Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!
another month, another update! I am still very busy with beta update 2, which I hope to finish and release very soon. So let's quickly take a look at what has happened over the last couple of weeks!
Current Progress
The area in which most of update 2 takes place is far below the Lysandrian Heartlands. I originally had a different level layout in mind but I decided to rework it into something more manageable (and also more interesting). Now, after about two months of work, the level is about 90% there. It still misses some details and narrative assets, but the lion's share of the work is done.
Update 2 will feature one of the biggest areas in the game. I believe this is a good opportunity to introduce you to Monomyth's fast travel system. Of course, this system can't just be activated through a map menu. Instead, it is a part of the world itself. Players will have to figure out the mechanics of ancient teleporter rooms that can be found all over Lysandria.
Talking of mechanics, update 2 will also introduce a few quest-specific mechanics that are related to the new area. There will be some mining and smelting, and while there is no real crafting system in the game, players will be able to toy with some of the interactive machines that can be found in the area.
I also took a little break from level design and worked on the game's inventory. Not only does Monomyth now feature visually more appealing menus, but the menu interactions have been streamlined to a point where most player/environment interactions can be done from the inventory. Players can now pick up, throw and combine items directly from within the inventory screen. I also integrated the object placement system that I implemented a few weeks ago. This way players will have a much easier time placing fish or pie next to a cooking spot (a recurring problem in the demo).
As a result, the inventory interactions are now a lot more intuitive (and coincidentally, also a lot closer to what Arx Fatalis did).
Gamespot Article
As you probably all know, Monomyth was partly inspired by the King's Field series. Because of that, the project was featured in a Gamespot article on upcoming King's Field-like RPGs. So if you haven't checked that out yet, you can find the article here:
And now it's time for me to go back to the mines and finish that beta update 2! Then it's on to updates 3 and 4, which I hope will be finished much faster since most of their level design is already done. Update 4 will also be the last content update before I start polishing everything for the open backer beta. As you can probably already guess, this also means that the release will slip slightly into 2023. Lots of progress has been made but there is still quite a bit of work left to do. I will give you a more detailed overview of the road to release in one of the next updates. Until then!
Best wishes,
Michael