Monster Prom 2: Holiday Season

34th UPDATE: Another Monster Roadtrip devlog & A surprise
over 3 years ago – Sat, Aug 14, 2021 at 06:08:18 PM

Hi, everyone!

We're here again to talk about the current state of Monster Roadtrip. Take a seat!

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1. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Behold the list of things we will see on this update

• GAME DESIGN
• PROGRAMMING
• NARRATIVE
• ART 
• OTHER STUFF
• CAMP STUFF & OTHER REWARDS

2. GAME DESIGN

Design has been discussed and agreed upon for a while. There's several changes. We're excited about them. Of course, not much progress has been done recently. Now we're deep into months of producing content and programming the basics (as we will see in a minute). Therefore we're sticking to the basics of design. 

Once we've gone through these basics and the core of content, we will re-visit some aspects of design that may require changes. 

Not to say that we're aiming for a playable build so we can test if our design works well. 

This is a fairly different beast. It's still a multiplayer narrative adventure; but instead of mixing it with a dating sim, we mix it this time with a survival game. As said before, this scares us a bit. We know this change is interesting, but we fear some part of the audience is so tightly tied to "dating" as a core mechanic that they have a hard time getting acquainted with a different approach to the design. Of course there wouldn't be much to do about this. As mentioned, this game and two more will depart from the dating mechanics as a core. We will still include them most likely (dating mechanics), but you wouldn't call those games "a dating sim". 

There are some clear big departures in game design to make this work. 

Navigation is obviously different, since you don't have a set map of 5-6 locations but you'll move on the road while choosing locations that appear in pairs from a pool of around 60 locations.

Instead of every locations having a lot of potential events (and you get one semi-randomly), now each location will have around 3 events. And most likely you will CHOOSE which event to do. This will be a great way (in paper at least, as we need to test) to have a better control over the content you get. 

It also adds a new element of thrill to the game as you slowly discover potential new locations and are intrigued as to what mysteries each one brings. 

The other change in mechanics is in the events. We still have CLASSIC EVENTS; but they are scarce. These are your regular events where each option is tied to a stat and the stat is a requirement, meaning the stat must be high for you to get a success ending. 

The most common events now are called (for now) EXCHANGE EVENTS, and they fit better the survival aspect. There are some subtypes; but basically options are tied to a stat that you will GAIN or FORFEIT. Imagine an event that is you ordering at a diner, OK? The event state you will always gain the stat STAMINA; but each option is tied to a stat you will FORFEIT in exchange of that STAMINA. So a boring food could make you lose HYPE but an off-putting mind-blowing meal may make you lose some of your MIND. 

These are simpler mechanically as you don't need to do maths on what your stats are at every moment in terms of a threshold to beat. You choose the option based on your needs in terms of stat survival (since having a stat at zero would mean losing the run). 

We have so far 4 sub-types: GAIN (the options are tied to a stat you GAIN, while the same stat is always forfeited); FORFEIT (opposite); BOTH (the options are tied to a stat gained and a stat forfeited); and QUANTITIES (this one is a bit different, we can focus on it another day). 

So... that's 5 types of event so far (CLASSIC + 4 types of EXCHANGE). There's at least 1 type more we're already working with. And 1 or 2 more that are discussed but we will look at them later. 

3. PROGRAMMING

Programming is just getting started. It required more time to be set up. We're focusing on a very basic front that takes quite the time: navigation. Preparing the map to work properly.

It's going good. We have a second programmer helping us in-house these days. And as usual we have the aid of an outsourced company that has helped us greatly for a long time now (Titutitech). They started by helping us with Prom's modtool and then became more regular during Camp's development. They helped us A LOT in setting the online there. Now there's only one person there available and they're focusing on porting Camp to Switch. But by end of this year not only they should be done but also some other people from that other company should be available (they are now helping other companies).

So now is going slow but steady. And by the end of year we expect pace to get faster as 3 things happen:

• More people involved
• Camp's porting is done
• We are more used to this new project

So, it's still too soon. But here the goal is to have our first playable build. Maybe for early 2022. Something for us to test if the basics work. Soon after that it is quite possible we start evolving that rapidly. A short demo first for backers and then a public one should not take much time after that. BUT, of course, it is too soon to be sure. Let's wait till our next devlog, probably around end of the year. 

4. NARRATIVE

We're in full production, fam! 

There's a chain of people in here making a series of things. Here in Barcelona we wokr in the creative direction side, creating the prompts for all the events. Think of these as... well... prompts that cover what happens in the event. 

Then writers do their magic in turning the prompts into hilarious events. 

We're focusing on the main events, the ones from LOCATIONS. We tackle them in bundles of 9 locations at once. 

So far we've done three bundles, so we're getting preeetty close to 100 events (out of around 300). And it'd be close to half the locations. Then we would start going at non-location events.

OK, so let's sum it up: 

• We're aiming for around 300 events
• We're aiming for around 60 locations
• With around 3 events per location, that means almost 200 location-based events
• We actually are aiming for that 200 number. So number of locations is more dependent on that
• We actually have created 70-75 locations art-wise, but we will remove some depending on how easy is to write for them. Expect final number to be somewhere between 60 and 70. 
• The other 100 events are non-location events. We might talk of those in the future. Right now we know about them but haven't written a single one of them, so no sense on focusing on them
• So far we're getting close (not there yet) to 100 events, which would be a third of all the events and half of the location events.

Going back to what we've written: it's looking great! 

Sometimes is quite hard to write for this game. We've written so much for this franchise. We're always exploring new ways of approaching events and situations. Upside is we end up cooking some really weird fresh stuff. 

