Game News Ultima Underworld-inspired dungeon crawler Monomyth is coming to Kickstarter

[Infinitron]

Tags: Monomyth; Rat Tower Software

The failure of Underworld Ascendant, the Ultima Underworld successor from Looking Glass Studios veterans, was a humiliating event for everybody involved. It was made all the more humiliating by the existence of Monomyth, a significantly more impressive-looking upcoming game with similar inspirations made by a lone Austrian academic by the name of RatTower. Monomyth has been in development since as early as late 2014, but we first learned about it in 2017 when it was successfully greenlit for release on Steam. The game has come along nicely since then and a closed alpha was released in early 2020, but I somehow never got around to posting about it on the front page. With the release of a video update for the new year, I no longer have any excuses. It's a thorough introduction to the game and its features, including map creation, environmental interactivity, enemies, spellcasting, stealth, the character system, inventory and NPC dialogue.

​

The video concludes with an overview of RatTower's future plans for Monomyth. After he completes his academic work in February, he plans to begin working on the game full-time, with a Kickstarter campaign and public demo following shortly. So stay tuned for that, and in the meantime be sure to follow the game's Steam page.

 

[Roguey]

Strong potential. I hope this indie immersive sim renaissance ends up better than what happened with RPGs.

 

[Turbografx]

Getting very nice Dark Heart of Uukrul and Underworld vibes from this. Hopefully it sees the light of day.

RatTower

One suggestion, would you maybe consider hiding the 'action' icon when you mouse over a secret lever etc? Otherwise it will make them too easy to discover.

 

[Stefano Canali]

Loos really really interesting. Going for sure to support it!

 

[Thac0]

Monomyth is a really cool name for an rpg. A bit much on the nose for something which looks this somber in atmosphere, but still very unique. I wonder why noone took it before?

Also the game looks surprisingly polished. Is this really a solo project? Looks smoother than what other people make with a small studio.

 

[Zed]

I've followed this along for quite some time now. Always been impressed by the little clips of it.
The only thing I don't like is the camera motion blur, but I assume this can be turned off.

I'll definitely back it on KS.

 

[Tacgnol]

Good candidate for a Codex fundraiser when it goes live.

 

[Rarre]

Looks good!

 

[Dr Schultz]

I`m pretty sure I won't resist the temptation...

 

[Burning Bridges]

This is a pipe dream.

6:15 "thesis bla bla"

Anyone remember Simon Roth (Maia)? 70s inspired science fiction game? This was the same. In 2012 I funded Maia with 15$ to later find out he had been writing his thesis in the meantime. He released a game but it never became much more than a prototype. I guess that is "ok" but why should I finance or play something that isn't going to be more than 1 - 2 days work for someone during a month.

These guys work on a game to finance their academic career and to stay sharp. At least he is open about it.

 

[Invictus]

This is a pipe dream.

6:15 "thesis bla bla"

Anyone remember Simon Roth (Maia)? 70s inspired science fiction game? This was the same. In 2012 I funded Maia with 15$ to later find out he had been writing his thesis in the meantime. He released a game but it never became much more than a prototype. I guess that is "ok" but why should I finance or play something that isn't going to be more than 1 - 2 days work for someone during a month.

These guys work on a game to finance their academic career and to stay sharp. At least he is open about it.

What does that have to do with anything here? A single guy has made tools and developed a game almost by himself for more than 7 years and has posted constantly about his progress here in the Codex and just because you just found about it and someone touched your wallet 8 years ago in some misbegotten Kickstarter project for a guy who bit more he could chew that has no bearings on this project

“Pipe dream”
Yup I do remember one of those 8 years ago that made me join the Codex, to support a crackerjack rodeo clown with his “pipe dream” project
The game is Grimoire
The crackerjack is Blakemore
And you are exactly like one of those who had to eat crow after he released

 

[grimace]

I'm a sucker for Pipe Dream underdog magnum opus projects.

 

[Ash]

Good luck RatTower. The Codex has your back.

 

[RatTower]

Infinitron Thanks for the news post!

This is a pipe dream.

6:15 "thesis bla bla"

Anyone remember Simon Roth (Maia)? 70s inspired science fiction game? This was the same. In 2012 I funded Maia with 15$ to later find out he had been writing his thesis in the meantime. He released a game but it never became much more than a prototype. I guess that is "ok" but why should I finance or play something that isn't going to be more than 1 - 2 days work for someone during a month.

These guys work on a game to finance their academic career and to stay sharp. At least he is open about it.

I won't take a single dime before I can focus on this project full-time.

