Juicier

Hi friends!

Ugh I know, still no patch this week, and I hate to say it but probably not next either. Why? Well the entire conclusion is going into the game, and a lot of polish as well, and basically this ended up being a really big patch. However, a lot of progress was indeed made this week! Here’s what got done:

• Fixed a lot of bugs related to Water Cave puzzle spawning; reduced the time it takes for these puzzles to spawn slightly
• Fixed the spawning of a ton of puzzle elements in the Ruins
• Gargoyles can now slip on ice
• Fixed pathing in the Ruins
• Added shadows in the Ruins
• Fixed various crashes in the Ruins
• Added significant visual improvements to the Boulder Cave, including light, fog, animated tiles, texture, tinting, particle effects, etc.

• Fish no longer climb stairs
• Fish correctly reset when resetting a Water Cave puzzle
• Added weather effects in the Ruins
• Laid the groundwork for various town event cutscenes
• Additional screenshakes and particle effects have been added

Another 5 steam keys went out this week, but the main non-development emphasis has been on putting together the trailer video. That should be out in the next week or two. Becca continues to make progress on the title screen, and Adrian is writing the final confrontation track.

Finally, this will be the last Dev Blog post on the Iron Shoe! I’ll try to check in with more RPG Maker tutorials, but the dev blog itself is moving to the website. Make sure to check it out!

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Dean is the head of Razbury Games, developer of Vidar, an RPG Puzzler Where Everyone Dies. Pre-order it on the website, and keep in touch with twitter.

Juice

Hi friends!

Still no new patch this week as the final puzzles get locked into place, but here’s what I’ve been working on:

• Added 6 new puzzles
• Cobwebs now spawn correctly outside of the Dark Cave
• Bridges now spawn correctly outside of the Water Cave
• Lots of screenshakes have been added
• The town of Vidar seems to shut down down more as people die off

So that’s exciting. On the art front, Becca continues to work on the title screen. We’ve got some snow now!

The Mac client is looking pretty dang stable right now, and we’ve figured out all of the Steam necessities to distribute. There are one or two glaring bugs that I’d like to remedy this coming week, but we’re on track to start distributing keys to Mac users by the end of the month.

16 more Steam keys went out to Kickstarter backers this week. What’s better, the first five direct download launchers went out to backers. They’re testing it out and taking Vidar for a spin sans-Steam; once I know that patching is happening reliably, more and more people will get those as well.

Finally, we’re going to be getting back into RPG Maker VX Ace tutorials around these parts soon. Stay tuned!

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Dean is the head of Razbury Games, developer of Vidar, an RPG Puzzler Where Everyone Dies. Pre-order it on the website, and keep in touch with twitter.

 

Coldsnap

Hi friends!

I’m working on integrating the final dramatic cutscene into the alpha. While I was hesitant to include it initially for fear of spoilers, the time has finally come. This week was a fair amount of preparation for that – designing finale puzzles, fixing corner cases, all that fun stuff.

I anticipate it’ll be at least another week, probably 2, before these are fully in the game. So, while these changes were made this week, no patch has been pushed to Steam:

• Lightpillars now have hover notifications and appropriately block the hookshot when set to “on”
• Lightpillars now act as sufficient pressure to activate a pressure plate
• Lightpillars slip on ice when push or pulled
• Moveable mirrors now act as sufficient pressure to activate a pressure plate
• Moveable mirrors slip on ice when push or pulled
• Added 4 new puzzles
• A cold snap has arrived in additional parts of the cave

Plus one additional change for the Mac and Linux builds:

• Fixed a bug related to animation of water in the Water Cave

Additionally, Becca Bair has been hard at work on the title screen and “box art” for the game. Here’s the WIP!

We’ll see this in-game in a few weeks as well.

Finally, I’ll be streaming development of Vidar on Monday, August 15 from 10:00 a.m. – 1 p.m. Eastern, and every Monday at that time from here on out. Check it out at www.twitch.tv/razavidn!

40 more Steam keys went out to Kickstarter backers this week. See you on Twitch next week!

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Dean is the head of Razbury Games, developer of Vidar, an RPG Puzzler Where Everyone Dies. Pre-order it on the website, and keep in touch with twitter.

Hotfix

This is to remedy a few bugs discovered at the latest Playcrafting Expo Night!

Alpha Build 0.6.5.1

• Fixed a stray wine bottle in the Hospital
• Removed a grave spawn point in IC 4 that could block progress
• Playing the tutorial with a controller plugged in will correctly tell you to use “A” instead of “ENTER” to interact

 

Alpha 6 – UI

Hi friends!

This week focused on adding a bit of UI functionality to the game. It’s fine for now, but once the minimap is added it’ll be a little cluttered. Still working on a way to display the information in a nice, compact way. Fortunately, today’s UI was built with that in mind, so it’s just a matter of dragging and dropping it when the complete UI is finished.