Super excited to see what people thinks! 

5. ART 

Art is going great, too. Full production. We often show pretty WIP stuff to save the surprise for later, when closer to release. But truth is art department is the one that's the most ahead in terms of production. Let's present the different fronts.

LOCATIONS/CHIBIS/CHIBI SURROUNDINGS: this is one of the biggest fronts, if not the biggest. It's 60 locations, with its 60 surroundings (the location depiction you see with the chibi in front), with it's 60+ chibis (it's actually 120 since ~20 locations have chibis with PC variation while 40 have other NPC chibis). It's A LOT. And you know what? It's almost done. We stopped working on it because the remainder is tied to narrative. As said before we've created the art for 72 locations but we're using around 60. So we're waiting to choose which locations are confirmed to avoid making art that won't be used. Basically, there's 2-3 locations without a SURROUNDING and 8-10 without a CHIBI. But we take this BIG front as finished. There's A LOT of art in here. 

REGULAR ENDINGS: this includes what we call FAILURE endings; OK endings; and even the DATE endings. FAILURE and OK have one version per PC and the DATE ending is one model per PC + the models for potential dates (so far we've done around 10, we might add a couple more later, who knows). They are ALL done! 

DESTINATIONS + MVP ENDINGS: we bundle these together. Here's the thing: Monster Roadtrip works different than Prom or Camp. A big change is that there's no secret endings. This will sound weird for some fans, but it makes sense. Instead we have these big-ass destinations that provide bigger more complex art. They even have layers that must be unlocked by doing specific things. So instead of secret endings think that the goal has secret parts on itself. Every destination has a base art + 3 extra layers that can be unlcoked. And that's not all. The biggest individual feat is to get an MVP ending, either by scoring very high in 1P or by being the best in multiplayer. The MVP ending is actually tied thematically to the DESTINATION. The interesting twist is that they are tied to the PCs! If you think of it, Secret Endings are cool but they can't depict PCs because it would become a combinatorial nightmare. Roadtrip does it this way: 

• There is 6 base DESTINATIONS
• We have notes on at least 2 secret DESTINATIONS that would work very differently
• Each of the base DESTINATIONS has 4 layers (base + 3 extra)
• This means actually 24 goals to reach (although up to 4 can be done in the same playthrough)
• Also each DESTINATION has 4 MVP endings (1 per PC), That is 24 more kick-ass images. 
• This will also add a lot of value to Alt PC DLCs! Getting a new playable character will mean a ton of awesome art (to be 100% honest, they will be also more rare and a bit more expensive for that very reason, being probably sold not on packs but a whole new character for around four dollars). 

We're right now working on this. We expect to have all this art done by the end of August or start of September, with only one base DESTINATION pending on narrative stuff, while all MVP endings will be done. 

NPCs/OUTFITS: We work on these as they appear, from the narrative department. To be fair, as we said before, this is not our primary focus. We're focusing on using a lot of the many characters we already have. Don't fret: there still will be a good chunk of new characters. In any case, this progresses as we progress narrative. 

SPECIAL STUFF: It's so fun to work on special stuff! It's similar to NPCs and outfits, as it progresses slowly but steadily as the needs appear from narrative. We love the "special stuff". It was a fun addition to Camp that let us create lots of wonderful unexpected moments that rewarded players for just playing and exploring the game. It makes the game, the stories, and the universe feel more fleshed out. When you suddenly see the story thrown 300 years into the future to happen in a tavern in Hell and you actually have art for that. Dunno, we love it. Roadtrip is bringing this further this time. We have of course unexpected outfits and unexpected NPCs and unexpected backgrounds. But there's more this time. Too soon to show anything, but we're exploring special moments where the options are tied to images. Mechanically nothing changes (options are options); but it adds some magic to see the options in a visual context. Imagine being in a bar and you're about to start a brawl and must choose who to punch and you actually see an image depicting two people who you could fight!

The way special stuff works is we have a spreadsheet with all the ideas we believe could use art. They're prioritized on how easy they would be to do; how likely they could be outsourced to guest artists; and how cool it'd be for them to exist. We try to add as much as we can, but we embrace the fact we will never cover everything in the list. One day we might talk about the SPECIAL STUFF that got cut out from Camp, like "Dystopian Calculester". 

BIG REMAINING STUFF: We're not working yet on some big stuff that we usually leave for last. This is the PROLOGUE and EPILOGUE, if they exist. Remember Camp doesn't have an epilogue image as it jumps into CREDITS. And that's actually the other one, CREDITS! But as we will finish most of the big stuff by next month, we will tackle this. NPCs, Outfits, and Special Stuff will be a constant but they will be done as the assets appear from Narrative, maybe taking a couple days per week. We might be bold and take on the CREDITS for this very Fall! We are quite in love with a song. It's a bold choice, since it's in Spanish. But dang it, believe us: the vibe is just the right one. As we start to plan the CREDITS from the art perspective we will make sure this song could work and if it does we will contact the artist and the music label. 

OTHER STUFF: There's other stuff that is being done or it is yet to be done. But it's usually stuff that appears later in the road. All the MAP art; UI; Missions (maybe); Stat Icons. And there's even stuff that needs to be discussed since it is tied to unconfirmed features.  

In general, the Art Team is doing a SUPERB JOB. 

6. OTHER STUFF

For the most part, other stuff usually takes place later. Music, SFX, VAs, etc. And dang, we've talked so much about the other stuff that it's OK to end the devlog here. Fun fact: I am on my only vacations of the year, but I thought it was actually a good time to sit down and write this update. Hooray! 

