Study this note to make sure you only pick correct plants
Release in 6 days!
Hey Friends!
The final countdown begins! This has been a long journey, but we are almost there and, all thanks to you, ready to storm the Popular Upcoming section on Steam!
While we all wait the big day...
Wishlist to get a notification when Mondealy is out!
For the past years, game's been actively in development. These things take a lot of time, but the time has finally come...
August 9th, 2023
...is the current release date of Mondealy.
It will be priced at $11.99, and the soundtrack will be priced at $2.99 (and oh boy is it a big soundtrack)
That's all I wanted to share! Spread the news around, spread the announcement trailer around and stay tuned!
Sincerely, uglycoal :melon:
Mondealy State of the Game - January 2023
Hello, dear players!
New Year's holidays are over, I had a lot of rest and procrastination, but still managed to do some useful things for the game. Also, another delay happened. Presumably, the game could finally be ready either around May, or after the summer, I can't give any more specific dates, because I'm really, really bad with them, which was obvious from the previous delays. But let's get to the good news and progress on the game!
Changed the beach in front of the Water District
The beach connected very poorly with the rest of the game world, so I decided to tweak it and connect it better to the other location. Also, I have removed the roots of the Dargratt tree from location's upper half, since it doesn't reach the beach to that extent. The beach has its own "music" too.
The scenery on the lake now changes in real time
The time of day in the game is now not controlled by the story, but is fully dynamic. The lake scenery didn't fit this dynamic system, so I took some time to make a fully dynamic time change in the scenery itself as well.
FPS setting
This setting rarely shows up in pixel games, and indie games in general, but I managed to add it and it even seems to be stable. If you have a high refresh rate monitor this will make the game much smoother!
Improved follower movement
Long time ago, followers would perfectly follow the path you traveled, including little zigzags and back and forth turns. I redesigned this system so that followers wouldn't blatantly follow you, repeating your path 1-to-1. Later, I realized that small movements and turns in one place shouldn't cause a follower to run over behind you as well. Now they will wait quietly until you choose a new direction of movement.
Of course, you can now stop and just look at your follower. (They might even react to you staring at them)
Improved surface characters
The game's dynamic time of day change had its costs - the characters would simply disappear when daytime changes. I was able to make a much more interesting experience out of this, and now the characters come and go to their places at a certain point.
This is just one example of this character behavior in the world, there will be more.
Story Progress
Certain things will once again lead the protagonist to the Water District, but in a new role.
Water District expansion
Among other things, the Water District has now gotten a little bigger, going deeper towards the old factory.
Draft for a quest with Froga
I won't tell or show you much, but here's a screenshot.
During this quest, the Froga will be a follower and walk with you everywhere. You can learn a lot about her, the Water District, and more.
Changes in the Forest District
In the midst of many improvements, I haven't forgotten about the Forest District, which has been made even prettier. Even with new locations!
Other improvements
Characters can now look at the protagonist and follow him with their heads, within some distance. (This is a detail I looked up in Hollow Knight)
Character leaving the location as night falls.
The cars have a soft red glow from the taillights at night.
With a small chance, insects may fly out of the vegetation.
Hope you enjoyed this post! Over the past months full of rest and procrastination, I've done quite a few secondary things, so the main story still needs time. Nevertheless, the game is slowly but surely getting closer to release. Thank you, for your continued attention and love of the game!
Sincerely, uglycoal :melon:
Mondealy State of the Game - November 2022
Hello, dear players!
I've spent the past month focusing on the story, improving the old work in progress, and all sorts of other little things. This post will be smaller than the previous one, since there's a lot I can't show you, but here goes anyway!
Improvements to the Save Menu
Sometimes, I felt that text data alone wasn't enough, so I added a little picture to the saves, created at the moment of saving. And then I also cut the loading screen and replaced it with a smooth transition from that picture to the game (loading is almost instantaneous).
These pictures have size less than <200kb per file, usually much less, so don't worry about them taking up a lot of space. (And you can also replace the pictures and play the animations right inside the game. Can someone try running a full Bad Apple clip?)
Positional Audio
I finally understood the positional audio in GameMaker and added it to some of the sources in the game - footsteps, bushes, flowers. It adds some depth to the scene.
Here's a video with the sound.
Improved Rufus' Rooms
All of Rufus' room graphics have been updated. Also made them easier for me to create myself, since I had vague plans to create some sort of "contests" to add fan-designed locations to these rooms, something like yumi 2kki. Tell me what you think about it in the comments.
Rufus' Portraits Updated Again
Throughout development, Rufus has been changing, transforming, and it's happened again. This is probably the final version of him, as I really like it.
I've made this change because he is playing a role in the story again.
Model for Stable Diffusion fine-tuned on portraits from Mondealy
One of the more unusual news in the past month is the creation of this model, which can create characters in the style of portraits from Mondealy. It's not particularly valuable or useful, but you can have some fun anyway.
That's it for today. I'm still working tirelessly and making sure the game will be perfect by the time it comes out. Thank you for your attention and patience, and see you soon!
