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

Hotfix

Hi friends!

This patch is designed to quickly fix some of the crashes I’ve been seeing in Vidar from current testers. It also includes a lot of work done on a handful of quests to make sure progress isn’t blocked on any of them, and a few updated location trees.

These hotfixes are likely to keep coming this quickly as crashes are detected. Hopefully once those trickle off, more meaty patches fixing a lot of other non-progress-blocking bugs can follow.

Hotfix 0.6.1.3

*indicates that the fix won’t apply in old save files, but requires a new game

Quests

Dr. Spore

• Robert now correctly inherits this quest

Light in the Dark

• Added some clean-up cutscenes for the conclusion of this quest
• Robert won’t fail this quest if it’s not first received before inheriting Dr. Spore

Studies / Further Investigations

• Water statute use now correctly tracked*

The Second Son

• Fixed the text for when you try to leave Erik’s cave while the quest is pending
• This quest times out correctly, including all relevant cutscenes and rewards

What’s Yours is Mine

• Dorottya will no longer persistently try to conclude the quest if Katarina is dead
• Fixed the cutscene on concluding the quest if Katarina is alive
• Cleaned up Dorottya’s reminder dialogue
• Mining ore now correctly updates the journal*
• Dorottya and Katarina now correctly appear in the tunnel or outside in Vidar depending on what reward you choose

Dialogue

• Csaba no longer crashes the game in grief after Tomi dies
• Arpad no longer crashes the game trying to identify a mushroom
• Dorottya no longer crashes the game reminding you to get her some ore

Maps

• Added back exit to Cecilia’s house; added transfer points to and from the Dark Cave Waypoint
• Added lights near the ore nodes in Dark Cave 2, 3, and 4
• Wind no longer plays in the igloo, tanning shop, hospital, or poor house

Puzzles

• Fixed a bug where you could activate a wall light in the Dark Cave from behind*

Miscellaneous

• “Return to Vidar” will no longer gray out if you don’t have enough time to make it back to Ice Cave 1
• Fixed a bug where completing Erik’s cave in Ice Cave 1 on day 1 would prevent you from being able to come back into the cave on subsequent days.
• Fixed a crash if Rozsa died on day 1
• Robert will grieve Gusztav outside at his grave, and vice versa
• Dorottya will mourn at Katarina’s grave

Hotfix

Hotfix 0.6.1.2

*indicated that the fix won’t apply in old save files, but requires a new game

Quest

Artifacts in Ice

• Fixed some of Szabina’s dialogue when giving you the helper component of this quest
• Journal animation now plays at the right places
• Cecilia now properly completes her helper objective

Faith in the Dead

• Fixed some bugs that cropped up if “Spirit Walk” was completed before this quest*
• Fixed Borbalo’s reminder dialogue if there’s only 1 grave left

Residue

• Journal animation plays when receiving this quest

Scared of Shadows

• Fixed some of Etel’s dialogue related to the completion of this quest
• The journal animation now properly plays at completion

Spirit Walk

• This quest should be completable now*
• Adorjan’s name in the journal is fixed*

Words of Wisdom

• Fixed the position of the text when you pick up the bowl*

Dialogue

• Sandor’s intro dialogue accurately reflects that Barnabas found you
• More fixes to ghost dialogue*

Map

• Returning from the Ice Cave Waypoint will no longer teleport you to Old Vidar
• Entering the cave from the Ice Cave waypoint will not take away any time from the day

Puzzles

• Removed all wolves in Dark Cave 2

Miscellaneous

• Additional fixes to grave legibility
• Borbalo will return to the Church if he is at the Workshop when Sandor dies

Alpha 2 – Stability

Hi friends!

This week was all about stability bugs – bugs that crashed the game, or blocked progress in the game. Don’t worry, low hanging fruit was harvested as well. We’ll be getting 10 more testers involved on Alpha Build 0.6.1 as part of the slow roll-out 🙂

Next week’s blog post will be a day late because of the 4th. Happy independence day!

Hotfix 0.6.1.1

• Fixed a crash if you fell off of a puzzle on Day 1 in the Ice Cave

Alpha Build 0.6.1

Quest

• Failure conditions have been updated for “Artifacts in Ice,” “Sketched Out,” “Bring Him Home,” “Light in the Dark,” “Threnody,” “To Feed a Village,” “Studies,” “Not a Thief,” “Man’s Best Friend,” “Boy’s Best Friend,” “War Never Changes,” “Smoke Them Out,” “Den of Darkness,” “Historic Preservation,” “Rewriting History,” “Further Investigation,” “Hunting Party,” “Crumble,” and “A Little Something.”

