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!

Sorry for the late blog post this week, I think the holiday threw me off. That, and my usual weekly planning has been replaced with daily planning, since I feel like this game and all that it entails is just changing too quickly.

Since last week's post, I've deployed three patches, mostly in anticipation of the wonderful Anna Geek's stream of Vidar. Watching her play, compared to Hyper RPG's stream, was a lot of fun. For starters, Anna was focused much more on strategy and puzzle solving. And romancing the blacksmith, which as it turns out, is not an option in the game. Seeing some of the different puzzles, and the different quests that Anna chose to pursue, was also helpful (particularly since both channels share a great deal of the same community).

Several more preview articles came out this past week, including some favorites from:

• Stack Up, a gaming charity supporting our military and veterans
• GameCritics
• Bit Cultures

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Not everything is sunshine and rainbows, and I'd be remiss to not talk about it here - this is a dev blog, right? This past week, I had a triple-whammy of rejections from Indie MEGABOOTH, IGF, and SXSW. That, and the fact that there's been no super-major press interest in Vidar since the store page launched, has been rough for morale. It's ok, though - we all push through!

Just a scant two weeks  until Early Access launch. I hope you're ready - I hope I'm ready!

​- Dean

Hi friends!

On this past Wednesday, I launched the Steam store page for Vidar, along with the trailer video. In connection with all of that, there was a huge press blitz that involved a few hundred emails. If you're curious about the nitty gritty of all of the press outreach, you can read my post on Gamedev.net. Since Wednesday, we've had a few fun mentions across the interwebs:

• Indie Hangover
• Entertainment Buddha
• Gaming Conviction

And we've also got some people doing LetsPlays on Youtube and streaming the game on Twitch. The biggest so far was HyperRPG yesterday with their show "MalikaVision." We had a steady 300 people in chat, and it was great to see someone play the game for so long! Vidar's randomness becomes more apparent the more people die off - the first day or two is kind of always the same. Five hours into the game in HyperRPG yesterday, you could really feel it.

I've been trying to keep up with all of these people playing the game now, and so we actually had two patches go out this past week with some bug fixes and quality of life improvements. That will likely be the cadence for next week as well.

Stay tuned for more coverage!

Hi friends! 

This upcoming month will be characterized by "aggressive polishing" of Vidar in anticipation of Early Access. However, tomorrow we launch the Steam Store Page and a huge press blitz, so not a ton of development happened this week. A few little clean up items here and there, though, so I thought it merited a patch.

We've also finalized the Linux downloader - Kickstarter backers who game on Linux and don't use Steam will finally be able to play the game. That brings us down to only those backers who were looking for something on itch or some other platform. We'll have updates for them shortly. 

Check back tomorrow for the trailer video as well!

- Dean

Hi friends!

Happy holidays! I'm still mid-Chanukah right now and up to my shins in latkes, but whether you're celebrating or not I hope you've had a fabulous few weeks. Lots to talk about today!

First, today is the release of the final pre-Early Access content patch, "Room at the Inn!" This includes activating the first Town Event in Vidar, "Wake." Vidar is all about experiencing and exploring death from every possible perspective, and so the celebratory/party tradition from so many cultures and embodied by the wake is definitely a welcome addition to the game. If you find yourself exploring the library while Dani dies, make sure to pour one out for her.

Rozsa is also keeping a better watch on who is staying at the inn these days. The various NPCs that can move in and out will find their plans foiled unless there are a sufficient number of rooms open and available. This particularly impacts Csaba, Tomi, and Cecilia; if they are looking for housing but the inn is completely full, they'll need to look elsewhere.

This patch also includes new ways through each of the Ice Cave maps, and new puzzles in the Ice Cave that feature the simplest sliding box. Just a little push can make a huge difference when it comes to slipping around.

Second, we finally have a Mac launcher! Mac-using Kickstarter backers who wanted a non-Steam version of Vidar are finally getting their copy of the game, leaving only our non-Steam Linux backers. We're hoping to get them taken care of next week. This version of the Mac build also includes functioning key bindings and various other Mac-specific bug fixes.

Third, next week marks a big date in the march to Early Access. The "Coming Soon" Steam Page will launch on January 4, which will allow you to wishlist the game. It will also activate the Community Hub on Steam, where those who already have the game can share screenshots, reviews, LetsPlays and more. To celebrate, on the 4th we're also releasing the Early Access Launch Trailer! It's a huge day around here, so mark your calendar.

