Monomyth - Dev Update #19

[HiddenX]

A new Kickstarter update for the dungeon crawler Monomyth:

State of the Game: Current Progress | Beta Preparations

Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!

February went by real fast and Monomyth has made some good progress! This time around the update will be a bit shorter, but there is still a lot of important information I'd like to share with you, so let's get to it...

Current Progress

As announced last time I spent most of the month on detail passes, which means, fixing environments and making them presentable. I created new assets and overhauled some of the later areas in the game.

Some of these are still "work in progress" and will be revised further as development continues. The placement of items, traps, and secrets is on the To-Do list. Some of the late-game content is still in the block-out phase, which I would like to change within the next few weeks. Earlier areas in the game are already further developed.

Directly beyond the Serpent's Bastion (the level you know from the Kickstarter demo) lies the "Heartland". This area is mostly controlled by the fortress of Lysandria. The environment in the heartland is rather diverse. You will find dark tunnels and underground lakes, as well as places of worship and agriculture (or rather the underground equivalent thereof). Most of the area has been fortified by the Lysandrians to defend against attacks from the surface. The whole level still has to be tied together by level mechanics and quests, which I will work on shortly.

Thanks to the musical talent of Isaac Vail, Monomyth now features a background score! Since numerous people valued the calm atmosphere in the demo we decided to keep it subtle, the only exception being the main theme.

Significant progress has also been made with regard to world design. The individual areas of the game are now stitched together, making the game's world fully traversable from the first to the last level. As I mentioned, not all of these levels are ready yet, but it is another step to properly scale the project. A properly scaled project keeps things manageable and, more importantly, realizable. This step also helps me to test out quests that are spanning different parts of the game - most importantly the main quest. Testing such things early is of course very important, which brings us to beta preparations.

Beta Preparations

Just as we said last year, Monomyth's closed beta will start around the beginning of Q2 2022 (add maybe a month or so, depending on how things are going). Generally speaking, the beta will likely be held in three phases (B1-B3). The game's world is currently organized in a way that allows for a subset of all areas to be tested while leaving the main quest largely intact. This is due to Monomyth's modular quest design approach, which tries to stay away from a strict sequential order when it comes to the player's main tasks.

My plan is to have a fully working game that can be played from start to end in B1. In every following beta phase, there will be a major content update integrating further areas into the game, expanding the main quest.

The point of this is to stay flexible with regard to whatever priorities we will see emerging during the beta. It also allows for a quick transition into release preparations once the time for that has come. Personally, I feel that at a certain production phase you should keep a game (or any software for that matter) in a state where it could theoretically be released within a reasonable amount of weeks. I would like to achieve this state with the first beta phase. This does not mean the game has to be released that quickly afterward - that is not the plan - but it forces me to think about the core essential content first, to avoid feature creep, and to make sure the project won't get stuck in development hell. I understand that the latter is a major concern for many Kickstarter projects and I would like to avoid that.

Backer content (items, NPCs, quests, etc) will be integrated throughout the beta. I believe it is a good idea that people first get a sense of the world in which their ideas will exist. Of course, that is not mandatory, so if you don't want to spoil the full experience for yourself, no need to worry.

For the next month, I have more level design and gameplay programming planned. The goal is now to get everything into a properly playable state. As always, I will keep you updated!

Best wishes,

Michael

More information.

 

[JDR13]

I'm glad he was able to get someone to compose BGM. Judging from that clip, he's doing a good job. It fits the setting and adds to the atmosphere.

This game is still flying under most people's radar, but I think it's going to be a sleeper hit.

 

[shamroxor]

..This game is still flying under most people's radar, but I think it's going to be a sleeper hit.

That might be a blessing considering all the whining about Kickstarted games. Even at this stage its looking great and the early demo offered a bunch of fun, I'm sure it'll impress a lot of people once its ready for release.

 

[Couchpotato]

Not really a fan of the dungeon-crawling genre but I might give it a try.

That might be a blessing considering all the whining about Kickstarted games. Even at this stage its looking great and the early demo offered a bunch of fun, I'm sure it'll impress a lot of people once its ready for release.

Given the current state of kickstarter games I doubt you change anyone's opinion. As the golden age of crowdfunding is gone, and replaced by early access games nowadays.

I believe Redglyph shared a report that no game has earned more then $50,000 nowadays. That's a far cry from the blockbuster's who earned 1 million or more.

Also most but not all crowdfunding games have a terrible launch due to lack of funds.

