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