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[RatTower]

Steam Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=927720909

Description
There once was a guy who played King's Field 20 years after its first release and thought: "Wow… this is really cool! But I wish it had better controls and better combat and was much, much prettier."

I've been developing a free movement dungeon crawler for a bit more than a year now.
It is called Monomyth and was originally planned as a pretty simple King's Field clone, but in my "research" for the project a whole lot of other games also left an impression (such as the original Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis, Thief, System Shock, etc). So here we are…

Key features:
Development focuses/focused so far on the following aspects:

• Free Character Movement: No grid based movement. Monomyth is a free movement dungeon crawler like King's Field, Ultima Underworld or Arx Fatalis.
  
  
  
•    Action oriented real-time combat: At the end of the day Monomyth is an RPG with character- and item-stats having a strong impact on how well you do in battle. However it is also strongly dependent on the player's skill. You have to actively swing your blade, cast spells, dodge, parry and block. Weapons have certain movesets, range and the combat is based around a stamina system the player has to keep an eye on. There are also optional lock-on mechanics. This is probably unusual for a first person RPG but during playtests it worked really well with melee combat. Ranged combat and spells will not allow lock-on however.
  
  
  
•    Blades, bows and spells: The game currently features the three basic RPG archetypes - Warrior, Thief & Mage. There are several melee weapons, certain stealth mechanics and obviously spell casting. I'm not sure how restrictively I will separate these three in the end though since there is….
  
  
  
•   Free character development: Means no classes. The character is developed by investing points into character stats. But, much like in Ultima Underworld, the player is not necessarily bound to a certain archetype/playstyle. However if you sprinkle your EXP all over your character sheet you will very likely end up as a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none.
  
  
  
•    Enemy Infighting: This is a nice detail I introduced in the AI a while ago. Enemies actually belong to "factions". Certain factions don't like each other much and as a result they'll fight each other whenever they meet (it's also the code base for a "Charm" spell - as seen in Dark Messiah).
  
  
  
•    Dynamic Encounters: Enemy spawns in Monomyth are bound to resting at certain checkpoints within the world. This activates the respawn mechanism, which is slowly (not necessarily all at once) replenishing monster spawns, spawning traps throughout the map and even unique monsters. The monster spawns themself will feature variations, so there might be a single monster spawning, several monsters, or maybe even a patrol.
  
  
  
•    (For the lack of a better word) Metroidvania-styled world layout: Of course this game is one big dungeon crawler and to a certain extent it is separated into different areas or "floors" if you will. However, areas are strongly interconnected and finding for example a passage in one area might lead you to an unexplored part of another area. It is definitely not the "clearing out all monsters and moving on" type of level design. I want the areas to be more creative than that. My main goal here is to marry the horseshoe level design principle of e.g. Dark Souls with the extensive level design of Thief. Which is quite a challenge, since the horseshoe principle is very much opposed to Looking Glass' more open design principle. The solution so far is to practice the horseshoe principle as a connector between areas, while the areas themself remain more open. So in a sense it is a lot like Ultima Underworld, except instead of stairs connecting areas you basically have a separate area that acts as a hub, which slowly opens more and more, the further you progress through the game.
  
  
  
•    Outdoor areas: While being a dungeon crawler, Monomyth will also feature outdoor areas. I thought that might be interesting.
  
  
  
•   High-tech medieval setting: This is probably the thing Thief had the biggest impact on. Monomyth is set in a medieval fantasy world. However primitive electronics and steam powered machines are very common. Dungeons are filled with pipes and electronic lights, castles are full with gears and mechanisms, enemies range from savage to what could be considered high-tech.
  
  
  
•   Deadly environments: This was a lot of "fun" in King's Field 4 (except for the invisible lava field right in the beginning). In Monomyth environments are quite hazardous. There is hot steam coming from leaking pipes, there are chambers filled with poisonous gas, electrical hazards, pitch black caves with steep cliffs and traps. Lot's of traps. So you always have to be on guard.
  