I talked about the launcher two weeks ago, more progress was made on that this week! Hooray! Next week we’ll be finally ready to get Kickstarter backers who wanted direct download a copy of the alpha.

Small notes for this week, expect that to be the case for the next 3 weeks; once late August hits, however, this thing’ll pick up steam like wild.

Catch you next week!

– Dean

Alpha Build 0.6.5.0

UI

• Added additional timer UI. The clock now has a nice window and is in an easy to read font. Even if you don’t have the clock, you’ll be able to track time roughly with the passage of a sun UI. It’s not precise, but it’ll get the job done if Sandor dies the first night.

Misc

• Gendered words (he/she, sir/maam, etc.) will now be properly capitalized when they start a sentence
• Fixed a bug where the equipped tool would randomly rotate on entering a room

Alpha 5 – Puzzles

Hi friends!

This week, after completing a lot of internal testing, we’re turning on a ton of options for the puzzle generator in the alpha build. You’ll also see some further improvements to various quests, specifically in the second half of the game.

Catch you next time!

-Dean

Alpha Build 0.6.4.0

Quests

Bring Him Home

• This quest can now be completed with helpers other than Gusztav, Elek, or Robert

Bury the Hatchet

• Fixed the flow of this event if you have already completed “Spirit Walk”

Historic Preservation / Rewriting History

• Added significant journal updates
• Improved tool use

Spirit Walk

• Grave teleportation is much improved

War Never Changes

• Added a few necessary cutscenes
• Added the interior of Barnabas’s house

Maps

• Fixed a spot where you could fall off unintentionally in Ice Cave 1
• Fixed some edge issues in Ice Cave 3
• Removed the stray soldier’s journal in Boulder Cave 4
• Added a return to title screen at the end of Boulder Cave 4
• Fixed some passage issues in Vidar West
• Reduced the flickering of lights in the Castle Ruins
• Added a spring of purified water in the lagoon

Puzzles

• Options 1-5 enabled for most puzzles
• Fixed a bug where resetting early Boulder Cave puzzles would cause a crash
• Fixed a bug where you couldn’t reset Puzzles 26 or 64
• Fixed some graphics issues in Puzzle 25
• Slight redesign of:
  • Puzzle 64 Option 0
  • Puzzle 65 Option 0
  • Puzzle 66 Option 0
• Fixed some bugs related to passage and sprite drawing in the Boulder Cave
• Resolved some of the lag in the boulder cave
• Fixed a forever problematic imp in the lagoon (for real this time!)

Misc

• Re-enabled limited analytics
• Fixed some text in the lagoon
• Campfires now autosave, rather than opening the save menu

Hotfix

Hotfix 0.6.3.1

Quests

Clearing the Way

• Rubble now correctly spawns and is mineable
• Tunnel transfers are now hooked up
• Tunnel lighting effects have been added

Man’s Best Friend / Boy’s Best Friend

• Cail now leaves the party on returning to Vidar
• Journal updates
• The player should be properly rewarded for these quests

Rewriting History

• The pick now works on relics

To House a Village

• Rozsa properly rewards you for this quest

Miscellaneous

• Ore nodes should look a little better now
• The Dark Cave Waypoint will not spawn on the same site as rubble
• A tanning rack has been installed

Alpha 4 – Questing

Hi friends!

More of the same this week; fixed to crashes took priority, plenty of fixes to quest progression as well. Specifically, “Bury the Hatchet,” “Hair of the Dog,” “Historic Preservation,” “Sketched Out,” and “Words of Wisdom” should all be in a much better place.

Outside of these fixes, progress was made on revamping the library for the first alpha content patch that’ll come once this stuff is all sorted out. I also implemented a launcher and very rough patching system, the first step towards direct download distribution!

Until next time!

-Dean

Alpha Build 0.6.3.0

Quests

Bring Him Home

• Groa can properly complete this quest if Csaba is dead
• Neither Elek nor Rozsa will crash the game during the pendency of this quest

Bury The Hatchet

• Added a cutscene during the receipt of this quest, to help digest the massive amounts of dialogue
• Arpad no longer crashes the game on returning this quest
• Arpad won’t give you a copy of Barnabas’s Axe every time he reminds you of this quest
• Added a variant of this quest that interacts with “Spirit Walk”

Clearing the Way

• Katarina no longer crashes the game when inside the tunnel

Dr. Spore

• The journal updating is even more improved

Hair of the Dog

• Scotch should now spawn at the appropriate time
• Dani’s reminder should no longer crash the game
• Dani shouldn’t crash the game when rewarding you for this quest either

Historic Preservation

• Piri should now give you this quest at the appropriate time

Not A Thief

• The journal will not update unless you have the quest already active
• Added a better icon for the Teddy Bear
• Added a completion cutscene

Sketched Out

• The journal correctly updates after sketching all fossils
• Gusztav no longer crashes the game on his helper objective reminder
• Borbalo actually completes this quest
• Rewards should be accurately given out

