Monster Crown appears to be an early success on Steam
After a successful crowdfunding campaign 2018, the monster catching game Monster Crown released into Early Access at the end of July 2020 and it appears to be doing very well.
Monster Crown News
Patch v1.446
Hey guys!
What a crazy week (it actually hasn't been a week yet!)
I'm very proud to say that in under 72 hours of Early Access we surpassed the success of our entire Kickstarter campaign, which blows me away and is ENTIRELY thanks to all of you.
https://www.gameshedge.com/monster-crown-beat-kickstarter-72-hours-release/
I'm truly humbled by all the appreciative words, the enthusiastic monster creations you're kind enough to share with me and of course the excellent bug reports. Together we're going to take Monster Crown to the next level!
I always joke that I just made this game because I love retro monsters and wanted an infinite feed of them sent to me, well, you're certainly making that a reality! :D
So let's get into today's patch.
Closed Beta v1.446
----------------------
+Shortened a couple of attack descriptions that were too long for the description box
+Adjusted Scarred/Desperado transition for more accurate wild encounters
+If you fight mom and get KO'd you can end up with a party with all 0 HP which can lead to a situation where you enter a battle and are unable to send out any monster, and are locked. This has been fixed (mom is kind enough to heal you now :D )
+Big improvements to item bank UI and functionality
+RNG Tamer Trades were only bringing up blue monsters of the relentless persuasion, now fixed, so have fun with more creature diversity :)
+Trading tamers can no longer create duplicate party pointers
+Must now double press to flee, some people accidentally ran from Brilliants! Can't have that!
#Please note that we want to keep the primary EA build stable so new builds will be uploaded to the EA-BETA branch for 24 hours before being moved to the main stream. Anyone can access this branch, just right-click Monster Crown in Steam, go to properties and select the EA-BETA branch to have the up to the minute, bleeding edge updates.
-----------------------
While bug fixes are always the top priority I definitely wanted to get in that much requested double-press to flee feature. I know some of you missed out on Brilliants (1 in a thousand rainbow monsters) and that's just no good with how rare they are! Definitely a great suggestion guys.
Oh, also we had two people try to launch Monster Crown and it couldn't get passed the loading screen. After much investigation we discovered it was their antivirus stopping the game from loading, so if you encounter that, please ensure the application is fully allowed.
After another patch or two my attention will go toward our first content pack with more monsters and several much requested new features. It's not too far off at all :)
What a crazy week (it actually hasn't been a week yet!)
I'm very proud to say that in under 72 hours of Early Access we surpassed the success of our entire Kickstarter campaign, which blows me away and is ENTIRELY thanks to all of you.
https://www.gameshedge.com/monster-crown-beat-kickstarter-72-hours-release/
I'm truly humbled by all the appreciative words, the enthusiastic monster creations you're kind enough to share with me and of course the excellent bug reports. Together we're going to take Monster Crown to the next level!
I always joke that I just made this game because I love retro monsters and wanted an infinite feed of them sent to me, well, you're certainly making that a reality! :D
So let's get into today's patch.
Closed Beta v1.446
----------------------
+Shortened a couple of attack descriptions that were too long for the description box
+Adjusted Scarred/Desperado transition for more accurate wild encounters
+If you fight mom and get KO'd you can end up with a party with all 0 HP which can lead to a situation where you enter a battle and are unable to send out any monster, and are locked. This has been fixed (mom is kind enough to heal you now :D )
+Big improvements to item bank UI and functionality
+RNG Tamer Trades were only bringing up blue monsters of the relentless persuasion, now fixed, so have fun with more creature diversity :)
+Trading tamers can no longer create duplicate party pointers
+Must now double press to flee, some people accidentally ran from Brilliants! Can't have that!
#Please note that we want to keep the primary EA build stable so new builds will be uploaded to the EA-BETA branch for 24 hours before being moved to the main stream. Anyone can access this branch, just right-click Monster Crown in Steam, go to properties and select the EA-BETA branch to have the up to the minute, bleeding edge updates.
