Release: Beta 1 Demo is now Available

Welcome to Beta, Village Monsters! Three months of tremendous work has lead to this being one of the biggest and most interesting updates so far.

Toward the start I maintained a detailed list of patch notes, but as it grew and grew I realized that it was simply becoming too much – no one would want to read it!

As such, here are some abridged notes on some of the most important features.

Please note that some features were truncated or made “dark” (eg., they exist but cannot be accessed) due to some scheduling problems (and by that, I mean my son was born). They will be addressed in future patches to this demo.

To Download

Pre-Release Demos are exclusively to Kickstarter backers. To access your demo, please follow the link sent to you via email. Simply download, extract, and run to play!

If you didn’t get an email, then please send one to me (josh@warpdogs.com) and I’ll sort it out quickly.

Villager Dialogue

Do you like making friends with monsters? Then you’ll love the biggest change of this demo.

Villager dialogue has been greatly expanded. They each now have much more to say, and will even comment on the weather, time of day, your accomplishments, and so on.

Monster friendships are also expanded, but this continues to be a behind-the-scenes thing for now.

New & Improved Areas

Nearly every area of the game has been majorly redone. The village especially has seen some major changes in how its laid out.

This also includes a slew of new interiors complete with new furniture, walls / flooring, and decorations.

There are also many more places to explore, like a farm, large forest, and graveyard. Get to explorin’!

New Fishing

I’ve redone Fishing a few times, but for the beta I went back to the drawing board. Gone is the old minigame, replaced instead by a new one that doesn’t take you out of the game.

As before, your goal is to wear out the fish before your line is too stressed and breaks. Here’s a general how-to for fishing:

Equip your rod and find a water source

Cast your rod. Wait until a fish shows up

Don’t pull yet! Try to wait until he gets a good bite (look for an animation and SFX)

Reel ’em in. Move the analog stick or arrow keys in the direction indicated on the stamina bar

Better Graphics

As with previous releases I performed an art pass on many of the items in the game. This has resulted in better shading, shadows, colors, and incorporating some general improvements I’ve learned with practice.

UI Changes

Most UI elements saw a major changes. Some items – like the journal – have been seen significant changes to become more useful. Others have been removed or combined with other elements

This also includes some font changes, including a new dialogue font

New Items & Furniture

There are more potions to drink, furniture to buy, and food to eat.

Note: Furniture does require a house to set up, which isn’t currently active. So…just admire them in your inventory.

More Critters, Fish, Plants, and Treasure

Each hobby has seen an influx of new things to find and collect.

There are also new ways to find things with each hobby. Critter enthusiasts will now note that night hunting is a very different experience, while treasure hunters will appreciate that it’s now easier to identify an item before you dig it up.

More Interesting Lighting

Lighting has been made a bit more interesting.

Daylight transitions (including with weather) now happen gradually. Night is now darker, especially late at night. Generally, light is now longer “soft” but is instead “hard”, better matching the cartoon-y style of the rest of the graphics

Quality of Life & Bugfixes

As with other releases, this one contains a flurry of quality of life changes, bug fixes, and overall stability improvements.

There are too many to list, but as with any big (pre-release) demo there are bound to be some exciting new bugs for us to squash together.

Known Issues / To Do’s

There is now only one sprite for the player – the default male. This’ll change in an upcoming beta patch

Music may sound compressed. This is for a rather believable reason – the music is indeed compressed. The final beta 1 release was actually a great deal bigger than expected, and my host rejected the size. I had to compress the audio to get it lower. A more permanent and uncompressed solution is pending

The player sprite does not play animations for several tasks. This’ll change in an upcoming beta patch

There still is no saving in the game, though that is next on the docket

Some villagers may repeat dialogue more frequently than others. This is simply because some villagers have more dialogue available than others!