Fourth, Vidar will be making it's last pre-Early Access showing at Playcrafting's Winter Expo on January 26, 2017 at Microsoft in NYC. This event is always so good, I couldn't pass it up even though it's days before launch and I'll be going crazy. If you're in town, we'd love to see you - early bird tickets are $8 so make sure to nab them before the price goes up.

Fifth, please welcome Razbury Games' new community manager, Roderick Sang! Roderick had played games intensely on his Gameboy Color and N64 as a kid but never thought of himself as a gamer until the Gamecube came along. It was when he started playing through “Skies of Arcadia: Legends” that Roderick realized that video games, and RPGs especially, would be an important part of the rest of his life.

After graduating college and finding himself at a loss for what he wanted to do, Roderick eventually discovered a burning passion for Storytelling and Sound. Consuming radio and podcasts voraciously and reflecting on why some games’ use of audio were more memorable and impressionable than others, Roderick has started down the path of educating himself on Sound Design.

He can currently be found working on an interactive story that use sound to further immerse the reader into the role of the main character, creating a YouTube series on the various demons in the Shin Megami Tensei line of games, as well as producing his own podcast on why people play video games. You can learn more about him on his website, YouTube, or Twitter.

I'm thrilled to have Roderick join the team to help out with all things social media and community. You might find him around the subreddit, the Official Wiki, the twitter account, the facebook page, the Steam Community Hub (next week!), or any of the other myriad places Vidar lives these days. 

Ok, that's enough news for one week, right? Let's get to some patch notes!

Quests

• New Town Event: Wake. Explore Tamas and Dani's friendship in the mid-game.
• Modifications made to "Hunting Party"

Puzzles

• Added 25 new puzzles in the Ice Cave (bringing the total in the Ice Cave to 64; you'll see 12 in a given playthrough, give or take)
• Added a new path through Ice Cave 1
• Added a new path through Ice Cave 2
• Added two new paths through Ice Cave 3
• Added a new path through Ice Cave 4
• Holes in the last room of the Ruins now properly block your path
• Fixed various crashes related to the Ruins
• Fixed various graphics issues in the Ruins
• Fixed various passage issues in the Ruins
• Lightbridges in the Ruins are now embettered
• Opening one door in the fifth room of the Ruins will not open all of the rest of the doors
• Pillars now really do serve as pressure for the sake of pressure plates
• Ramps placed in the water work appropriately
• Reset now works in the Ruins Cave
• Reset now no longer crashes the game if you have loaded a boulder into a geyser in the Boulder Cave AND have loaded the game from a save (that's a mouthful)
• Reset now correctly resets pressure plates
• Room five of the Ruins is now flooded with water
• The timer better functions in the Ruins cave
• Tools can now be used in the Ruins
• Wolves now move around in the Ruins
• YOU CAN NOW FALL THROUGH THE ICE IN THE RUINS CAVE (this is in all caps because it seriously took me way too long)
• Other spoilery fixes to the Ruins cave

Misc

• Autosave: when you start a new game, a new save file will be created immediately. Autosave will now save over that file (or, if you're continuing, from whatever file you loaded) rather than always autosaving a new file at the top. This means that saves kind of function like save slots now.
• The analogue stick is now enabled
• The Tool and Timer UI are hidden during the final confrontation
• Additional decorations have been added to the Ruins
• The progress bar at the start of a new file now tells you what it's doing
• F6 has been disabled 

Mac / Linux

• Fixed a crash related to NPC dialogue sounds
• Fixed graphic rendering of items on tables
• Fixed player transparency when in water
• Fixed various other client bugs

Hi friends!

Short post for this week, as lots of ends are tidied up. This week I added several additional paths through the Ice Cave (along with about 25 new puzzle options and a new mechanic). Additionally, a lot of love was added to the Ruins, with tons of bug fixes throughout - I don't want to go into a lot of detail here because the Ruins are pretty spoilery?

Finally, saving / autosaving works a little differently now. Before, whatever you were playing would just autosave in the top slot - all fine and dandy, but you couldn't create new "slots" if you wanted to have several parallel games. Now, whenever you hit "New Game" it will create a new save slot, and will always autosave into that slot; if you load a new game, the autosaving will happen there. As before, you still can't manually save mid-day. 

That's all for this week! We're off next week for the holidays, but we'll be back on Dec. 27 with just a bucket load of news for you, and the last content patch before Early Access, "Room at the Inn."

Hi friends!