7. OTHER REWARDS AND CAMP STUFF

Not everything is Monster Roadtrip tho! 

Last time we had the Savage Sea Update, right? 

And all the physical rewards have been shipped (except the cardgame). We received a couple messages of shipments not arriving. We will ship 2-3 packages again, in case this is you reading! 

We keep working on the cardgame. We've turned a lot of MonProm and MonCamp art into cards. But we've also created a bunch of new stuff. It's looking super cool. We've prepared a nice visual pitch deck we will show some physical game publishers, to see if there's some interest out there. 

Next update is the 1 Year slash Halloween update. It will be a bigger one, in terms of content. Our current plan (which might change later) is:

• 1 New Playable Character (for free)
• 1 New Playable Character (paid DLC) 
• 1 Outfit Pack (not gonna lie here, it's promotion for our upcoming smol side-game)
• 1 Outfit Pack (not paid, not free... you get it ONLY if you purchase Camp's soundtrack) 

We were actually adding the exclusive KS PC Pack there. But we realized it is already quite crowded. So we're releasing that quite soon. Like most likely this month if nothing weird happens. It has been submitted and everything; but of course it's August and if anything unexpected happens, the main issue is almost all of us are on vacation and don't come back till last week of August. But yes, quite soon. 

And with that we would have a big chunk of all the rewards covered! We're so happy on how every progresses so steadily! 

And that's all for today. 

It ended up being (as usual) a pretty big update. 

So big that I spent less time talking some other topics I wanted to cover. But you know what? Maybe they could have their own update another day. I mean stuff like the card game. Who knows? We'll see! 

As always: thanks for all your support and for being patient! 

We're so excited about Roadtrip. Super looking forward to see what you think of it! 

The Beautiful Glitch team

33th UPDATE: Physical stuff, a comprehensive status
over 3 years ago – Thu, Jul 08, 2021 at 01:37:20 AM

Good morning!

I know many of you may be here to know more about Roadtrip. But today we will focus on the physical stuff. Later we may cover some points on other fronts. 

(no correlation; we just couldn't find an IMG to open the update and then we thought... why not feet?)

1. LIST OF TODAY'S CONTENT

Let's check what we will discuss today:

• Physical stuff: what's done?
• Physical stuff: what's being finished
• Physical stuff: what's being started?
• Physical stuff: what could be next?
• Monster Prom & Camp
• Other Stuff

2. PHYSICAL STUFF: WHAT'S DONE?

Physical rewards are for the most part done and delivered. We've finished and shipped all physical rewards EXCEPT the card game and the custom polaroids. 

For reference, the last shipment was done some weeks ago. We still see people gettin their packages these days. But for the most part this should be done and closed.

We mean exclusive polaroid, polaroid packs, dakimakuras, and figurines. 

If by any chance you have not received your package, contact us to [email protected]

Also, we must note we have 3-5 packages at our office. They were "frozen" or returned for various reasons. We emailed the backers to check with them before trying again but got no response. If you are missing your shipment, try checking your inbox + spam folder. 

3. PHYSICAL STUFF: WHAT'S BEING FINISHED?

Right now, as we've done the shipping of most physical rewards, we're now tackling the custom polaroids. We've done all the 10 designs and printed them. We're checking addresses are right. 2-3 people are pending to confirm. If you're reading this (this is for the custom polaroid where you get a character of your own drawn with one of ours into an unique polaroid) and haven't confirmed, please check your inbox or spam folder!

That'd cover all physical stuff (minus card game). 

Other than that, now that we've made right by you the backers, we're now preparing special orders with the surplus for our collaborators and team members! This is another good reason to contact us if anything is missing, since we will slowly deplete existencies of the products. 

4. PHYSICAL STUFF: WHAT'S BEING STARTED

So, it's time finally to tackle the last physical reward: THE CARD GAME!

As mentioned back in the day, it is meant to be a very light party game with a narrative aspect, matching the vibes and style of the game. We wanted to do one of those games in which players must convince players by pitching ideas, like Pitch Deck. 

The idea right now is mimicking one of those old dating shows where a contestant had to choose between three different suitors. One player will be the contestant (the judge) and other players will be the suitors, effectively "building" the perfect suitor out of "concept" cards and pitching around them in a silly/witty way. 

This could change, but we're quite sold. 

Our chosen limitations is we needed to do a simple/light game that used ONLY cards. This is to be realistic. We're new to physical games, so we need to be humble and start on the "easy level". We know some people may want more complex experiences, like some sort of tabletop game where you fight to romance characters. But we would have so much room for fucking up... it wouldn't be smart. 

We feel this idea is a great first attempt at physical games while also being super loyal to the game's tone and style, since it'd be about you being witty/funny with absurd ideas around a dating setup. 

We're also building it in a way that has many easter eggs for fans of the game BUT it is totally cool and playable by someone who has NEVER played the videogame. This way maybe we can try to later market this with a game publishing house and even catch the interest of new audiences?

5. PHYSICAL STUFF: WHAT COULD BE NEXT?

As said, if the card game proves fun for us we could explore maybe a more complex tabletop experience? To be honest, right now it gives us a bit of vertigo. But it would not be impossible!

Many times we've said this: we have a trio of physical projects we'd love to at the very least explore eventually:

• A tabletop game (card game is sorta covering this right now)
• A comic
• A TTRPG book

As said, tabletop game is kinda covered with the card game. Comic is a bit too ambitious. It'd require a good chunk of our time since we would want to oversee the story. If it were to happen, the ideal would be a slice of life under a specific setup. A series of comic strips with mini stories (like 1 page per gag) that are connected by a general setup (a trip; some chars taking cooking classes; etc).  