Screenshots:

I'm trying to get the game on Steam Greenlight by the 15th of May (we'll see how that works out). Unfortunately I have to prepone this entire process a little (mostly due to the current legal implications Steam Direct would have). Planned release is Q4 2018 (or 2019 - you know how it is). This year my focus will also be to release an alpha demo for all the good people to test, enjoy and play around with.

I'll use this thread to update you on the development, answer questions and of course take feedback.

You can also follow me on twitter if you want: https://twitter.com/rattower

Thanks for reading!

[Schrompf]

This looks amazing. You're probably using Unity, but I'm still impressed by the amount of content you display in the images. Best of luck!

[RatTower]

This looks amazing. You're probably using Unity, but I'm still impressed by the amount of content you display in the images. Best of luck!

Thanks! The game is using UE4.

[zede05]

Looking great! If you're trying to get on Greenlight, I'd suggest asap. Steam is about to "sunset" that service the last I heard (directly from our Steam rep), no idea when yet.

[MereMonkey]

Oh wow, this is looking awesome 

[RatTower]

Looking great! If you're trying to get on Greenlight, I'd suggest asap. Steam is about to "sunset" that service the last I heard (directly from our Steam rep), no idea when yet.

That's the problem. No one knows. My guess is somewhen around the sale in june, since Valve used events like that before to rework services in the background (mostly layout related stuff though).
The official thread says that greenlight is shutting down in spring. Technically that's till 21st of june.
Summer sale starts on the 23rd of june. So my guess might not be that far off.

[DrDerekDoctors]

*droooooools* Want want want want want!

[GPawley]

This is visually impressive!  Your feature list is interesting too.  Best of luck, looking forward to seeing updates as you progress!

[RatTower]

Steam Greenlight page is up!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=927720909

You'd do me a super-duper favor if you voted for this game!
Also, here's the trailer:






Thanks for watching/voting!

[Caravaggio]

Looking good.  Of course if you're going to mention FROM games it's going to bring up the question of story and NPC's.  Planning on a lot of that?  Very little?  None?  I'm curious.

[GrumpyGiant]

Wow that looks cool!

Is it just you making it or is there a team? If you made all that art yourself as well as making and designing the game then I'd have to pick my jaw up off the floor.

[Schrompf]

Just by the looks of the trailer, it seems you got hardly any gameplay. Maybe it's a bit too early for Greenlight?

Anyways, you have my vote.

[RatTower]

Looking good.  Of course if you're going to mention FROM games it's going to bring up the question of story and NPC's.  Planning on a lot of that?  Very little?  None?  I'm curious.

Monomyth will feature fewer characters than regular RPGs. However these characters will be well developed and heavily interwoven in the story. So in short: Much like King's Field but not quite. Same could be said story-wise.

Monomyth's writing is basically structured in four layers:

• There's the cosmic layer, so basically the "theoretical" backbone of Monomyth's universe. This layer will be kept very vague throughout the game. However it still has a relatively strong impact on the story.
  
  
• There's the mythological layer, which is technically a way to interpret the cosmic situation of the world. So religions, prophecies, sects, deities, etc. This is normally provided via lore dumps. However I'm greatly opposed to that idea, so it will mostly be provided via item descriptions, character motivations and notes.
  
  
• Then there's the actual background story that has a direct effect on the world and the characters. So for example the background story of the locations in the world. Why are certain characters at a certain place? Why is that enemy attacking me? etc.
  
  
• And then there's the character story. So basically your personal motivations and your view on all the layers above.
  
  

The story itself is the sum of all these layers. From the lowest to the highest layer the provided information becomes more and more vague. Your character's motivations directly affect you. However this does not mean, that the highest layer has a lower impact on the story, because practically the cosmic layer can have the greatest effects on the world.

This whole model for story writing could for example be applied to Dark Souls:
The character motivation is relatively clear. You are the chosen undead. You're on pilgrimage etc. etc.
The background story is what is mostly provided via dialogue and item descriptions. So for example: Why are there bodies lying around everywhere in New Londo? Why are there traps everywhere in Sen's Fortress? etc. etc.
The mythological layer deals with the prophecy, the first flame and how Gwynn is keeping it alive (which is not so much mythological since it's a simple fact) The interpretation of the cosmic situation however is mostly up to Frampt and Kaathe, who are both highly questionable.
And the cosmic layer is simply the information that the fire is dying, which is a factual thing of the world of Dark Souls. However nobody really know's why (to my knowledge at least).

