Village Monsters News

It's been awhile since I've done a proper devlog, so I want to start with something small. So small, in fact, that it's only 48x48 pixels: today I'm talking dialogue portraits!

Portraits are an important part of any game with a lot of dialogue text, but for a solo project like Village Monsters it's absolutely essential.

I have neither the skill nor money to create fancy animations or sexy cutscenes. Instead, I have to rely on writing and dialogue portraits to convey the personality of a villager and the tone of a conversation.



Until recently, the portraits in game were just a villager's overworld sprite scaled and touched up. It was a cheap solution, though a surprising number of people enjoyed the low fidelity look.

But I knew I had to completely redo them for version 1.0, so for the last month or so I've been chipping away at my giant to-do list and improving portraits one by one.

With over 32 villagers (and nearly that many minor NPCs), this has been no easy task! So let's take a look at a few examples of what I have so far.















As you can see, I opted to give each monster a full makeover as I went through them. I'm trying to minimize how many "rework" type tasks I'm doing this close to release, but I'm really happy with how these updated portraits are looking.

I limited myself to a 48x48 base, but villagers are allowed to exceed these boundaries if they have particularly large distinguishing features. I mean, these are monsters - you can't force them to fit into a box.



Before I end today's post, I want to share one last thing I've been experimenting with: lip sync during dialogue!

Here's an example:



The new portraits make it easy to add (basic) movement like this, and I think it makes conversations feel much more dynamic. However, I worry it may be a bit too distracting, so I may tweak or get rid of it altogether.

What do you think?

In any case, Village Monsters v1.0 can be seen on the horizon, so I'll have much more to talk about very soon. Later tater!

I'm thrilled to announce that Village Monsters is taking part in IndieWorldOrder Con! This is a unique (virtual!) convention hosting a huge number of indie games big and small. You can read more about it - and explore the islands yourself - on their download page!

For the duration of the convention (April 2nd), you can grab Village Monsters for 30% OFF! Wow!

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

[h2]Hey, When is v1.0 Releasing?[/h2]
Spring 2021! Actually, hold on - let me look at my weather app real quick.



Oh... oh I see. It's already spring!

Things are still nice and on schedule. Right now I'm aiming for an early May release, though I'm sure things will be in flux right up until the end. I've been flying by the seat of my pants for the past 4 years - what's a few more weeks?

Also, I know I've been somewhat quieter than usual. It's tricky balancing out work and communication at this stage, but I'll try to get some more dev logs out soon. Promise.

We are *so close*, you guys! I'm super excited for the grand reopening of Village Monsters, and it's just around the corner. Talk to you soon! Real soon!

Village Monsters v0.90.5 is now live on all platforms. This is a small bugfix / feedback release, and will likely be the final update before work begins on the full release (v1.0) of Village Monsters! More on that later.

Have a good weekend!

[h3]Patch Notes[/h3]

• Small improvements to the new library job
  
• Small improvements to the dump and Garboar
  
• Fixed item ratings / attributes being lost when stored or retrieved from your stash
  
• Fixed rotation issue with the calendar page of your journal
  
• Fixed crash related to the Sunken Treasure perk
  
• Fixed issue when giving gifts to Lindwyrm
  
• Fixed phantom door near Edmund and Calista's home
  
• Fixed a number of blank entries for regional drinks
  
• Fixed a further number of issues with pronouns
  
• Fixed a number of incorrect exhibits in the library
  
• Various other fixes and improvements
  

This is a small bugfix release for Village Monsters v0.90 and makes the following changes.

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]
Greatly improved performance on Linux and Mac
Added several new odd jobs to the board listing
Worked and added new story cutscenes to the start of the game (New Games only)
Reworked how critter feeding works. In general, food storage now lasts much longer
Changed up critter food trough to visibly show when food is running low
Combined the Fish and Critter collection pages into one journal section
Added new titles for each hobby skill level
Moved the records page of your journal to the System tab and added a whole bunch of new records to track
NOTE: Some records for loaded games will be incorrect as they weren't being tracked until this release
Reworked how the pass out mechanic works
You are now given one last chance between losing all your energy and forcing yourself to stay awake. When you see the "Exhausted" effect it's time to eat some food or get some rest immediately
Improved the garbage dump
Villagers now universally hate being gifted trash
Added new winter variants for a number of buildings
Improved look of puddles
Improved the look of flower and grass sway
Improved the look and behavior of several critters
Added new nicknames to the critter name generator
Fixed "pest" critters (Fraley Snake, Tank Treader, Queenly Ant, and Sour Worm) from displaying erroneous sprites when stabled
Fixed a number of incorrect pronouns
Fixed a rare crash in Bonfire Beach
Fixed additional situations where the player's name wasn't used correctly
Fixed doughies displaying their descriptions instead of their names
Fixed graphical bug on the calendar

This is a small bugfix release for Village Monsters v0.90 and makes the following changes:

• Fixed crash when talking with the Clam Before The Storm
  
• Fixed crash when attempting to change your name on Three Wall Island
  
• Stopped villagers from referring to you as "Josh"
  
• Fixed incorrect placement for the skill exp bars in some resolutions
  
• Fixed mail keys from not working properly
  
• Added the option to change both your character name and "username" at Three Wall Island