TTRPG book is something that'd be fun to explore. A setup for people to explore our world either by mundane shenanigans or supernatural adventures. As we definitely close what's being finished and properly progresss the card game, we'd love to find some time to produce like 3-5 page mockups to see if there's interest. 

There's a fourth product which would be some sort of comprehensive books with stuff such as the thoughts on creating the different chars or even sharing some of our tutorials on doing the Monster Prom artstyle. Like a super treat for the fans in the shape of a book. 

This is so far that now it's just daydreaming on what could be first steps. We'll see!

6. MONSTER PROM & CAMP

Recently we released the "Savage Sea" outfit pack on Monster Camp. Next update is the One Year/Halloween one. No guarantees yet; but we're looking into a number of things to do, both free and paid content. 

We're discussing and producing stuff for it. Still like 3 months till that month, so... stay tuned? 

7. MONSTER ROADTRIP

I know you probably would love to see about the progress on Roadtrip. Not today!

Don't fret. Monster Roadtrip is our main focus and there's lot of progress. We're in the meat of the project. 

• in Creative Direction we're writing prompts for events every week. 
• in Narrative they write the events based on the prompts provided by Creative Direction
• in Art... a LOT of art is being done. 
• in Programming we're just starting. But we already have a schedule and things are moving

On next update we will delve in detail as we usually do. 

8. OTHER STUFF

We've sent the INDIE G ZINE - VOLUME 3 to the printers. As we close that side-project, we will explore a new book project we've had frozen for years. It is unsure if we will make it a real thing; but we're looking into it. The name is "Videogame Creator's Little Adventure Book". 

Also, we released our side-project, MAZEMAN. For now, it's on mobile devices. We're working to release it on PC too. Maybe Switch? We'll see. 

When we're deeper into Monster Roadtrip production, we will explore further on the pre-production of a non-Monster Prom game, seeing if we can work on it while finishing Roadtrip. 

And that's all!

We're so happy all things are moving and progressing. We hope you feel glad and proud of being part of this. We're surely thankful for having your support.

Best regards,

the Beautiful Glitch team. 

32nd update: let's talk MONSTER ROADTRIP
over 3 years ago – Sat, May 01, 2021 at 12:22:17 PM

Good morning!

This is a special time of the year. Monster Prom is hitting its 3rd year anniversary; Monster Camp is hitting its 6 month anniversary; and so we wanted to make this the official month in which full development of Monster Roadtrip starts. 

To be clear, we've been brainstorming, discussing, doodling, and scribbling prior to this. Dang, the KS itself has stuff regarding Roadtrip. But ofc it was WAY less for Roadtrip and Retreat that it was for Camp at first. Now we're starting to go all in. So, in our minds and plans, we make April 2021 the official start of Monster Roadtrip development. 

1. LIST OF TODAY'S CONTENT

And so, we wanted to start strong by being transparent and inviting you into some of our thought trains and dev challenges. 

Let's list things we will visit today: 

- What to twist; what to keep

- Main design choices

-- Sharing is Caring 

-- Destinations 

-- Layered Goals

-- This is a co-op... until it isn't anymore

-- And much more, design-wise!

- Art goals and plans 

-- Art Goals

-- Art Plans

- What's the plan? 

2. WHAT TO TWIST; WHAT TO KEEP

So, as you may know, Roadtrip and Retreat proposed a POTENTIAL challenge: to drift from the dating sim mechanics into something different. This is audacious. Thing is we rarely define Monster Prom directly as a dating sim. The official description is "A multiplayer narrative adventure with dating sim mechanics and party game mechanics". If you think about it; Monster Prom is popular for being a dating sim, but at its very core, the real experience is focused on the journey and not specifically on if you score a date or not. 

With Retreat we wanted to add a strategy layer (still pending to see... some days we think we should keep it simpler and closer to Prom, since we can't build a whole new genre just for one stage of the game); and with Roadtrip... a survival layer. 

Our main rule is: above all this MUST be a narrative adventure, so its very core plays strongly similar to Monster Prom. So... this core should be:

• Based on stories, characters and dialogues
• Focus on humor... the main joy is having fun with the narrative. Tone will be fairly the same (with a natural degree of evolution, as Camp evolved from Prom)
• Core most basic mechanic is "making text-based choices"

Still Roadtrip is bound to be clearly more complex to make space for a more survival-style experience. This is so that for the very first time we will (probably) offer a tutorial right before the start of the first run. Go figure!

What is changing, then? 

- Of course, the focus on characters. This is a roadtrip you'll take with no other than Scott and Polly. So expect a good lot of them. There will be a lot of potential NPCs to meet in the different stops, so the idea is seeing these 2 regularly + a lot of short one-time interactions with NPCs. The thrill and "what will happen next?" of a roadtrip to nowhere!

- A big change is the base understanding of how navigation works. We may delve further into this later; but basically: instead of moving through 5-6 locations within a map, this is a semi-procedural map shuffling several dozen of potential stops (expect around 50-60 stops). 

- Not final yet; but we're exploring bringing a few new event types to the table. This is under scrutiny, since this game adds a lot of innovations design-wise and we don't know if this is making the whole thing a bit too complex. 

