Monaco 2 News

As a special treat for our demo-heisters, we're unlocking the procedurally generated seeds for the first three levels, a mode called "Unreliable Narrator".


This mode really shines in the third level: "Bona Fide Sanitation", where the non-linear path you take through the level leads to entirely new creative challenges. Twist, turn, and improv your way through these scrambled heists to earn infinite diamonds, unlock trinkets, and become the richest thieves in Steam Next Fest!






https://store.steampowered.com/app/3366190/Monaco_2_Demo/

Hello Crew!

At long last, the first fully playable demo of Monaco 2 launches on Steam on February 20th ahead of Steam Next Fest! Gear up for 2 hours of high-stakes co-op thievery that will have you and your crew sneaking and scrambling for loot. Play single player or with up to four players in online co-op to get rich or die trying. From daring escapes on jobs gone wrong to perfectly executed computer terminal takedowns, the opportunities to reap rewards during Steam Next Fest are endless.


Gearing up for the Big Job

Within the demo, you'll dive deep into the heart of Monaco’s criminal underworld. Tackle multiple levels, each with their own unique challenges and opportunities. Experiment with trinket abilities and get the feel of five playable characters, each bringing their own twist to the heist. The fun doesn’t stop after you complete the demo – there’s always a new way for you to approach the perfect crime!

Grab your best crew, mark your calendars, and be sure to check out the demo from February 20th - March 3rd. We can’t wait to welcome you back to the manic world of Monaco! It’s time to prove you and your crew have what it takes to be criminal masterminds.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/3366190/Monaco_2_Demo/

Hello Crew!

Everyone knows we thieves can be a superstitious lot and our crew is no exception. Today, we’re diving into the Trinket system, a key feature that lets each thief carry unique charms to turn the tide of any heist.


Trinkets

During your time in Monaco, you and your crew will work to unlock four trinket abilities per character. Each trinket provides additional power and specialization, but as with all good things in life, power isn’t free. Equipping these trinkets costs a bit of your base health, so choosing wisely is key. Let’s take a closer look into the trinket abilities of Jobbie, our favorite little robot sidekick!

Jobbie’s core ability is teleportation. He can zip through all visible areas including windows, over furniture, and even through prison cell doors to escape the job undetected. Additional trinket abilities for Jobbie include:

• The GPU Array: Granting x4 teleporting speed.
  
• The Cardboard Box: Causes you to appear invisible without taking damage.
  
• The Worm: Infecting electronics with a deadly virus.
  
• The Wifi Extender: Significantly increases your teleporting range, which is particularly useful when navigating through replayed levels.
  

These trinket abilities are just the beginning as each master thief has a ton of variation to fit different play styles and to suit the challenges of each level. It will be up to you and your crew to figure out which trinkets are best on every heist!




Diamonds are a Thief’s Best Friend

Trinkets can be unlocked by collecting diamonds earned from completing missions quickly, along with bonus objectives like gathering all of the coins and escaping a job undetected. Use your trinkets wisely in the Hard Truth (seed-locked campaign levels) as you can only earn one diamond per level. But the real source of diamonds comes when jumping into the Unreliable Narrator mode, where the levels are shuffled ensuring no two heists play out the same way.


Get ready to experiment with a variety of trinkets as luck will have it when our upcoming co-op demo releases on February 20th ahead of Steam Next Fest. It's almost time to pocket your rewards in the city of Monaco!

Hello Crew!

As we work towards launch later this year, we wanted to take some time today to talk about the procedural generation within Monaco 2. No two heists will ever be the same as you and your crew work to take on new jobs and pull off the perfect heist!





The same map as the first, but at a different seed


The Main Campaign


Monaco 1 was chock-full of environmental story-telling and easter eggs, often accessed with the Mole. And while the game was great for speed-running, it did have a mild form of procedural generation that kept you on your toes, asking players to improvise rather than memorize. We wanted to expand on this with Monaco 2, without losing what was so special about the level design of the first game.


In Monaco 2, a procedural director stitches hand-authored rooms together using scripts created by our level designer. Then it finds locations for objectives and high-value targets, such as safes, and then starts to fill out enemy positions, traps, security, and other pickups to create a sense of rise and fall in the drama of a level.


But you’d never know this was happening. One of my favorite pieces of feedback we’ve received is that most first time players don’t even realize the levels are procedurally generated. On top of that, for the main campaign, we’re scouring the levels to find our favorite seeds and locking those in for the main campaign. Everyone’s first time playing through the campaign will be on the same maps, and leaderboards will track scores for those seeds.


Unreliable Narrator and Daily Heists


So if the main campaign is locked, why use procedural generation at all? Every heist movie has a planning scene, where the thieves scour a blueprint, figuring out how to best tackle an environment. If you’ve played the same level a million times, this phase is meaningless. But after beating any mission in the campaign, you can go back and play it again in Unreliable Narrator mode: randomized seeds where you can collect diamonds, which you can use to unlock additional character abilities and looks.


A Daily Heist mode also challenges players to tackle the campaign levels with increased difficulty and randomization.


Our intent is to make the main campaign feel like the Monaco experience fans know and love, while making the game infinitely replayable. Add in an opportunity to explore the map and plan the heist with your team and you’ll feel like you are planning a high stakes heist on every play through.


Assemble your dream team and get ready for a taste of the life of crime with our upcoming co-op demo available on February 20th ahead of Steam Next Fest. We’ll see you on the job!

Greeting Thieves!


It’s been a bit since you’ve heard from us (building a game is serious business), but we wanted to update you all on the development of Monaco 2. Rather than write a stuffy blog post, we thought we’d compile the biggest questions we’ve seen from the Monaco community and grill Pocketwatch Games CEO Andy Schatz for answers.


When is Monaco 2 coming out?
It’s coming out in 2025! (That’s all you’re gonna get outta me.)


How many players can play Monaco 2?
Up to 4 friends can play, either split screen or online. In online mode, you can also invite additional spectators. Spectators can even join mid-mission and then join in as thieves on your next heist.


What if I want to play by myself? Can I do that?
Of course! Let’s be clear, Monaco 1 was better known for its co-op than the single player. With Monaco 2, loads of care has been taken to make sure the single-player experience is compelling in its own right.


How many playable characters will there be?
There are 8 playable characters, but each has a number of trinkets that significantly change their gameplay.


Why did you switch the art style?
Monaco 1 came out over a decade ago, we wanted to make a new Monaco for a new generation of players. Since heist movies often hinge on playing with verticality and creative solutions to problems, 3d levels felt necessary for that vision.


Wait, is this game procedurally generated?
Yes and no. The levels are built in chunks, and then a procedural game director stitches them together intelligently. The main campaign uses locked seeds hand-selected by the development team, so there’s a single experience shared by all players. But you can go back and play the campaign on random seeds for additional rewards, and you can play the Daily Heists to compete against other thieves!


Does it run on Steam Deck?
Sure does!


And that’s all from Andy (for now)! We’ll be providing more updates in the coming months and expect to see more Monaco 2 information in the new year!

Happy Holidays!
Pocketwatch Games