Author Topic: [KICKSTARTER: 30% FUNDED!] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!  (Read 22098 times)

WarpDogsVG

  • Posts: 49
  • Karma: 0
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #45 on: August 13, 2017, 11:30:48 PM »
It's the weekend, and that means another edition of the Village Monsters Dev Diary Digest (VMD3)

There is now less than a month to go until the version I'm working on releases for you all to play with. This'll mark the very first Alpha version that I make public, and I'm pretty excited about it.

September is shaping up to be quite the month, and it's not just the Alpha release; stay tuned for more information on that very soon

A Day at the Beach
Due to the nature of the game it's not often that I get to create a new area, so it was a real nice change of pace to work on one this week.

Introducing...the beach.


The beach is just a short walk away from the village - just head south from the gate and keep going until you reach the surf.


Though you or I would consider such a trip to be a nice day out, it seems that monsters haven't really taken to the human notion of spending the day in the sun and sand. Unless there's a special event going on you're likely to find the area to be largely empty.

Still, you'll probably enjoy the solitude. You can catch fish, work on your tan, and nosh on some whoopie pies in peace.


Ancient Ruins of Soon
Longtime followers of the game know that I often try to slip in as many 'meta' elements as I can. After all, this is a game in which the conceit is that the NPCs have taken it over and the digital barrier between our worlds is thinner than ever - I'm hoping it gives me some artistic liberty

Alongside beaches I added another new area to visit, though this one won't make it to the final game. It's called the Ancient Ruins of Soon, and it's an area you can visit to consult stone tablets on prophecy...


...in other words? You can view my plans on future features and changes from the game instead of going to my website or elsewhere.

I tried to split it up by category, so if you want to know what the future holds for hobbies or story or your house then you can view just that information.

Even More UI Changes
This marks the 2nd week in a row in which UI changes made it to the top of my priority list. Here's a sampling of what I worked on this time.

Notifications have been slightly resized and now rotate so that the newest is always displayed at the bottom


Meeting villagers for the first time now produces a notification


The inventory now has context-sensitive prompts depending on the mode or item


Finally, I did an initial pass on an in-game version of the world map.


Ok, that'll do it for this week. Hope you're enjoying these dog days of summer, because I'm definitely not. I hate the heat. Autumn can't come fast enough!

Until next time


Kickstarter: Back Now!
Trailer: YouTube

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35495
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #46 on: August 14, 2017, 10:36:54 PM »
TINY HORSE! :D

Also yay, I like maps. Let me know a bit in advance of when you're about to go into alpha properly and we can put a properly timed frontpage announcement out for it :)

The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

WarpDogsVG

  • Posts: 49
  • Karma: 0
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #47 on: August 20, 2017, 11:12:39 PM »
It's the weekend, and that means another edition of the Village Monsters Dev Diary Digest (VMD3)

This edition is an extra-large one. I typically try to pick out the 3 most important things I worked on to share, but I was a real whirling dervish of productivity this week, and just 3 things ain't going to cut it. Enough talk, let's dig in.

A Preview of Seasons


Up until now, every screenshot I shared has been from 'Spring', but it's been somewhat misleading as Village Monsters is a game of many seasons and colors.

This week, I wanted to experiment with what different seasonal tilesets might look like, so I whipped up the above to test them out.

It'll likely change a few times between now and the final release, but I'm pretty happy with the colors and mood of each season.


New Additions to the Town
Last week's addition of the beach inspired me to do some further work to the village and surrounding areas.


The 'civic district' - such at that is - has seen some love. A new town plaza sits empty, but that won't be for long. A graveyard was added to the church, though I'm not sure what the monsters are planning for it.


The 'residential district' has also seen a new house pop up seemingly overnight. That skull really sticks out like a sore thumb, and Stapes & Saley (you know, the skeletal warriors that guard the gates) have been told to do something about it. Maybe next week.


Finally, a new area has been spotted east of the Crossroads. It's called the Overlook, and it's one of the best ways to get a view of the land outside the village. As with the beach, this area is usually pretty quiet. Maybe one day it'll make for a good gardening spot?


