Finally a holiday post on time! Over 3 months since declaring "content-complete" and I feel I've been busier than ever before, whoops!
Nonetheless things are proceeding well, with a demo finally expected to be out by mid-January. Will participate in the February Next-Fest,
pushing back Monster Lily's release to tentative April/May of 2026.
In other news and in light of the RAM situation going on I can assure this game will not need much of it. Easily < 500 megabytes.
I had this idea though, what if this situation keeps things stable for a while. No new console revisions, the arms race for more and more
RAM will slow down. Scary to imagine people were already talking about games possibly needing more than 32GB! This might do more
good than harm if it means devs need to focus on optimization and making their games fun instead of loading it with 8k textures.
Would be neat if we see more Retro games from major studios instead of just indies, more stuff like Bravely Default.
As for the New Year, my resolution is to practice my skill at using a microwave. Did you know that many
microwave's have adjustable power levels, from 10-100...yet most folks only ever blast at 100. It would be
like only only stove-cooking on high, or only using an oven at 500 degrees. I've learned already you can
cook delicious Japanese sweet potatoes at 60% power, and using 50-60% is also better for reheating certain
foods! Anyway this is all for now. Expect a demo in Jan.
2025/09/14
Monster Lily is officially content complete! I suppose that means it is in private-beta. Release is still quite a bit away as additional refinements
are needed. This has been a long journey, off and on at least five years. There will be more to share soon, in the meantime I wanted to talk a bit about inspirations...
I think, if I had to name my favorite action/adventure games, it probably would be Doom, Resident Evil, and Demon's Souls.
I've never been a fan of open-world, instead preferring smaller, masterfully hand-crafted levels.
I spent a good bit of time looking at maps for these sort of games to try to understand
what made them great. Of course Kasha Club can't claim to be on the level of these icons, but I tried my best to make the levels
fun & interesting.
Another special nod goes to the game Brogue. I think it was the first Roguelike I ever played. I still
remember the first time a Kobold approached as I walked alongside the stygian depths. It felt more "real" than any modern RPG with fancy
graphics. You may notice a few homages to the original Brogue in Monster Lily. Just please don't go in assuming it's a Brogue-like.
Even for the monsters that are inspired by the classics, you'll need very different tactics to survive.
2025/07/12
Much delayed New Year's post. It's been a rough year for various reasons outside of gamedev, but things are doing better now.
Monster Lily is coming closer to the finish. Even commisioned some very
talented artists for music and illustrations. I am having fun playing it myself (that is good right?).
It is quite difficult though, still need to figure out how to balance such a hard game. Hope to share more
soon.
Oh, there may be a release date. Don't hold me to it yet. February 2026.
2024/02/25
Apologies for the long time in between updates. Progress is going well. Is it a roguelike if there is no
confusion spell? I don't think there will be a confusion spell in this game. It's very easy to fall
into temptation to follow the script, not just in making roguelike but also in life.
On the subject of game development, I don't believe it gets any better than Gates of Boletaria. I heard the entirety of Demon Souls was built in waterfall style.
2023/08/07
Greetings frens. This is the first update. Today there was a tornado watch but otherwise things
are calm. A green tea is a good way to relax on a Monday.
Unfortunately there will be no updates for a while as progress continues. I will
update once every New Year until the game is complete. There will be no updates in between so please
be patient. Appreciate the understanding.