SUMMARY:

• THIS IS HOW IT ENDS- Preparing for the demo, I realized the importance of guard rails.
• PREPARE FOR LAUNCH- Based on poll results we decided to release sooner than later.
• FUN IN FAILURE- We explore the idea of how failure can be the most enjoyable part of a game.
• TELL TALE - Our true product is the story behind the story.
• KNOCK ON WOOD -In an effort to make the game feel as real world as possible, wooden plank measurements from a hardware store was used on block mesh fencing off the world's edge.
• SNEAK PEEK- Play at your own risk.
• OTHER UPDATES- Task Tracker Pro Image Import works in doc mode, allowing web links or gallery thumbmails on selection while Star Kingdom GT makes progress on instructional menu buttons.
• MONARCH TURNS 4 NEXT WEEK- Time flies!

THIS IS HOW IT ENDS

We'll start with the end of the world. Last week we talked about getting ready for the demo. It was then I realized we needed to switch priorities and start tackling the basic things one might expect Players to do when mucking around in a game.

That's why we started putting in guard rails. In this case, a simple player respawn mechanic which proved a bit trickier despite how basic it is. We're also adding a fence (more below) to avoid it from happening but it wouldn't be fun if there wasn't some kind of means for those of you crazy ones to go ahead and dare our game to handle you jumping off a cliff. (fun to fail principle)

In the process of doing so, the news came to mind and events unfolding in recent days world wide. It feels like the end of the world. Reality does feel broken and somehow, it inspired this sign.

Anyone who wants to use this in their game, you are more than welcome :). It would be fun to see where else we can put this. Perhaps the writing and humor, similar to Stanley Parable, is a glimpse of things to come in the direction of our game?

PREPARE FOR LAUNCH

We conducted a poll among many of you and it was decided to release the protoype. Might as well do so with a warning. You play at your own risk but with feedback as early as possible on the advise of many, we could end up with a better game in the long run, especially if we prioritise what's important closer to the core.

In previous weeks from our blog, we've wrestled with look development, color palettes, textures, fonts, and shape rules with more to come. It's a never-ending tweak fight of hues, shades, and patterns as we move on. Yet at this stage we're forced to choose our battles; there's so much art, sound, and polish to be had yet too little time to do it all.

It's a shame to let go of tasks that would be great to get to if it weren't for demo priorities. One of them is taking our design guide palette colors from Week 7 and apply them to a series of preset textures and materials that match our base colors, the same ones used for the game's menu and website. The sooner we get those in, the easier it will be to later match the look and feel of the game's true art, yet it's not a priority, and it's so hard to let go to move on, but must be done.

FUN IN FAILURE

I learned from watching some animated gifs of other games just how amusing failure can be. If you think about it, 90% of a challenging game is disaster. People don't like sharing thier successes as much as they do the craziness of thier demise, especially in games, the more, the merrier, the better.

There's a sense of how games, or mastering the art of fun, boils down to the ability to make error the most enjoyable part. In a way, that's how life should be, right? It takes a lot of woes, trials, and hard work to reach our pinnales of success.

It's not easy to force or figure out how to make failure fun. But it's something that perhaps is a pillar in what makes a great game. Figuring out how to do that can be what seperates the amateurs from masters.

Goat Simulator is a great example of this. It's a game that's not about winning, it's about the fun of failure. In other examples, like with racing or sports, it's not always the win but how bad or crazy things can get such as with crashes, fires, and injuries.

On a deeper level, this might be what builds resilience in all of us. It may be why playing games can be such an important part of life. Success is nothing but time and chance, therefore, any actitivty that can help us find joy in setbacks and breakdowns, will ulitimately make us into those who will almost always find a way to win.

In our case, one idea is to add witty comments when finding rusty nails. They're about half a chance in all the treasure found in the game and will play a large part of one's experience. Therefore it makes sense to put polish in amusing failure as well as the activities and things Players will be doing most.

TELL TALE

Our real product is writing. It's what I love most about the dev experience. It would be a dream to do so with gaming as Bourdain did with cooking, given how well he wrote about life as a chef.

