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