Writing the Villagers Story

The story follows our protagonist, known as The Child, and her family as they go about their daily life inside the Village — meeting other characters like the bakers, the yoga teacher, the doctor, the farmer, and many more. The reader is invited to escape into a cozy village with eccentric neighbors who care about each other and look out for one another. The Child is keen on having an adventure and of course, she will get one! Every chapter brings these quirky characters to life beyond their 256 pixels, and each new chapter tells us more about the village and what life is like for its occupants.

I wrote and published the story one chapter at a time, so that fans of The Villagers could read it serial-style. Each new chapter went live on the site once per month in tandem with the game starting. The story added a new, exciting element to The Villagers and gave a deeper meaning to the pixel art.

The Village is a fun place, filled with interesting characters. As the story proceeds, we meet new neighbors and shopkeepers who populate this cozy little town, falling in love with each one as we go. Below are a few of the villagers we meet in the opening chapters, straight from the original 16×16 sprites.

The story really gets interesting when a meteor from outer space lands on a hillside right outside the village. The Farmer is the first one to discover the giant crater where it lands, and he notices a strange blue substance leaking out of the hillside. After showing it to the other villagers, they determine that the substance is not from Earth and must be from space. This has some frightening implications.

It turns out that aliens are on their way to the village to obtain the blue substance, which they call “Sooda,” because it powers their spacecraft and their society. The reader doesn't yet know if the aliens will be dangerous to the humans living in the village, but they are about to find out. This new twist allows us to introduce new characters to the story.

Now a whole new band of characters has entered the village — the aliens. They are oddly shaped and colored, but they know how to blend in with the humans. Their first mission is to spy on the villagers and find out where the substance is being held. Like the human villagers, each alien character is also depicted in a 16×16 pixel portrait.