Compendium Vol. 2


The Compendium is a very important book that is much more than just a menu. It is a complete log of your adventures and exploits in the world. It tracks quests, villager profiles, critter and fish collections, a map, and much more.

The Compendium Vol. 2 does all these same things, but with a fresher coat of paint and some increased usability options.

I'm unsure at this stage how fleshed out the Compendium will be by Alpha 1's release, but at minimum you can expect some light tutorializing to via quests to be handled by the Compendium


A Grab Bag of Other Goodies

Stalking Critters


By holding the 'Swing Net' action you can now enter stalk mode. You move much slower, but animals will almost never run away from you. Be sneaky, but still be quick about it!


A System-level menu


Escape no longer dumps you from the game instantly. It now brings up a menu


Reworked Choices


Choices in dialog now works a bit differently. You simply hold the direction of the answer you want to give


Well, that'll do it for this week. Just a few more weeks before PAX, Alpha 1, and something pretty big. I'm pumped!


Kickstarter: Back Now!
Trailer: YouTube

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35495
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #48 on: August 20, 2017, 11:19:04 PM »
Could you fill the graveyard with the names of player characters (or mobs) who died in the hypothetical early 1990s playthroughs of the game? You could randomly generate them and a variety of amusing fates for them quite easily :)
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

WarpDogsVG

  • Posts: 49
  • Karma: 0
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #49 on: August 22, 2017, 10:54:20 PM »
Hah, yes, that's a good idea. I always like reading gravestones in games

Kickstarter: Back Now!
Trailer: YouTube

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35495
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #50 on: August 22, 2017, 11:00:53 PM »
Did you ever play any of the old "tales of middle earth" variants? I never got far with them, they're insanely difficult roguelikes, but I'd keep making kobold characters to see how fast they died, and ended up making two differently named "clans" because their histories started getting stored in the game's archives so I'd treat each run as the next generation trying to compete with the other clan to see which clan's characters lasted longest before death and got most glory in the ingame archive :P

I do like the seasonal stuff btw, good job :)
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

WarpDogsVG

  • Posts: 49
  • Karma: 0
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #51 on: August 24, 2017, 08:50:58 PM »
Did you ever play any of the old "tales of middle earth" variants? I never got far with them, they're insanely difficult roguelikes, but I'd keep making kobold characters to see how fast they died, and ended up making two differently named "clans" because their histories started getting stored in the game's archives so I'd treat each run as the next generation trying to compete with the other clan to see which clan's characters lasted longest before death and got most glory in the ingame archive :P

I do like the seasonal stuff btw, good job :)

I played a bit ToME4 which I understand is the more recent (and non-LotR) version. But I definitely agree with this, and its my favorite part of Roguelikes

Dwarf Fortress has this as well. In fact, the original intent of DF (though it's since changed) is to play city builder mode to create a wonderful fortress before it's overrun by demons or goblins or something else, and then to explore the ruins of your previous fort as an adventurer. As the adventurer you could examine engravings and artifacts and learn about the history of the people that inhabited the fort. It was all very cool.

Kickstarter: Back Now!
Trailer: YouTube

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35495
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #52 on: August 24, 2017, 09:16:02 PM »
Oh yeah, they changed it to tales of Maj'Eyal or something bogus like that to give themselves a bit more creative freedom or something, didn't they?

I should go have another go at Dwarf Fortress sometime, I know some people who love it, I didn't get into it the first time I played but I suspect I gave up too early on the learning curve.

I often do this on a smaller scale when making my own games: about half the NPCs in LIFE, my current project, are actually my testing characters who then got "promoted" to permanent NPC status. :)
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

WarpDogsVG

  • Posts: 49
  • Karma: 0
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #53 on: August 26, 2017, 03:54:59 AM »
That's awesome. That's actually my preferred method for adding nearly anything to the game - accidental features that become real features, test characters that get promoted to NPC status, etc. I love it when a feature or character has a story or context behind it!

