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

Infinitron

I post news
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Messages
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/836367155/monomyth/posts/3259912

Two days and almost 80% funded!

Another big thank you to all supporters!

Here's a little tip for the demo:

A lot of effects in Monomyth stack. That means you can combine various utility items for... more unconventional playstyles.

I also added a few questions to the FAQ section.

More updates and patches to come!

Best wishes,

Michael

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/836367155/monomyth/posts/3260200

MONOMYTH IS 100% FUNDED!

On Friday, 30.07.2021, at 2:30 am - after less than three days - Monomyth was fully funded!

I want to thank all of you wholeheartedly for your great support! I gotta hit the hay now! More updates tomorrow, when I can find the proper words for how grateful I am!

Thank you all and best wishes!

Michael

OK, now we can do a fundraiser. :M Looks like it's already hit the first stretch goal too.
 

Gerrard

Arcane
Joined
Nov 5, 2007
Messages
11,925
Apparently KS doesn't want my money, they keep trying to charge me 0,00€ and it fails.
 

RatTower

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Developer
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Apr 24, 2017
Messages
468
Good morning codex,

Thank you all for your support!

Since the game is now over 100% funded I can properly plan out the rest of the development.
I'll try to be very conservative with the design for the moment. The goal is to have a basic core game around the end of the year.
Given the current design that should be manageable and even if it turns out trickier, it leaves me with enough time to optimize the scope.

I think that is a good way to go about it because it guarantees that there will be a full, functional dungeon-crawler at the core of this project very soon.
Even if the environments may still miss detail passes and some character assets are still place-holders - that's okay. That can be fixed easily in the following months then.
The focus is on providing something that can be played from beginning to end.

All that additional fun stuff like further utility items and immersive microfeatures and new areas and whatnot - all that stuff can be stacked on top of that foundation very nicely.
In fact, that's exactly how the demo level was created.

I will not let that funding raise my enthusiasm to a point where it would result in feature creep. In fact, I will target the exact opposite and secure it quite radically.

Once the campaign is over, I will take a part of the money and spend it as wisely and conservatively as possible on a basic, well-defined set of core elements that can be compiled into a full dungeon-crawling experience using the established assets, workflows, systems, and tools.
That is why, until this "MVP" is done, there will be an absolute ban on ANY feature scripting (unless of course, it concerns fixes of existing features, part of which you have already seen in the demo).

Afterward, I will add on top of that. Like a cherry on top of a pie. The focus is now on the pie. Or even the pie crust.
I have seen projects, both in game development and academia, that would not abide by such strict planning right away and they would pay dearly for it.
It will be my primary goal to avoid this.

I'll go through your feedback in more detail in the coming days.

best wishes!
 

Harthwain

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Dec 13, 2019
Messages
4,688
With that kind of mindset Monomyth is going to be a solid game. I wanted to ask if the developer is German, but checked the Kickstarter and saw he's Austrian. That's close enough for me. Keep up the good work.
 

agris

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Messages
6,761
This is what you get when someone who has been through a rigorous education takes game development seriously, not a humanities or literature major who likes to pew pew on their downtime from spending $100,000 of their parents money on a vanity degree.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
RatTower i am interested in the ratio of demo downloader vs backer. How much do you think the demo turn curious people into backer? I will back through the codex hedge fund thing later in august.
 

ThewDev

Novice
Joined
Jun 27, 2021
Messages
13
I'll try to be very conservative with the design for the moment.
Sounds like a great plan. The game is already very solid for an alpha.

I'm curious about the environmental scope. The kickstarter mentions that the world is made up of 5 "zones." Are these zones planned to be roughly the size of the alpha area? Larger? I think it's really great when game worlds are densely packed with content and not empty Skyrim tundra. The demo did this very well.
 

V_K

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at a Nowhere near you
This is what you get when someone who has been through a rigorous education takes game development seriously, not a humanities or literature major
This has more to do with doing a doctorate per se than the discipline. Anyone with a PhD has learned how to do project management, and usually the hard way.
 

Siveon

Bot
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Messages
4,509
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I wanted to back to create a new weapon, are two handers confirmed? I was thinking of adding in a greatsword.

Can't have too many greatswords.
 

Gargaune

Magister
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
3,136
I see both "Monomyth" and "Monomyth Demo" showing up in the Steam store, but the latter just redirects to the former right now. Am I missing a download button on the page, or is it just a case of the demo still being prepped up on Steam?
 

JDR13

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Nov 2, 2006
Messages
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Location
The Swamp
I see both "Monomyth" and "Monomyth Demo" showing up in the Steam store, but the latter just redirects to the former right now. Am I missing a download button on the page, or is it just a case of the demo still being prepped up on Steam?

Just get the demo from the Kickstarter page.
 

JDR13

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Messages
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Location
The Swamp
Question: What's the 'Atone for your sins' option at the shrines for? It didn't do anything when I tried to select it.
 