- In general while the game does not have such high goals in terms of content as Camp had (in terms of sheer ridiculous number of new outfits; new NPCs; and new special stuff), it wants to focus on spending the resources on exploring shifts in the game design that make the whole thing feel fresh. To be clear: there is bound to be a good chunk of new content. But with Camp having added around 50 new NPCs, Roadtirp is set to re-use most of them (as 1-time cameos in different stops) and then add some new more. But we want to be transparent on this to set expectations properly. At times we were afraid that by adding +50 new NPCs to Camp people would start to expect +50 new NPCs on EVERY game. 

- As said, one of biggest changes is this is NOT a dating sim. It's a roadtrip adventure. We're actively working a mechanic to ensure you can unlock a romantic ending with either Polly, Scott or one of the hitchhikers; because we know if there is NO dating mechanic people will RIOT. 

- INTERACTION. So... one of the big weaknesses we acknowledge from Prom and Camp is the interaction between players. This was mitigated in Camp through a number of new mechanics; but still. For the most part this is not that big of an issue. Surprisingly enough, the games are more often played in solo than in multiplayer. But we wanted to create an experience that feels more high stakes on how the multiplayer mechanics work. This also makes us nervous... because this must also work as a good solo experience. Then again, Prom and Camp (although there was not many mechanics to make players affect each other) were clearly designed to shine in multiplayer and yet they tend to get tons of good reactions and reviews from the solo players. We believe in the end the number one priority is delivering good stories (that's the key to the enjoyment of our games, most likely); but we're here tinkering on how the whole mechanism around these stories work. So with Roadtrip we've brainstormed A LOT on how much more engaging the multiplayer experience can be. 

3. MAIN DESIGN CHOICES

So, at this point in talking differences we're already delving quite a bit on game design. Let's tackle some of the main design choices that will be super noticeable the moment we start sharing stuff. 

3.1 SHARING IS CARING 

This is a roadtrip. You are all in this together, big time. So -as we drifted towards survival mechanics- it was clear this needed to truly feel co-op in a thrilling way. Your successes and fuck-ups must feel important for the whole group. So it was clear: main win and lose conditions should be shared by EVERYONE. So here comes the first big twist... YOU ALL SHARE STATS. Yes, no more player stats. You will share the "trip stats" (final name pending maybe?). Let's think of it like the morale and resources of the trip. The stats aren't final either; but imagine thing as "magic" (used as gas) or "hype" (is the trip fun?). So if a stat reaches zero, the trip suddenly ends and you lose. This is not one but two HUGE changes. First is ofc sharing the stats; but second is the fact that for the first time the lose condition affect the run duration. This comes with upsides, downsides and challenges. But basically you're always open for the whole thing to end if someone fucks up. 

3.2 DESTINATIONS

So what's the win condition? Win condition is layered and we will look into this further. Layers will serve the purpose of adding degrees of success and even some dash of competition to the whole thing. But the basic win condition is reaching a DESTINATION. There is a very limited number of Destinations in the game. The moment you meet certain conditions you can reach one; and the moment you reach one, the run ends with this success. You must work together to reach a Destination! And ofc there's the fun of discovering all of them. 

3.3 LAYERED GOALS

But as said, we wanted to add some layers to this. This is ALL brainstorm, so please don't get too attached to any of this info; but we're basically exploring how to add deeper layers for a Destination to feel like a win... or like a WIN. One idea includes additional requirements to meet in order to unlock more secret levels of the Destination. Imagine you have a base Destination, yes? You get to it... but then there are 2-3 special requirements. If additionally to the base requirements you also meet these, the Destination text (or even image?) comes with additional content. This shouldn't be the same as grinding the same secret ending on Prom/Camp again and again, because Destinations are just an "ending" with mechanic requirements. This mean you can play whole different runs to go to the same Destination. 

3.4 THIS IS A CO-OP... UNTIL IT ISN'T ANYMORE

We're also discussing a big set of mechanics to add competition to the mainly co-op experience. Players share stats but they have their own "points". These points are met by doing certain missions. Nothing fancy or too complex; but imagine stuff like "if by turn X you have Y of Z stat" and so on. This sounds interesting, since it adds a benefit for not always doing the obvious best choice for the group. We wanted a mechanic like this to avoid a "hive mind" situation. This situation (I just came up with the name; dunno if it has other official name) is when a co-op game is played in a way where all players basically act as extensions of the player with the most knowledge of strategy, and said player just tells the rest what to do. Ofc this is not the end of all things, since Prom/Camp -as said- have never been about the intricacies of their game design; but just enjoying the narrative. And so when you play multiplayer you have a great time more often not for the game design but just by rejoicing on the shenanigans you and your friends do. Not that much matters on who is actually clicking the options, right? Buuuut we still wanted to address this and brainstormed A LOT of potential mechanics. This one is rather simple and interesting: add individual stakes to pit players a bit against each other. You still need to co-op since if one loses, everyone lose. But... how much can you (and are you willing to) sacrifice from the trip to benefit yourself. How this will sit with other players? Will they choose to do the same? How much can everyone do this till the whole trip is at risk? It adds a social aspect to the game we like and that it feels very in line with what we usually do. 

What are these points for? Individual endings. The main ending is reaching the Destination; but then we thought you could get like a little individual ending. This way we can create something like "FAILURE", "OK", and "MVP" endings. So you all want to get to the end of this together... but at the end points will be counted and placements will be given. 

