Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!
A month ago, Monomyth started its Open Backer Beta. A lot has happened since then. I have implemented plenty of bug fixes and reworked several areas that will be added to the game shortly. There is still much to do! I will improve the game's combat mechanics over the next few weeks. You can hear all about it in this month's video devlog!
As always you can find the video's transcript below!
Best Wishes,
Michael
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Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!
It’s time for another update on Monomyth! Last month the Open Backer Beta started and players have reported many little issues for me to fix. At the moment, only the first two areas of the game are accessible, but this will soon change! So let’s take a look at it.
Over the last month, roughly 500 people have activated their test keys. That is roughly 50% of all backers, which is a pretty good participation rate for a pre-release testing phase. Many of these players have provided detailed feedback about their experience with the game and the bugs they have encountered. I have thoroughly recorded around 120 reports on minor and major issues, as well as suggestions for improvements.
I have already worked through a fair bit of these, however, some matters will still require my attention in the future, among others, issues concerning itemization and balancing.
Throughout the last month, I have not only fixed bugs, but also reworked and polished two major areas of the game. One of these areas, the mine, you may remember as the one that turned out a bit too big at first and had to be trimmed down. I talked about this in an update early last year. This area has been split up, reworked, and polished. It will be accessible in the next OBB patch. The main hub will also be accessible, as well as, three minor areas and the demo area. If the patch isn’t already out with the release of this video, it will be uploaded shortly. Content-wise, the game is now in the state I wanted it to be in for the early-access phase.
Before that one can start, however, I need to rework a few game mechanics, combat being the most important one.
From the player’s side combat needs an overhaul mostly regarding animations. On the side of the enemies, I must make sure that they can’t just be steamrolled by chaotically swinging the sword. So painstuns need to be reworked, as well as individual enemy actions. Enemies are theoretically capable of healing themselves, putting status effects on the player, and casting spells. That’s all in the AI. However, they are not doing it right now, because their individual sets of actions are limited to standard attacks. Basically, I need to overhaul enemy attacks so they can actually make use of their range of possibilities. In general, AI still requires fine-tuning, especially when it comes to estimating when to use which ability. All in all, enemies need to get tougher so combat is more fun.
Hopefully, this won’t take much longer than a month, so I can also spend some time fixing bugs. After that, I will probably be ready to announce an early access release date with a prepared trailer.
Not to get ahead of myself, but during early access, there will be at least two content patches, each featuring one large area. There will also be smaller additions regarding backer content and minor features that couldn’t make it into the OBB.
One last thing regarding GOG: I still owe you those mails to pick a GOG key. So, no worries - it didn’t go to the spam folder or anything - I still have to send those out. I will also remind you a couple times before release, so everyone gets the key they actually want. All in time.
And that is pretty much it for now. As I said, if the patch isn’t already up, it will be very soon. After that, it’s time to finally improve combat.
I will keep you updated about all of it, and see you soon!