Hi all!

I am very happy to inform you that Monomyth is now under full-time development! As announced earlier this year I left my academic position in February. I did my final exam last week and now I can entirely focus on this project. I'm glad to report that development is already progressing at a much faster pace! So let's quickly recap what has been happening over the last couple of weeks:

• The main menu was improved and I finally added a full character creation system.
  
• I added a new spell that may not be entirely intuitive at first, but it has its value.
  
• I also added more interactive elements to the environment (chandeliers that can be dropped on enemies, explosive barrels and a couple of other physics-related shenanigans)

But most of the work went into the new tutorial area, which is also the beginning of the game:







The next few months will be quite critical for the development of Monomyth. During Q2 of 2021 you will see three things: A trailer, a demo, and a Kickstarter campaign. The reception of all of these will help me assess the situation and give me a little guidance on how to scale future development.
If the Kickstarter campaign does well I can hire artists to produce additional assets (first and foremost music). If the campaign underperforms, I will have to make some adjustments here and there.
Either way, Monomyth is making good progress and I’m excited for the coming months. I’ll keep you posted (from now on, more frequently than in the past)!

See you soon!
rattower

Hi,

today I have a short video update for you:



In it, I talk about the work that has been done over the last couple months and how I will continue this project.

We take a look at:

• Environments
  
• Interactivity
  
• Combat
  
• Spells
  
• Character & Inventory System
  
• NPCs & Dialogue

For the future, the most important pieces of information are the following:

• Development will slow down, roughly until the end of february - after that however, I will focus full-time on this project
  
• Once that is so there will be a kickstarter campaign asap
  
• During the kickstarter campaign there will be a demo

I'm also thinking about keeping this format for future updates.
So stay tuned for more and see you soon!

rattower

Hi,

since some of you folks were worried about this project, I decided to give you a little update. First of all, I can relieve your minds: Monomyth is still very actively under development. Things are still happening (almost) daily.

However, as you can probably imagine, this year went a little different to what we all expected. As a result I had very little vacation time, which is what I need to really prepare the updates that would push the alpha forward. Instead I focused on level design / content creation, because if you get interrupted there - say, for a couple days - it's not so dramatic. So here's a little overview of some of the things I've been working on over the last couple months:


Lysandria is a coherent environment. Naturally it needs a sewer system.


Magic devices may sometimes reveal things you were not supposed to see.


Long ago Lysandria was a center of trade. The mines underneath brought wealth and prosperity.


Verticality plays a major role in all areas.


Not every corner of Lysandria is dangerous. Some places are peaceful and allow you to relax for a while.


The Lysandrians were rather devout. The whole area is filled with shrines and temples to worship their ancient gods.


The roots of the fortress reach deep down into the underworld.


I also improved the level design workflow quite a bit. Some of it is now handled through a tile map interpreter which makes it easier to block out / prototype simple dungeon environments. Basically, with this method I "draw" tiled environments on a layered image, which is then interpreted as a 3D environment (z-axis information is coming from the layers). Here's an example on how that works:


A tile map drawn in UE4's internal tile map editor


The interpreted 3D environment (early)


A more complex environment produced with the same method


I've also been overhauling the character animation setup. Many NPCs now share a single animation rig, which is again (essentially) a workflow improvement because it allows for modular characters.
I posted an example for this over at Twitter. My main gripe with Steam's update section is the size limitation on gifs. Then again those are absolutely terrible on twitter as well (plus the compression is awful), so I might look for an entirely different solution.

Further, I also put some time into making friendly NPCs attackable. Attacking them naturally has a negative effect on your faction relationships. I will have more information on this (and other stuff) in the next update(s).

Talking of which, I'll try to keep this place more up-to-date in the future (haha, whoops!).
Sorry for that! See you soon!


Yours,
Rat Tower

Hi everybody,

the first phase of closed alpha testing has gone very smoothly and with today's patch, I will send out a new batch of alpha keys. So, what's new?

This patch is all about new loot, new items and new possibilities to interact with the world. It also introduces a few improvements concerning controls. Some highlights are water arrows, firebombs, and fountains (as well as crystal flasks to draw water from them). Here are the patch notes in detail:

• Water fountains: You can now draw water or drink from fountains. If it's a magic fountain, drinking from it either gives you health or mana, but only for the first sip. Then its just regular water until the magic replenishes.
  
• Crystal Flasks: Drawing magic water only works with crystal flasks - otherwise the magic escapes and you get regular water.
  
• Treasure: Gold and silver, gems and jewelry. I added lots and lots of treasure items to add some loot variety. You won't be seeing all of it in the alpha level since some of it is too precious for that part of the game.
  
• Stamina Management: Low stamina attacks now cause minimum damage instead of none.
  