I'm not writing the thesis anymore though (besides corrections).
The thesis is currently under review by my supervisor and I still have to jump through a couple bureaucratic hoops - hopefully this will be done within the next two weeks.
If everything goes smoothly (it probably won't) the defense of the thesis should be happening four weeks after its submission (that's the bureaucratic minimum waiting time - that also includes two weeks you gotta give the external reviewer to finalize and submit their grading, technically that reviewer can take longer; at the very least the reviewer's grading must be submitted and recognized two weeks before the defense).

At the moment, potential defense dates are between the 15th of february (probably too soon - depending on what's still happening this week; it's currently beyond my control) and the 1st of march. All four examiners have to settle on a single date, which is a challenge in itself. Either way:

My contract is officially terminated with the 28th of february.

Worst case scenario: We can't make the january submission and the defense is pushed back to march. I'd teeth-gnashingly accept that if it was pushed to let's say the second week of march, but anything beyond that would be a massive pain. I can stomache unemployment for a couple weeks, but I gotta set up the business to do the kickstarter and that requires my full attention. As you can probably imagine that process is just as rigid as the academic one around here - and now you might understand why I want to focus on the project full-time before taking any money for it or - in other words - making any binding promises.

It'd be a bad setup otherwise. So I settled for a clean cut between my academic work and anything that comes afterwards.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Good luck with the thesis man

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I didn't know dungeon creation tools like that existed. Its pretty cool tbh.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

I hope the those behind underworld ascendant take a very good look at this. And then kill themselves in shame.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

is this TB?

 

[Nyast]

This is a pipe dream.

6:15 "thesis bla bla"

Anyone remember Simon Roth (Maia)? 70s inspired science fiction game? This was the same. In 2012 I funded Maia with 15$ to later find out he had been writing his thesis in the meantime. He released a game but it never became much more than a prototype. I guess that is "ok" but why should I finance or play something that isn't going to be more than 1 - 2 days work for someone during a month.

Huh? He clearly explained he was going to work on it full time, not just 1-2 days of work during a month. That's what he's doing now because he has his thesis going on. Not his plan to continue after the Kickstarter is a success. Geez, what's wrong with the world ? Criticizing indy devs for trying (not even reading/understanding what they have to say), meanwhile pre-ordering 8M copies for a broken CB2077... Shame.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I did not criticize him. I also did not order 8M copies for a broken CB2077.

I merely recalled how I gave 15$ to Simon Roth so that he can work on his academic career and release a broken piece of software.

 

[Mortmal]

Project looks fantastic , something i will play if it ever release . Thats a big IF, many here were burned out by the kickstarters . Underworld ascendant despite having veterans behind ,they barely deliver . It was disapointing and extremely glitchy. Either they were completely incompetent or more likely those dungeon crawlers arent so easy to make . Then we get ceres's realms beyond having a successful kickstarter a measly 120k however , thats not enough to pay for a whole team either , specially not some veteran amongst then. Turns out they arent even working on it anymore and they scammed me.

So we got a guy fresh out from school there who's asking us for money with no roadplan and probably an amount of money that cant possibly fund the game development, nor even pay living expenses for one year . We 'd like to believe it but thats a lot of goodwill and a bunch of promises for now . Think you better build a team ask a loan to the bank and port this game to Quest 2 with VR mode. If you are so sure you will deliver , interest rates are very low, banks lend to anyone , what do you have to fear if you intend to release soon...

 

[V_K]

indie immersive sim renaissance

Where?

that's the bureaucratic minimum waiting time - that also includes two weeks you gotta give the external reviewer to finalize and submit their grading, technically that reviewer can take longer; at the very least the reviewer's grading must be submitted and recognized two weeks before the defense

That's actually quite quick. In Denmark, it takes 3 months - up to 2 months for the committee to produce the assessment, 1 week for the uni to check the assessment for legal stuff and 3 weeks to prepare the defence. All of which you're not paid because your contract is terminated the minute you submit the dissertation.

 

[Roguey]

Where?

This and Peripeteia and Core Decay for me. Some might also include Gloomwood, but that one looks lousy to me.

 

[V_K]

This and Peripeteia and Core Decay for me.

I got a literal headache watching the trailers of these two. Way too many garish lighting effects and filters.

Some might also include Gloomwood, but that one looks lousy to me.

This one looks more visually agreeable to me. But from the description, seems more like a survival horror than immersive sim.

I don't see any character advancement in any of them though.

 

[Roguey]

I don't see any character advancement in any of them though.

Character advancement is not a requirement for immersive sims (hence why I didn't say RPG) though both Peripeteia and Core Decay will have character customization https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...e-cyberpunk-poland.136074/page-2#post-7043856 https://coredecay.com/devblog/update4/