Greetings, one and all! It's time for your every-once-in-a-while scoop of MonCon development information! Progress on the game is still trundling along at a healthy pace. But before we get down into the nitty-gritty of where the game is at, let's briefly reminisce about the fun we all had at CSGC...


Ok, that's not at all what it stands for, but that pretty accurately captures our feelings about the event. Formerly the Heartland Gaming Expo, CSGC is one of our favorite conventions to attend, and not just because it's local and doesn't involve lugging all our crap to another city. It's also the very first convention[www.facebook.com] that Anton and I ever attended to show off The Idiot's Tale way back in 2015. This was our seventh year in attendance, and they haven't kicked us out yet for exhibiting too many times, so CSGC 2024 is already on the calendar as far as we're concerned!

If you're local to the Tulsa area, I highly recommend stopping by next year. We had a blast talking to everyone and watching people get to play the new build of MonCon (and find some bugs for us!)


As you can see, Chapter 3 of the game is mostly complete. A huge chunk of time over the last couple of months was spent on completely rewiring the NPC character creation system. While it's always annoying to have to go back and redo work, it was a worthwhile investment. In the past, each NPC had to be meticulously created by hand, but the new system allows us to create NPCs much faster. It's something like one of those character creators you'd see in a triple-A game where you can cycle through a hundred different sets of eye types until you find that absolutely perfect eyeball that expresses you.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, designing NPCs is much faster now. This means that work on the remainder of the game will also be faster.

Since we're in the last stages of Chapter 3 development, this involves creating art assets and adding the last little bits of polish to give MonCon that extra oomph in the quality department. We've been working with our composer, and have new pieces of ambient music for Chapter 3, as well as brand-new battle attack songs that we can't wait for you guys to hear.

As far as what lies ahead, we have two more upcoming conventions - both of them in June, one physical, and one digital. There's the Nescatunga Arts Festival[www.nescatunga.org] in Alva, Oklahoma, happening from June 2nd to June 4th. We'll have an even more complete build of MonCon for people to play.

Secondly, we'll also be participating in Steam Next Fest this year. There will be at least one livestream where we show off MonCon gameplay and answer questions from YOU, the fans! Be sure to follow us on social media to get the latest and greatest updates about both these events.

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

That's all for now!
Until next time!

~ Elliott

Well, here we are at the end of 2022! It's hard to believe I've been working on MonCon on and off for close to five years now. This past year has definitely seen the most amount of steady progress on the game.

I have some cool new content to share, but before we get too far down into the weeds, I'll let you guys in on this newsletter's big announcement:

MonCon will be coming out by the end of 2023!

I've finished enough this year that I feel safe drawing this line in the sand. 2023 will still be a tight race to the finish line, but I think that this deadline strikes a good balance between getting the game out in a reasonable amount of time so that I can move on to other projects, and not compromising on the game's overall quality.

So by hook or by crook, come hell or high water, the full version of MonCon will be in your hands by this time next year.

Now, let's consult the progress chart and see where things are at:

As you can see, the game's side-quests are mostly done! Right now, I'm working with a secondary writer for the rest of the side-quest content. My goal in doing this is to really cement that eclectic "melting pot" vibe that you get when attending a convention, and bringing in a second writing voice should really help with that. But working with outside help means that a fraction of the game's cutscenes and quests are still cooking in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, MonCon's arcade minigames are also coming along nicely. I've settled on a grand total of eleven minigames for the final game. Seven of those are complete, but the remaining four should have a fairly short development cycle, as they'll mostly be reskins / tweaks / advanced versions of the existing minigames.

Here's a peek at one of the brand-new minigames I just put the finishing touches on:

I've also begun working on brand new monsters you'll have to conversation-battle in the later chapters of the game. There are a lot of new monster designs that I can't wait for you all to see! Here's a few that you'll have to converse with in Chapter 3...

Last but not least, I wanted to give everyone a convention-related update. As per our usual tradition, we will be attending CSGC in Tulsa, Oklahoma in April. This time around, we will have a brand-new build of MonCon that will be feature-complete up to the end of Chapter 3, AKA the first 40% or so of the game. This goes far beyond any public demo of MonCon I've ever shown at previous conventions. If you're in the area, you'll definitely want to drop by to check out all the new game content.

And that's it for now! Wishing everyone safe winter travels, and we'll talk again in the new year!

That's all for now!

Happy New Year!

~ Elliott