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[Josh Bossie]

When I posted about a hail mary I sincerely didn't expect it to actually happen! But here we are sitting at 12 hours to go with less than $2,500 remaining. This is all thanks to an incredibly generous backer at another forum I go to.

I was resigned to my failure as of a couple days ago, but this has reignited me in a major way. It's within reach now!

I had thought my previous post was the last time I'd beg y'all for support, but no such luck. I'm so close, you guys. Please consider backing so we can reach the finish line!

[thefoolishbrave]

When I posted about a hail mary I sincerely didn't expect it to actually happen! But here we are sitting at 12 hours to go with less than $2,500 remaining. This is all thanks to an incredibly generous backer at another forum I go to.

I was resigned to my failure as of a couple days ago, but this has reignited me in a major way. It's within reach now!

I had thought my previous post was the last time I'd beg y'all for support, but no such luck. I'm so close, you guys. Please consider backing so we can reach the finish line!

DUDE YOU FREAKIN' DID IT CONFREAKINGRATULATIONS! MUST FEEL SUPER AWESOME MAN

[Josh Bossie]

It took some last minute heroics from one very passionate and generous backer, but that opened the floodgates and now I'm sitting here stunned that it actually funded. Village Monsters is going to live!

There's less than an hour to go, but I wanted to announce one last surprise here - all backers at $25 and above will get an ADDITIONAL copy of the game for the Nintendo Switch once it releases.

Once I figured out getting it on the Switch was attainable I had planned this as a big announcement, but then I scrapped the plans once it looked like the campaign was failing. It was tough getting everything back together, and I wish I could have done it with more fanfare, but I guess scrambling to communicate good news is better than scrambling to communicate bad news

[JobLeonard]

Congratulations!

[Stricle]

OMG, you did it!
Congratulations on the campaign!

[s_harriton]

Congrats dude!

[Alce]

Wasn't sure it'd make it, but I'm so glad it did! Congratulations!

[Josh Bossie]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! It was a long, strange journey, but I'm so thankful for the folks that supported me and my game.

I ended up taking most of the weekend off which was a pretty novel thing to do. I'm back at it today, though it's slow going.

I should be back to weekly updates starting this weekend (though I also have a wedding to go to!). I'm also going to be mixing some things up based on stuff I've learned / experienced since I started. More to come!

[Pixel Noise]

So psyched for this! 

[Josh Bossie]

...and we're back!

It seems like every single day since the Kickstarter ended there has been one thing after another...doctor appointments, car appointments, flying to a wedding 3500 miles away, a very bad stomach bug...

It's been awhile, but I should be back to normal at long last. Let's see if I remember how to do this Dev Diary Digest thing...

What's in a name?
There's a part in one of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books that talks about learning how to fly. In short, it involves throwing yourself at the ground and then becoming so distracted by something surprising that you forget to hit the dirt. Tada, you're flying!

I mention this because at times it feels like my brain works the same way. I've had a lot of unnamed characters in the game for awhile now, and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't figure out their names.

Then I spent the last week being very distracted and then bam, all of a sudden all these names come flooding into my head.

Many villagers will placeholder names have now been renamed. The post-punk pixie postwoman has been named Glimmer. Rainboy, the elemental, has been renamed Boros. The ever-popular cola ghost has been named Ebey.

Along with their new names I also took the time to better flesh out their personalities and motivations. I'm looking forward to reintroducing all of them to you!

Camera Work
A number of improvements have been made to the game's camera.

The biggest change is that the camera is now a great deal more zoomed out. The previous camera was a bit too claustrophobic, and I certainly wasn't doing my sprites any favors by making them that large.

You also have the ability to switch to the previous zoom level at any time, though I may change that.

The dynamic camera has again been re-enabled for what feels like the 3rd or 4th time. I think it's here to stay now.

Finally, a number of draw distance changes / improvements have been implemented.


An Informative Toolbelt
One common complaint from previous releases is that some abilities are just not clear enough - that's to be expected this early in the process, but I've been making it a priority to improve the overall usability of the game.

