Village Monsters News

[h2]Bugs Squashed[/h2]

• MAJOR: Fixed common crash when digging up certain items (they would appear as just a red X)
  
• MAJOR: Fixed instances were skipping a cutscenes results in a crash
  
• MAJOR: Fixed rare crash related to mail and packages
  
• Fixed SFX issue with the pick with the last swing
  
• Fixed issue where certain treasures had an incorrect sprite
  
• Various typos fixed
  

[h2]Changes / Balance[/h2]

• Generally, digging spots takes a couple extra swings with a Level 1 pick axe
  
• Skipping cutscenes is now smoother and less jarring
  

[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

[h2]Bugs Fixed[/h2]

• Major: Fixed crash during the 2nd day when speaking with a villager
  
• Fixed a number of "flavor SFX" (birds etc.) from being incorrectly loud during cutscenes
  
• Typo Corrections
  

Sorry to keep you waiting!

Village Monsters v1.0 - "The Big One" has launched! It is now available on all platforms.



Everything!



[h3]Story & Progression[/h3]

The biggest change in v1.0 is the addition of story and progression elements.

You are a human who has arrived at Eidolon Village - a town of monsters - in surprising fashion. Unfortunately for you, humans aren't welcome in this world anymore.

As you await your fate, you learn that the village has something more important to worry about: it's scheduled for imminent destruction.

Soon after, your freedom is tied to the fate of Eidolon. The village is given a short two year reprieve, and now it's up to you - through court-mandated community service - to save the village and win your freedom.





[h3]More Stuff[/h3]

There's more critters to catch, more fish to hook, more plants to grow, more treasures to discover, new secrets, new perks, new visitors, new events, new areas to explore, more dialogue, more cutscenes, more friends, more enemies.

Chances are, if you liked something about Village Monsters before, there's even more of it to enjoy now.





[h3]Less Stuff...?![/h3]

Features and content that weren't working great in Early Access have been trimmed, simplified, or cut entirely.

Some things may return in future updates - especially the things that were cut recently to avoid further delays.

However, many are consigned forever to oblivion - and good riddance! I think everyone will agree that Village Monsters is a tighter and more complete experience without the extra baggage.





[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]

An endless number of changes have been made to make the game easier, simpler, and more fun to play.

The economy, energy expenditures, passage of time, and more have been tweaked and rebalanced to be smoother.

Many new user interface elements have been added or modified to make things easier. Filters help you manage your inventory better, while new dialogue menu makes interacting with villagers more dynamic.





First: I'm going to get some rest. It's been a long week month year. I'm ready to catch my breath.

I then immediately have jury duty to worry about on the 23rd. Seriously. It's been a weird few weeks, guys.

Please expect a short amount of radio silence from me. I haven't gone anywhere, I'm just recharging my batteries.

After that, I'll start on the usual round of bugfixes, quality of life changes, and incorporating your feedback. As always, you can submit feedback in game, send me an email, a Twitter DM, or a Discord message.

I'm gonna level with you: I'll be spending a good deal of time fixing bugs. My list of "known bugs" is pretty big already, and I only expect it to grow after lots of new people start hammering away at this monstrous release.

I realize that sort of thing isn't something you should admit, generally speaking. But it's not like I can hide it. I've been more than transparent (for good or ill) about the woes I've been dealing with getting this release finished.

Don't worry, I'm here for the long haul. I got big plans for the future of Village Monsters.

For now: welcome home, humans!

It's been a strange week!

I began the week by sprinting confidently toward release, but just as I was about to cross the finish line I ran face-first into a brick wall.

It sucked. A lot. But dwelling on it won't help, so I've dusted myself off and I'm ready to move forward.



[h2]Current Status[/h2]

The manual workaround I spoke about last update has been completed successfully.

I am now re-testing the final version. I expect this to take the remainder of the weekend. Devs aren't able to do a weekend release anyway, so this actually works out.

Right now I am aiming for an early morning Tuesday release. This gives me the weekend to focus on testing, and then Monday I can wrap it up and go down my release checklist.

I have confirmed that I can build the final version of Village Monsters and can upload it on Steam and Itch, so there will be no further obstacles.

I will continue to post live updates on Twitter and Discord. I also did a developer live stream yesterday showcasing parts of the game while I tested things and answered questions.



[h2]What Happened?[/h2]

I want to be as transparent as possible about what caused all this, but the details are pretty technical.

In short, building the release version of Village Monsters caused my development environment (GameMaker Studio 2) to crash. I could run it just fine on my own computer using the virtual runner, but could not package it for release. This was a problem.

After much testing, and pulling hair out, I discovered the root cause. An IDE bug was causing a large number of junk files to clog up my project directory. These files were (apparently) harmless, but would lead to a crash when I tried to build the final release.

I use source control (git), but it was frustratingly unhelpful in this instance. The junk files were being created nearly every time I created a new asset, meaning nearly every commit since the bug was introduced contained junk files.

In addition, I could not simply cherry pick the "good" files and leave behind the junk files. It was all too intertwined, and removing the files outside the IDE caused even more file system corruption.

My only recourse was to clone the last good build of the game from January and manually port over the changes commit-by-commit. It was tedious work of nearly 300 commits, which is why it has taken me so long.

In addition, testing has become an even more important priority, as manual work (especially performed by a tired, cranky developer) is far more prone to errors and mistakes.

Thankfully that did the trick. I've gone through the entire release process multiple times with success. There should be no further issues.

It's now 1:00 PM Pacific time and Village Monsters v1.0 still hasn't released. I wanted to explain what's going on.

Late last night I encountered a very unexpected technical problem during the final stages of building the release. The good news is that it's unrelated to Village Monsters itself - it's a problem with my developer tools.

The bad news is that until it's fixed, I can't proceed with the release. It's like driving 3,000 miles to photograph the Grand Canyon, only to find your camera suddenly stopped working. It's an agonizing problem.

I have spent all day trying to find a workaround. Thankfully, I have one. However, it requires a lot of manual, time-consuming work. I can't find another alternative.

I'll need ~20 more hours to complete this work, plus another round of testing of the (new) "final" release.

This will force me to postpone the release by a few more days. I don't dare give another ETA until the final build is literally in my hands and ready for release, but the moment it's ready, it's all systems go.

This has been a very exhausting experience. Thank you all so much for your patience and support throughout. The kind words of encouragement I've received through Twitter and Discord have been wonderful, and more than I deserve.

Thank you!