Ofc we would also want to explore modes for this. Like... a fiercely competitive mode where the individual endings are decided comparatively (so there always will be a FAILURE and an MVP). A more mild competitive mode (endings are decided on strict amount of points, and so it can be no one gets FAILURE). And a full co-op mode (probably with only OK endings, removing FAILURE and MVP). This is a lot of stuff and it is still too early; but we think it is important to add the competitive aspect (so "fiercely competitive" will probably exist) and check for some mode where competition can be totally removed (full co-op), since some people may not enjoy the feeling of having played with their friends only to end up being the "only loser by competition". 

3.5 AND MUCH MORE... DESIGN-WISE

There's much more we're discussing... but ofc this point is already excruciatingly long, right? We're discussing some sort of "stops" (think of the WEEKEND turns in Prom; or the DRINKS in Camp... all in terms of a "stage" that breaks the stream of turns under the standard type of stage). We're discussing the dating mechanics, which should be on the simple side (since as you can see there's A LOT of complexity coming from other sides of the game). We're discussing... some sort of auction mechanic? Unlikely; but I do love auction mechanics. We're discussing the mentioned potential new types of events. Et al. 

4. ART GOALS and PLANS

So... I'd say narrative is maybe the main pillar of this franchise. But it wouldn't feel complete without the ragingly wonderful art that brings a lot of these stories to life, truly. 

4.1 ART GOALS

Let's discuss how we approach art from the very start, specially with a new game that aims to be so different from the prior installments. 

Of course, mainly the most basic notion on how to approach art is by answering the question of what elements there are in the game and which ones should need a visual representation. And this is true on its most basic level. But we also keep in mind a series of goals art must achieve:

- We need something significative that is present on the meat of the run. We need asset types that make a run visually interesting. For the most part this is firstly achieved through the characters, of course. But something else is required. 

- We need something significative by the end of the run. We need asset types that feel special, capable of bringing a sense of completion and reward. When you reach the end of your match and see one or several of these pieces, you must feel rejoiced by what truly looks like a prize for your journey. 

- We need enough art so the player finds themselves often in awe; but also smartly contained so it doesn't snowball out of control, production-wise. Ofc at some point a player will know almost all of the art assets... but can we ensure for the first runs they are excited to do this or that under the idea they can encounter a visual golden nugget? 

- We need to see what asset types we can repeat, to save time and work. Best example is NPCs. As long as NPCs work the same (format, size, etc), we can re-use assets from prior games. 

- We need something with the potential of growth through further support. This one is tricky and probably not welcomed by everyone, so let's delve deeper into it. Truth is since we're not a big AAA IP; the trend is MonProm games are expected to sell less and less as its popularity slowly fades. Camp did marvelously; but no doubt it sold less than Prom. Roadtrip is expected to do less. And so on. Right now we're still at a point where this grants benefits over costs (hooray!). But it keeps us thinking, as we've promised a total of 5-6 games. There are specific circumstances that could change this trend (like something big happening that makes the brand reach a lot more of potential audience). Additionally, Monster Prom is a quite inexpensive game for the volume of its content. We might consider for future IPs to start at $15 for a similar amount of content. But keeping $12 is good, since the game is more accessible. Ofc there's one solution: keep the game at an affordable price (just to be clear, we believe $15 is still affordable) but add ways for loyal fans to support further. And so we did cosmetic DLCs in Camp. The result has been good: cosmetic DLCs helped significantly to make up for the reduction of sheer sales on Camp. This feels like a great solution, because it is cosmetic content that is a nice addition without feeling limiting if you don't have it. A very few people get a bit upset; but it is important to be 100% transparent: the alternative never is to add that for free; but to avoid doing it at all. If we weren't in need of further support to add value per-player (always optionally to the player, not forced) in front of a decrease of sheer number of players, we would have never truly envisioned something like the alt playable chars. We want to be fully sincere because we know DLCs get a bad rap. But we think they can be super helpful for devs (specially indie ones) if done through a set of guidelines that focus on both developer needs and player satisaction. 

SO, this is an important aspect when thinking on the art of the game. It is not a main one, ofc, but we ask ourselves if the current art asset structure has room for optional cosmetic content to allow more options of revenue stream for the game. It is hyper-important to us, since we love exploring all kinds of things in our new games; but we also must remind ourselves that strategically speaking, the moment one of these games starts making clearly less money, we will need to start thinking smaller on the next one... and we do NOT want to do that. It's a symbiotic relationship between creativity and strategy, and I usually play both roles. I daydream with adding an anime song and a couple lo fi tracks (because... why not?) to Camp; but then I also need to come up with plans so Camp is profitable enough to justify these dumb wonderful ideas we have. 

So with all this in mind... this is how we approach what will be the asset structure of a game. 

4.2 ART PLANS

Not much to say in here. Of course we have all the usual assets that are so basic to this. The most important one: characters! 

As said, for the most part in here we want to re-use our existing characters. It'd make no sense to create dozen of characters to never use them again.  Still, we're already preparing some new NPCs already. This will have two potential types of thrill: the thrill of encountering a new NPC, or the thrill of encountering an old one you like doing an unexpected came. 

When it comes to the final awe-inducing art assets, we've always had endings, right? Here the thing works slightly different. If we end up doing individual endings, those will end up being the closest to Prom and Camp endings. They scare us a bit in terms of scalability! There's FAILURE, there's OK, there's MVP. There's DATE endings too! And then we ask ourselves... can MVP endings be also tied to the destination? But then that's a new multiplier of art that can go out of hand rather quickly. 

And that's a lot on "end awe-inducing art", because there's also the Destinations. While endings play a role in giving individual players a sense of closure, the Destination aims to be the big thing, art-wise. But it is too soon to speak, really. With the idea of layered images and so on,  these assets can get very complex very fast. This is so, that we're initially planning for a very limited set of Destinations (7-10 or so). 