ThewDev

Novice
Joined
Jun 27, 2021
Messages
13
Question: What's the 'Atone for your sins' option at the shrines for? It didn't do anything when I tried to select it.
My understanding is that it's kind of like a reputation reset. If you accidentally damage a non-hostile NPC, they will attack you, but if you atone they will return to being neutral. I only found one friendly NPC in the demo though, so I imagine it will be much more significant in the full release.
 

RatTower

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Developer
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Apr 24, 2017
Messages
468
RatTower i am interested in the ratio of demo downloader vs backer. How much do you think the demo turn curious people into backer? I will back through the codex hedge fund thing later in august.

That's a good question. On itch.io the demo has around 1000 downloads and a bit more than twice the page views. On IndieDB (where the demo was released yesterday) the demo was downloaded roughly a hundred times.
What's really interesting though is the conversion rate of Kickstarter project followers, which is currently sitting at 28%.
That is actually quite a lot. From what I heard the average conversion rate is around 10%.

Sounds like a great plan. The game is already very solid for an alpha.

I'm curious about the environmental scope. The kickstarter mentions that the world is made up of 5 "zones." Are these zones planned to be roughly the size of the alpha area? Larger? I think it's really great when game worlds are densely packed with content and not empty Skyrim tundra. The demo did this very well.

The zone right behind the gate is slightly larger than the demo.
All zones roughly conform to the level design principles of Ultima Underworld, which means four thematically different quarters forming a map, with a "hallway" connecting them.
In the demo, this isn't as noticeable because the "hallway" is less obvious (since it's the beginning of the game and supposed to be a more linear introduction to the features), but the quarters are there:
Lower Bastion, Upper Bastion, Trading Post (including the cliffs and the bridge) as well as the caves.
The connecting elements are the valley, the tower, and the elevator. Given the right skill, you can basically go to any quarter right in the beginning.

I wanted to back to create a new weapon, are two handers confirmed? I was thinking of adding in a greatsword.

Can't have too many greatswords.

There is a (very rough) animation set for great swords but it is currently unused. This would be one of those things that could be re-activated once the core game is done. I kinda regret not doing a "Combat Update" stretch goal with crossbows and polearms.



I see both "Monomyth" and "Monomyth Demo" showing up in the Steam store, but the latter just redirects to the former right now. Am I missing a download button on the page, or is it just a case of the demo still being prepped up on Steam?

That's because you caught the demo in the limbo between being approved and being released :D
I'll release it later with a KS update.

Question: What's the 'Atone for your sins' option at the shrines for? It didn't do anything when I tried to select it.

If you attack a neutral character (Shylo) you can atone for your sins and they'll forgive you.
 
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Divinity: Original Sin
Finish the demo in one sitting, I got a lot of dark souls vibes, more than an ultima underworld, which I was actually expecting. I never played King's field, but from videos I've seen, the combat seems to look a lot like those games. I missed some secret areas, and I must say I tried to find everything. I couldn't get to the room next to the fireball trap, the ice-shielded door up the tower, the forcefield cave, and one room next the barracks behind a poticulis and metal door.

There's one thing I don't know how it will work: In dark souls, when you die or save, enemies respawn. Here we have a similar save system, but the enemies do not respawn. If you manage to not recover your memories, how can you get back the experience points lost if there's no enemies to fight? I guess it's still a wip situation.

Level design is great. The demo is a small section but with lots of alternative routes, and unlockable shortcuts. It feels very complete and it's visually pleasing. I feel the geometry is a little simple, like it would work in a grid-based blob, reminds me a lot of legends of grimrock.

Combat gameplay and interaction with NPCs is the main flaw of the demo. Stealth is not really implemented, AI is very rudimentary. The zombies won't attack you if you are in defense stance - with a minimum stamina, if it's zero they won't forgive - which you can abuse to recover stamina. if you release right mouse button, and press it again, you open you guard for a split second and the zombie attacks, but you still have a long window to deflect and attack.

Also, using Items like lockpick, barrel bombs are somewhat unintuitive. It may require some work.

Walk speed is a little slow, and you can run even with 0 stamina, which was a blessing, since the level is big and wandering around takes time. and you have to backtrack a lot.
 

fork

Guest
There's one thing I don't know how it will work: In dark souls, when you die or save, enemies respawn. Here we have a similar save system, but the enemies do not respawn. If you manage to not recover your memories, how can you get back the experience points lost if there's no enemies to fight? I guess it's still a wip situation.

I really hope for respawning enemies to solve that problem. Dark Souls' continuous saving with respawning mobs and the need to pick up the lost XP is by far the best system for games like this, because it solves the most problems without creating any major new ones in return. It saves constantly, thus letting you save and quit, it prevents save scumming, it makes difficulty settings unnecessary because plebs can grind xp, and it punishes death while making recollecting the lost xp tense and fun.

It's a no-brainer to implement an exact copy of Dark Souls' saving system, especially since it's almost there already.
 
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