KickStarter Monomyth - A first person action RPG/dungeon crawler - now in Open Backer Beta

[RatTower]

In the meantime I optimized my workflow for simple dungeon environments a bit (in other words, I got sick of aligning the hundredth modular hallway piece - even with grid snapping).

Is there any sort of 3D tile-based mapping addon for UE4? I think something like the map editor in Neverwinter Nights 1 but with the ability to stack the tilemaps and add additional freeform objects would be perfectly fine for pretty much any indoor or mostly indoor environment.

There is no addon that I know of at least.

Which is surprising cause all you really need is a three dimensional array filled with numbers and a table with correspondingly mapped 3D objects.
The rest is really just convenience features.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

Sometimes, I suspect game designers are ignorant of really basic things they should know before working on software. Seriously, watch an online intro course on computer science and discrete maths, game designers!

Edit: That wasn't in reference to you, RatTower.

 

[SophosTheWise]

Finally managed to repair my PC (that was bricked literally a few days before I could install the Monomyth alpha), so I'm excited to finally delve into it!

 

[SophosTheWise]

Ah, now, this was literally the first game I've installed and booted since that heinous day. Didn't have much time, but spent half an hour exploring a bit and I love what I've seen so far. I liked how interlinked the level was, the way it rewards you for finding your own solutions, but also how it punishes you for your own failings. I got killed by poisonous mushrooms because I thought maybe sprinting past them would work, lol.

I'm still astounded that you're doing this on your own. The art style, sound design and atmosphere were really great. I never played King's Field, but from what I can tell (watched a playthrough for a short amount of time), you nailed the feeling. To me, it felt like a cross between Arx Fatalis and Dark Souls, so that's a good sign.

A few minor things:
- Combat is not too engaging, but I think that might be because I'm so early in the game
- Walking animations of enemies are a bit stiff
- I'm a bit sad that I can't see my equipped torch in my off-hand
- I didn't get how to grill the fish. Dropping it onto the fire didn't work, and the use-command doesn't work either. A bit unintuitive.

In any case, I'm amazed by the quality so far, this being an alpha and you being the sole developer. I'm really looking forward to the whole thing.

 

[RatTower]

More intuitive cooking (use command) is coming with the next patch.
There was a lamp in an earlier version but it caused some trouble with animation states.
I might still put it back in (it was a pretty alright model after all), but I gotta look into it.

Right now I'm trying to really speed up the level design process.



As mentioned: The only issue left is the NavMesh generation (essentially, getting the AI to walk on the generated environments).
After that the only problem with this approach is me scaling environments properly (i.e. not biting off more than I can chew).

Spoiler

In reality all of this is me being jealous of Ultima-styled level editors:

 

[HarveyBirdman]

Keeps looking better and better.
Re: death penalties... If enemies don't respawn, then you could really get yourself into trouble. I could see myself scraping by while under-leveled, but consequently dying more and more often. Eventually, I'd be so under-leveled that the playthrough is basically impossible. A vicious cycle.
Maybe there could be a temporary handicap instead. For example, death stunts your health to half it's max until you use a consumable, or find a special magic fountain, or pray at a special altar, or something.

 

[Invictus]

I think that having a classic “death is death” approach is more classic and follows the influences of Arx and Ultima Underworld; enemies don’t respawn and dying means a reload.
That way the sense of progression is preserved; the best game probably ever for that system was Gothic where the “set” gameworld made for some pretty awesome adventures

 

[Bad Sector]

Though on the other hand it doesn't follow the influences of King's Field, etc where enemies do not even have the decency to wait until you walk a few meters away before respawning :-P.

 

[Infinitron]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/908360/announcements/detail/4229396696544864992

A quick update

Hi,

since some of you folks were worried about this project, I decided to give you a little update. First of all, I can relieve your minds: Monomyth is still very actively under development. Things are still happening (almost) daily.

However, as you can probably imagine, this year went a little different to what we all expected. As a result I had very little vacation time, which is what I need to really prepare the updates that would push the alpha forward. Instead I focused on level design / content creation, because if you get interrupted there - say, for a couple days - it's not so dramatic. So here's a little overview of some of the things I've been working on over the last couple months:

Lysandria is a coherent environment. Naturally it needs a sewer system.

Magic devices may sometimes reveal things you were not supposed to see.

Long ago Lysandria was a center of trade. The mines underneath brought wealth and prosperity.

Verticality plays a major role in all areas.

Spoiler

Not every corner of Lysandria is dangerous. Some places are peaceful and allow you to relax for a while.

The Lysandrians were rather devout. The whole area is filled with shrines and temples to worship their ancient gods.

The roots of the fortress reach deep down into the underworld.