But characters aren't the only "meat of the game" in terms of art that makes the whole run more eventful. There's the locations, ofc. And then the big whale of art assets during the run. At first we wanted to refrain from going too complex on this... BUT FUCK IT. As we started the art side of Roadtrip, we were quite blocked by narrative, so we've spent time with this asset typ: chibis. The idea is to have a nice visual for EVERY location you can visit. At first it was 100% unfeasible because it was 50-60 locations and then 4 playable chars (potentially more if we want a cosmetic DLC of alt playable chars)? No way. Then we realized: what if we limit the "variations" to 20-30 locations? The other 30-40 can use cute chibis not including the playable characters but something else (like an NPC that appears in that location). It is still A LOT of art; but now it is something we can actually tackle. 

It may also justify a DLC with an extra playable character? Only thing is this time a "package" would probably include 1 extra character, since it will require easily x3-5 volume of work (starting for 20-30 chibis). But it also would make the content way more enticing, right? If it's a character you like, you'd be getting 20-30 chibi illustrations of the char (aside of other art assets, like the individual endings). Again, keep in mind this is not cutting the game in parts and selling it. The alternative is no alt PCs, since the game has always worked just fine with the classic color 4. But at some point we will explore better if this is something our audience would love so much they would pay a smol DLC for it; and if so we could even explore which char they would be into getting, maybe? 

There are a good number of other potential art assets; but these ones are basic ones we're exploring now:

- Characters

- Locations

- Chibis

- Destinations

- Individual Endings (Failure, OK, MVP, Date)

Expect some more, of course! 

5. WHAT'S THE PLAN?

WHO KNOWS?! This is the official first month. We wanted to share with you thoughts, challenges, ideas... but being the first official month, ANY of what we've said could very well go through the window in some months. We want to share it with you, and we'll be listening in the Discord about what you think. But please do not get attached with ANYTHING. Even maybe you love a sketch in here, and you'll never see it in game, as most of these serve as concepts to envision how this could go. 

Let's remember Monster Prom took 24 months and Monster Camp 18 months. That'd be October 2022 to April 2023, if Roadtrip takes the same amount of time. 

There are many variables that make very difficult to foresee the exact duration of this. Some considerations:

- We have more experience, therefore we should be swifter

- This game is quite different from the prior ones... so who knows? It could take more time.

- This is NOT the only thing on our plate. Our roadmap is quite eventful. 

- That being said, none of the other games were the only thing on our plate back then, I suppose. 

To be transparent: right now our max priorities are delivering the remainder of the KS merch; starting the planning on the card game; publishing the INDIE G ZINE 3; starting the planning of our next book project; releasing MAZEMAN (our arcade game); delivering the exclusive KS alt PC pack... we expect most of this to be done by around June. 

Don't worry, by know you must know we tend to keep everyone on the loop. But expect the updates to be a bit more spaced. Maybe an update every 3-4 months instead of 2? 

And that's basically that. 

I cannot stop insisting how provisional all this is. Expect changes. Understand a good chunk of these sketches are practically placeholders to help us envision some mechanics. Like you see Damien and the Prince in that Destination sketch, to say something. The guideline was to put whatever chars to explore how the layered thing would work, visually. 

There's other things we will soon cover outside of Roadtrip. Like we're super close of delivering all the merch (minus cardgame), so we will make an update to tell you when EVERYTHING has been shipped (not yet). 

So... how's looking so far?

We will be discussing it a bit on the Discord server: https://discord.gg/monsterprom

Come and chat! (: 

Cannot explain how exciting is to share all this with you for the very first time. 

Dunno how much time this will take. Dunno how it will come. BUT BE SURE WE'RE POURING TONS OF PASSION AND WEIRDNESS AS ALWAYS! 

Let's go! 

(the Beautiful Glitch team)

31st updates: physical shipments getting ready!
over 3 years ago – Thu, Apr 15, 2021 at 03:00:23 AM

Hello, everyone!

I'm keeping this one short. But it's important and cool!

1. SHIPMENTS GETTING READY

OK, so as last update said, we were working on 2 fronts:

• the form to reclaim a new set of polaroids
• the email to change your address if your package was stuck at our office

Both things had last Sunday as the deadline. So now we're moving on! 

So we are at our office preparing the packages. Actually, we did a first batch some weeks ago with the people who answered early, and we have them being shipped during these weeks. We have been told some people has started to receive it! 

Now we're preparing the packages for batch 2 with all the people left. 

Just to be clear: the people to whom we still have yet to send packages too are a good chunk of shipments outside of the US that we "froze" when we discovered the issue with the defective polaroids so we could replace them before shipping them. 

If your package is shipped to the US and you haven't received it, best is to  contact The Yetee. They took care of the US shipments and they're super nice people, so we're sure they will be swift to respond!

Crossing fingers to see this finally covered for us to move on into what's next in term of KS fulfillment.

2. WHAT'S NEXT ON KS FULFILLMENT: CARDGAME

OK, realistically speaking, first thing will be sending some of these goodies to our collaborators and such. We've been holding to that because we felt it was fair to first 100% check the backers were getting the stuff. So once the last batch has shipped, we will make a smol last batch for collaborators here and there. 

Then the idea is to slowly move onto the cardgame. This has NO intended date yet. It is boudn to be a slow yet steady process. First we need to work on what's the card game exactly. As mentioned during the KS, we had some ideas we liked quite much; but we need to revisit it and be sure we have something cool for this. The only sure thing is the game will only involve cards, as we're new on this and don't want to go too complex on the materials. 

