Hello curators,

This month brings us the first of our developer interviews. But a quick dev update before we get into that.

The big task for the team this month was to assess where we are in the game’s production and what we need to do to get ready for Early Access… lots of e-mails and discussions, plus spreadsheets and sticky notes. It’s a tough but necessary step on the path to delivering the best possible museum management experience at launch.

Fortunately, we’ve got an absolutely A+ producer to wrangle all this info and make sure we’re on track. Say hello to Farah Coculuzzi!

You might’ve seen Farah when she intro’d our segment at the 2020 Wholesome Direct Indie Game Showcase.

Fiona recently got the opportunity to sit down with her (virtually speaking) and ask her about her life, her work on the game, and so much more – take it away, you two!

Fiona: Hi Farah! It's so good to sit down and talk with you through the wonder of the world wide web. So let me jump in with my questions, tell us: what made you want to make games and what’s the journey been like so far?
Farah: I had rediscovered videogames when I was around the age of 18 and at university, after having lost interest in my early tween years. When I realised I could make games for a living, I switched majors to study digital design and haven't looked back since.
I accidentally found myself in production after helping out with local game dev events management and that led me to my first contract after I graduated.
Alongside doing production work on Mondo, I'm also a producer full-time at Capy in Ontario coming all the way from my little home country, NZ.

Fiona: Diving more into your work on Mondo Museum, what are you most excited for players to get to see and do?
Farah: The team has put so much work into making the overall exhibits creation experience satisfying, and I can't wait to see everyone's museum layout designs and exhibits!

Fiona: As a Producer, you’ve got kind of a big-picture view of everything that’s happening on the project, but I think it’s safe to say making a new game is always a learning experience! Is there anything you’ve encountered, whether on the dev or content side of production, that you didn’t know before?
Farah: I've really learned a lot from the little facts in the exhibit item descriptions and items! Honestly, I did not know a lot about the different Dinosaur Eras, I kinda just assumed they all existed at the same time, whoops!

Fiona: Heehee… the past is funny like that. Looking back at your own life, do you have any fond memories of museum visits that you’d be willing to share with us?
Farah: I always loved going to the Auckland War Memorial Museum, I would even just go there for fun if I had some time off from classes and to try to get inspired for upcoming projects. The exhibits on New Zealand history were always my favourite, and I do quite miss seeing Raja the Elephant. (Any Kiwis reading this newsletter? If you know, you know!) Recently, my husband, who is a Canadian, also got to visit the museum, and he was blown away by how big Moas were. I will always remember his reaction!

Fiona: And now you’re working on a game where you can build your own museum, but if you could curate one in real-life, what’s an exhibit or collection that you’d love to curate?
Farah: I would love to put a History of Food From All Around The World collection in a museum! I think it's absolutely fascinating how food brings people together from different cultures and how food recipes evolve once they become common in households.

Fiona: Oh! Speaking of households… Do you have any pets? Can we see ‘em?
Farah: I have a very fluffy white cat, and her name is Fizz! Here is a picture of her that looks like she's ready to give you a side-quest in an RPG!

Fiona: Ohmygosh pic is perfect! And hilariously I thought the same thing about Fizz as you did haha! Okay, one last question… where can we find you online (to learn more about you and hopefully get more cat photos)?
Farah: You can find me on Twitter @farahcoculuzzi :)

HUGE thank you to Farah for taking the lead on our interview series! We’re planning to do more of these in the months ahead, so stay tuned to meet more of the team.

Next month we'll be chatting about modding items into Mondo Museum, so check back here for that (because much as we love our exhibits, we can't wait to see yours. Personally I'm excited to mod this in my game[www.roadsideamerica.com]). As always, you can reach us via Twitter, Discord[discord.gg], or joining us in the Discussions!

Before we conclude this issue, Tanya would like to offer a few words to mark the new month:

“Happy Black History Month… but also, we hope, every month is Black Future Month! We wanted to take the opportunity to shout out to our friends at Pixelles, who have put together a program for offering money and mentorship to small indie teams that are led by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). We love to see more funding and power go to Black creators!”

You can learn more at http://pixelles.ca/bipoc-creator-program/

So, until our next issue: stay safe, stay warm, and support your local museums!


