Village Monsters News

Village Monsters has been in development for 5 years and finally releases this Wednesday, March 16th.

I figure now is as good a time as any to reveal what you actually do in Village Monsters!

...

I'm only sort of joking!



in all seriousness, five years is an awful long time, and the game has changed drastically since the original Kickstarter in 2017 and Early Access release in 2019.

You'll hardly recognize it when it releases this Wednesday, so I think a reintroduction is in order!

[h2]Our Story Begins[/h2]

Village Monsters starts out like most games: with the imminent destruction of a once-peaceful village.

Eidolon Village is a community of monsters that has recently lost a fight against the most ancient of evils: an apathetic real estate conglomerate. The MTX Corporation own the land the village is on and believe it'd be better served if it was Involuntarily Redeveloped into a casino & resort.

Most everyone in the village is resigned to their fate - that is, until you unexpectedly show up in town. A human. The first one this world has seen in centuries.



You're immediately arrested, of course. The many crimes of humanity are too numerous to list, and too obvious to dwell on here. The old laws say that all members of humanity must be exiled into the Glitchwood.

Except Judge Ribberts has a different plan for you. You are instead sentenced to two years community service and immediately put into the employ of Eidolon Village.

Your job: help the townsfolk restore Eidolon Village. Transform it into a respectable community that no one would dare dream of destroying. Prove that you're both worth saving!



[h2]Saving a Village[/h2]

You'll have your work cut out for you.

Eidolon Village is an old frontier village that has seen better days. Buildings are old and weathered, the villagers are demoralized, and nobody outside the village has even heard of the place, let alone cares what happens to it.

Your finely honed gamer senses are probably kicking in already. That's right, each of the above problems represents a possible avenue to save the village.

[h3]Rally the Community[/h3]
A unified community can stand up to anything. Unfortunately, this village is far from unified. Everyone is too distracted by their own problems to focus on anything else. If someone could just help them sort their troubles, then perhaps they'd be able to come together and fight.

Do you like games where you can complete social links and make friends? Do you like giving gifts and doing odd jobs for villagers? Then focus on Community Morale tasks!



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[h3]Become a Tourist Destination![/h3]
Out of sight, out of mind: it's hard to build a grassroots campaign for a podunk village most people have never heard of. But not even the MTX Corporation wouldn't have the gall to demolish a beloved tourist destination, especially one with a vibrant economy.

Do you enjoy town building, mastering productivity loops, and tinkering with (and eventually demolishing) a game's economy? Take a look at everything under the Tourism & Economy!



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[h3]Achieve Heritage Status[/h3]
You're way out in the frontier which is full of undiscovered mysteries. A comprehensive survey of the flora, fauna, and artifacts of the area is sure to get the Imperial College's attention. They'll lend your their protection if you can prove that the village has historical and ecological importance.

Are you a collector? A completionist? Then you'll love tasks marked as Heritage & Culture[



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These three avenues are represented in-game via Community Service Tasks. Each completed task, regardless of category, awards Village Points. Earn enough points and Eidolon Village will level up, granting additional perks and bonuses.

You don't need to reach max village level to save the village, so can pick and choose which tasks you find the most interesting - or the easiest for you to achieve.



[h2]Inspiration[/h2]

This might sound somewhat unusual, but I'm actually basing this system one of my all-time favorites, Baldur's Gate 2

In that game, there's a section in which the party is tasked with accruing 50,000 gold and then set loose upon the city. How you gather that gold - via questing, thievery, monster hunting, etc. - depends entirely on your play style

I wanted to bring this system to a life sim game. It allows the game to be open-ended while still providing guidance and direction via tasks.



[h2]Wait, hold on, I thought this game was about--[/h2]

Shh!!

If you've followed Village Monsters since the start you may have noticed some things that are missing. These elements are still very much present, but have been moved away from the forefront.

You'll see.

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That's all for now! See you on March 16th!

Let's start with the most important thing: Village Monsters v1.0 is looking fantastic!

This time last month I came to you, hat in hand, apologizing for yet another delay. I'm very happy to say that won't be happening again. We are full systems go for next week's March 16th release. Look forward to it!

With Village Monsters finally graduating from Early Access, I thought it was high time to go over some frequently asked questions. Please take a look!



[h2]FAQs[/h2]

How long will it take to complete the game?

The story of Village Monsters takes place over two in-game years. This will take you about 30-40 hours to finish.

For people that want to do everything, you're looking at 50+ hours or more.


Are there plans for future updates and DLC?

Yes. Version 1.0 is the culmination of 5 years worth of blood, sweat, and Rockstar Pure Zero, but it's also the chance to look toward the future.

If you've been with me for a while, you may remember the Feedback Releases of yore. These were a rapid number of updates that came out after a release in response to bug reports, feedback, suggestions, etc.

I'm planning to spend the latter half of March and maybe even part of April on Feedback Releases for v1.0.