The Second Son

• Fixed a series of bugs related to the completion of “The Second Son”
• Erik will correctly leave the tool UI after completing his puzzle
• Fixed some parts of Sandor’s dialogue that didn’t quite make sense

Dr. Spore

• Gusztav now correctly gives this quest on day 2
• Gusztav’s reminder no longer crashes the game
• Completing the quest no longer crashes the game
• Gusztav will now remove 1 from each mushroom, then cycle back to make up the difference, on completion (rather than taking all from one kind of mushroom first)
• Gusztav will now trade Ivory Funnel mushrooms for Bread after completion of this quest
• Picking up mushrooms will now trigger and update the journal appropriately

Spirit Walk

• Fixed a slew of bugs related to Piri’s dialogue in “Spirit Walk”; Piri now knows if you’ve seen a ghost already in the cave, and knows when she’s given you the blessing for the day
• Fixed journal animations

Faith in the Dead

• Fixed how the journal treats “Faith in in the Dead”s various objectives; added a variable to track how many graves are left
• Borbalo now gives you the Ice Cave Waypoint as a reward for “Faith in the Dead”
• Fixed journal animations
• Updated Borbalo’s text if he gives you this quest while in the Church

Love Letter

• Cecilia gives you the letter for “Love Letter,” and the letter is properly removed from your inventory when completing the quest
• Cecilia properly rewards you at the end of the quest

To Feed a Village

• Fixed a bug where receiving “To Feed a Village” would crash the game
• Tamas won’t give you this quest until Day 7 now; it felt too early

Hair of the Dog

• “A Little Something” is now a prerequisite to this quest
• Dani no longer crashes the game when giving the quest
• Dani will give you a Campfire on completion if you already have the Flint & Steel

Light in the Dark

• Robert correctly updates your journal when he gives you this quest
• Robert now asks for the bright flower rather than just taking it

Dialogue

• Adjoran, Geraint, Matti, and Vid’s dialogue is now correctly displayed
• Fixed various typos in the dialogue trees; corrected some text that no longer applied
• Fixed a bug where NPCs were not correctly identifying the building they were in
• Rebeka properly no longer looks to Janika’s dialogue tree to determine whether to give full or truncated dialogue
• Fixed a bug where Cecilia could crash the game the day after Robert or Piri died
• Fixed a bug where Bernadett could crash the game after Borbalo died
• Fixed a bug where Robert could crash the game after Cecilia died
• Elek correctly fills the oil in your lantern more than once

Map

• Fixed a passage issue in the hospital
• It is no longer possible to get trapped in the streetlight in Northeast Vidar
• Fixed a bug where leaving the Ice Lagoon would take you to the wrong place
• Fixed a particularly insidious bug where sometimes, NPCs could clip through walls in cutscenes
• Small updates to map layouts here and there

Miscellaneous

• Katarina will now stand outside and mourn Dorottya
• Janika, Rebeka, and Piri will mourn by the water when one of them dies
• Piri
• Decreased the charity value of the journal
• Removed the hideous attempt to show “bumpers” on the tool icon window
• Improved readibility of various graves
• Improved readibility of various cutscene dialogue
• Fixed a bug related to the calculation of how many mushrooms you had in inventory; this bug also prevented the identification of mushrooms by all townspeople
• Corrected the lightpillar tutorial text
• Fixed a bug where loading a save would briefly show you the prior day’s map. This actually fixed a ton of different things, including snowy footsteps not showing up on load, lighting issues if you load a save that came from the Dark Cave, and more.
• Fixed a bug where spending too much time in the cave would just crash the game on its own
• Replaced the lanterns in the Dark Cave waypoint with torches
• The tool UI hides itself when you’ve returned to town
• “Man” and “woman” are now correctly used in dialogue when referring to the Stranger’s gender
• Falling in the Ice Cave waypoint no longer resets you above the jump point
• Added a brief tutorial about time and jumping to a distant room

Alpha Build!