A new toolbelt menu has been added that makes it easier to see which tools you have as well as their names and descriptions for how they work.

In the future this menu will be expanded so that you use left / right to navigate to the category of tool (like Critter Catching Equipment) and then use up / down to select the specific tool (Bug Net, Traps, etc.)

Like all UI it'll be a work in progress right up until the 11th hour, but I'm much happier with this than what I had before.

[Josh Bossie]

I'm still having trouble getting my sea legs, assuming "sea legs" means making time for regular updates!

Anyway, it's still technically the weekend so I'm not late yet! Let's dig into this week's Dev Diary Digest.

IMPROVED GRAPHICS
If you could somehow make a word cloud of my all my posts and tweets in the last year then I'm sure "I'm not an artist!" would stand out.

I mean, it's true - I'm not an artist! - but I'm going to stop using that as a caveat and instead focus on getting better.

Here's some things I improved this week. 

First, I prettied up the initial player house (it's still a shack, though) and the dog house upgrade. I also added new fog effects to differentiate it as a weather type

Here's a WIP version of the new player character (male). Not implemented in game yet, but I like him a lot better than the old model

Finally, I've started making the UI more colorful than it was before. This is still a mighty WIP, but a lot of my UI design before was brown, black, or white, and that seem antithetical to a game that's meant to be colorful and cartoony

Here's a mockup of the new inventory + new tool icons

NEW SOUND EFFECTS
I can't exactly make screenshots of these changes, but this week I spent a lot of time on adding new sound effects and improving the ones that are there.

There are improved footstep sound effects for inside and outside, new sound effects for using tools, interacting with furniture, more ambient sounds, and much more.

FISHING CHANGES
Finally, I've been fleshing out fishing. It's been one of the weaker hobbies for awhile and it needed a lot of love.

First, I added two new features:

1. Your fishing skill now controls how well you can identify a fish before you actually hook it. Novice fishermen will see just vague silhouettes, while seasoned fishermen will see full details and labels. This'll make catching rare or valuable fish a lot easier

2. You now have a net you can deploy while fishing. Unlike the rod, you have almost no control after you toss it into the water. However! If it hits a fish it ensnares them in place which makes it much easier to hook and reel to the surface. It also adds a bit more variety to fishing instead of just watching your line

Beyond those new features, I've also overhauled a lot of the graphics, sounds, and behaviors. Fish now behave a bit more fish-like, the casting / hooking mechanics have been re-balanced, and there are actual animations for most actions. It's a big improvement! I hope.

[Josh Bossie]

Phew, it's been some time since I posted here. That's not an indication of a lack of game progress, however! I've been very hard at work and have done an absolute ton since my last post in November

I became burnt out posting updates to all the various forums I frequent. It's surprisingly annoying to reformat posts and pictures for each forum, and I decided to take a break...then the holidays hit, and it went on for a bit too long.

But I'm back!

Ok, I won't overwhelm y'all with a giant list of everything that's changed, so here's a few highlights (in screenshot form, of course)

I've been making a whole lotta graphical improvements these last 2-3 months. New colors, new player sprite, improved animations, new GUI elements, new buildings and decor, etc. etc. Too much to list! Still a ways to go, but I'm happy with the trajectory.

Here are some GUI improvements for the inventory screen.

Similarly, the village has gone through a lot...a lot of changes. What was once one map has now been split into several "districts" in order to give each area the love, personality, and 'feel' they deserve.

The above shot is from the Residential district where villagers have total freedom over their homes - which is why the dwarven brothers built a fort into the mountain.

Speaking of "feel", I've been hard on work adding "clutter" to interiors and exteriors. New furniture, knick-knacks, and so on. It's going to be one of those things where I overdo it and then scale back, I think.

Of course, for a game like Village Monsters the real meat is with the villagers, their personalities, and the dialogue, so I've been hard at work on those areas as well. At last count I have well over 300 lines of dialogue and something like 6,000 words, which is a whole lot, but it's only going to get bigger.