The idea is to start brainstorming and setting on that not NOW but very soon. Then we move onto any writing, art, and graphic design tasks. Hoping we can progress this a lot during the 2nd half of the year; aiming to go into production and shipment for the 1st half of 2022; BUT it's too soon to say!

Will keep you tuned during this year as this starts to take shape

3. THIS IS GETTIN' PHYSICAL

Worth mentioning that we have 3 "secondary" fronts here at Beautiful Glitch. We call them secondary because our main fronts are tied to making games, ofc. One of them is the KS fulfillment. And as said, finishing that task unlocks the beginning of the card game (if nothing goes wrong). 

Another of the secondary fronts is also physical: the INDIE G ZINE 3. Just saying this because of course we want you to understand that as we say "after this comes that"... it's more complex than that. We're juggling different fronts and technically speaking next thing we will be shipping is the book. And then, same as "KS fulfillment" was juggled with "INDIE G ZINE 3", the plan (PLEASE REMEMBER LIFE IS UNCERTAIN AND CHANGES COULD HAPPEN) is "MonProm Cardgame" will be juggled with what the IGZ3 unlocks, which should be a new book project. 

4. MAYBE ANOTHER APRIL UPDATE?

This is not for sure; but we'd love to do another April update by the end of the month. The idea would be to celebrate Monster Prom's 3rd anniversary by sharing some of our thoughts on Monster Roadtrip. We want this to be the official start month of Monster Roadtrip development. 

This is not for sure, but it could be nice... a simple presentation of some sketches and thoughts going into this project, which would be such... a ride. 

No, really, as this one will NOT be focused on dating we think it's such a choice. But we love how it's looking. Of course we're working on it so there's the option of dating as an ending (either way we suspect we would make many thirsty people really upset. But we really like this refreshing new approach of making it more of a "survival game" of sorts. Do NOT worry, the inalterable core is that this is a narrative game with a strong focus on characters and humor. 

Anyway, in any case expect to maaaaaaybe know more later this month. 

And that's all!

As said, this is a rather short one when compared when the rest; but great news nonetheless!

Hoping y'all have a great day!

Beautiful Glitch

30th update: form to claim polaroid replacement for people with defective polaroids (important)
over 3 years ago – Sat, Mar 13, 2021 at 11:44:23 PM

Hello!

This is the legendary update.

We got the 2nd batch of polaroids and we're preparing everything. 

First, we're taking care of a number of packages we never sent as we learnt of the defective polaroids before shipping them. 

For people who did receive polaroids but these were in a defective state, we've created a website to claim for us to ship you a new set of polaroids. If some of your polaroids peeled off and you really want to get a new set, feel free of filling the form.

We trust you will only fill the form if you really received defective polaroids that are in a state that calls for a claim! 

If that's your case, please go for it on this form: https://beautifulglitch.pizza/polaroids/

The form says you have time till March 31st. But this is because we thought we were sharing the link a week ago. So, even if it says 31st, you can fill it till April 11th (23:59). It is 4 full weeks to fill a quick form! 

We hope we can fix this situation as good as possible.

As mentioned in prior updates, we had a talk with the manufacturer and they believe the peeling off may have been because they had to print too many polaroids too fast and the machine got too heated up. We choose to trust them because in the end they're the ones who printed all the prior batches we've sold and given in events, and we've never known they got this peeling off issue. This time we've agreed they take their time in printing them slowly to ensure the issue doesn't happen again. 

We believe this time it will work! But for transparency sake: we must tell you there won't be a 3rd try. If this batch had some sort of issue, we will must apologize for it but probably won't have the bandwith to keep working on it. As a backer myself I know it is something harsh to hear; but there's a point in which backing a Kickstarter differentiates from buying from a shop in which you're supporting creators who believe they can deliver a product (but haven't proved it exactly yet). And sometimes it happens they can't deliver as perfectly as it was expected. A 3rd batch would go for a "no-peel" solution, so we would just ask backers to go ahead and peel off the polaroids completely. It'd be a super subpar solution... but it'd be the last solution in store. And if that happened, we will learn this type of operation was a bit too big or too far from our area of expertise and will learn from it to do better next time. 

I know it sounds all pessimistic; but we're just being transparent on the worst case scenario here. Odds are this batch is coming all good. Again, based on the fact they've done all prior batches who were 100% OK, we trust the manufacturer did their job well this time and polaroids should hold. 

So, for now, if you have polaroids that peeled off and would want to ask for a "refill", go to the link and fill the form. 

Unfortunately, we only can provide this solution to people filling the form within the deadline, since we really need to move on onto next fronts for the company. We're 4 people in the office (3 since one of us have recently become father... hooray!) and our bandwith is quite narrow. 

FYI, once we clear the "merch" front, we will briefly take care of sending some copies of the merch to our collaborators (VAs and such). We wanted to prioritize backers first. And once that is done too, we will finally start to discuss about the cardgame. It will take time, but at the very least that task will finally commence, as we were holding its start until we finished the rest of KS merch stuff.

Sorry for all these inconveniences and thanks a lot for your patiente and understanding.

Best regards,

the Beautiful Glitch team. 

P.S.: by late April, as we loom into Monster Prom's 3rd anniversary, we will finally come to terms and officially start the production of a project. We have 2-3 potential projects we're exploring, and we hope we end up working on all of them. But the idea is by late April to officially start production of at least 1 of them (maybe more?).