I also improved the level design workflow quite a bit. Some of it is now handled through a tile map interpreter which makes it easier to block out / prototype simple dungeon environments. Basically, with this method I "draw" tiled environments on a layered image, which is then interpreted as a 3D environment (z-axis information is coming from the layers). Here's an example on how that works:

A tile map drawn in UE4's internal tile map editor

The interpreted 3D environment (early)

A more complex environment produced with the same method


I've also been overhauling the character animation setup. Many NPCs now share a single animation rig, which is again (essentially) a workflow improvement because it allows for modular characters.
I posted an example for this over at Twitter. My main gripe with Steam's update section is the size limitation on gifs. Then again those are absolutely terrible on twitter as well (plus the compression is awful), so I might look for an entirely different solution.

Further, I also put some time into making friendly NPCs attackable. Attacking them naturally has a negative effect on your faction relationships. I will have more information on this (and other stuff) in the next update(s).

Talking of which, I'll try to keep this place more up-to-date in the future (haha, whoops!).
Sorry for that! See you soon!


Yours,
Rat Tower

 

[RatTower]

Infinitron reposting at the speed of light!

Anyway, it's just a small update so the steam community doesn't think I'm dead.
Mostly stuff you guys have already seen I guess.

I got some days off (finally) so I'm working on something pretty neat right now.
Here's a hint (it's not horses btw):



If you played KF2 you might already know what's up.
But let's keep it a surprise.

 

[Baron Dupek]

KF2? You mean - King's Field2?
And that tweet sounds familiar... I got flashbacks on the tram-headed NPC from bumthesda's Fallout.

 

[RatTower]

KF2? You mean - King's Field2?
And that tweet sounds familiar... I got flashbacks on the tram-headed NPC from bumthesda's Fallout.

Yes, King's Field 2 (aka KF1 in the US)

The train hat was a special kind of architecture abuse though.

Spoiler

 

[RatTower]

Had some days off...



Busy with spells and weapons at the moment.
Weapon meshes are finalized. Textures are about two thirds done. Still gotta rig/animate some bows.
With regards to the amount of weapons, Monomyth is roughly in the same league as its inspirations.
I also implemented about two thirds of all spells. The three maigc castes are still in. Their spells (and the stat requirements for those) are nicely distributed, so every spell weaving character should have a solid arsenal.

All of this was done pretty quickly now, since most item designs have been fully finalized (with scribbled artwork an everything).
Now I can chop the remaining work up into easily managable chunks and finish one bulk of assets after the other.
Armor is getting the same treatment once I apply all of this to NPC creation.

It's basically the same kind of work process optimization as with level design.
It's a pity it took so long to find a feasible work mode. Before (even with the alpha) things were very prototypical.
Assets weren't really produced in "series" so to say, so it was harder to really balance things and put a lid on certain parts of the game.

But now that this is the case, it really pushes the whole project to another level.
More precisely, almost the level I want it on to get it out there and collect funding for the rest of development + polishing.

Anway, I hope I can soon write an update about the next few months.
And I really mean it, cause after those...

Spoiler

...my work contract is cut down to 20 hours, so I might as well do this full time.

 

[Ninjerk]

^ man there's something going on at the edges of the screen there that look like UT99 with the FOV cut down RatTower

 

[RatTower]

^ man there's something going on at the edges of the screen there that look like UT99 with the FOV cut down RatTower

That's just me playing with the aperture of the sequencer camera. The actual player camera has no such effect.

 

[The Fish]

Could you upload some high resolution footage somewhere? The twitter gifs are quite small.

 

[RatTower]

Could you upload some high resolution footage somewhere? The twitter gifs are quite small.

Twitter's media compression is an absolute mystery to me - besides being annoying and unpredictable. If I remember correctly it accepts up to 512 MB videos, but everything looks like its compressed to 144p.

I'm thinking about a complete rebranding at the moment (company name, website domain, YT channel), so I can effectively upload material to a bunch of coherent channels.
Then you'll see some better quality (and maybe a little longer videos + sound).

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Hello. You haven't send me demo key.

 

[RatTower]

Hello. You haven't send me demo key.

Haven't forgotten about the alpha sign-ups. No need to worry.
You may get a different alpha level than the testers before you though.

 

[baud]

I'm surprised by the color of the lighting, isn't usually more blueish in other games?

 

[Ysaye]

I'm surprised by the color of the lighting, isn't usually more blueish in other games?

Purple is a good colour for chain lightning, but regardless that looks like it could be an effective spell against mobs.

A variety of weapons are very important for this kind of game; hopefully Rat Tower will make an iconic weapon reminiscent of the MLGS Maybe it could be a ruby bladed halberd which turns into a wave of fire as its swung?

 

[Bester]

I'm surprised by the color of the lighting, isn't usually more blueish in other games?

 

[Narushima]

Not that I really care about the colour of lightning, but here are counter-arguments from Diablo 1 & 2 (Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale lightning is also blueish):

 

[V_K]

 

[Narushima]

I wonder if that would actually look good or not. Rather than being side to side, you could have the colours follow each other along the length of the lightning strike, sort of blending into one another.