MonCon Newsletter #9 - The Very Official Autumn Update

It's time for another MonCon progress update!

This newsletter will be on the shorter side, as I'm just dropping by to let everyone know that the game is still making steady progress. But first, I want to get a bit of bad news out of the way...

For most of 2022, I had been dropping subtle hints about "big news" that I'd be able to announce soon. Well, that "big news" unfortunately didn't materialize as hoped, so I'll just go ahead and tell everyone what happened: MonCon had acquired a publisher.

I had begun working with said publisher earlier in the spring, and we'd come to an agreement that they'd help me localize the game and release it onto consoles. Sadly, that publishing deal fell through, so I'm back to just working on finishing the game solo. It was definitely a disappointing setback, but it hasn't deterred me from soldiering on to finish the game.

Anyway! Here's where we're at on the big ol' progress chart:

As you can see, since the last newsletter two months ago, I've finished writing almost all of the game's "major" cutscenes and quests. This would be everything you have to see and do in order to finish the game. I've decided to hold off writing Chapter 6 (aka the climax of the game) for the time being, because, well, the ending is still a little undecided for me. I know all the major beats of what will happen, but the particulars of how I want to land this plane are still eluding me (for now anyway).

The red "Cutscenes & Puzzles" bar has now been split in two, so that I can also show progress on all the sub-quests that don't actually pertain to finishing the game. There will be a plethora of little fun things for you to do around MonCon besides moving towards your ultimate goal of getting an audience with the legendary Mr. Miyashiro. As of today, I've completed most of the work for the sub-quests that will occur during Chapter 3.

Most of the speedy game development I'm getting to enjoy now has been made possible by a brand-new master debug screen that I've added to the game's code to help me work faster:

This debug screen lets me control the game's state (i.e. Which quests have been completed? What chapter am I on?), as well as add or remove team members, add or remove inventory items, and toggle which NPCs have already been defeated in battle. It was a solid day of work to get this screen implemented, but the time savings for being able to teleport around the game at will, with any item, any teammate, to any point in the story? Those time savings have been immense. I definitely wouldn't be able to chuck extra sub-quests into the game as quickly as I am without this debug screen.

To any other game developers out there that may be reading this newsletter: these types of debug screens are a huge boon for quick development, and I highly recommend taking the time to implement one for your own project.

Now, even with all the strides I've made this fall towards finishing the game, it's looking like a 2022 release date is not happening at this point. On the plus side, I'm fairly confident that enough of MonCon will be finished by next spring that I'll have a new, longer demo to take to the convention circuit in 2023. I'll keep you all posted on that.

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Don't forget you can still join the MonCon Discord server to meet up with other MonCon fans online!

That's all for now!

Until next time!
 ~ Elliott