Cheers,
Museum Communications – Fiona

Hello curators!

This update is not *super exciting* in terms of dev updates, but we'll make up for it with this fancy look at the main menu:

Isn't it pretty? The in-game version looks even better of course. Steam compression for images is a struggle.

As far as development goes, we're aiming to wrap up our writing so we can go ahead with localization at full speed.

There are a few final art polish tasks, and hopefully we can capture a few to update the Steam page and website so it looks even cleaner.

There are also some character portraits being worked on for the tutorial text pop-ups, so you can gaze into the soul of your friendly helpers.

We'll be working on spotlighting the development team as these newsletters go on as well! It's a talented bunch that deserve the attention as much as any rare museum item, I think.

That's it for now though - see you around on the internet and when our exhibits open in 2021.

Cheers,
Museum Communications - Victoria

today's totally real museum fact: spreadsheets are responsible for all of the world's progress

Hey curators,

This month's update is all about modding! Mondo Museum will have Steam Workshop capabilities, which means the community will be able to create their own modifications to the game - whether that's their own exhibit items, decorations, and more.

You can go to the modding page and wiki [github.com]right now to check out an alpha version of the Unity modding tool if you want to get a head start on learning how to create exhibit items!

Paintings will actually be a lot easier to mod in than in this current version though (just drag in an image and click a few buttons). You won't be able to test or upload the mods to the Steam Workshop yet, but it might be fun to tinker around with.

Access it here: https://github.com/ViewportGames/MondoMuseumModding/wiki

No scripting knowledge or weird text file editing is required to add new items. The “editor” is a fairly straightforward UI -- we want to make it as easy as possible for the community to contribute!

At release, modding in new Exhibit Items/Paintings will be fully supported, with other items like display cases, benches, wall & floor materials, windows, etc. coming shortly after. Exhibit Items mods also support having animations and particle effects and stuff like the volcano and earthquake exhibits in the base game!

If you have any modding questions, feel free to throw them at us in the Discord[discord.gg]! Michel, one of the developers, will be around.

Exciting, right? Let us know in the Discord[discord.gg] or Twitter what you want to make!

Cheers,
Museum Communications - Victoria

Hey curators,

July updates! Woohoo! (Yes I've run out of clever introductions.)

The team is in polish and bug fixes mode right now! Michel, the creative director, has made some pretty awesome UI polish changes and will be wrapping up some Staff and Visitor systems.

Meanwhile, the art team is polishing up placeable items around the museum. Here's a look at some more of the Geology items that will be available!

On the writing side, some descriptions are going through a final pass, and we're looking into more Geology research. Learning and creating at the same time - a true dream.

Also we're prepping a build for beta testing and should be good to go once we figure out a couple bugs.

Short update this month - lots to do! See you on Discord[discord.gg], or better yet, sign up for the newsletter[www.kitfoxgames.com] to get these updates sooner and right in your inbox.

Cheers,
Museum Communications - Victoria

Hey curators,

As time goes on, so does Mondo Museum! We hope you've been staying safe - we know many of you working in museums miss it right now. ❤︎

In terms of development progress, the Viewport Games team has almost wrapped up the Han Dynasty collection! We've got a lil' screenshot below of some of the items you'll be able to put on display in your dream museum.

Otherwise, the game is undergoing some reworking of the UI art and more polish before they start on a new collection this month! (Don't worry, I'll make sure to tease it when we have something ready...)

A bit of a shorter update this month, but nevertheless we're excited for you to get a peek of the new exhibit soon. Let us know: if you could choose, what would be the next exhibit collection be?

Don't forget you can join us over on Twitter or discuss all museum things on Discord[discord.gg]. Plus, if you wishlist our game on Steam, it really helps us out in terms of fancy algorithm things.

Cheers,
Museum Communications - Victoria

today's totally real museum fact: rare items are displayed in museums, probably

Hello curators!

As some of you guessed from the previous update, the next exhibit is in fact going to be Ancient China - and specifically, the Han Dynasty!

This is one of the exhibit items you'll be able to display in the game! It's an early seismograph where, when there’s an earthquake, a ball falls from the dragon mouth into the frog mouth indicating the direction of the earthquake. I personally appreciate the lil' frog butts.