• Respawn System: Reworked the respawn system. There are no more "enemy nests" that have to be cleared before enemies stop respawning. Respawn is now handled individually. Spawn points can still change state and spit out a different set of NPCs though (basically secondary encounters to mix things up a bit).
  
• Mantling: Pulling yourself up is now automated. Mantling checks should now be more generous.
  
• Mantling tutorial: I added another room to explain mantling - and then another room and another cave, but those are kinda unrelated to mantling. They are just connected to that first room.
  
• Torches: Adjusted torch light radius as well as the light's position so it doesn't clip into objects anymore. You can now douse a torch by clicking its icon in the character menu.
  
• Candles: Added candles as a new light source. They work like torches but with a smaller radius. Candles in the environment can be blown out.
  
• Keys: Made named keys more visible
  
• Quickslots: Consumable items go straight to one of the four quickslots after picking them up.
  
• Equipment: Armor and weapons are now immediately equipped if their respective slot is free.
  
• Momentum movement: I reworked movement into something with actual velocity and momentum. It should feel more natural now - hopefully not too floaty.
  
• New Spells: There are two new spells - Douse & Ignite. As the names already suggest, these let you douse and ignite torches and candles. This might draw an enemy's attention to the light source.
  
• Water Arrows: A new type of arrow was added. These arrows let you douse torches and candles from far away.
  
• Firebombs: A grenade-like, new item. Goes boom and does a good amount of damage. Also, it's pretty loud - handle with care.
  
• Search: To find all that pretty new loot, you can train your "Search" skill. This will sometimes give you an audible (and in rare cases even a visible) hint when you are near a secret. Finding the secret is still up to you though.
  
• Dragon's leaf: A rare item that sharpens its user's senses. It makes time go by slower, but once it wears off you will be extra exhausted.
  
• Stone of Return: A rare gem that lets you travel to the last shrine you visited.
  
• Documents: Mouse capture should now work correctly in reading mode. Also there is now a UI element for closing documents.
  
• Item distribution: Treasure should be much better distributed now. No more prominently placed boxes with nothing in them.
  
• Arcane Connection: The range of Telekinesis, Douse and Ignite now scales by the Arcane Connection skill.
  
• Archery: The Archery skill now influences draw speed.
  
• First Aid: Training first aid lets you assess an enemy's health. I haven't decided yet how inaccurate the assessment should be on lower skill levels. For now its your typical "wounded", "near death" etc. On higher levels you get the health bar again. (Sidenote: The skill is still shown as "Inactive" because it's main component isn't in the alpha yet).
  
• Combat: Breaking through defense does no longer make the attacker stagger. Also stamina locking does no longer stack.
  
• Enemies: Archers have better aim now and are generally faster and more deadly. Dead enemies do no longer have any collision. AI now takes more chances with blocking weak attacks. Enemy alertness should now decrease a bit faster

Other stuff:

• The character menu now shows a debug output for the player's position.
  
• Clicking on the [+] next to the Feedback/Bug Report button reveals the forms' link, which can be copied & pasted (some players had problems opening the URL via the buttons)
  
• At the end of the alpha level you will be shown the percentage of secrets you found.
  
• Added a twitter link in the menu.
  
• You should now be able to quit the inventory with the ESC key.
  
• Doors should now persist their lock state correctly
  
• Temporarily lowered weight of iron broad sword
  
• Temporarily deactivated refraction on water surfaces
  
• Key objects in the alpha level's main puzzle should now be more visible
  
• Item combinations are now based on a respective table (not important for user experience)

And to round it all off, here a couple screenshots:









The patch is already up. The mails with the alpha invites will go out soon. Don't forget to check your spam folder! And if you haven't received an invitation this time, don't worry: More patches and more alpha invites are coming soon!

Best wishes,
RatTower

You can now sign up for Monomyth's CLOSED ALPHA over at its new website:

http://rattowersoftware.com

Just click the link in the navigation bar & fill out the form!
(Estimated start: January 2020)

Also I'd like to thank you for your continuing support in developing Monomyth!
It means a lot to me!

Best wishes and hopefully until soon,
rattower

Added a fireball spell. A lot of fun combined with the jumping spell and potions of speed.

"I wonder what would happen if I drank all these potions of speed at once..."

Lately I've been optimizing a lot of stuff. Loading a game from the menu is now way faster - the rest of the game's world ist streamed in as it has been the case before (it's all a vast continuous dungeon so far). Had to adapt the save system a bit for that. Next up: Combat AI and really finishing the last few rooms of the level section I've been working on.

Fingers crossed for alpha status.

A dungeon without secrets is like a party without cake.

The Wizard's Eye spell can be used to explore otherwise inaccessible areas.

Also, I have started using a more mechanics-oriented workflow for level design. I will probably share more details on this in a later update.