Alpha Build 0.6.0

• Fixed a bug where Elek’s day 2 dialogue could cause a crash
• Elek now correctly identifies mushrooms in inventory
• Elek now participates in “Bring Him Home” even if Cecilia is dead
• Borbalo now correctly completes his “Sketched Out” objective
• Dani now correctly completes “Hair of the Dog”
• Added various additional cutscenes
• Added several medical treatises to Gusztav’s house
• Arpad’s location now correctly updates if you leave him hanging outside of Barnabas’s house
• Csaba, Rozsa, Tamas, and Tomi now all appear outside when grieving
• Etel and Sandor now properly respawn after day 1
• Groa now properly returns to Vidar in “Bring Him Home”
• Fixed a bug where a torch in the Ice Cave would crash the game
• Added torches to the exit area from Dark Cave 4
• Fixed a bug where Piri would never give the player “Spirit Walk”
• Rozsa now gives the player the journal on day 2, if she’s alive

Countdown: 1 week to alpha

Hi friends!

In anticipation of alpha, this week saw a lot of clean-up on “game-breaking” bugs, those that would prevent you advancing the game during the alpha. This is the last pre-alpha build, next week we’ll move straight into the alpha!

This version (0.5.9) was pushed to Steam over the weekend, so if you happen to be one of the lucky few that already have a key, you can test it out.

– Dean

Developer’s Build 0.5.9 (last Pre-Alpha Build!)

General Changes

• Fixed bugs related to ending the day early
• Fixed several bugs related to the teleport menu in the cave
• Teleporting within the cave now properly takes away time from the timer; the amount of time now also correctly displays in the choose room menu, and if you don’t have enough time left in the day to go there, the option is disabled

Quest Changes

• Etel correctly blocks the cave until “Check Up” is completed
• Receiving / completing the following quests has been added to the relevant dialogue trees
  • To House a Village
  • Check Up
  • A Little Something
  • To Feed A Village
  • Spirit Walk
  • Historic Preservation
  • Words of Wisdom
  • Bardic Inspiration
  • Threnody
  • Studies
  • Further Investigations
  • Crumble
  • Dr. Spore
  • Sketched Out
  • What’s Yours is Mine
  • A Brighter Tomorrow
  • Bring Him Home

Dialogue Changes

• Fixed several bugs related to dialogue trees, including the annoying space after apostrophes and the “Bring Him Home” quest crashing the game rather frequently
• Added the intro cutscene with the correct cast
• Rebeka’s dialogue now correctly takes into account when Janika is dead
• Gusztav, Robert and Tamas now properly identify mushrooms
• Robert now won’t give the player “Light in the Dark” until day 3 at the earliest
• Csaba now requests Charity after most dialogue; you can give her nearly any item in the game. Also, added charity values for:
  • Soldier’s Journal
  • Sheets
  • Leather Shoes
  • Well Read: Vidar’s Royal Library
• Fixed a bug relating to determining the age of uncompleted quests
• Fixed a bug related to checking for certain tools in inventory
• Fixed several bugs where certain dialogues would break only after loading a saved game
• Removed nameplate for Robert’s grieving dialogue

Miscellaneous Changes

• Removed “X” tiles in Northwest Vidar
• Fixed passage issues in North Vidar
• Fixed the exit from the Castle Ruins
• Erik has returned to run around Vidar on Day 1 again

Countdown: 2 weeks to alpha

Hi friends!

This week looks like small notes, but it’s huge: all of the dialogue is in the game. Still a lot of polish needed, and plenty of bugs should be expected, but it’s there! It’s all there!

Next week will be cleaning off the quest data; the following will be focused on the cutscenes. And then, finally, at long long last, alpha.

Stay tuned!

Developer’s Build 0.5.8

• Added back room of church
• Added interior of Hospital, Piri’s House, and Groa’s House
• All villagers now spawn in Vidar
• All villagers now have their dialogue in the game

 

Dialogue Blitz IV

Hi friends!

Great news, the dialogue for the Vidar alpha is all written! Here’s Tamas:

And Tomi:

So what’s next? Well, getting these all into the game of course! See you next week!

 

Dialogue Blitz III

Hi friends!

Three more characters finished this week, for those keeping score only Tamas and Tomi are left. For now, here are Rozsa, Sandor, and Szabina!

The innkeeper, Rozsa

The clockmaker, Sandor

The scholar, Szabina

Dialogue Blitz II

Hi friends!

Three more characters complete this week – only five left!

Mihaly, the Musician

Robert, the Poet

Piri, the Seamstress