Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!

Another month, another update! This one is going to be a little shorter, but there are still some very important developments I would like to report. In this update we will be looking at the Steam Next Fest and how that worked out. We will also be looking at the overhauled UI and I have some very good news about GOG!

[previewyoutube=RHDNIpcTwIs;full][/previewyoutube]

The next step in development is the Open Backer Beta. I still need to implement some feedback and work over the early areas of the game, but it's coming closer with big steps. I will announce it on relatively short notice. Something I forgot to mention in the video: We will probably go through the OBB in phases, i.e., like the regular closed beta, but with significantly shorter update cycles.

As always, you can find the video's transcript below!

Best wishes,

Michael

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Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!

A busy month is over and there is a lot to report! Between the Steam Next Fest and various patches, I also have some news about Monomyth on GOG. So let’s take a look at it!

During February I mostly focused on the release of the Steam Next Fest demo and various patches fixing the problems that people found in it. And there was no shortage of problems, the most notorious one being a bug that slowed down mouse movement. Luckily, this and other problems could be fixed relatively quickly. All in all, I received a lot of useful feedback. At this point, there are over a hundred posts in the respective thread of Monomyth’s Steam Community Hub. I am going through these posts one by one and I am trying to implement fixes for all issues. I am still updating the demo with hotfixes, so you can take a look at the latest changes at any time.

One major change I recently uploaded was a visual overhaul for the UI. Some people suggested adding some more contrast because bright writing on bright backgrounds was not ideal. So, I took some time and designed a new UI. I played around in Blender at first but then I decided to create the UI elements through procedural image editing. This way I could produce many different window sizes in a relatively short amount of time. What required some more work were the different UI icons. Various menu entries now have a visual representation, for example, all attributes have a small corresponding icon next to them. All of these were made in Blender. All in all the new UI is much more readable and coherent. The overhaul was purely visual - in the future, I will further improve the UI’s functionality as well.

The UI update was one of the bigger requests from the feedback list. The other big thing was a combat overhaul which is one of the next things on my to-do list. It might not make it for the open backer beta but I definitely want to patch combat before the early access phase.

Talking of which, with Steam Next Fest out of the way the OBB is the next step in development. I will work over the earlier areas in the game once more and then it should be ready.

In terms of numbers, Steam Next Fest was rather successful, despite the amount of reported issues early on. Monomyth received something between six and seven thousand wishlists. The rule of thumb is that a game should receive roughly between 3 and 4.5 times its wishlists of the first Steam Next Fest day. Monomyth received around two thousand wishlists on the first day, so the results are satisfactory.

As a last little surprise this month: I have signed a contract with GOG, who were kind enough to consider selling Monomyth in their store. So if you’re not into Steam you can request a GOG key instead. All pre-release test versions will still be distributed via Steam, however, once we go into the Early Access, I will provide you with a form to choose the platform of your liking. This also means, that all pre-release keys will be locked. So if you are currently in the closed beta or take part in the open backer beta, those keys will be automatically invalidated and you will have to unlock the game a second time with your final key.

So that’s all for now. I’ll keep uploading hotfixes and preparing the game for the OBB. Perhaps I can already implement a few fixes for the combat system. We will see. Either way, I’ll keep you updated, and see you soon!