We can't wait to give you more updates as the team continues to work on the exhibits for this - make sure you keep an eye out for future updates~

Other than that, Viewport has been working on getting modding to work - which it now is!

This means when the game releases in Early Access, you'll be able to create mods, upload them to Steam Workshop, subscribe, see a list you've subscribed to in the game, enable the ones you want, and play.

You'll also be able to make new exhibit items, display cases and wall frames.

Sometime this month, we'll hopefully be adding more cosmetic stuff like wall/floor materials and doors/windows. After all, it won't be a dream museum if you can't spend hours making it look aesthetic.

That's all for this update! Don't forget you can join us over on Twitter or discuss all museum things on Discord[discord.gg]. Better yet, get updates right in your email inbox by signing up for the newsletter[www.kitfoxgames.com].

Cheers,
Museum Communications - Victoria

today's totally real museum fact: dinosaurs are still alive, but are trapped in pigeons' bodies

Hello curators!

Somehow January is already over, which means I owe you another museum update. We're almost done with the dino exhibits, and we'll be moving onto the next exhibit very soon... think you can guess what it is?

Here's a hint: A 400 year period of one of the oldest civilizations in the world which saw the invention of a seismoscope for detecting earthquakes and the first to use negative numbers in math.

Feel free to guess, and I'll confirm the answer in the next update! Bonus points for not Googling the answer. ;) I believe in you.

Since our last newsletter, the Viewport team has been working on getting a demo ready for the future game conventions we'll attend. Gotta spread the word of the museum life to people somehow!

A task system is being implemented to give players a goal and guide them through the demo. Pretty basic, but important nevertheless.

That's all for this update. If you want to receive these updates earlier and directly in your inbox, sign up for the newsletter[www.kitfoxgames.com]! Don't forget you can join us over on Twitter or discuss all museum things on Discord[discord.gg].

Cheers,
Museum Communications - Victoria

Hello curators,

It's 2020, which means Mondo Museum's Early Access construction is set to release this year.

That's right, 2020 not only means a new decade, it also means it's the year you become a TRUE museum curator. Wow!

Viewport has been hard at work to ensure your museum is equipped with all of the latest facilities and exhibits. For Early Access, anyway.

Right now a tutorial is being made - we can't just launch you into the museum life without any prior training. Or well, we could, but that might not turn out too well. Additionally, the staff systems are being developed (gotta make sure they're ready for all the visitors you'll be attracting!), as well as fleshing out the Dinosaur Exhibition to include more specimens. And not uh, literally giving them flesh, of course.

The devs also got to show off a quick, 5 minute demo of what Mondo Museum is going to look like, as a part of a local event called DemoNight! You can watch a recording of it on Twitch here.[www.twitch.tv]

We are SUPER excited for you to finally get your hands on it once it launches in Early Access. Since there'll be Steam Workshop, it's going to be fun to see what you can add to your museums... and see where we go from there!

Meanwhile, catch up with us on Twitter or Discord[discord.gg]. We also have a newsletter[www.kitfoxgames.com] if you prefer to get updates right in your inbox. :)

Cheers,
Curator Victoria

Hello museum curators,

Thanks for visiting the Mondo Museum page! We're excited for you to build the BEST artifact collection of cultural importance… in your opinion, anyway. We’re not going to stop you if you decide dinosaurs don’t deserve space in your museum (you monster).

Please make sure to WISHLIST THE GAME. It helps the Steam algorithms do secret curation stuff.

We'll make sure to keep you updated as more exciting news comes out, but for the quickest updates, make sure you follow us on one of these platforms:

• Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/kitfoxgames
  
• Discord - https://discord.gg/kitfoxgames
  
• Newsletter - http://eepurl.com/RL5cP

What exhibits would you like to see? We're still early in development, so we'll be poking around to see what people are excited about.

Also, as a quick intro, I'm Victoria, the communications director for Kitfox Games, the publishers of Mondo Museum. Cool? Cool. I'll see you around the internet! I'm currently trying to get the MoMA to notice us in a really dumb tweet, so wish me luck. (At least Sue the T-Rex has my back.)

Cheers,
Curator Victoria