Spirit Walk

• Vid and Adorjan should always spawn

To Feed a Village

• Tamas will actually complete this quest and remove the correct number of fish
• Fixed a lot of journal updates

What’s Yours is Mine

• Dorottya will not trigger the option cutscene if Katarina is mourning
• Eliminated certain circumstances where this quest’s progression could be blocked by “A Brighter Tomorrow”

Words of Wisdom

• Added the cutscene to complete this quest; the Bowl of Wisdom works now

Miscellaneous

• Changes in profession (currently Blacksmith or Doctor) should now be saved in a save file appropriately
• The entrance to the Tide no longer spawns
• Fixed a bug in various cutscenes where NPCs weren’t turning correctly
• Fish should be a little less graphically glitchy
• Fixed a crash when switching to the imp oil lantern; the lantern now also displays properly

Hotfix

Alpha Build 0.6.2.1

Quests

Artifacts In Ice

• At reward level 3, this quest now rewards the shovel

Bring Him Home

• Added several variants of the completion cutscene
• Groa’s corpse doesn’t stick around while he’s also up and walking
• Always more journal fixes
• The medicine kit or medicine bottle are properly consumed when healing Groa
• Groa won’t give you 10 medical kits now in this quest (seems like overhealing)

Light in the Dark

• Picking up Bright Flowers while this quest is no longer pending shouldn’t keep reminding you

Man’s Best Friend

• Groa will now give you this quest

Not A Thief

• Interaction with the dig locations is now via shovel use

Sketched Out

• Szabina doesn’t overburden you with too much parchment now
• Fixed a bug where small fossils wouldn’t spawn
• Fixed a crash on completing this quest

Spirit Walk

• Even more journal improvements
• Piri will now complete this quest and give you the permanent blessing

War Never Changes

• Fixed the graphic and text for Arpad’s sword; picking it up now correctly triggers the journal

Maps

• Tools now work in the Dark Cave waypoint

Miscellaneous

• Changed the font, size, and outline thickness in an effort to increase readibility
• Katarina should follow Dorottya around Vidar better
• More location tree updates for mourners
• People in town should no longer appear semi-transparent when outside
• Yesterday’s fish will spoil once you enter the cave
• Fish in inventory now have an icon
• All followers now walk at the correct speed, right behind you

Alpha 3 – Progress

Hi friends!

A lot of work specifically on quest progression this week: performance should be significantly better on “Bring Him Home,” “Dr. Spore,” and “Light in the Dark,” which is good, because they’re all three Dark Cave quests, and without being able to do them, the Dark Cave was feeling a little empty.

Alpha Build 0.6.2

NB: all old save files will crash repeatedly after downloading this update; don’t use ’em.

Quests

Bring Him Home

• Groa now spawns; Cail no longer spawns on top of Groa
• Groa’s grave will not appear until you’ve found Groa
• Groa is saved from death the night you return him
• After finding Groa the first time, Cail will move to the water cave
• Gusztav now actually gives you the med kit, rather than just talking about it

Dr. Spore

• Gusztav no longer crashes the game on completion of this quest
• The journal now correctly updates when picking a mushroom if Robert has inherited the quest
• Gusztav can still ID mushrooms while this quest is pending
• Fixed various typos in the journal
• Added the logic puzzle component; Robert should now be able to complete this quest if he inherited it

Light in the Dark

• Robert should no longer crash the game during the quest
• Robert’s key is no longer greyed out in inventory

Not a Thief

• Digging locations now are all appropriately passable

Residue

• Filling the bucket with imp oil doesn’t suddenly trigger game over

Scared of Shadows

• The journal now triggers correctly on lighting all of the torches in the imp cave

Sketched Out

• Fossils block passage by the player now; they also have hover notifications

Spirit Walk

• The way the journal updates is all around improved

Studies / Further Investigations

• Statue use updates the journal in an even better way! The journal is all around better for these quests

To Feed a Village

• Fish now spawn in the Water Cave

What’s Yours is Mine

• Added choreography to the completion cutscene
• Moved the ore vein that was trapped behind a barrel in Dark Cave 4

Dialogue

• Various fixes to readibility and typos
• Additional dialogue added concerning “The Second Son”
• Elek won’t get hung up on trying to identify an oyster mushroom anymore

Maps

• Fixed a small pathing issue in the hospital

Puzzles

• You can no longer trigger water statues from the side or back
• Returning to partially completed rooms in the Dark Cave will no longer crash the game
• Lighting a wall lantern will no longer crash the game

Miscellaneous

• Lights in Vidar won’t block the character once turned on
• Tamas will not grieve for Dani before day 3
• Katarina will be outside grieving Sandor
• Footprints no longer appear on the Church wall
• Fixed the text cut-off in mushroom descriptions
• Mushrooms will be unnamed until they are identified by someone in town
• Removed a poorly placed mushroom in Dark Cave 4