After that? I have no shortage of ideas and plans for updates and DLC, but right now I'm 100% focused on getting v1.0 out the door, so you'll need to wait a little bit longer to hear the details.

All future updates will be free for everyone and forever.


Will there be a launch sale? Will the price increase?

Yes, there will be a launch sale to coincide with next week's release of v1.0. I don't want to tell you how to spend your money, but if you don't already own the game then I would hold off purchasing the game until then.

There will be no price increase. I originally planned to raise it to $20, but I believe $15 is still the sweet spot for games like Village Monsters, so I will keep it there.


Will my Early Access save carry over to v1.0?

No, with some exceptions.

The game has changed drastically since the last publicly playable version, making it technically almost impossible to carry saves over. In addition, now that the game has a story and progression, starting fresh is the only practical way forward.

However, you may import your Early Access save when starting v1.0 for the first time. This will carry over a small number of things as well as grant you a special reward for being an early supporter.


Does the game have a time limit?

Yes. After arriving to the village, you'll learn that its future is in jeopardy: the cruel MTX Corporation is planning on demolishing it in two years time. You must save the village before then.

The time limit is an important part of how the game is designed, and I think you'll find it's more than enough to get the job down without causing undue anxiety.

However, I know some people find the presence of a limit to be too stressful. As such, you may disable the time limit if you wish.


Will v1.0 include Steamworks features like achievements, cloud saves, etc?

Yes.


Is modding supported?

Personally, I am 100% in support of people modding the game as much as they want. Games belong to gamers.

Unfortunately, the engine I created Village Monsters in - GameMaker Studio 2 - does not have much in the way of native modding support. I will need to investigate what is and isn't possible after launch.

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That's all for today! Until next time, humans!

Next Wednesday was supposed to be the release of Village Monsters v1.0. Unfortunately, I still have too many things left to do, and not enough time to do them.

This means I need to delay the release one more time.

[h3]Village Monsters v1.0 will now release March 16th, 2022.[/h3]

I'm really sorry, everyone. This was not an easy decision.

A number of new problems were found during the final rounds of testing. Some can be ignored or fixed later, but many are "Must Fix".

This additional month will give me the extra time needed to ensure v1.0 is a finished and polished release worthy of its version number.

Read on to learn more.





This really sucks.

For the last month I've been performing final "audits" on all the features and content in the game. And just like real life tax audit, it's been a painful process.

(An example of an audit. In this case, a bunch of fish. And they're all going to jail for tax fraud.)

These audits revealed lots of very silly bugs, features I thought were finished but aren't, and even a save corruption issue.

This is normal for every release, and I thought I had planned for it. But as the list grew and multiplied like a hydra, I realized I'd need to start crunching hard - even 18+ hours a day might not have been enough.



I think short term crunch is a necessary evil. But I've been crunching for awhile, and I just can't do that much more work in that short amount of time.

The other option was to do as much as I could, release the game as-is, and fix the rest in a post-launch update. However, I'm very much against that. You've already had to wait a year+ for this release. The idea of releasing something called "v1.0" that's unfinished is frankly unacceptable. I'd rather take the reputation hit of a delay and release a finished product I'm proud of.

I'm certainly no stranger to delays and schedule shifts - so much so that I made fun of myself in the announcement trailer - and I thought I was past making those mistakes. It's really disappointing to be making another post like this.

But I know it's the right decision for the game, for you guys, and for me. So bear with me one last time, and look forward to Village Monsters v1.0 on March 16th!

After 5 years in development, Village Monsters has finally, mercifully, earned itself a release date.

Please take a look!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Village Monsters will be releasing on Steam, for PC / Mac / Linux, on February 16th, 2022!

It's not easy to create a game, let alone finish one, but the support I've received from the community has always been tremendous. Thank you so much to everyone who has shared words of encouragement, advice, and excitement these past 5 years.

Just a few short weeks remaining! See you on the other side.

I'm sitting here at my desk while it snows outside. The kid is playing with his Hot Wheels, my wife is playing Picross S, and I've had way too many of those delicious Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes.

It is truly a perfect Christmas. Hope you and yours are having a wonderful holiday time!


The holidays mean many things to many people. For game developers on Steam, it means a constant stream of sales from Halloween through New Years.

On a related note, Village Monsters is on sale for 40% OFF for the duration of the Steam Winter Sale!

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


A release day update? At this time of year, at this time of day, on this website, localized entirely within this dev log?

Yes!

Well, sort of.

Last week I posted a large update to Kickstarter where I shared a bunch of project updates. This included a detailed week-by-week schedule leading up to v1.0's release.

You can head over there for the full details, but the key point is this: v1.0 is only weeks away.



The next couple weeks will be full of work and family time in equal measure, but after that we enter a period where the game could drop at any time. You could literally wake up on morning and bam, there's a brand new trailer and release day announcement on your timeline.

It's been a long... long journey, and I appreciate you all so much for sticking with me. I can promise you one thing: Village Monsters v1.0 will be worth the wait.