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New look, same vibes

New look, same vibes

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…

Release: Village Monsters Beta 3.2 (Pumpkin Pie) is now available!

Release: Village Monsters Beta 3.2 (Pumpkin Pie) is now available!

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!

Latest Download

Beta 3.1 “Pumpkin Pie” (January 1st, 2019)

Windows | Linux | Mac

New

  • Collision has been improved in a number of ways
    • 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
  • Several more fish have been added to catch
  • ẉ̷̨̖̥͔͚͔̓a̶͚͍͋́̑͐͗̓͊͐̑̆y̶͓̝͖̰͉͚̅͂̏f̵̙̰̑a̸͉͖̭͉̞̟̽̓r̶̨̛̩̜͍̤̟͔̝͖̍͂̍̎̓e̵̖̫͇͙̭̩͖͌̃ͅr̷̨̹̫̙̗͉̗̤͆̇̇͋̓̎̓͒̀͌ ̸̗̭̼̬̰̭̻̫̓́̔͆̅̄̃̒̕s̷̢̫̮̀̉͌̈̈̊̽͋͒̿ḫ̵̢̫͙̼̭̩̲̭͂̓̔͆̉͊̓͜͝͝ŗ̶̢̼̰͈͚̣̹̞̃̀̒͒́͗̉̋̚͠i̶̤̲̙̫̹͎̋́͐̑̀̊̐̽̐͘͜n̸̛̛̘̳͓̲͒͛͂̃e̴̡̥̤̘̬͝ a̷̧̞͌̀͂̒̋͝n̷͇͋̅̏̓d̷̲̠͙̙̮͍͖̻̞̎̆̓̀́̿̄̄ ̶̧̧̢̝̘͕̬̰̯͎̊͂̑̂̀͒͂̇̕m̶̢̖̣̩̘̥̋̆ȅ̸͕̹̙̦̥̾̆͑͐͒̑͝ͅn̶̝̈́͝d̶̹͓̻̟͉̏̎̀͊̄̕͝͝ĭ̴̙̮͇̤̰̭̊͐̋̏̚n̴͈͖͔̼͉̦̦͉̖̲̈͑͛͊g̵̭͊͂͋͊̕ ̶̧͇̯̖̻̥͕͙͊̍͝s̷̼̖̜͛̂̏̀̓̿̓̕͝͝p̵̨̩̲̯͍͚͖̦̬̼͌̄͌͊̈̌́͝r̷̨̻͈͆̆͐̓̀̆̊̑̚i̵̡̟̝̪̳̍̾̉́̀̆t̶͇̪̩̭̘̯͐̂̾ȩ̶̺̦͚̦̭͊̿̍̀̔̊̎̀s̵̡̼͙̣͉̫̪̬̄̄̿

Improved

  • 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

Sprint 15 – April Showers – Planning

Sprint 15 – April Showers – Planning

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.

Sprint 14 – Take Your Time – Retrospective

Sprint 14 – Take Your Time – Retrospective

Persona 5 is a hell of a game

TAKE YOUR TIME

Week of April 16th, 2017

OVERVIEW

Another good week.

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!*

*no

SHOW & TELL

Sprint 14 – Take Your Time – Planning

Sprint 14 – Take Your Time – Planning

Persona 5 is a hell of a game

TAKE YOUR TIME

Week of April 16th, 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 ~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

Sprint 13 – Pink Moon Rising – Retrospective

Sprint 13 – Pink Moon Rising – Retrospective

Click pic for image source

PINK MOON RISING

Week of April 9th, 2017

OVERVIEW

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 this terrible 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!

SHOW & TELL

ORIGINAL HOLIDAY, DO NOT STEAL. TM TM TM.