Hey everyone, I'm Hugo, the developer of Mona: The Endless Journey. Mona has been part of the Steam Next Fest: February, and we've received a ton of feedback from players. It's been two days since the fest kicked off, and after a great late-night chat with some dedicated players in our community last night, I wanted to take a moment today to share a personal update with all of you as an indie dev.
Just yesterday, our wishlist count crossed the 10K mark — and honestly, we're thrilled. This is our first time participating in the Next Fest, so hitting that milestone means the world to us.
We're a tiny three-person team. I handle game design and art, while my two partners split the work across programming, animation, and sound design. The reason we started making this game is pretty simple: I'm a huge fan of Soulslike games and Castlevania, so I wanted to build something with a Soulslike foundation — but without making the whole experience feel too dark and heavy. That's how we landed on having an adorable little girl as the protagonist.
What Mona: The Endless Journey ultimately became is a dark fairy tale × Castlevania × Soulslike side-scrolling 3D Metroidvania. The adventure, exploration, and light horror-puzzle elements lean into the Castlevania side, while the combat is Soulslike (featuring a dual-character combat system). We've also added fun parkour elements and a customizable ability badge system — a mechanic that's become popular in recent years.
I've always been drawn to stories about "finding hope in solitude." I've always felt that a great action game shouldn't just be about fighting enemies and leveling up — it should tell a story that stays with you. That's where Lisa and Mona came from.
Lisa is the girl in the dark dress, always clutching her beloved pillow. She looks fragile, but she's an exceptional defender. Her personality reflects a people-pleasing tendency — she instinctively agrees with others to protect herself. In the team, she plays the role of a supporter, absorbing damage and keeping her partner safe.
Mona is the girl in the white dress, with messy, shoulder-length hair. She's more withdrawn, but incredibly gifted in combat, embodying a fierce sense of self. Mona has a habit of answering questions with questions, prefers going solo, and uses that independence to assert her freedom — sometimes coming across as aggressive toward others. Her raw offensive power makes her fearless and formidable in battle, capable of striking back hard and fast.
Bringing a demo to Next Fest has been equal parts exciting and nerve-wracking. Exciting because we finally get to share something we've been pouring our hearts into for two years. Nerve-wracking because we know our limitations all too well — three people handling programming, art, sound, and QA means things are bound to slip through the cracks.
Over the past two days, we've read every single piece of feedback. The compliments about the art, map design, and atmosphere made us feel warm inside and kept us going. But we also received a lot of fair criticism — things like rough models in places, frame drops, combat feel and hit feedback needing work, high boss difficulty, and various bugs.
So here, I want to sincerely say: we're sorry for the rough spots that hurt your experience, and we take every bit of constructive criticism to heart. We know these issues are real, and we understand that you expect more from us. The reality is that we're strapped for budget — we can't afford to outsource art or programming. All the 3D animation, code, and sound design will need more time and effort from us to polish and refine. Right now, this game is like a child the three of us have raised with our own hands. It's far from perfect and has plenty of flaws, but every little detail carries a piece of our heart. We'll channel your expectations and feedback into motivation, and we're committed to delivering a game that's heartfelt, satisfying to play, and genuinely fun.
With Next Fest as our launchpad, I'd like to humbly ask for your patience and a little grace for our small, indie passion project. We've already logged and archived all your feedback and are working urgently on optimizations. Our goal is to bring you a smoother, more polished version of Mona: The Endless Journey as soon as we can.
Finally, a heartfelt thank you to every single person who took the time to download the demo, play it, and leave feedback. Whether it's praise or criticism, it all fuels us to keep going. We'll continue posting optimization updates here, and we welcome you to keep dropping suggestions in the comments — we promise to listen carefully and do our best to improve.
We hope Mona: The Endless Journey can be a part of your gaming journey and bring you a little joy! And once again — if you haven't already, we'd really appreciate it if you could add us to your wishlist! 💐