Hi friends!

At long last, Vidar is available on Steam Early Access! Buy it, review it, love it, mourn the death of several NPCs. You know, a usual Tuesday.

This has been a period of a great deal of reflection for me. Macro forces in the geopolitical world feel like they're punching me in the gut (for those who may be reading this and may not know, my dad and his family all immigrated from Iran, and many are still there) and I'm trying to smile and celebrate this milestone in a 3-year project of mine. What started out as a hobby as become a full time career...and hopefully today will sustain that for at least a little longer! I've met some amazing people through this journey that I now can call friends, and have been treated as a peer and equal in an industry for which I've had zero preparation, zero training, and zero education. 

I hope that the world is enthusiastic about what I have made here during this time. And that the game gives some people some amount of enjoyment, reflection, or whatever it is they came to Vidar for.

This upcoming week my attention will be on bug reports, primarily assessing priorities and quickly addressing any game-crashing or game-breaking bugs. After that, attention will turn back to the next content patch, "Blinded Me With Science," which is designed to 1) further round out the Dark Cave and 2) add additional puzzles in those places where there is only one slotted. I hope to also add a few little features that will make the game smoother as we go, and by that time, I think we'll have the Steam Overlay (finally) for the Windows Version.

We've had a few patches since the last post and I'd be remiss not to include notes here! See you in Vidar, friends!
​- Dean

• Puzzle 18, Option 3 has been edited to add additional breaking ice (to prevent getting stuck in a loop)
• "Failed Quests" are now "Uncompletable Quests"; the journal font is now gray instead of red
• Fixed some reset issues regarding bases in the Ice Cave
• Your current location is now identified on the teleport menu
• The entrance to the wolf cave has been blocked until you have a specific quest to enter; exit is prevented if Etel or Groa are with you
• Key bindings now correctly work on in-game movement
• Fixed a Z-layering issues with a tree in Vidar West
• Fixed some resets in Ice Cave 4b
• Eating mushrooms no longer crashes the game on Steam
• The entrance to the Dark Cave is now less likely to spawn in a super weird place
• Giving away the pocketwatch will now properly hide the timer display
• Fixed some of Rebeka's dialogue

A Little Something

• This quest now properly fails if Borbalo dies

Bring Him Home

• Failing this quest will properly hide Groa and move Cail
• Tamas will no longer get stuck on this quest

Bury the Hatchet

• Fixed some typos
• Fixed Arpad's movement a bit after the cutscene
• The axe is properly removed from inventory now
• Added a graphic to update when the axe is placed

Hair of the Dog

• Borbalo's scotch no longer spawns if this quest is inaccessible

Love Letter

• Removed a spawn point for the mural in the Dark Cave which was blocked by an oil barrel

The Second Son

• The cave with Erik will now always close after day 3, regardless of the quest's status

Wake

• Fixed Dorottya's dialogue during this event
• Fixed the Problem of Two Tomis

War Never Changes

• Arpad will not crash the game on reminder
• Barnabas now talks to you
• Barnabas will now wait less time to open his door
• Fixed various cutscene typos
• Fixed Arpad's direction in the final cutscene
• Various journal fixes
• Various pathing fixes in Barnabas's house

Charity
Giving a key item to Csaba for charity will now fail the following quests appropriately, and will not freeze the relevant NPCs in a dialogue loop:

• A Brighter Tomorrow
• A Little Something
• Artifacts in Ice
• Bury the Hatchet
• Dr. Spore
• Faith in the Dead
• Hair of the Dog
• Light in the Dark
• Not a Thief
• Residue
• Sketched Out
• Threnody
• To Feed a Village
• To House a Village
• War Never Changes
• Wake
• What's Yours is Mine
• Words of Wisdom

Mac/Linux

• Screen flash support added
• Font updates
• Fixed a memory leak related to scene changes
• Fixed some issues with water depth transparency and fish

Hi friends!

What a fun and strange week this has been. After the last content patch went out, I focused on fixing additional bugs in the demo that I discovered back in Austin. The demo is ever-more-stable, and those fixes made their way into the main game as well, including various rare crashes and bugs, text fixes, etc. These were all made because I was showing Vidar at yet another event, Playcrafting's Halloween Expo!

Sorry for the blurry picture, I only had my phone!
​
This time, Vidar had its own entire room. We had a spooky set-up replete with blacklights and cobwebs (to celebrate the addition of Spiders in the last patch, of course), big banners and plenty of candy. Still more bugs were discovered (of course, right?) but the demo was so delightfully stable! And my favorite thing, instead of people asking "when is this going to be released?" the question instead was "is this released?" That gave me quite the confidence boost, to be sure.

