IamA Developer of Crossbreeding Monster Catching Monster Crown here, out today on Steam! AMA!

Congrats on release! What do you think is your most valuable lesson learned from developing this Monster Crown?

I think my most valuable lesson was to not make my projects so huge! Monster Crown has more land mass than the first three generations of pokemon combined and building all that alone was not easy.

I also learned a LOT about debugging and game development as I went, I think that if I had to start over right now I'd be able to build monster crown in a third of the time, but up until late 2018 certain concepts were still being hammered out and could demand whole rewrites to parts of the engine on a dime.

Having a cohesive, solid vision from the start, and building your systems from there is key. It's a super valuable lesson, also, learning to debug your stuff properly, not just how you tend to play!

Great question btw.

Was it always your intention to keep to the GBC aesthetic when it came to the art design?

Yes it was! Early in development it was me doing all the art and it was not great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhp2V8g9yho

Thankfully the kickstarter gave us the funds to hire some real artists to flesh out the world and NPCs and I got a lot better at monster design and sprites :D

Every review I've read so far mentions multiple game breaking bugs (menu bugs, performance bugs, and a "campfire tutorial" bug are the ones I see mentioned) that will result in lost save files or lost time from crashing, with some saying they lost up to an hour of play.

Are you aware of the specific bugs and planning to patch? I'm very interested in the game, but won't be buying it until these are resolved.

Hi Rodney,

these issues affect only the Switch version and there is currently a patching in the pipeline (1.0.2) that fixes them all and improves performance.

Those fixes are already deployed in Steam when it went live today. It was the intent for 1.0.2 to be ready for launch day but unfortunately things took longer than expected, I really regret that but it won't be long at all before it hits everyone's switches.

Appreciate the response. I know that stuff can take a while on Switch, but any indication of an ETA?

Well the fixes are done we're just going through the submission and approval, so should be soon, not something weeks and weeks away or anything.

I can't decide if I want to get it on steam or wait for the switch patch to have that nostalgic, handheld gameboy feel. Either way, it looks amazing and thank you for all your hard work! :)

No problem at all, apologies once again for not having that patch ready for today.

Those fixes are already deployed in Steam when it went live today.

There is a steam review from today mentioning game breaking bugs. If they are resolved, you might want to respond to the reviews on steam.

I responded over there, the only serious issue discovered today was a map bug that could have you stuck in it, I pushed a patch within 30 minutes of learning about it :)

Congrats with releasing! I bought the game a couple years ago because I was interested in modding, so my question is: what are your current plans for modding support?

Our first modding support will launch in a few weeks - custom monsters!

What’s the intended post launch support? Can we expect regular patches, updates, and possible dlc?

yes I do this as a hobby so there's no rush for me to try to start on a new project. I just want to focus on Monster Crown for a while, polish things, provide some additional features that have been requested, and generally just keep optimizing things to create the best possible experience before I ever do anything new!

Game looks amazing and have been following for some time. Congrats on the launch.

First off what your favourite and least favourite thing about the monster taming genre? Anything you think future games need to do to be successful?

Also technology, there's been changes and new consoles and the like since you started. How did that change development?

Also there was talk of a mobile version on the kickstarter, is there any news on it? I saw you went the route of it now only being for backers? Are there any changes needed in mobile gaming for you to launch on the Play Store?

I love the genre as a whole but I think it shines best when it sticks to a medieval/low fantasy/shonen anime aesthetic rather than involving advanced technology or spacetravel. That's just me though and preferring more organic stuff.

Originally I was thinking about Wii U rather than Switch but as you know, Switch came out shortly after development began, and everyone moved on from the Wii U pretty quickly.

nothing to announce for mobile yet but it's on my mind every day :)

So, clearly inspired by some legendary games of the mid to late 90s, exactly how many hours (to the best of your knowledge) did this project take?

Pokemon Red/Green (the first) took 6 years! I would imagine the tools at your disposal 30 years later have made the work a lot less of a slog, and being able to use an already built engine, etc.

Just curious because my cousin and our good friend are making a game, and I want to make sure they never give up!

haha, well it took me 5.5 years, but while others contributed art and music, I had to build everything myself by hand, the entire world, cutscenes, etc. so we didn't have a regular staff.

In this case technology made it possible, but sure if I had 10 staff things would've been much quicker :)

im the dude who suggested adding the hooper sisters in as additional optional bosses and i was just wondering did they make it in?

when will the keychains from the kickstarter be rolling out?

and of course congrats on finally releasing the game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i hope those keys come in your mail soooooooooon

The Hooper Sisters didn't make it in as canon characters unfortunately.

The keychains are in the works, I'll have more specifics to share soon. Thank you so much, I wanna get those keys out! aggh!

What's your favorite monster and color combo?

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...Also how many human sacrifices did we need for the "make monsters real" project? I stopped at 74 so far, but I'd be willing to get more.

this is such a tough question :D

I can never seem to settle on an answer, but most of the monsters I love are in <secret place> in game. You'll know it when you find it ;)

What would you say are the biggest differences between a Pokémon game and Monster Crown?

Well the crossbreeds, the darker tone, and the less friendly relationship between man and monster. It's a dog-eat-dog world whereas Pokemon has a lot more room for casual friendliness and a "safe" world.

Monster Crown is designed for an older audience and that's reflected in the difficulty as well.