Sincerely, uglycoal :melon:
Mondealy State of the Game - October 2022
Hello, dear players!
As much as I would love to create posts like this monthly, it doesn't always work out. Since then another person has joined the development team and is helping me with some aspects of the game, but it will only speed up development a little. The game now has an incredible number of people working on it - two! In the game itself, a huge number of different things have appeared or improved. Here are many things I can share without spoilers...
Game Intro... Again...
The beginning greatly affects the overall impression of the game and whether or not it will draw the player in. Therefore, a lot of effort had to be taken away from the development of the main story to make intro the right length and more interesting. At the same time, the name of the Day One demo will now be justified, because it will really only have the first day (and not three as before)
Forest District
Despite its natural beauty, the Forest District was hardly a point of attraction, not even for a pretty screenshot! Now that's not the case - by experimenting, we managed to create this kind of beauty:
There's even a little lake there!
Upcoming changes to Day One
After the release of Mondealy, it's demo version Mondealy: Day One will remain free and it will include an absolutely identical beginning to the full version.
The Day One version's achievements will be removed from Steam so as not to duplicate them between the two games. In addition, the gallery and achievement menus will be locked in Day One.
But, the good news! You'll be able to port the gallery progress, achievements, and saves from the demo to the full game.
Translations of Game Sprites
The game already has Russian and English versions of all signs, banners, and other in-game stuff. And then I realized that the game won't be limited to these languages! And in general, the fan-made, even joke-based variants will only get better if they can translate the game sprites as well!
Now it's possible, also in real time! (Text translations remain as easy as they were. Unlike some other games)
Hints
I really disliked the hints system in the old demo. It was a phone with oddly worded hints about what to do. At first I removed that element entirely, but later I realized that the hints were too important an aspect of player comfort to be thrown away like that. So I came up with something new:
After opening the hint menu by holding Q, you will see the hero's thoughts. Coincidentally, he's only thinking about how to go through the main story! (There is no specific hint in this gif)
Secondary quests will have no such hints.
Gallery
In the old demo, the gallery opened in real time and with all the character slides. Something I didn't like about this system, so I decided to redesign it. Now, during the first playthrough, every single interaction with a character (i.e. a conversation) will open them in the gallery. And it, in turn, will only be unlocked after you finish the game once. But don't worry, you'll be able to see who's locked and unlocked during the gameplay.
Lighting and Graphics
The demo had two kinds of lighting, simplified and unsimplified, this created a lot of development difficulties and I decided to remove the simplified lighting from the game. Now, it will be prettier, but probably perform worse on the weakest of computers. In addition, it will be possible to disable other shaders, which can put a strain on not the weakest computers as well.
Main Story
The game is about 70% complete. At the moment, I'm finalizing segments with Tori the deer, a character who doesn't appear in the demo. After that, there will be an extensive segment in the Water District and its new locations, and beyond that... And beyond that, you'll find out in the full game. I hope its pre-final segment doesn't disappoint you, as it seems extremely experimental to me.
Secondary Quests
Not every character has enough screen time, so I plan to add additional storylines with some of them. As part of these "quests", you'll be able to get to know the characters better, in locations separate from the main world (the game doesn't become a dating simulator, it's still an adventure). This came to my mind after finishing Night in the Woods (cool game!)
(Yes, Froga is very tall)
Future Game Graphics Release
Gaming communities like to collect old versions of game graphics. Also, they sometimes make fan content that uses the original game graphics. To save you the trouble of digging out all the sprites somehow, I plan to open up a GitHub repository containing the game graphics and all their older versions when the full game is released.
You'd get all those sprites anyway, so you'd better let me give you convenient access to them.
That's all folks!
Add the full game to your wishlist if you haven't already!
Time flies by. But the work goes on, and the game is getting closer to completion. And the recent delay has given me confidence in my abilities! I hope to deliver the best possible product. Thank you for your love and patient waiting!
Sincerely, uglycoal :melon:
Play The Demo! Watch the Stream!
Join us at the Steam Next Fest event and play the MONDEALY Demo!
The story:
Assume the role of Michael - just an ordinary guy who managed to discover the pathways leading under his hometown, right into the unexplored underground kingdom of Dargratt. By a strange set of events and coincidences, Michael meets the royal family, now it’s up to them to decide what is going to happen with him next…
Get ready for:
Romance and dating
Deep, flamboyant, and sexy characters
Choices and consequences
Progression and skill system
Main quests and side activities
Ask The Dev
You can ask anything about the game on our Discord server
Ask The Dev! Watch the live stream! Play The Demo!
Join us at the Steam Next Fest event and play the MONDEALY Demo!
[previewyoutube="QPjZWUs4Giw;full"]
About the game:
Mondealy is about you building relationships and exploring the world. An ordinary guy from an ordinary town on an ordinary day uncovers the secrets of an extraordinary underground kingdom located under his home. Your adventure begins!
Get ready for:
Romance and dating
Deep, flamboyant, and sexy characters
Choices and consequences
Progression and skill system
Main quests and side activities
Ask The Dev
You can ask anything about the game on our Discord server