Next week we'll have the "Union" content patch which has three pretty unrelated quests (plus a reworking of one quest), and that's slowly driving me crazy. One of those quests - "Family Time" - is already done, and I'm glad to have it, because it fills an interesting roll in the game. Assuming the necessary conditions are met, "Family Time" is only available for one day; if you don't receive it then, you'll never get it. Once you receive it though, you can take your time to complete it. It's an interesting mechanic that I think encourages repeated exploration of Vidar, which is something I want to encourage. Expect more of these types of quests to come in future content patches.

​We've given out Steam keys to nearly everyone who got one through the Kickstarter. The only ones left are the handful of Linux users, and I think we'll be able to get them taken care of next week. Then onwards to those who requested direct download.

That's all for this week - make sure to get your tickets for GaymerX East so you can play Vidar with me!

Hi friends!

This Alpha Build marks the first of what I'm calling "content patches" for Vidar. All told, it includes two new quests (plus an overhauled third quest), a new zone, a new puzzle mechanic, and some new additional functionality. The goal with this patch wasn't just bug fixes, but something much more, to continue to increase the content where it felt lacking (here, primarily focused on the Dark Cave). 

For a bit of dev history, the Library was actually in one of the earliest prototypes of Vidar, several years ago when I was still using RPG Maker default assets. Once Becca's art started coming in, I never rebuilt it, and it was languishing in a back corner for years. You could get pretty close to it in various demos, and the entry was even in the Dark Cave Alpha Month I did about a year ago. 

So I'm happy that it is finally making its triumphant return all these years later, particularly because Mihaly was feeling a little lackluster overall. As was Dani; I took the opportunity to inject a quest for her here, and start her down an inheritance path that will be more fleshed out in a later content patch.

Getting this much content done in 2 weeks was do-able, but maintaining a pace of these every 2 weeks will be difficult as we get to launch. That is, I wasn't able to do this and a lot of marketing, bug fixes, etc. So we'll see four more content patches coming before Early Access, and then a slight hiatus while final bugs are stomped, Steam is updated, and everyone gets hyped. If you want a preview of them, keep an eye on the What's Next page as we progress! 

Speaking of Early Access...

That doesn't give us a lot of time, so if you're one of the KS backers that has access to the Alpha, make sure you're playtesting so I can fix anything you come across!

A whopping 80 Steam Keys were sent out this week! We'll have rolled out the alpha to everyone on Steam for Windows and Mac by the end of next week. Linux, and the remaining Direct Downloads, are close behind.

​- Dean

Hi friends!

Back from a really excellent vacation abroad, and excited to tackle some more on Vidar. We're spiraling frantically towards Early Access, and the past few weeks focused on:

• Artistic modifications to continue to make the game feel more responsive;
• Bug fixes forever
• The first new content patch

I'm by no means an artist, but I'm pretty proud of some of the modifications I was able to make to the Stranger to get a few more animations possible.

With more testers, more bugs in the early part of the game are being reported - ranging from small little nits in the text to crashes in some of the rarer quests. Those have been addressed, and, mercifully, the Continue screen now opens *much* faster.

Finally, a great deal was done on the upcoming Content Patch (which will include the Library) - while it won't be ready for release for a few more weeks, it's nearly done and feeling like a really fun puzzle :)

For those who like things in list form, here you go!

A pretty egregious bug has been found in the Mac build, so sadly no additional Steam key distribution for now - but give it a hot second and we'll get there!

See ya next week!
​- Dean

As for all the rest, 5 Steam keys went out this week. I had hoped to get the Mac build out as well, but we've discovered a memory leak in that version, so I'm holding it back another week. 

This week will be focused on getting the new trailer video ready, so it's unlikely I'll have a substantial patch ready by Tuesday. Fear not; I'll be releasing additional optimizations in September, and then additional content will start coming in October!

​- Dean

Hi friends!

This week marked the conclusion of an effort to clean up the cave maps, and really make them feel more dynamic and more alive. Hopefully these puzzles will pop as much as the town now. Here's the progress made this week:

• Players can no longer latch onto Gargoyles that are on the ice
• Fixed various bugs related to Water Cave puzzles which use ice as a floor
• Camera correctly centers on Puzzle 73
• You can no longer walk over depowered lightbridges in the Ruins
• Fixed the height of various wall switches in the Ruins
• Fixed some graphics drawing in Puzzle 70
• Replaced the low-ground hookshot posts in Puzzle 72 with blocks
• Fixed a switch flip in Puzzle 74
• Boulders on lightbridges will fall and disappear once the bridge turns off
• Fixed various graphics glitches in Puzzle 76
• Added significant visual improvements to the Ice Cave, including light, animated tiles, tinting, particle effects, etc.
• Added various screen flashes and screen shakes
• Added a significant cut scene before the beginning of the Ruins
• New Quest: "The Name Game," received from Tomi in late-game

     Another 12 steam keys were sent out this week. Becca is nearing completion of our new title screen, and I really can't wait to see that in game. We'll see v 0.7.0.0 next week, so I have a lot of bug fixes to do in the meantime!

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.

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

​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