You said there were no shortage of challenges. My question is this: Do you have any funny or entertaining stories about a challenge you encountered that you didn't quite expect to see?

One challenge I didn't expect was that there are players who will immediately start the game, grind and grind (just for fun) then begin steamrolling the game and asking for more challenge.

This is a tough one, and generally it can be hard to understand why people would have an issue with that, rather than just deciding not to do that needless grinding of 20-30 levels.

That was quite a surprise to me and because this is my first game and we weren't very big yet, people could leave bad reviews and seriously impact the findability of the game!

In the end I created a loose level limit system that keeps increasing to allow you to reach new level caps, however, these caps are so loose and easy to increase that most players ask why they're even there, because to them they seem pointless and don't limit them or add a challenge at all.

Definitely something I didn't see coming but had to come up with a solution to, or risk losing the ability to support this project long term because no one even knew about it!

That must be why Pokémon games have that system of Pokémon not obeying your commands above a certain level without gym badges! That always confused me as a kid and seemed pointless.

That's exactly the vibe :)

Will the future Xbox version have achievements? (Asking cuz that’s the only way I’ll be able to convince my bro to play. :P)

Excited to finally play this!!! (…whenever my life decides to chill out enough for me to be able to do so)

Yes, achievements are in for sure :)

Hope the life chills soon my friend!

My first impression when hearing about this game was a Dragon Warrior Monsters inspired game, which was one of my favorites as a kid. Is that accurate and does this game draw any inspiration from that game or its sequel?

Edit: Grammar

120%

Absolutely loved that game as a kid. This is kinda like a mid point between pokemon and it, of course with a bunch of different new stuff added.

Damn. This looks RIGHT up my alley. I’ll plan to download today when I get home, but for now a random question:

Do you have a favorite Pokémon? How about a favorite shiny?

SO many good ones, I think my favorites are: Kangaskahn, Nidoking, retro Pikachu, Miltank, they are some of the top ones for me :)

I like the older, tougher ones a lot.

Are you scared of the potential Rule 34 that can result of anything monster related?

Not really. I'm not personally a fan but it doesn't worry me :)

What game engine did you use? Also how did you come up with the calculations for the battle system? Is it based off the pokemon calculations?

It's built on Unity :)

It was a lot of trial and error and wasn't based on pokemon, but one additional aspect to our battle system is that switching gives you perks and builds up a synergy gauge, so it was a lot of fun to come up with new formulas for those boosts :)

Do you have a list of which monsters were developed by which guest contributors?

we're compiling it on the discord :)

https://discord.gg/WwRvm9B

What made you decide to make this game?

Why did you chose to make it in a gbc game style?

And if you ever make another, will you stay with that style, or are you oppoen to experiment?

I'd be open to experimentation, but I grew up with incredible GBC monster taming games, so there'll always be a hint of that I think in whatever style I go with.

Between the darker tone and the crossbreed system, did the Shin Megami Tensei series serve as an inspiration at all in the creation of this game?

Absolutely it did, that's part of the reason you form pacts with monsters too :)

Were all the offsprings from breeding individually designed, or procedurally generated?

As in, if Monster A and B have a baby called C, was C designed by you and your team, or does the system - for example - take the head and legs from one and body from another to create C?

Individually designed :)

each monster has a genetic form that it can pass down for each type depending on what it's bred with, and the coloring comes from the secondary parent, all other stats are a mash!

What advice would you give someone with no computer or some very basic computer experience who wants to develop a game someday? Where would you recommend they begin?

I'd recommend downloading Unity or Godot and using MSPaint to throw together some funny-bad sprites or textures to begin testing and experimenting with.

I started in 2016 with Unity and MSPaint, and I finished with them too :)

Just decide on something basic you want to do (like moving a character in a grid or making a 3d character move) and do tutorials and experiment til you get it :)

Is the cross-breeding mechanic inspired at all by the PS1 game called Jade Cocoon?

Yes! Although I didn't learn about it until after I began I wanted to live up to what it started :)

Love the visuals of the game. Simple question. You a fan of One Piece? The protag looks just like Luffy. Honestly that alone is enough to entice me. Lol

I love many anime but while I was aware of One Piece I hadn't watched it myself. I definitely see the similarity now though!

Ultimately I wanted to make him a humble farmboy with a straw hat, but I'm glad you like the design :)

Which monsters from monster crown could you beat in a fist fight?

Brutus, because I'm a super tough and strong guy :D

just kidding. Maybe Laz, he's sorta pathetic enough I could probably bully him, I'd just have to wash my fists after!

Why isn't Monster Crown available on the Brazilian eShop? Are there plans to add the game?

Huh, I'm not sure, I'll be sure to ask my publisher about that one, sorry for the inconvenience!

I’ve noticed since getting it on the switch it randomly freezes up Will they’re be a patch?

Yep, that's all fixed in 1.0.2 which should be live soon.

playing on switch lag is constant and load times are slow and the constant crashes makes the game almost unplayable not exactly pleased can we expect a fix to these issues any time soon?

Yep, 1.0.2 addresses all the known issues including the ones you mentioned and pointed out in reviews, it's currently going through processing and I hope to have it live in just a few days :)

How about giving Kickstarters their switch code? That would be nice.

Just posted another update to the kickstarter page. Sorry for the delay on this.