Well, here we are at the end of 2022! It's hard to believe I've been working on MonCon on and off for close to five years now. This past year has definitely seen the most amount of steady progress on the game.
I have some cool new content to share, but before we get too far down into the weeds, I'll let you guys in on this newsletter's big announcement:
MonCon will be coming out by the end of 2023!
I've finished enough this year that I feel safe drawing this line in the sand. 2023 will still be a tight race to the finish line, but I think that this deadline strikes a good balance between getting the game out in a reasonable amount of time so that I can move on to other projects, and not compromising on the game's overall quality.
So by hook or by crook, come hell or high water, the full version of MonCon will be in your hands by this time next year.
Now, let's consult the progress chart and see where things are at:
As you can see, the game's side-quests are mostly done! Right now, I'm working with a secondary writer for the rest of the side-quest content. My goal in doing this is to really cement that eclectic "melting pot" vibe that you get when attending a convention, and bringing in a second writing voice should really help with that. But working with outside help means that a fraction of the game's cutscenes and quests are still cooking in the pipeline.
Meanwhile, MonCon's arcade minigames are also coming along nicely. I've settled on a grand total of eleven minigames for the final game. Seven of those are complete, but the remaining four should have a fairly short development cycle, as they'll mostly be reskins / tweaks / advanced versions of the existing minigames.
Here's a peek at one of the brand-new minigames I just put the finishing touches on:
I've also begun working on brand new monsters you'll have to conversation-battle in the later chapters of the game. There are a lot of new monster designs that I can't wait for you all to see! Here's a few that you'll have to converse with in Chapter 3...
Last but not least, I wanted to give everyone a convention-related update. As per our usual tradition, we will be attending CSGC in Tulsa, Oklahoma in April. This time around, we will have a brand-new build of MonCon that will be feature-complete up to the end of Chapter 3, AKA the first 40% or so of the game. This goes far beyond any public demo of MonCon I've ever shown at previous conventions. If you're in the area, you'll definitely want to drop by to check out all the new game content.
And that's it for now! Wishing everyone safe winter travels, and we'll talk again in the new year!
That's all for now!
Happy New Year!
~ Elliott