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[JobLeonard]

New trailer, y'all

Been a couple years since the last one. Can you tell I don't like making trailers? I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, though I already have ideas for the next one ~~

The mood is fantastic man!

Also, better watch out, that Golbrick sounds like he is about to turn into Garou from One-Punch Man

[Josh Bossie]

New demo, y'all

https://josh-bossie.itch.io/village-monsters#download
Available on Windows, Mac and Linux

The two things (trailer and demo) I put off the longest and now both are finished less than two weeks from each other

I've had really tremendous response to this demo compared to the last one I put out in January. Gives me a great deal of hope that maybe this whole thing will work out after all

e: I also put up a new Discord server for posting demo feedback and bugs and the like. Feel free to join! Could be fun

[Keops]

OMG will def. check this after I finished working on my tileset  

[Keops]

Very solid first impression, good atmosphere, the music is nice, the graphics while simple are very charming, altho I'm not a huge fan of the different pixel densities all around. Ran into a mini issue with colliders in the gazebo to the north of town where you can go thru the sides, like this:



Met a lot of the character and they seem well written. I did run into a fatal crash midway thru the second day. I was in bonfire beach and picked up a few starfish then it crashed

Other than that this seems really promising altho I felt a bit overwhelmed/lost. Pretty open ended hehe

Looking forward to more!

[JobLeonard]

Today's XKCD is like it was written for your game :p

https://www.xkcd.com/2189/

[Josh Bossie]

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. More soon!

Today's XKCD is like it was written for your game :p

https://www.xkcd.com/2189/

aw man this rules. Thanks for sharing!

[Josh Bossie]

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!

[JobLeonard]

Bought! I'm gonna try if it works with Steam Proton on Linux (probably not, but worth a shot)

[JobLeonard]

It worked! I tried sending you a message in-game too

[Josh Bossie]

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, TIG. 2019 was a pretty cool year, and 2020 is looking even better

[Josh Bossie]

Village Monsters v0.60.0 is now available on all platforms!

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

Itch
https://josh-bossie.itch.io/village-monsters

Full Patch Notes
https://steamcommunity.com/games/679830/partnerevents/view/1689348020240870575

Summary: villager mail, new relationship interactions, improvements to critter taming, lots of new UI and graphical changes, bug fixes, quality of life fixes, and lots and lots more!

[JobLeonard]

Nice! Congrats on the "Valentine's update"

[Josh Bossie]

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!

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/679830/Village_Monsters/
Itch.io: https://josh-bossie.itch.io/village-monsters

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!

[JobLeonard]

Timely update, I might have time to play this one (never got around to trying out the Valentine update, sadly)

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.

Heh, I can weirdly relate to this:

- I work remotely
- am in a long-distance relationship right now
- thanks to the previous tenants of my appartment, who are Muslims, my bathroom has a bidet

I am basically one of the least-affected people during this outbreak in the world.

Hang in there - from the outside it really sounds like the US has gotten into a more serious mess than most Western countries, so I hope everything will stay this "minimally affected" for you!

[Josh Bossie]

April showers bring May monsters: Village Monsters v0.70 is OUT NOW on all platforms!

Village Monsters is also 10% off all weekend!

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

Patch Notes:
http://bit.ly/3fd6gjF

[Josh Bossie]

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!

• Release Notes: https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/679830/view/2206145589379718170
• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/679830/Village_Monsters/
• Itch: https://josh-bossie.itch.io/village-monsters

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

[JobLeonard]

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!

Attaboy!

[Josh Bossie]

Village Monsters v0.80 is out now! Village progression! Library exhibits! Character customization! Lots more!

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/679830/Village_Monsters/
Release Notes: https://steamcommunity.com/games/679830/announcements/detail/2602468245776996749

[JobLeonard]

Very nice update! Good call on releasing it "early" - you're in beta anyway, people expect half-finished stuff

Awww... Stapes is a good boi