Villager Cover Image

Inspiration

Popular and successful games in the past have given players the opportunity to reset their progress, while either rewarding them with items/gold to do so, or providing bonuses or benefits that affect their subsequent runs.

What it does

This update focuses on 4 parts:

We've added a new currency to the game that can only be obtained by resetting your progress. This currency can exclusively be used to purchase permanent upgrades that persist through resets.
We've added quests to the game that reward writs of achievement - writs come in various qualities, and sell for increasing amounts.
We've introduced a new island expansion system where players can purchase access to additional islands using in-game currency. These new islands feature highly detailed cave-themed obstacle courses with rich visual storytelling elements that guide players through immersive adventures. Players can explore these carefully crafted environments to collect unique treasures and bring them back to the main island to sell. This creates another layer of progression and gives players engaging, narrative-driven content to experience during their playtime.
We've done a polish pass over all of the UI elements in the game, focusing on conveying information, preventing accidental purchases, and improving performance.

How we built it

We pushed the limits of the world to the brink with the initial release. Our focus on this update was to provide the greatest benefit to the player without effecting the performance at all. All of the updates were performed through new systems in typescript, implementation of horizon worlds native features, and improving existing code. The island expansion system required careful optimization to ensure the highly detailed cave environment and visual storytelling elements retained an enjoyable level of performance .

Challenges we ran into

The original design was restricted to system upgrades due to our level capacity prior to the update. We didn't want to increase it at all, at the risk of running into performance problems. Solving this with heavy programming systems and expanding the tycoon with obby elements via new worlds felt like a novel solution.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Moving the entire UI to client-side from server-side provided a huge performance improvement. The game feels much more responsive and fun to play. Adding the quests and rewards system was satisfying - it's nice to accomplish something and get rewarded for it. We're particularly proud of successfully integrating an entirely new genre of game as an obstacle course via the island system. It enables practically infinite growth for future updates.

What we learned

We learned a considerable amount about improving player experiences through UI responsiveness, and delved pretty deep into the horizon worlds apis to accomplish it. We also gained valuable insights into efficient world-to-world data sharing, and sharing assets.

What's next for Villager

We have a number of changes planned with a focus on custom animations, voice lines, improved NPC interactions, and also item interactions. We want to improve the ability to play a role within the world to players. The island system also provides a foundation for adding specialized themed islands with unique mechanics and rewards in future updates.

We developed an AI Speech implementation on standby that integrates player achievements, quests, inventory, generator purchases, along with unique personalities and speech patterns for every NPC in the village during the jam, but upon learning the region limitations of the API, we put it on hold. Once AI Speech rolls out to all regions, we have it ready to go.

Patch Notes

Quest Update - Major Shop & Economy Overhaul!

UI Improvements

Shipment availability fix - No longer shows shipments you've already unlocked them all
Enhanced shop UI - Improve the look and feel of the shop UI - added currencies to the shop window
Smart buy buttons - Greyed out when you can't afford items with "not enough gold" messages
Confirmation dialogs - Brief explanations of what you're purchasing
Sell All Button - The sell tab now has a Sell All button to sell every sellable item in your inventory
Better Generator UI - Shows generator name, cost, item value, generation time, and storage

New Currency: Unobtanium Introducing a premium currency earned through the new Reset feature!

Reset System

Fresh start mechanic - Remove all progress to earn unobtanium
Unobtanium rewards - Based on total gold acquired during your run
Permanent progression - Use unobtanium for upgrades that persist across resets

New Upgrades Tab Permanent upgrades purchasable with unobtanium:

Swift Production - Reduces production time by 5% per level (compound)
Enhanced Yield - +1 item generated per cycle per level
Lucky Strike - 5% chance for rare items (16 exclusive items worth 200-2000 gold!)
Golden Touch - Items sell for 10% more per level
Expanded Storage - +1 storage capacity for all generators per level
Gem Collector - Find +1 gem per level when exploring

Island Exploration

Dungeon Access - Purchase access to mysterious islands for quick exploration adventures
Jumping Puzzles - Navigate fun platforming challenges on each island
Collectible Hunting - Discover valuable items scattered throughout the island environments
Quick Cash - Sell your collected treasures back in town for instant profit
Perfect Downtime Activity - Ideal for earning money while waiting for your generators to complete their cycles

Quests!

65 New quests have been added to the game, ranging from opening the shop to becoming a millionaire!
Completing quests will reward you with a writ of achievement, depending on the challenge of your quest
Sell writs for a money boost

Bug Fixes

Fixed gem clipping through stalls
Removed tree that was inside shops
Made gems easier to find around the map
Fixed inventory quantity alignment issues
Fixed item name text wrapping in inventory
"No Inventory Items" text is no longer mysteriously at the bottom of the window
Unlocking the rocking chair shipment will now actually unlock it
Fixed a rare issue where you could buy a shipment, lose the money, but not receive the shipment
Fixed "Generating..." button resetting progress when nothing available
Fixed claiming an item on a generator resetting any in-progress progress towards the next item
Fixed an issue where players couldn't interact with generators on server that had been open for awhile
Fixed an issue where unlocked shipment wouldn't show up in the world immediately sometimes

Technical

Moved all UI elements to client-side for better performance

Ready to reset and start your unobtanium collection? With new islands to explore and treasures to find, the grind just got a whole lot more rewarding!