Montabi: Monster Taming Roguelike Deckbuilder Demo · published
Hey Trainers,
First of all, we want to say thank you to all of our players, community members, and everyone who has supported us since launch. Whether you purchased the game, watched streamers play it, added it to your wishlist, shared it with friends, or simply helped spread the word, thank you. Your support means a lot to us.
We recently released Patch 1.0.1 to address several issues. You can read the patch notes here: 1.0.1.
However, that patch doesn't address everything we've seen from bug reports, feedback, and discussions in our Discord. We wanted to share some of our short-term plans and let you know what we're currently working on.
Thanks to all of your reports, we've identified several frustrating issues that need immediate attention. We sincerely apologize for these problems and are working hard to reproduce and fix them as quickly as possible.
Here are some of the major issues we're currently investigating:
Soft lock after defeating the Final Boss
Soft locks and unexpected interactions involving fainted and revived units
Endless Montabi Mastery progression after reaching the maximum level
Exploits that allow players to gain Montabi Mastery by abandoning runs very early
Montapedia not updating correctly; playable units may still appear as unacquired
We're actively working on reproducing and fixing these issues.
We've also identified a few important usability issues that need immediate attention.
Ascension Unlock Clarity, Many players aren't aware that Ascension Mode exists or how to unlock it. We're currently improving the communication around Ascension unlock requirements so players can discover this content more easily.
Difficulty Information in Battle, We've added difficulty information to the battle screen to help players easily remember which difficulty they're currently playing on, especially the modifiers applied in higher Ascension levels. This also helps us identify the difficulty being played when watching streams or reviewing bug reports and feedback.
We're working on these improvements now and hope to release them soon.
Some experienced roguelike deckbuilder players have pointed out that it's currently too easy to create infinite loops in certain builds, which can reduce the challenge and long-term enjoyment of the game.
While we don't want to immediately nerf every powerful combo: because discovering strong synergies is part of the fun, we do want Ascension to remain challenging.
After discussions with our community, we're currently testing a potential Ascension modifier:
Whenever a player plays a card, that card costs 1 more AP for the rest of the turn.
This modifier would make infinite loops significantly harder while still allowing players to build powerful synergies. To test this idea, we're creating a Public Testing Branch. Players who are interested can try the feature early, share their feedback, and help us determine whether this is the right solution before we implement it in the main game. We expect this branch to become available soon and will announce it in Discord along with patch notes.
After that, we'll continue evaluating skills, charms, equipment, and characters that may be overperforming or underperforming to avoid overcorrecting too quickly.
We also want to make sure Montabi remains enjoyable for a broad range of players, including those who are new to roguelike deckbuilders. We've received a variety of feedback regarding difficulty, with some players finding Casual Mode challenging while others are looking for even greater difficulty through Ascension. Balancing these different experiences is important to us, and we'll continue listening to feedback as we improve the game.
We've also received reports that the game becomes unplayable when using certain gaming mouse with very high polling rates. After investigating, we discovered that this issue originates from the game engine itself. The engine developers are currently working on a fix, which means we're unable to fully resolve the issue immediately.
In the meantime, we've pinned a support thread here: frame drops.
Current workaround:
Set your mouse polling rate to 250Hz or lower
We understand this isn't an ideal solution, but we wanted to share it for affected players while we wait for an engine-level fix.
We've received a huge amount of feedback, bug reports, and quality-of-life requests.
We'll continue improving Montabi, but we need to prioritize our work carefully. The issues mentioned above are currently our highest priorities and are the ones you can expect updates for first.
Beyond that, here are some items currently on our improvement backlog (not listed in priority order):
Additional bug fixes
Steam Deck verification and readability improvements for smaller text
Better controller visibility and targeting UX
Improved selling-item confirmation
Preventing accidental End Turn inputs, especially on controller
Allowing players to choose unlocked starting Montabi instead of receiving random ones
Faster gameplay options for experienced players who want shorter animations
Improvement for Large Hand Sizes (10+ Cards)
Opening and Ending Cinematic cannot be played in Steam Machine
Analytics implementation to help monitor pick rates, win rates, and balance data
Balance Review (We're also monitoring several skills and mechanics that may require balance adjustments):
Slash
Second Rinse
Replenish
Final Instructions
Etc
Please note that these are only being evaluated right now. We haven't committed to specific balance changes yet.
There's still a long road ahead, and we have plenty of ideas and improvements we'd like to make.
Some of these changes will take time, so we don't want to make promises about exactly when every improvement will arrive. However, we wanted to be transparent about our current priorities and share what we're observing from player feedback so far.
If you'd like to discuss the game with us, share feedback, or help shape future updates, please consider joining our Discord community. If you have any thoughts or feedback on these plans, feel free to leave a comment in this thread.
And if you've been enjoying Montabi, leaving a review and sharing the game with friends helps us tremendously. Thank you for supporting Montabi and being part of this journey.
See you in the city, Trainers! 💛