Hello everyone! I'm Max, the developer of Memento Medica.
First, I want to profusely thank everyone who has taken a chance on the game already. I know that buying into Early Access from an unknown developer is a gamble, and I'm incredibly grateful for your trust. I'm also thankful to anyone reading this DevLog and taking any interest in the project.
On the 12th I released Memento Medica in Early Access, and it's been an exhilarating few days. Three patches have gone out since then, fixing major issues, improving quality of life, and balancing gameplay. But since this is the first DevLog, let me start by explaining what Memento Medica actually is.
What is Memento Medica?
At its broadest, Memento Medica is an apothecary-themed RPG with roguelite elements.
You play as Beatrice Hearthorne, a travelling apothecary moving from town to town with the singular goal of curing the afflicted. Once she receives her tasks, she ventures into a procedurally generated wilderness to gather materials, returns to her crafting stations, and creates remedies through a variety of minigames, all while racing against the clock. Every moment spent gathering or crafting has a cost. As seconds tick away people are dying, and Beatrice's despair grows.
Should she fail a venture, Beatrice returns home and sells off her materials before they spoil. A failed venture isn't ideal, but it provides experience and resources to improve her equipment, making subsequent attempts more manageable. The structure loosely follows roguelite conventions: you venture out, fail, start over, and build temporary blessings that shape each run.
There's also a narrative thread. Beatrice's journey begins at her first breath and follows her through the Kingdom of Aeldenfield as a highly infectious, highly fatal, and incurable plague creeps across the land.
So while "RPG with roguelite elements" is an accurate description, players expecting a typical experience in either genre might find themselves surprised. Perhaps rather than describing it, a gameplay example of a region would be best:
The Current State of Things
Right now, the core gameplay loop is fully functional. You set out on ventures, collect materials, craft remedies, and cure afflictions within procedurally generated environments. You can endlessly venture out and cure afflictions.
That said, the game is not complete. Here’s what is currently available:
Collect: Gather materials using different tools from plants scattered across the environment, from animals, and from fishing.
Craft: Eight crafting mini-games which test your memory and reflexes. Currently included are Brewing, Grinding, Spinning, Weaving, Sewing, Cooking, Chopping and Mixing.
Cure: A variety of afflictions are available which require different materials and crafting methods to resolve.
Blessings: Temporary boons that allow players to choose ways to enhance Beatrice’s abilities over the course of a venture
Meta-Progression: Coin persists between runs and can be used to purchase new tools and equipment as well as upgrade them to enhance their effectiveness. Additionally, Beatrice acquires experience in her disciplines as she practices them.
Procedurally generated environments: Each region is procedurally generated, as such each player’s version of Aeldenfield will differ slightly. That said, there are a finite number of regions, so players can revisit the same place multiple times under different conditions.
Narrative: The main story beats of Aeldenfield Part I are implemented.
Additional features: Merchants, NPC requests, Treasure Hunts, Goddess shrines.
The Immediate Roadmap
For the foreseeable future, my primary focus is polishing and enhancing existing content rather than adding new features. The goal is to build the strongest possible foundation before expanding further.
Performance: Memento Medica was originally designed to run on low-end specs. As the game has grown, it's become heavier than intended (GPU usage in particular is too intense.) I'll be spending time reducing the load while maintaining the aesthetic. Level generation and general gameplay will also see optimisation passes. Once the initial bugs and issues are ironed out, performance is a top priority. That said, performance optimisation is a continual process that will need to be revisited time and time again.
Gameplay Variety: Currently, activities skew heavily toward gathering plants, grinding them, and brewing potions. Ventures can start to feel repetitive. I'll be progressively adding new afflictions that utilise underused tools and crafting methods, along with new blessings that shift Beatrice's priorities from run to run.
Movement and Animation: Memento Medica didn't originally emphasise exploration, so Beatrice's movement is limited and somewhat static. She'll receive a dedicated update focused on making her feel more dynamic, responsive, and satisfying to control. This will include giving her 8 direction animations rather than the current 4.
Similarly, afflicted NPCs are largely interchangeable right now. You cure them and they're better. I want you to feel like you've actually helped someone with a laceration, for example. A major update will separate affliction types, individualise NPC animations, and introduce additional variations of NPCs.
Biome Diversity: Despite being procedural generated, each biome feels too similar. There isn't enough distinction between a Coastal Region and a Wetland, or a Farm and a Village, beyond appearance. Each biome needs its own identity, and that’s something I will be addressing.
In additions, Settlements and Towns need greater diversity. I originally wanted environments to be entirely procedurally generated. The buildings within towns technically are, but frankly, you couldn't tell. One looks like another, and interiors are dull. I'll be replacing town buildings with pre-built assets which, ironically, will allow greater flexibility in how they look and help each area feel distinct.
Narrative: The current narrative is a skeleton; enough to drive the story forward and move Beatrice around, but it needs flesh. A major patch will expand the world of Memento Medica, its intrigues, and Beatrice's relationships with the people around her.
So, What Comes After That?
Beyond the polish stated above, the narrative will continue progressing, bringing additional biomes, afflictions and environments with it. The City Biome is currently in development and will offer a very different feel and new objectives compared to what's available now. This is likely to be part of a larger update which expands Aeldenfield Part II.
Much further down the line, Beatrice will be moving beyond Aeldenfield to entirely new kingdoms and biomes, with new gathering and crafting disciplines, new afflictions, a companion system and more.
In terms of patch cadence: I intend to update the game within the next couple of days with further bug fixes, quality of life improvements and game balance. Then, once the initial flurry of patches is (hopefully) over, updates will slow down and become more focused; dropping on either a weekly or bi-weekly basis. From this point forward I’ll also be posting a monthly DevLog just to apprise you of what’s going on with Memento Medica.
Feedback
If you have feedback about any aspect of the game, please reach out on the Steam Forums, on X or by email. Every piece of feedback (even the brutal pieces) helps to shape the project in a positive direction.
In Closing
If you've made it this far, I cannot thank you enough for your interest. I've worked countless hours developing Memento Medica; thinking about it, dreaming about it, learning, failing, and occasionally even succeeding. It's a project I love, and if anyone looks at it and thinks "hey, that looks a little bit interesting," it means the world to me.
Until next time!