Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!
Monomyth's closed beta has finally started! Those of you, who backed the game at the "Seventh Oath Cleric" level (€ 125) should have received their invitation mail by now. In case you haven't, please do not hesitate to contact me via [email protected].
The first beta phase will still be a bit of a bumpy ride with many bugs and some missing features. It is mostly a focus test for the new code base and the first area of the game (hence the name Beta 0). What follows now is a constant loop of feedback and patches that will push the project closer and closer to a stable release.
In that regard, the game already received various hotfixes over the weekend. Among other things, these fixes included the following:
- Slimes are no longer invincible
- Various level design fixes
- Swimming should be much less of a pain now (still not entirely painless)
- Comfortability features + fixed bugs in container GUIs
- Some adjusted/corrected dialogue options
- Books should display correctly while being carried around
- Torches burn longer and burnt-out torches are now placed in the inventory
- The GUI for money should update correctly now
- Fixed a bug that would respawn the player in a mysterious Ankh room
- Fixed a collision problem that made leaning impossible
- Visual updates to the environment
And so on. At least until next week, I will still focus on hotfixes of this nature. After that, I will start focusing on the first beta content patch. Speaking of which, the roadmap for the coming months looks as follows:
Update 1: To close the gap between the beginning of the game and the current beta content I will first reintroduce the "Serpent's Bastion" - the area you may already know from the demo. In the full version, this area will be slightly extended. In the same patch, item balancing will be overhauled as well.
Update 2: This patch will include the game's main settlement as well as the updated trading systems. It will also include some portions of the game that may not be accessible until later but are possibly interesting for testing at this point.
Update 3: This patch will introduce the area below the heartlands, where players will really start their vertical descent into the depths of Ariath. Releasing this patch will probably take the most time because the area in it is still at a very early stage of development.
Update 4: This patch will introduce the most classic dungeon crawling experience Monomyth has to offer. Lots of dark hallways, lots of traps, lots of tough enemies. Stressful and my personal favorite at this point. The development of this area has already progressed nicely.
Update 5: This patch will introduce the final area of the game. This area is slightly smaller than the others. The core focus of testing here will likely be level mechanics, as well as the conclusion of the main quest.
Polishing: At this point in time the content creation phase should be concluded. After that, I might open the beta to all backers or go for a short early access phase before the final release.
And that's the entire plan for the beta. Some parts may still be adapted in terms of scope but overall this is how I will attempt to push the project forward. Something that will be helping me in this regard is a highly useful debug tool I implemented some time ago. This tool is, by the way, also available to beta testers. You can bring up the GUI by pressing "K".
Due to popular demand, I will also be re-opening the Kickstarter Encore (slacker-backer option). I will send out a short update about this later this week. The same goes for the backer-created content rewards.
Until then!
Best wishes,
Michael