Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!
Can you believe it's already been a full year since Monomyth was released into early access? Shocking, isn't it? Well, lots of things have happened in this first year, but there is still some more work to do. You can find out all about it in the latest video devlog!
As always, you can find the transcript below!
Best wishes,Michael---------------------------------------------------------------Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!Today I have a special update for you, because it has been exactly one year since Monomyth was released into early access! For this little anniversary, we will quickly recap what has happened over the last few months and how we will continue.As you probably know Monomyth is currently in beta version 2. The first big content patch introduced a major new area, the mines, plenty of fixes and improved steam deck support.Of course, there is still a lot to do until the full release. First and foremost, the remaining story content needs to be patched into the game. There will be two more major areas. First, the Land of Godon, which consists of the lava flooded areas far below the mine, and then there is, of course, the Inner Sanctum, the mysterious tower in the center of Lysandria, where the lord of the fortress resides.The Land of Godon will be patched in with the next update. Beta version 3 is on a good way. The performance issues I have been talking about have almost entirely been solved. I have made some changes to the meshes of the area, which drastically decreased the necessary draw calls. I have also split some subsections off into their own separate areas, not only for performance reasons, but because they thematically fit better as mini-dungeons.Still, some work concerning collision and level design remains. Where those split off subsections have been, a few gaps still have to be filled up. I also need to get item balance into a better place.
Beyond that, there are a lot of small things which, in my opinion, could drastically improve the game. First and foremost an aesthetic workover for NPCs, female characters, ambience changes, character sound changes, spell balance and various quality of life features.One thing that I have already added in this regard is a minimap that can be toggled on an off. This, of course, only works if you have found the respective map before. So it is not an automap, but rather a way to keep an eye on the maps that were already available through the character menu.Regarding aesthetics, I have also made some significant changes to the Lysandrian guard. These NPCs received their own armor set, which will also be available as a high end player armor in late game.I think the game could also benefit a lot from some changes to the ambience. I have already worked on this problem when I introduced environmental sound cues in the mines and I will try to push that further in the Lands of Godon.Then of course, there are female characters, which have been mysteriously absent from the game. Don’t worry, I have not forgotten about that. I just haven’t had any fitting clothing models for them. But I will address this issue very soon. Probably together with further aesthetic improvements, which require additional outfit modelling anyway.I would also like to tackle a couple of problems in the combat system, specifically the kick, fluency, weapon types and some effects. However, I am not sure yet if that will make it into the content patches or whether I will fix that in a separate polishing patch. Alternatively I could also make that into a series of intermediate patches after beta version 3, but we’ll see.As I said last time Beta 3 is probably going to be an autumn patch. So you can expect the update on the test server within the next few weeks.Anyway, I’ll get back to work now.
I’ll keep you updated and see you soon!