This week I'm pushing a new patch to primarily address one thing: key-bindings are now in the game. In theory, you should have a lot more flexibility when it comes to your input. This includes resetting your keyboard keys to something more comfortable, remapping an XBox Controller, and switching between a keyboard and controller profile. Previously, if a controller was plugged in, you could not use they keyboard whatsoever. That restriction has been lifted.

Candidly, I found the keybinding process to be incredibly difficult. I'm not terribly familiar with the Win32 API, or reading inputs from the keyboard. I'm proud of what was done, but this took longer than I was hoping. I'm crossing my fingers I can make up some time down the road this week.

Speaking of plans for the week, expect yet another patch next week which cleans up some bugs in the Final Confrontation before we all leave for vacation.

Additional bug fixes are also incoming, they're getting pretty nuanced now!

Quests
A Little Something

• This is now a time-limited quest

Clearing The Way

• Added dialogue for Dorottya and Katarina as they are about to dig the tunnel
• Added dialogue for Dorottya and Katarina on completion of the tunnel, regardless of whether the quest is complete
• Fixed Katarina's clipping issue when choosing the tunnel as a reward
• Fixed pathing issues inside the tunnel
• Replaced the entrance to the tunnel with a rope, and included climbing animations

Dr. Spore

• Gusztav is no longer so greedy; he'll only take 10 mushrooms if you tell him he can't have more

Light in the Darkness

• Robert actually takes the Bright Flower from you now
• Using the last Bright Flower before completing this quest now appropriately updates your journal

Spirit Walk

• Completing this quest will now anger Bernadett (doesn't everything?)
• Piri's dialogue on completion has been updated to make the reward for this quest clearer

The Second Son

• Fixed a corner case related to the completion cutscene that would appear strange if you left the workshop then immediately went back inside.

Misc

• Added keybinding configuration. You can reach it from the Options menu
• Added controller and keyboard profiles; you can switch between using an XBox controller and a standard keyboard in the Options menu. This means you can still use the keyboard even if a controller is plugged in.
• Added various non-text tutorials
• Fixed various passage issues in town
• The Church will not close its doors if you have the Ice Cave Waypoint
• Cecilia's House will not close if you have the Dark Cave Waypoint

Hi friends!

I'm writing this blog post as I'm still trying to digest the last of Thanksgiving dinner, several days after the fact. For those who celebrate, I hope you had a wonderful holiday!

This past week, the nominees for Playcrafting's annual "Bit Awards" came out, and Vidar is nominated for Best PC/Console Game of the Year!! Which is really just pretty dang awesome. The award show will be on December 15, and if you're in the NYC area, it'd be great to see you there. Tickets are on sale here.

On the development front, this week we launched the 3rd of 4 "pre-Early Access" content patches designed to get the game to tip-top shape for our Steam debut. Beyond the other big ticket items I've discussed the past few weeks, Vidar got a few more particle effects and bug fixes over the long weekend. You should also see more stability throughout.

The final content patch before Early Access will come out in late December, as we try to cram as many possible bug fixes in as we can. There may be additional patches after that for still more fixes, but it's unlikely any new quests etc. will be added until February (although never say never!)

Better get to it!

- Dean

Hi friends!

We are on an unstoppable crash course with Early Access in January, and there's so much left to do!

This week I managed to get a ton of the upcoming patch in. The biggest mechanical change is the addition of three patients that Gusztav will be treating at the beginning of the game. I don't want to get into the nitty-gritty of the ratios and things, but on a broad level, these patients could potentially serve as additional bodies for the Beast. In practice, it's at most three extra lives, but you'll have to be both skilled and lucky to capitalize on all three.

The patients mechanic is core to Gusztav's quests lines, and we'll see more improvements as the game charts a course through Early Access. Speaking of Gusztav, a bunch of cutscenes were added for him this week as he reckons with the loss of his son. There are some particularly touching and troubling ones involving Sandor (who can relate, and who may or may not be a religious man by this point in the game) that are worth trying to reach in New Game Plus mode.

A new quest was added for Dani, but it's pretty deep into the game and requires a lot of stars to align to get it. If you do, it's a quest that's made directly easier by being nice to people in town, and the reward is pretty desirable as well. 

Little orphan Tomi was a little concerning, particularly standing outside mourning his parents with no chaperone. A caretaker system has been added, so that if Tomi is in the poor house by himself, someone in town will take care of him, make sure has some food, etc. Right now, the caretaker's own lives aren't really changed by this role (they each have some dialogue about it, but that's about it). I'm hoping to change that post-Early Access. I hate to come back to Sandor again, but even he'd admit that taking in Tomi feels like he's doing some weird replacing in his life.