Even in this example you can see again, how from the lowest (character) to the highest (cosmic) layer things get more and more speculative. This is also the reason why on the highest two there are tons of fan theories.
And again, while the player is mostly affected by the character layer (giving you actual motivation to go on your adventure) the really heavy stuff, which actually affects everyone, is coming from the cosmic layer - without much of an explanation, which is okay.

Not everything is always clear cut though. Some layers can technically overlap at some points.

So the story of Monomyth is built with the same theory in mind, taking notes from H.P. Lovecraft's advice on writing weird fiction.

Just by the looks of the trailer, it seems you got hardly any gameplay. Maybe it's a bit too early for Greenlight?

Anyways, you have my vote.

Thanks for your vote!

There's still a lot of work but there is also more to the gameplay than what's in the trailer. The background systems like character stats, damage calculation, inventory management, as well as item combinations (combining items with the world - much like in a point'n'click adventure game) - that's all in and working.
It's a bit hard to build an exciting trailer around that though.
Also the GUI design is still in a prototype stage

Wow that looks cool!

Is it just you making it or is there a team? If you made all that art yourself as well as making and designing the game then I'd have to pick my jaw up off the floor.

The trailer music was a commission.

Other than that it's a one-man show

[foofter]

Wow, all that is a one man show? Impressive, and good luck! Just voted for you.

[Thaumaturge]

That does look rather impressive, thus far! ^_^

[RatTower]

After not even 5 days Monomyth has been greenlit!  
Thank you for your support!

[Thaumaturge]

Congratulations on being greenlit! ^_^

[RatTower]

I'm currently working on level persistence (e.g. items that have been picked up are actually gone on reloading an area, etc).
I realized I could easily add dropping items from the inventory into the world, where they'd stay indefinitely.

But this only makes sense if there's some kind of inventory management system in place, so here's the question:

https://strawpoll.com/s27yrg4

Which kind of inventory system do you prefer?
 

[RatTower]

Got a lot of stuff done this weekend.

Essentially saving and loading is working nicely. The system is very similar to Dark Souls and/or System Shock:
If you quit the game, you restart again at the same position in the world with all your progress saved. Decisions stick. There's no reloading (i.e. as in Dark Souls)
If you die you restart at the last "save point" with all of your progress saved (i.e. as in Dark Souls & System Shock).

I think that's a good formula for a game that basically extends on what King's Field did (which just had regular save points).

I also implemented inventory controls to drop items into the world.
So now you can collect stuff and then just litter the ground with it if that's what you wanna do.

It's all kept in the save state, so no object is ever lost unless you literally throw it into a lava pit. Still gotta think about that a bit when it comes to important quest/puzzle objects.
I also limited the inventory space. For now you got a slot based inventory with like 14 slots in the beginning and you can extend that by finding better backpacks (which are not yet in the game, but once I did the models for those that takes about 10 minutes to code the way it's currently set up).

This week I gotta think a bit about containers (chests, drawers, bags, barrels etc).

I'm wondering whether I should add an extra container interface (so you look into a chest, but it just opens another inventory view, where you pull items from the container into your backpack - this is pretty much the standard system in most RPGs) or if I should add "real" containers (so you actually open a chest in the game world and it really contains the 3d modells of the loot). The latter system is pretty rare. I think Dark Messiah had something like that, but I'm not even sure.
Problem with that system is: You can't lock a halberd into a chest. Same is true for all other bigger objects. Which is realistic I guess, but perhaps not what people might want. Also storing items becomes way more messy if there are no slot based containers.

[Zireael]

Congratulations on getting Greenlit!

As for the inventory, I think you should go standard, unless you already have the models for the equipment. Modeling the equipment in a chest will be worth it only if the chests are sufficiently large for the average player to notice the equipment itself.