State of the Village, vol. 5 - Holiday Harbor

Hello Villagers!

I'm not dead yet!

Work continues on v1.1. I'll spare you the litany of excuses as to why every little thing is taking longer than promised. I'm sure you're as tired of hearing them as I am typing them.

In summary, life has continued to be unkind, and I've needed to prioritize my family and health over everything else. The good news is that the septic tank hasn't exploded again. So, you know, I've got that going for me!

In truth, the past couple weeks have been the best, most productive, and most tragedy-free I've had since last February. I'm a little nervous to admit it for fear of it going sour again, but I'm in a much better place than I've been in for a long time, and Village Monsters has benefited greatly from it.

What's New?

This post will not be a deep dive into what I've accomplished - I just wanted to get something out to assure you that I haven't forgotten or abandoned the game. Here are the quick notes:

• All milestones for v1.1 have been finished

• In total for this release, I've completed 100+ new feature tasks, 350+ improvement tasks, and 200+ bugfix tasks. The update notes are very long!

• The past week has been focusing on new and existing tutorialization, both in written form and via Odd Jobs in-game

• v1.1 is now in the hands of playtesters. Feedback and testing is expected to last a while

When is it Coming Out?

Clearly, I cannot be trusted to give an ETA anymore. Even whispering a date to myself in a darkened room feels like it'd be tempting fate to come along and teach me a lesson.

I'm bending all my efforts and energy into getting it out before the end of the year. I can say this: it'll release soon, and with almost no warning.

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I hope everyone had a good week! For me, I had a very nice, if somewhat muted Thanksgiving, and now I'm working in my office enjoying the sounds of a November rainstorm.

Until next time, villagers!