Dear Project Backers,
as we're getting closer to our Early Access launch (and of course the test version for our backers with tester's access), we have a lot of news to talk about.
Translations
Thanks to our publisher, Team17 (you can read more about that in our announcement from March), the game will be available in different languages - starting already with the Early Access version. That's right! In Early Access, you will be able to play Monster Sanctuary in French, Spanish, Italian, German and Russian.
Third Community Monster Contest
Surprise news for our Monster Designer backers: We will start the third Community Monster Contest tomorrow (1st of August). The submission period will be open until the end of August. Voting will be done in the first week of September (until the 8th of September). As usual, the contest is happening on our Discord channel and all backers who supported us with 50€ or more are allowed to enter (you may join our Discord server here: Join Monster Sanctuary on Discord).
We are excited to see which Monsters our community will vote into our game this time!
July Progress Update
So here's what we've added to the game in July:
- New tier 4 attacks for new and old Monsters alike. Most of these new attacks have different extra effects that make them different from lower-tier skills - skills like Spectral Cannon ignore a large percentage of the enemy's Armor value, while skills like Thunder Strike and Poison Eater have special effects when they're used on shocked/poisoned enemies.
- New area: Sun Palace. This area is meant to be explored after the other areas we've added to the game so far. It can also be entered earlier if the player knows how to get there and what you need to get inside - but the Monster encounters have a rather high minimum level in this area. The Sun Palace is a large underground area that is illuminated by an artificial miniature sun. There are two distinct parts to the Sun Palace: the sunny "overworld" areas with large open rooms and the dark, watery aqueducts below.
- Sun Palace will also be the first area to feature more intricate area-wide mechanics. There is a tower in the center of the Sun Palace which needs to be raised to access the higher rooms of the area. The aqueducts of the Sun Palace are overflowing with water, making it impossible to access the lower rooms at first. Throughout the area, the player will find levers to raise the tower and to lower the water levels of the aqueducts.
- New Monsters: Blade Widow and Sycophantom
- Sycophantom is one of the winners from our second Community Contest. As the creator (MissingNovice) intended, Sycophantom is very focussed on support skills (heals and buffs), with many skills granting it "Charge" stacks (+damage for next attack) when it uses those skills. Apart from that, it can also apply Chill-Debuff and a new type of stack called "Blind" on enemies.
- Blade Widow is a new deadly bug-type Monster. It's a heavy damage dealer with Neutral, Wind and Earth attacks that is also able to apply multiple instances of Might-Buff for physical damage-oriented parties. As the battle rages on, Blade Widow becomes ever stronger and ever deadlier, thanks to Buffs and "Charge" stacks that it gains while attacking enemies.
- Finished all Sun Palace rooms and story-content. Now we just need to add more Monsters, implement new mechanics and playtest the new content.
That's all for this month's update! If all goes well, expect the test version for Early Access by the end of August or early September.