Village Monsters News

Village Monsters v1.06 fixes one of the most annoying bugs I have ever been responsible for: the dreaded duplicating cutscenes. It also cleans up a number of other major and minor bugs that have been reported.

Work continues on the much larger update which I'm tentatively calling v1.1.

[h3]Bugs Squashed[/h3]

• MAJOR: Fixed an issue where cutscenes would repeat indefinitely
  
• MAJOR: Fixed a crash with cutscenes
  
• MAJOR: Fixed a crash when interacting with tamed critters outside of the barn
  
• Fixed issue where skipping a cutscene could cause problems in other cutscenes
  
• Fixed seeds not properly stocking / restocking in the general store
  
• Fixed a number of issues that could prevent "flavor" critters from spawning
  
• Fixed various typos and other embarrassing gaffs
  
• Improved performance across Linux platforms

Note: There may be a rare instance in which you see a cutscene repeat one additional time. However, they should not repeat further after this. If they do, please report it as a bug. In general, any save older than Spring 10th is fixed.

It's been exactly one week since Village Monsters v1.0 was released.

Village Monsters is my first ever creation. I am very proud of the work I did, and the many kind words I've received from players has been beyond heartwarming.

I have notebooks from back when I was in 1st grade detailing a game where you live with video game monsters, and now nearly 30 years later... it's real! People are playing it!

But, to be frank, Village Monsters is in a very rough state right now. I've already released 5 bugfix patches, and after looking at the reports on my desk, I have a long way to go.

I want to use this post to address the biggest problems, how they came about, and what I'm doing to fix them.

[h3]The Problems[/h3]

My top priority right now is fixing the issues that were introduced during the final push.

For context, a technical bug with my developer tools caused me to lose 2 months worth of work the literal night before the original launch date. It sucked. You can read more details here.

I had already been crunching for months, so this last-minute disaster nearly broke me. In a fit of reckless optimism, I opted to manually stich the game back together over the course of a week. I had hoped adrenaline and the code being "fresh" in my mind would help pull off a miracle.

I was stupid and exhausted. While my approach ultimately was "successful", it has (predictably) introduced far more problems into the game than before.

Over the last week, I've identified two of the largest ones.

Problem #1

World Flags are not working properly across the board. These flags control nearly everything in the game, such as holidays, events, and story cutscenes. The knock-on effects are tremendous, and it's my top priority to fix.

Problem #2

There are many features that were disabled in the final moments of release. Some intentionally (due to time constraints), others due to bugs or source control issues. There are many lingering issues due to this. My next priority is to test, fix, and reenable these features.


[h3]The Solution[/h3]

I've been investigating my code and player save files since last week. I have a really good idea of what needs to be fixed and how, and I've already started on working through it. Things are going very well, especially now that I've had a chance to sleep and regroup.

You guys deserve a fixed and polished game, and no amount of words, roadmaps or timelines will get you that faster. To this end, I'll continue doing rapid smaller patches to fix crashes and urgent bugs, but I'll otherwise keep a low profile until I've finished the work necessary.

I want to extend an enormous thank you to everyone who has supported me. From the very first Kickstarter, to 2019's Early Access release, to last week's v1.0 launch. I don't take any of you for granted, and I won't stop working on Village Monsters until it's in a state worthy of your support.

Hey Villagers

Village Monsters v1.05 ​is now available, and it fixes exactly one bug. It's a terrible one, so I wanted to provide a longer explanation.

The bug occurs during the Cool Stuff event in the Summer. It's bugged, and it loads a cutscene with no dialogue. To avoid crashing, the game attempts to pull dialogue from another source - in this case, debug dialogue.

The dialogue it randomly chose is extremely inappropriate and contains offensive language. v1.05 disables the event entirely and removes all offending text from the game outright.

[h3]Why is this "inappropriate" text in the game at all?[/h3]

​There are two features in Village Monsters where I check for profanity and slurs.

​Players can send letters to villagers, and villagers attempt to "read" what you send them. I have profanity checks in place to see if you're sending them awful things and they will respond negatively if so.

In addition, there was once a feature where villagers could reply back to your letters using the same words and language you used in the letter. It used a type of text generation known as a Markov Chain. I have further checks here to ensure that the simple AI used to create these letters didn't accidentally send something awful.

To test both of these features, I had ~40 lines of text that I used for sending letters. 10 of these lines of text purposefully contain inappropriate words to ensure the game handles them correctly. The line in the Cool Stuff cutscene is one of those.

---

Even though this text was never meant to be seen by a player, I should have taken far better precautions.

To this end, I have deleted all offensive debug text I used for testing, and will use a different solution for this testing going forward.

I am so sorry. It's beyond inappropriate that people had to see this. I hope my explanation makes sense, but obviously I understand any damage has already been done. I can only hope to regain your trust.

[h2]Bugs Squashed[/h2]

• MAJOR: Fixed further softlocks due to incorrect flags in the intro
  
• MAJOR: Fixed further crashes related to skipping cutscenes
  
• MAJOR: Fixed crash when talking to Mock in the first few weeks of the game
  
• MAJOR: Fixed crash when talking to Zigi in the summer
  
• Fixed time staying paused when re-entering the town hall basement
  
• (The town hall basement, long considered haunted, has finally been expunged of evil spirits and associated curses and bad luck)
  

[h2]Investigating[/h2]

The following are a list of reported (or discovered) problems that require more investigation. I will update ETAs as I understand more about the problems.

• There appears to be an issue with projects (Village & Home) that I am currently investigating
  
• Events (Holidays, birthdays, etc.) do not appear to be triggering.
  
• Console is not working correctly. The cause is under investigation

Three patches in three days!

...I suppose that's not something I should be super proud of...

I believe I've cracked the majority of the urgent bugs that crop up in the first few days of the game, so I'll now turn my attention to other matters.

I anticipate releasing a new patch every 1-2 days as fixes roll in.

[h2]Bugs Squashed[/h2]

• MAJOR: Fixed softlock caused by going back in the basement after finding the key
  
• MAJOR: Fixed crash caused by duplicate lost items
  
• Fixed progression issue related to trash and propaganda in the village
  
• Fixed incorrectly lighting from being used in the morning in some instances
  
• Fixed a large number of minor issues related to the transition from night to morning
  
• Fixed issue causing a huge number of treasure spots from appearing each day
  
• Fixed overlap bug for Pishky and Alistair in Overflow on day 1
  

[h2]Changes / Balance[/h2]

• Reduced spawn rates for items in the village
  
• Added more details sent in the Report Bug feature to help investigate other bugs and issues reported
  

[h2]Investigating[/h2]

The following are a list of reported (or discovered) problems that require more investigation. I will update ETAs as I understand more about the problems.

• There appears to be an issue with projects (Village & Home) that I am currently investigating
  
• Events (Holidays, birthdays, etc.) do not appear to be triggering.
  
• Console is not working correctly. The cause is under investigation