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Finally, over the past several patches I've reported on Mushroom Identification, how people in town can tell you what kind of mushroom you've got in your inventory. Now, it finally matters - every mushroom you pick up can have different effects. Some are good, some are terrible. It's a gamble to eat a mushroom you don't recognize, but if you can get someone knowledgeable to help you, then they're a good extra resource to have. Particularly if you no longer need them for a quest.

With both the patient and mushroom mechanics, I'm hoping this eases some of the difficulty in the Dark Cave. By that point, there's a decent chance that some core Dark Cave quests aren't available to you, and so neither are their rewards. The nice thing about the dichotomy I've introduced here is that, if Gusztav is alive, you can turn in the mushroom to activate the patients-as-rewards. If he's not, then you can keep the mushrooms, and use them to give yourself meaningful boosts through the cave. 

Some feedback that I'm mulling currently is:

• It's hard to keep the NPCs straight, particularly on a first play, particularly at the beginning
• Navigation (both in and out of the cave) is tricky
• The game is (still) too long to justify quick repeated play

On the first, I think a journal look-up is in the cards. Also, the upcoming patch introduces SFX for each character, which might help a little bit. On the second, while there is a map, the functionality needs to be improved, and it's not even available until the Water Cave. An earlier quest to give you the map seems prudent.

The last is the most difficult design question. We have 24 NPCs, and their lives set the entire pacing and balance of the game. Everything is written for these 24 to form a very interdependent,  interconnected web - removing just one from the start of the game will throw a lot off. At the same time, if the game is shortened, then the threat of death is less meaningful. There's a lot to think about here, and some possible solutions are:

• Increase movement speed, which will up the tempo at the margins (it may throw off the balance of some of the Dark Cave puzzles in particular)
• Shorten the day (this will make the game significantly harder, and from what I've seen, that's not ideal)
• Cut one room from each biome (this will make the game significantly easier, with 12 rooms to clear instead of 16, but from what I've seen that's the right direction in terms of difficulty; this will also require a reconfiguration of a lot of quests)
• Condense the town, so there's less time spent walking from building to building (the most difficult to do on short notice, and may throw off the aesthetic) 

I'm working with all of these ideas and more, and will likely implement some kind of combination of all of these. Depending on the scope, it may not happen until after Early Access launch.

That's kind of how things are going these days, trying to prioritize what needs to be in pre-EA, and what decisions can be made post-EA. 

Catch you next week, when the Bad Trip patch finally launches!
- Dean

Hi friends!

This week was candidly pretty rough. Like a lot of people around these parts, Wednesday and Thursday were both filled with a thousand-yard stare and unfortunately not a lot of good, honest work. I've made my peace, said what I had to say to friends and family, and it's time to roll up my sleeves and get back into Vidar.

This week, we fixed a handful of bugs related to some of the early quests ("A Brighter Tomorrow", "Dr. Spore", and "Residue") and some nagging crashes that were coming up. I'm excited, I think we've cut these crashes down to near non-existent, and while yeah there are bugs, there are quite few progress-blocking bugs these days. Compare this to where we were when the Alpha started in May, and I think, well, that the Alpha served its job quite well!

The Water Cave saw a lot of love this week. There was an issue  with vines bugging out and occasionally causing serious errors, so they were completely reworked. This also has the added benefit of drawing them in a more pleasing way. A new mechanic was added to the Water Cave as well, and 13 puzzle options were added to that area so that you can experience all of these new changes.

Finally, SFX have been added to each of the 24 character's dialogue. This has imbued them with a lot of personality, and personally, I think it adds a lot of dynamism to the town, which was still feeling a little static. 

This past weekend, Vidar was at GaymerX East! This was the first time this con made it's way to the better coast, and it was a welcome celebration of inclusivity in games. Like Stardew Valley, Vidar's populace is pretty diverse, and represents good and bad people from all walks of life. Celebrating our differences and commonality felt particularly necessary last weekend; I'm glad I was able to go.

In response to observing some players at this con, I made a few quality-of-life changes as well. Barrels are activated with the lantern tool instead of interact button. Switches that cannot be used more than once now telegraph that better. Gates have been added to make the shortcut function more clear. The purple lever is purplier. That kind of thing.

With the conclusion of GaymerX, that's the end of the show circuit for me until Early Access on January 31. It's full steam (no pun intended) ahead now!

The next patch, "Bad Trip," will be coming out in two weeks on Nov. 29, and it'll include all of the above and a lot more. See you next time!

- Dean