But everyone is different and it's hard to say how the future of this project will go. Oftentimes, the story behind the story can be just as enjoyable as the game itself. But there's been a realiztion in recent weeks how writing can end up becoming our greatest point.

We'll be exploring this idea more in the coming weeks. Some of it will apply to the rust nails moment (as mentioned earlier). A friend mentioned another example with rare items or objects found that may have a backstory such as a skull with a metal tooth in it or wedding ring yield bonues when traded at the store.

It's uncertain if most folks have the time to read, even for our blog, but it's truly enjoyable to write content for our game. Maybe in future posts we switch to video on YouTube or go a different direction and switch to podcasting? We'll see how it all goes.

KNOCK ON WOOD

True to scale and for the sake of believability, some wooden planks from Home Depot and their measurements were used to begin fencing off the world's edge for next week's demo. A large part of our direction, even at the prototype stage, is to make the game feel as real world as possible.

Last week we talked about doing the same with trees and as you'll see in next week's demo, they feel true to life. Outside my dwelling place, there are almost the same trees used in our game and the height as well as width of the trunks are almost identical.

SPECIAL: SNEAK PEEK (AT YOUR OWN RISK)

If you've made it this far as a reader, we have a reward for you! Below is a special sneak peek link to our game, fully playable on WebGL. Again, fair warning, there are no guard rails.

Because we didn't want to negate on last week's promise, some of what we're working on has not been implemeneted in this build, it's a rush to get something out before next week. For those of you who can't wait to play, here it is. But be warned, it's not pretty.

Play The Game (sneak peek)

OTHER UPDATES

Task Tracker Pro just got a gallery update. Now you can import a link from the web and append it to your doc. There's a second option inspired by itch.io's import mechanics which allows you to choose from images you've uploaded to your account in the gallery.

While it hasn't been published yet, next week we'll be working on patching bugs and testing to make sure the gallery feature can be rolled out for testing to anyone interested. All our projects are made using this, feel free to give it a try, it's a great way to share, collaborate, and track progress.

Star Kingdom continues to make minor strides on instructions but it's coming along. There's a few more items left from our menu buttons that require updating. With a whole slew of rules to explain in under 337 characters, it becomes a challenge to condense a lot of info and cram it into a small, square, space, even with the help of AI.

To check out more on both Task Tracker Pro and Star Kingdom GT, visit our links posted below. Feel free to leave feedback! Let me know your thoughts.

NEXT WEEK

Monarch will be celebrating it's fourth year since going indie! It's hard to believe we restarted this journey in 2019 from a 2011 hiatus. We've come a long way since then and we're excited to see what the future holds.

One unannounced and unoffical project coming up after Task Tracker Pro's Beta completes by May is the start of CalorieRPG, our fitness tracking, level-up role playing game for Desktop and Mobile. It's sadly going to be our main focus with Can You Dig it as a second priority and Star Kingdom as a third. We are stretched thin but with Task Tracker about to go Gold, we can minimize support and move ahead.

Personally, there's a wish to work on this project full time. We could go so much further, faster. But life has it's calling and it's possible a year from now CalorieRPG, our true mission, could blow up. Nonetheless, part of our commitment is to never stop support for all projects.

Even as Task Tracker Pro goes gold and gets lowered in priority, it's still our main tool for managing all projects. Therefore as the year rolls around and some important feature request or security patches need to be rolled out, we'll be sure to keep up to date.

MORE TO COME, STAY TUNED

So much more to say, so little time. We're hoping to get ready for the big one next week, hopefully! Until then, to be continued....

Game Preview (movie link): Check out our YouTube channel and subscribe for updates.

Task Tracker Pro Checklist (link): Check out our progress on Task Tacker Pro | Progress 49% Count(82/166) :

Star Kingdom GT Demo (link): Star Kingdom GT Demo (check out our other game, a space stratgey in the works)

Monarchgames.net (link): Our website (for more on what we're up to!)

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