Phew, ok, I think that's enough for one post. There are also new weather effects, helper icons, better movement, resolution support, system menu settings, new critters, new AI behaviors, etc. etc.

Village Monsters is fast approaching the release date - October of this year! Right now I'm in that period of new features and polish of old features, and I get the sense this'll be my life for a long while

[foofter]

Aww, evil tree is so cute! Varied clutter is one of the things missing from my game... Have fun with that and all the dialogue! :D

[Pixel Noise]

Awesome! Loving the graphical improvements.

[Josh Bossie]

What an insanely productive month it's been.

A couple weeks back I took the time to sit down and really analyze the primary game loops. I came away from this exercise with a much clearer picture of what I wanted to focus on in the form of 4 primary game loops:

- Making friends (or rivals) with villagers
- Completing your collections (critters, fish, treasures, plants, etc.)
- Expanding and building up the village
- Expanding and upgrading your home

This past week I focused on that last point, and lemme tell you...I mean business with this whole 'sense of progress' thing

You no longer start the game in a house! Instead, you start out by renting a room at the local inn. There's story justification, but it's also to introduce the player into the upgrade loop.

I really like what it's done to the start of the game. With almost no additional prodding the player is immediately incentivized to start finding things to sell, engaging with the various systems available to them, seeking out work for money, etc.

Upgrades for your home will be frequent but expensive, and it'll almost always be your main driver for interacting with the 'economy' of the game.

I've also been giving more love to areas outside the village which I'm calling he "outskirts". Some areas - like the above farm - will be related to the village and you'll find villagers and activities there on occasion

Other areas will just be for exploring. I'm definitely going to lean into some video game tropes here; you can expect to find deserts, snow-covered mountains, and haunted forests all suspiciously close to one another.

My original intent was for areas outside of town to be a bigger part of the game, but after refocusing the primary game loops I've decided to scale a lot of it back (maybe DLC?). Instead I've taken way more time to focus on...

...villagers!

In a previous life I was a Business Analyst, and part of my job was coming up with 'personas' for all the various users that used our software.

I've long wanted to create profiles for the villagers of Village Monsters, but I kept dragging my feet - until now!

It's been *immensely* valuable for writing dialogue and stories. Until now most of these guys have lived only in my head, and it's been getting crowded in there.

Getting everything down in this format has helped me identify natural points of conflict or interest, and it's let me ensure everyone feels unique and fleshed out.

For example, Saley was one of the first villagers I conceived of, and since the beginning he was always going to be "a kind of jerk skeleton that was powerful enough to guard the village".

As I made the profile of him other characteristics suddenly popped into my head - that he would love exercise and fitness, that he aspires to rule the village, that he's insecure about the fact he may actually be powerless to protect anyone

It's been a lot of fun, and I hope it pays dividends later in the year when I'm just writing line after line of dialogue

[JobLeonard]

In a previous life I was a Business Analyst, and part of my job was coming up with 'personas' for all the various users that used our software.

I've long wanted to create profiles for the villagers of Village Monsters, but I kept dragging my feet - until now!

It's been *immensely* valuable for writing dialogue and stories. Until now most of these guys have lived only in my head, and it's been getting crowded in there.

Love it! Please tell me these personal bios will be in the game somehow? Maybe unlockable or something?

[foofter]

Aw, cute! And I like the Tarot card part, too.   

[Josh Bossie]

In a previous life I was a Business Analyst, and part of my job was coming up with 'personas' for all the various users that used our software.

I've long wanted to create profiles for the villagers of Village Monsters, but I kept dragging my feet - until now!

It's been *immensely* valuable for writing dialogue and stories. Until now most of these guys have lived only in my head, and it's been getting crowded in there.

Love it! Please tell me these personal bios will be in the game somehow? Maybe unlockable or something?

Yes! You have an in-game journal that tracks everything in the game, and there's an entire section for villagers - their bios, relationship level with you, etc.!

[JobLeonard]

 

I don't know about anyone else, but for these types of games, filling up the journal with back-story is almost my main motivation to play

[Zireael]

Ditto, in-game journal seems a must for this kind of a game.