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[foofter]

I like the trailer, but I'm not 100% convinced about the music. The firsts 20 seconds or so, before the music starts building up, feels like the soundtrack of an horror game! I know the game is actually about monsters, but the contrast between "lookin' for a good time?" and the music made me think that the game looks colorful and cheery but is actually very dark AND EVERYBODY DIES AT THE END.
Not sure it's what you were going for.

As for the Steam images, 2 is surely clearer, though I'm not sure about the background. Again, it feels a bit too dark! ><

The game is definitely meant to have a spooky undertone and not just be a cheerful walk in the part, so I FEEL like what you're saying is okay, as long as it doesn't turn you off from the game or feel totally out of place...but I'll try other songs and see how it goes! Thanks.

[Josh Bossie]

I have similar tonal problems with my own monster game. It's tricky. There's this tone that old Disney movies had where they felt spooky and cartoony in equal measures, and I really wish I could match it.

[foofter]

I have similar tonal problems with my own monster game. It's tricky. There's this tone that old Disney movies had where they felt spooky and cartoony in equal measures, and I really wish I could match it.

Yea, that was the best! I wonder if they seemed creepy back then, too, or just to us now? In terms of striking that tone we should ask Cuphead people, cause they pretty much mastered it. 

[foofter]

Okay, I went crazy and colorful (surprise, surprise!).

Are they too busy, or do they accurately capture the colorful wacky world of Monster Garden? Which one wouldja like (in Steam)??









Personally, the third one makes me feel relaxed yet excited about meeting monsters. The first is too unnatural like a nuclear meltdown, the second is too garish, and the last just doesn't work with all the blue.

What do you think?

[foofter]

My personal opinion and public opinion thankfully converged on the one I call "Gentle Rainbow" (third one down in the post above).

It actually looks a lot better at smaller resolutions in Steam, too:


I see now that Baby on the bottom left is too gray and blending into the cloud, so I'll go back and replace him with a more colorful character before February, but I uploaded these as is for now. Phew! Glad that's done! 

Feedback on the images still welcome, though.

[Josh Bossie]

I really liked the one you picked, too. It looks like a really delicious ice cream flavor, too

[foofter]

I really liked the one you picked, too. It looks like a really delicious ice cream flavor, too

Haha, yea, that's a nice way of putting it. 

And good luck on your Kickstarter!

[foofter]

This month is Monster Garden time! A the end of last month I took care of a bunch of other tasks so I can *FINISH* it in October (!?!?!).

First step is implementing changes based on testing feedback. The most common complaint was about the first seedling being confusing both to successfully finish and to replay (which is required if you fail).

So, I：
① Made it more clear that the new monster that joins at the end can handle the boss conversation for you. Should be so obvious now that only a wildcard player with a wild hair would consciously choose the "failure" choice.
② If you fail, the new monster is now trapped in the Seedling instead of coming back with you. (People were confused that the monster disappears when you restart.)
③ I also changed what the generic squares say throughout the seedling to better strike the right atmosphere. I also added more mini-conversations between Foofter and Bobo (and also deleted some lines to still try to keep the game from being too dialogue heavy) for flavor.

Here's a pic of Baby being stuck in the Seedling after the boss conversation is failed:


Next I'll make it so that you restart right in front of the boss area instead of having to replay the entire level again from scratch.

On a related note, in another devlog someone mentioned no longer updating because they don't want to give spoilers... Meanwhile I'm giving everything away here without restraint because A) I don't think the game will ever be so famous that anyone will care. and B) Even if I did get famous I don't think many people would hunt down the DevLog besides people who are so hardcore that they deserve the answers anyway.

But it's also true that my game is very short and heavily dependent on the novelty of the mostly linear content and the secret underlying system... So should I delete all these posts and stop updating!? Lol.

