As usual, another month and another quick news update for Verdant Village. This month, I’m happy to report, has been pretty productive.
Most of my time was focused into finishing the compendium. At time of writing, I’m basically done; I just have to fix controller support for one hyper specific section. For anyone unfamiliar, the compendium is meant to serve as something of a mini wiki that you fill in as you play. It admittedly isn’t going to be as robust as a real wiki, but it will serve to record most relevant information that you discover in the game. This mostly pertains to items and all the things associated with them but also branches into tutorials, and later a few other things. The hope is that with this you won’t have to reference a wiki to remember exactly how certain things work or how to get things you’ve already obtained once.
Despite what I just said, the compendium isn’t exactly done. Currently, there are 3 sections to it. I have a few more planned, but they aren’t implemented because the relevant features aren’t in the game. Examples of these things are a bestiary, NPC profiles, and a few other things that I think would be useful. Once the requisite parts of the game are added the compendium will be updated accordingly.
If you are wondering why NPC profiles aren’t considered relevant it’s because they have to do with how the social/romance system would work in the game which is very much not there yet.
Aside from tutorials and items, the compendium also houses the challenges section. I’ve mentioned it before, but challenges double as Steam achievements if you are playing on Steam. Currently, there are about 100. I have more in mind and more will probably be thought up as well, but I left out things that can’t be achieved at this time in the game. These cover most aspects of the game and should give you something to shoot for if you like that kind of thing.
While the compendium is the majority of this patch, I’ve also fixed a few bugs and changed some values on items and the like. According to the roadmap I also need to add two NPCs, some quests, and a few zones. This may sound like a lot of work, and it is, but it’s usually quick work because, well, the processes for making these things are already set and I don’t have to spend time tracking down issues.
This of course means patch time is drawing near. While I don’t like to give out dates for this sort of thing, I would hope that August will see a patch. Most of my work is done and what is left is pretty standard stuff that shouldn’t be too time consuming. The only part that may throw a wrench in the works is art. There are still a fair number of assets to make. My artist is working diligently so hopefully he will knock everything out quickly and it won’t be an issue but I thought it would be a good idea to mention it in case it causes delays.
I think that about covers it for this patch. I’m sorry things are a bit slow at the moment. As I’ve said before, this patch was always sort of a filler patch to get things in line before adding combat. Hopefully, you all will hear from me before the end of August and I’ll have something to share. Until then I hope you all have fun playing Verdant Village.