don’t have that many fingers.


So, tragically, I had to move on from the system. My solution was to instead make the initial disposition of villagers a little bit colder – for some villagers this means being more neutral or detached, for others they’re grumpy or even antagonistic. They’ll change as you become friends, but if you choose not to befriend them then they’ll remain cold.

It’s not the same as creating a charming rivalry, but the general idea – that you don’t need to make friends with everyone – is at least partially maintained.

Like with all cut content, it is gone but not quite forgotten. The rivalry system in particular very well may make a return in a future free update. How’s that for a pitch? “In this new update some villagers will be mean to you!”
 

WarpDogsVG

Member
Hello, hey, hi! Guess what? Did you guess?

Village Monsters has a release date!

--> November 12th! <--



Another important announcement is that VM will be releasing in Early Access. This Kickstarter post explains a bit of my logic and I'm still working on a more comprehensive "how and why" post, though I suppose as a forum full of indie devs you probably understand better than most.

It's disappointing I can't release a finished game quite yet, but it's also exciting thinking of the benefits EA will bring. I plan on being in EA for about a year.
 
B

Booyaa

Guest
Hope I will be finished with RDR 2 during that time! Looking foward to it.
 

WarpDogsVG

Member
Today is release day! And I've been running around like a chicken with its head lopped off!

Village Monsters is officially out now on Steam Early Access

https://store.steampowered.com/app/679830/Village_Monsters/

It's been an insanely overwhelming day. I know it's just Early Access, but I still feel so vulnerable putting something up for sale!

Anyway, because this is EA it means my job is starting instead of ending, but I feel like I'm in a really good place. Hope people enjoy what I have so far!
 

Zizka

Member
I've skimmed through the whole thread and while I'm on the fence about the art I was hooked by the writing. I kept wanting to read what the characters were saying. I seldom consider games to be well written but this is close to earthbound level here! The only thing I dislike is the descriptions in dark grey. It's too late now but I think it's better with just the dialogue. You write well enough for that.
 

WarpDogsVG

Member
I kept meaning to return back to this topic once things slowed down, and then they just... never did. I don't regret releasing in November, but all this holiday stuff on top of work stuff on top of family stuff is just too much!!

Thankfully it's really slowing down now. So, hi! I launched a game. It's still in Early Access but I've done something like 8 patches already. Still lots more to do, but 1.0 is looking real good for 2020!

Reception has been wonderful, though I'll certainly need to sell many more copies throughout the year and after 1.0 if I'm going to be doing this full time. I think the potential is there, but I don't have room for error.

Anyway...! Happy New Year, GMF. 2019 was a pretty cool year, and 2020 is looking even better

I've skimmed through the whole thread and while I'm on the fence about the art I was hooked by the writing. I kept wanting to read what the characters were saying. I seldom consider games to be well written but this is close to earthbound level here! The only thing I dislike is the descriptions in dark grey. It's too late now but I think it's better with just the dialogue. You write well enough for that.
Thanks for the feedback and the kind words! It's definitely not too late for me to fix things. The descriptions / narrator text drops off significantly after the initial intro dialogue
 

WarpDogsVG

Member
Do you plan on making the NPC villagers walk around?

For example, an NPC villager could walk from one gamemaker room to another. (Like Stardew Valley, or like Animal Crossing)

I think it would make Village Monsters feel more alive if the characters could walk around and go from room to room.

One thing that stuck out to me about this game is that the characters are stationary. (It kind of feels like a weakness for the game.) I know it would require a lot of work to make the walk cycles and facing direction for each character, but it would really improve the game. :)
 

WarpDogsVG

Member

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!

 

WarpDogsVG

Member

WarpDogsVG

Member
Village Monsters v0.72.5b is now available on all platforms! It includes new features related to home and town improvements, but more important than that are the 50+ bugs I managed to squash. I'm not proud of how many bugs there are... but I'm not not proud of how many I fixed!
Here are some pretty pictures from the current build


The first home improvement project



The interior of the initial player house. Not too big, but it'll do



As an indie game dev, I believe I have a moral obligation to add cozy smoke effects to chimneys



Creating some new cutscenes to go along with the changes to home and town building
 
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