[foofter]

More Seedling 1 fixes:
① If you redo it you start right before the boss area with everything preserved the way it was instead of redoing the whole level from scratch (so you can go back and do more OR just go back to the boss fight exactly how it was last time)

② Made it more obvious that the new monster is there to help you and made them be waiting for you if you come back a second time

③ Made dark versions of the other recruitable monsters appear in the background to show that you are recruiting 1 of 3 monsters / there are other monsters out there.

Here's a pic of dark FRYER and Baby off on an island after the player unlocked Feb.

[foofter]

Well, I didn't do too much today. But I added dark D. Cart to the other dark monsters appearing at the end of Seedling 1 (if you didn't do the necessary measures to recruit him), fixed a bug when you reject the S1 new monster, and added some more Bobo-Foofter conversations throughout the early game.

I also planned some ways you could interact with random inanimate things in the environment to add some flavor, but decided it's non-essential and will add it later if ever.

Finally, planned out the coming weeks' work. Trying to finish all feedback-related fixes by the 13th, and after that finally add all the infamous endings I've been mentioning for ages.

[foofter]

Another day of little fixes, this time on Seedling 2.

I added lots of brief comments in response to Tifa's various actions, since some people found them shocking and thus weird that no one commented on them.

Here's FRYER commenting on Foofter disappearing and on which monster you should choose. (FRYER doesn't like to waste time on decisions.)




I also made D. Cart encourage Tookis to do whatever he was thinking of doing, instead of always adding to excitement (ie. more dynamic and contextual, sometimes slowing him down instead).

I also moved some clouds around since people found them annoying.

A tester also pointed out that it's pointless to say "Nothing changed in the Garden" when a player fails, since actually minor things do change. But it felt weird to say "Minor things changed in the Garden," so I deleted that altogether. Now it either says "Something major changed in the Garden," or no message at all. I hope that isn't too confusing, but I think the dialogue makes it obvious that the conversation failed.

I also added additional hints about how to reveal the Boss' true form (only two testers figured this out as far as I know, but then again I DO want it to be something of an easter egg, so maybe that's okay?)

[foofter]

Today I made Seedling 2 more like Seedling 1 - the Boss keeps your new character if you fail (hopefully motivating the player more to give it one more shot), and if you DO redo the seedling you start right before the Boss so you can just try a different approach in the conversation. But your actions during the seedling before the Boss are set in stone (and so is the selection of tree monsters you managed to recruit).

And it should be slightly more obvious how to beat the Boss now. The tree Boss is admittedly much more complicated than the first boss, but it IS the second seedling after all, and I wanted the first seedling to be really straightforward.

Here's Tookis after being snatched back by the Boss:


Besides that, it was just a few small changes and fixes to improve the overall Seedling 2 experience.

[foofter]

Since I have roughly three weeks to finish the game, I decided to add a new technically unnecessary feature! As you befriend monsters in the secret friendship system (which hasn't even been fully implemented yet), you can read diary entries (/random things they wrote) that appear in the garden. One part appears after you let them talk in a dungeon for the first time, and the second part appears when you become fully friends with them (probably not until the very end).

Each one builds their personality a lot, sometimes in unexpected ways, so it's kinda like something extra for the player to get to know their favorite monsters since those are the ones they'll end up being friends with by the end of the game. But it's totally optional and not forced on the player.

So, I wrote all the diary entries in the past two days, so now it'll just take a minute to plug them all in...BUT now the friendship system is absolutely necessary. But I always wanted it in the game, so it's not THAT impractical and cuckoo of me.

I also went through all the new monster sounds from my sound designer, chose which to use for what, and converted them all to .ogg, which RPG Maker MV requires.

Going through the entire game to add all the sounds is going to take days unto itself, but there's no question that THAT's worth it.

[foofter]

I finished writing and implementing the diaries, but I still need to implement the hidden friendship system before they start actually appearing in the game.

Here's an excerpt from Tifa's diary (which is in the form of a poetry anthology):

"Monster Fruit"

Monster Fruit
make booty go toot.

Monster bum
look like a plum.

Blue man 'stache
good to sweep trash.

Blue from beyond, come through the pond.
Deep and dark, endless and stark.
Stark as in strong, far as in long.
Connect and connect to the great beyond.