 

[Carnifex]

I live for the dungeon-crawling experience myself, so I'll be keeping an eye on this one and hoping for the best! Sure, it might be a bit rough at launch, lots of games these days suffer that anguish, yet that doesn't mean that it won't mature into something greater. Keep the faith and all that!

 

[Redglyph]

Not really a fan of the dungeon-crawling genre but I might give it a try.
Given the current state of kickstarter games I doubt you change anyone's opinion. As the golden age of crowdfunding is gone, and replaced by early access games nowadays.

I believe Redglyph shared a report that no game has earned more then $50,000 nowadays. That's a far cry from the blockbuster's who earned 1 million or more.

Also most but not all crowdfunding games have a terrible launch due to lack of funds.

The article states there's a record number of successful project, and many are in the $100k-$500k category (the sentence is missing 2 words):

Ico also notes that last year saw 51 projects raising funds in the $100k to $500k category than any other, beating the previous record set in 2014. That said, there were fewer projects in the $500k category than last year.

But fewer projects in the $500k category (again, incomplete, it's probably all projects >=$500k).

Overall, more significant projects but fewer/no extravagant projects like D:OS 2 (which got $2M in 2015). And it looks like a relatively stable trends, it's just that we passed the huge hits of 2012, 2013 & 2015.

This article has more details (link), but I can't find the source, I think it's not free.

Monomyth raised 38975 EUR, so more than $40k but less than $50k, it's not even in the green area (pink).

 

[Couchpotato]

Yep that's the article the group that's still thriving is board games. I've seen way to many game projects fail lately and rarely seen any make $50,000 despite that graph.

It's dead Jim and we'll never see a large funded project again. Well maybe Larian.

 

[Redglyph]

Yep that's the article the group that's still thriving is board games. I've seen way to many game projects fail lately and rarely seen any make $50,000 despite that graph.

It's dead Jim and we'll never see a large funded project again. Well maybe Larian.

I'm not sure I saw many either. Wanderlost got $147k, and Dungeon Full Dive got 243k EUR. Maybe a couple of others but not RPGs.

I have the feeling Monomyth could have aimed in the 50k-100k category, or perhaps even higher, if there was a bigger team. I was on the fence for this project, but the fact there was only one dev and it was his first project gave me cold feet, despite the demo.

The only big successes I know of are from established companies: PoE ($3.9M in 2012), D:OS ($.9M in 2013), D:OS2 ($2M in 2015), System Shock ($1.3M in 2016), Kingmaker ($.9M in 2017), Wrath ($2M in 2020). And indeed I wouldn't hesitate so much if the devs had already made something before, I'm probably not the only one.

It's all about confidence in the team and appeal for the game, I guess. Well, this one seems to do a pretty good job after all.

 

[shamroxor]

..It's dead Jim and we'll never see a large funded project again. Well maybe Larian.

Well..Good? I was never a fan of the overfunded projects, wanted that gamer money spread across more smaller projects which increases the odds of something special being created. Monomyth and Prometheus Wept didn't make crazy funding numbers but interest me more than most live service crap thats on the way; thats what makes Kickstarter still viable for me. More of those games and less of Tides of Numenera.

 

[Couchpotato]

Well..Good? I was never a fan of the overfunded projects, wanted that gamer money spread across more smaller projects which increases the odds of something special being created. Monomyth and Prometheus Wept didn't make crazy funding numbers but interest me more than most live service crap thats on the way; thats what makes Kickstarter still viable for me. More of those games and less of Tides of Numenera.

Prometheus Wept was barely funded. The developer was very candid with his various updates. He even has his own forum here were we talked about this very problem.

You want money for your game in today's climate go Patreon or Early Access.

 

[Redglyph]

Or design a board game in the same franchise, those seem to bring a lot of money :lol:

I didn't know Patreon worked for games too. I see it's even for writers and journalists.
But it's more a subscription system, maybe less adapted to a one-shot release.

 

[Couchpotato]

Or design a board game in the same franchise, those seem to bring a lot of money :lol:

I didn't know Patreon worked for games too. I see it's even for writers and journalists.
But it's more a subscription system, maybe less adapted to a one-shot release.

Patreon can be used for game development, and it supports the develepr better then a one time payment system. You can pay once to get the game or support them monthly.

I've seen adult games and some indie games but not many regular developers. One of the largest studios is earning over $300,000 a month. Yes that's monthly not once.