-----------------------
While bug fixes are always the top priority I definitely wanted to get in that much requested double-press to flee feature. I know some of you missed out on Brilliants (1 in a thousand rainbow monsters) and that's just no good with how rare they are! Definitely a great suggestion guys.
Oh, also we had two people try to launch Monster Crown and it couldn't get passed the loading screen. After much investigation we discovered it was their antivirus stopping the game from loading, so if you encounter that, please ensure the application is fully allowed.
After another patch or two my attention will go toward our first content pack with more monsters and several much requested new features. It's not too far off at all :)
We surpassed Monster Crown's Kickstarter success in less than 72 hours on Steam!
Hi all!
It's Marten here, sharing an amazing milestone with you all because in less than 72 hours, Monster Crown has sold more copies in Early Access on Steam than during the entire Kickstarter campaign!
We're extremely grateful and thankful to everyone who's bought, played and reviewed Monster Crown in Early Access on Steam, because we couldn't have done it without you!
As you could've seen, there's already been 4 updates since the game released 5 days ago, so there's a LOT more coming up! Please keep an eye on the Steam page for updates ;)
For now, have fun playing Monster Crown and let us know what you think if you haven't already!
-Marten
It's Marten here, sharing an amazing milestone with you all because in less than 72 hours, Monster Crown has sold more copies in Early Access on Steam than during the entire Kickstarter campaign!
We're extremely grateful and thankful to everyone who's bought, played and reviewed Monster Crown in Early Access on Steam, because we couldn't have done it without you!
As you could've seen, there's already been 4 updates since the game released 5 days ago, so there's a LOT more coming up! Please keep an eye on the Steam page for updates ;)
For now, have fun playing Monster Crown and let us know what you think if you haven't already!
-Marten
Patch 1.445 is here!
Hey Tamers!
We've got another slew of great fixes. Earlier tonight all our prior fixes moved out to the main branch so all players will be able to enjoy those, bleeding edge EA-BETA players get these fixes as of... right now!
I spent a lot of time on online battling this morning and the menu has quite a few improvements to the flow and function of it, however, I had some trouble reproducing some issues I've received reports of for online battling. I think I may know why - our servers are hosted in the state of New York (I'm in canada) and I do a lot of testing on weekend mornings when I have plenty of free time. Those hours also happen to be low traffic times in america as I'm 1.5 hours ahead of the eastern timezone.
I wrote the client and server side code and kept things very lightweight and fast but perhaps some evening latency is leading to issues. I'll continue working on this but in the meantime "Forfeit" is now available in online battles if you're trying to send a pal a monster. As you may know you can set prize monsters for online battles so some people are using it to trade before we launch that feature officially, so if you want to send a friend a monster, set it as prize, enter the battle, then forfeit. Keep in mind that online play is something that I'm still hard at work on so save before and after sending any monsters to reduce the chance that they may be lost.
Also low RAM PC friends and Mac users with a specific odd issue will find some additional graphical options in this build that i think will be of great help to them, read below for more details!
Just for fun, here's a pic of an upcoming special Epheal transformation :)
Closed Beta v1.445
----------------------
+Can view base monster stats on the info screen now
+Improved and more clear menu flow in the online battling menu
+Can now forfeit in online battles, useful if you want to just give someone a monster!
+Fixed a specific situation where you could feed your monster, or check it if you entered a battle while touching it, which could lead to getting free while in battle.
+Glitch discovered if you have a fruit in hand, enter and exit barn you can end up stuck until you drop the fruit, remedied by removing any fruit you carry during a screen transition
+Hermit's house no longer has a dual-toned roof
+Alieel does not become invisible when flashing you with light
+Maze can now be cancelled anytime with X/cancel
+Turned on graphics option dialogue on startup to help debug a PC user with a RAM issue and two Mac users that are missing sprites on their screens. PC Users with low RAM please try low quality and Mac users with missing sprites try High quality! Some odd unity bugs at play here.