As you can see the diary entries are pretty silly, but just give monsters a little extra flavor if you go out of your way to get to know them. (Especially the second, more personal one, in this case it would be Tifa describing her theory on poetry.)

[foofter]

I did the following small tasks (so after this I can focus on the last three big things, the Friendship System, Monster Sounds, and Secret Endings):

・Made a blue man collect samples of soil, water and air in your garden by flying around in a series of interactions.

・Made what you did in Seedling 2 affect the garden more, and put all diaries in the big empty space that needed something in post-S2 area.

・Spruced up Seedling 3 by introducing the other Bobo's names, adding new character expression portraits, and editing some boss text.

・If you beat Seedling 3, it now says "Something changed in Mr. Bobo" instead of "in the garden." Is that too cheesy?! Technically nothing changes in the garden (well, besides the party area opening up...) so I was gonna put nothing, but I thought it could be a cute twist on level feedback. What do you think!?

Can't wait to move on to the Final Three Features and finish this thing! And I've got approximately two weeks to do it.     

[thefoolishbrave]

I did the following small tasks (so after this I can focus on the last three big things, the Friendship System, Monster Sounds, and Secret Endings):

・Made a blue man collect samples of soil, water and air in your garden by flying around in a series of interactions.

・Made what you did in Seedling 2 affect the garden more, and put all diaries in the big empty space that needed something in post-S2 area.

・Spruced up Seedling 3 by introducing the other Bobo's names, adding new character expression portraits, and editing some boss text.

・If you beat Seedling 3, it now says "Something changed in Mr. Bobo" instead of "in the garden." Is that too cheesy?! Technically nothing changes in the garden (well, besides the party area opening up...) so I was gonna put nothing, but I thought it could be a cute twist on level feedback. What do you think!?

Can't wait to move on to the Final Three Features and finish this thing! And I've got approximately two weeks to do it.     

what happens in 2 weeks? also, yes, i'm late to the party, but you totally chose correctly on steam screens

[foofter]

Just a self-imposed deadline! I've been focusing on it the past three months and starting November wanna move onto preparing to release it. Trying to be strict and not drag on forever, even though there are many things I'd still like to do. 

[foofter]

I wish I had something to share besides saying I added monster sounds, but that's basically all I did...BUT it's both very taxing and adds a lot to the game. It's actually the most mentally straining work in the game so far! Reading a line of dialogue, thinking how it fits into the conversation and choosing one of 7-12 sounds to go there. I can barely do it for more than an hour at a time without a break. 

So, I didn't completely finish today as planned. There are still four monsters left, and one is Mr. Bobo, so I probably still have another day's work just on sounds... Luckily I wanted to finish by the day after tomorrow, so it's still basically on schedule (just a few other small things I won't have time for). 

[thefoolishbrave]

Just a self-imposed deadline! I've been focusing on it the past three months and starting November wanna move onto preparing to release it. Trying to be strict and not drag on forever, even though there are many things I'd still like to do. 

I've struggled with this a bit also, I want Cynical 7 to be the first project I see through and I also don't want to be one of those guys in indie dev hell for 6 years still at 20%. Since this is in fact my first full release, and it's only going to be worked on by me, I think anyone in similar shoes should be aiming for charm over flash. With the insane amount of effort it takes to tune hype in your favor for a release going all in as a small team for years on end I think hurts more than it helps so good on you! :D

[foofter]

I've struggled with this a bit also, I want Cynical 7 to be the first project I see through and I also don't want to be one of those guys in indie dev hell for 6 years still at 20%. Since this is in fact my first full release, and it's only going to be worked on by me, I think anyone in similar shoes should be aiming for charm over flash. With the insane amount of effort it takes to tune hype in your favor for a release going all in as a small team for years on end I think hurts more than it helps so good on you! :D

Thanks! I feel pretty proud of where I've gotten and kinda wanna just release it to the world already! ...But still gotta finish a few more things.