Kickstarter: Back Now!
Trailer: YouTube

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35495
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #54 on: August 26, 2017, 11:08:18 PM »
Yeah, I should actually play up some of the character backstories more in my games, there's some fun stuff there that I know but the player doesn't get to see...
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

WarpDogsVG

  • Posts: 49
  • Karma: 0
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #55 on: August 27, 2017, 07:35:01 AM »
Attention all Freemonsters & Humans

BIG NEWS! Village Monsters is coming to Kickstarter on September 12th!

You can of course expect continued news and updates from me in this topic, but if you want to be the first to know when the Kickstarter drops then I definitely recommend signing up for the Village Monsters newsletter



Kickstarter: Back Now!
Trailer: YouTube

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35495
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #56 on: August 27, 2017, 08:12:43 PM »
Good stuff! We'll do our best to get some good promotional stuff out about it :)

(Also the freemonsters do sound a lot like freemasons, just sayin'...)
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

WarpDogsVG

  • Posts: 49
  • Karma: 0
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #57 on: August 28, 2017, 12:56:41 AM »
Hah! Well I guess it's kinda like a secret society...

Thank you for the offer of support! I'll need all the help I can get

Kickstarter: Back Now!
Trailer: YouTube

WarpDogsVG

  • Posts: 49
  • Karma: 0
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: [New Trailer & Demo] Village Monsters - Kinda like Animal Crossing!
« Reply #58 on: August 28, 2017, 07:35:06 PM »
Hello monster friends!

It's the weekend, and that means another edition of the Village Monsters Dev Diary Digest (VMD3)

Today's update is both late and briefer than usual, but I hope i have a good excuse: with PAX being this week, Alpha 1 release next week, and Kickstarter kicking off the week after that, I've been pretty dang busy.

So no preamble this week - let's just get onto it!

Under Construction
The majority of my time last week was spent on improving the village in some pretty major ways.

First, I created and furnished four new homes for monsters to live in (though they're still pretty sparse for now). I also converted that strange skull in town into a proper home for Saley & Stapes, the two skeletal guards.


Overflow - the town's tavern and a major hangout spot for locals - was also completely revamped...in the sense that before the revamp, the exterior was unfinished and the interior didn't exist. Both outside and inside are now in a much better place.

Beyond new buildings, I also began moving things around to accommodate new ideas. I now have enough buildings to actually have something close to 'districts' in our little village - the town hall, church, and historical society fill out the Civic District, a new general store and existing furniture merchant have made something like a Commercial District, and of course the houses make up the Residential District

Here's a neat GIF showing how the village has changed and evolved in the last 8 months:


Finally, I also created 3 additional villagers and revamped a 4th. Meet Bavarian the Chef Blob, Lucy the Artistic Golem, Rainboy the Elemental, and Serin the...uh...tree.


Dynamic Camera
It seems at least once a month I get bogged down by some obnoxious camera bug that comes out of nowhere, and this month was no different.

However, this time my solution ended up turning into a feature - a dynamic camera. There's probably a better name for this, but what I mean is that the camera smoothly follows the player at its own speed as opposed to always keeping the player dead-center on screen.


This fits better with the relaxed style of game I'm making, and also looks a lot better in motion. It's hard to capture via a GIF, so you'll need to trust me that it looks better.

New Critters?
Sometimes I sit down to do one thing and end up feeling motivated to do something else entirely. That was the case this week, and it's why I ended up creating four new critters to find and collect.

I won't share them so they can remain a bit of a secret, but here's the Capricious Cumulus, a cloud-based critter that oscillates between feelings of timidness and aggression.


That'll do this for this week. Next week is likely to be just as sparse and late, but things are going very well and you'll have a chance to see for yourself on September 6th when Alpha 1 releases.

Don't forget that the Kickstarter starts a week later on September 12th. It's going to be a hectic month, but this fall is shaping up to be a hell of a good time.


Kickstarter: Back Now!
Trailer: YouTube

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35495
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Nice work as ever :) Rainboy is kinda cute!

Also, I really need to get round to sending you a message about some Exilian stuff... I'll try and do that soon!
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...