Hi friends!

This week we slapped a fresh coat of paint on the menu screen. Here’s what we’ve got for you:

This lovely book has replaced that ugly, small window in the top left corner of your screen. With that boring black background. And all of its grossness. Your journal will also show up in the book, for a more, well, journaly feel.

The inventory menu saw a small improvement, we finally got rid of that stupid “key” icon that required you to have to press twice to enter the menu. Wonder what that was all about? RPG Maker has a concept of “key items” much like a lot of other RPGs. In Vidar, everything is tagged “key item.” We had deleted the other default menus (like armor, accessories, weapons, etc.) so the only thing left was the “Key Items” menu. But the window that forced you to choose among those possible menus remained.

Further down the road (that is, not for the upcoming content patch) we’ll be revisiting the item menu again. We’re saving that for a bigger inventory-management overhaul later in Early Access.

We also added a people-looker-upper:

This is part 2 of 3 of my plan to improve playability around town. Part 1 was the town map (added in late January). Part 3 will be a “Book of the Dead” in the Church that updates you with the names of people who died - so long as someone is at the Church to update it. Combined with this directory, players will have access to a suite of possible tools to aid in exploring town, all available from different citizens.

Note that the directory will only be available if you have the journal, and it won’t be terribly functional at the start of the game. Only people you’ve met will be displayed in the directory, so if someone dies before you speak with them, they’ll remain a silhouette forever.

This week we also added “Vigil” and “Music to My Ears” to the game. Last week, we talked about how “Make it Work” was added as one more path into the Wolf Cave. Well, “Music to My Ears” is one more path to the library, for many of the same reasons! Lilja’s quests were feeling a little lackluster and often stalled out, so she’s the perfect person to seek this long buried treasure if Mihaly is dead.

We’re off to New York City’s “Big Apple Con” this Sunday, sitting in the Playcrafting Booth. If you’re in town, come by for swag and to play and buy the game!

See you next week!
​- Dean