Hello Villagers!
Halloween is almost upon us and the power has flickered 4 times since I started this post. I guess Fall is officially underway, huh? Hope you're enjoying these stormy autumn days as much as I am.
Onto the update!
Progress Check
Before anything else, let's look at the chart.
I'm down to 71 remaining required tasks. v1.0 is getting closer every day.
Cutting the Crust
This past month has involved just as many removals as additions. This is because I've been liberally cutting features and content that aren't up the snuff.
And it has felt great.
If you're worried that I'm cutting important features or story content, or that I'm doing this due to time constraints, rest assured that is not the case. Village Monsters is a big game, but that means there are many things that are incomplete, tedious, or just plain shoddy.
Here's an example.
Until recently, each in-game week was 8 days long. This is because I wanted my world to feel unique compared to other games, and a slightly longer week - which also happens to be a power of 2 (you'll understand later) - was a small way to do it.
But this "small" feature was a constant headache. It just never felt right! Play testers would regularly report that it kept tripping up their internal clock, and that weeks actually felt too long.
The main storyline of Village Monsters takes place over 2 years, so an extra day a week meant an additional 32 days, which translated to ~8 extra hours. That's a lot of padding for something people didn't even like.
So I cut it. The calendar is now a much more standard 7 days long, and a small removal of uniqueness has resulted in a far cleaner and more intuitive game.
Background Daemons
Next up, I want to talk about Patchlings. These magical sprites are mysterious little helpers, and you'll need that help if you want to save the village.
True to their name, Patchings are able to patch up the broken parts of the world. In fact, they are the only way to clear any Glitchwood corruption you stumble upon.
Fixing corruption is how you advance the story, access new areas, and unlock shortcuts. You can even repurpose the power of corruption to unleash your very own game-breaker powers.
In short: you can never have too many Patchlings.
Patchlings are attracted to acts of kindness, and just about any positive action you do in the world has a chance of spawning a Patchling. This includes making friends, bettering yourself, restoring the village, performing odd jobs, and more.
From a mechanical perspective, Patchlings allow me to gate content behind an all-purpose resource that can be balanced for all playstyles. So long as you are improving the village or your own character, you will see a steady supply of new Patchlings.
That's all for now! Have a Happy Halloween, villagers!