Room at the Inn
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!
New Town Event: Wake. Explore Tamas and Dani's friendship in the mid-game.
Modifications made to "Hunting Party"
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 two new paths through Ice Cave 3
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
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
Slick
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."
Bound and Determined
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!
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
Robert actually takes the Bright Flower from you now
Using the last Bright Flower before completing this quest now appropriately updates your journal
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.
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