+Water ripple-less areas on the overworld no longer have this issue
+HP Orb use no longer KOs monster
+Several tile issues in the desert fixed
#Please note that we want to keep the primary EA build stable so new builds will be uploaded to the EA-BETA branch for 24 hours before being moved to the main stream. Anyone can access this branch, just right-click Monster Crown in Steam, go to properties and select the EA-BETA branch to have the up to the minute, bleeding edge updates.
Thanks everyone for all your support! I'm overwhelmed with messages from people loving Monster Crown! I appreciate each and every one of you!
We've got another slew of great fixes. Earlier tonight all our prior fixes moved out to the main branch so all players will be able to enjoy those, bleeding edge EA-BETA players get these fixes as of... right now!
I spent a lot of time on online battling this morning and the menu has quite a few improvements to the flow and function of it, however, I had some trouble reproducing some issues I've received reports of for online battling. I think I may know why - our servers are hosted in the state of New York (I'm in canada) and I do a lot of testing on weekend mornings when I have plenty of free time. Those hours also happen to be low traffic times in america as I'm 1.5 hours ahead of the eastern timezone.
I wrote the client and server side code and kept things very lightweight and fast but perhaps some evening latency is leading to issues. I'll continue working on this but in the meantime "Forfeit" is now available in online battles if you're trying to send a pal a monster. As you may know you can set prize monsters for online battles so some people are using it to trade before we launch that feature officially, so if you want to send a friend a monster, set it as prize, enter the battle, then forfeit. Keep in mind that online play is something that I'm still hard at work on so save before and after sending any monsters to reduce the chance that they may be lost.
Also low RAM PC friends and Mac users with a specific odd issue will find some additional graphical options in this build that i think will be of great help to them, read below for more details!
Just for fun, here's a pic of an upcoming special Epheal transformation :)
Closed Beta v1.445
----------------------
+Can view base monster stats on the info screen now
+Improved and more clear menu flow in the online battling menu
+Can now forfeit in online battles, useful if you want to just give someone a monster!
+Fixed a specific situation where you could feed your monster, or check it if you entered a battle while touching it, which could lead to getting free while in battle.
+Glitch discovered if you have a fruit in hand, enter and exit barn you can end up stuck until you drop the fruit, remedied by removing any fruit you carry during a screen transition
+Hermit's house no longer has a dual-toned roof
+Alieel does not become invisible when flashing you with light
+Maze can now be cancelled anytime with X/cancel
+Turned on graphics option dialogue on startup to help debug a PC user with a RAM issue and two Mac users that are missing sprites on their screens. PC Users with low RAM please try low quality and Mac users with missing sprites try High quality! Some odd unity bugs at play here.
+Water ripple-less areas on the overworld no longer have this issue
+HP Orb use no longer KOs monster
+Several tile issues in the desert fixed
#Please note that we want to keep the primary EA build stable so new builds will be uploaded to the EA-BETA branch for 24 hours before being moved to the main stream. Anyone can access this branch, just right-click Monster Crown in Steam, go to properties and select the EA-BETA branch to have the up to the minute, bleeding edge updates.
Thanks everyone for all your support! I'm overwhelmed with messages from people loving Monster Crown! I appreciate each and every one of you!
Patch v1.443 Is here
Hey guys,
another day, another patch! Check out the patch notes below. One cool addition is a notifier of the completion of a monster genetic family in the encyclopedia!
Closed Beta v1.444
----------------------
+Shouldn't be any more empty tamer packs
+Can no longer go the long way around to Humanism and find encounters there
+With certain names you can see the "butUse" symbol in text when getting the canoe, this is now fixed
+Increased the speed of transitions to new rooms by about 20%
+Monster set for primary/secondary being incorrect appearance until menu repopen fixed
+More reliable retrieving monsters from storage
+Overall breeding menu UI code tweaks for more reliable performance
+Issue that affected certain (not all macs) where sprites did not appear on the party/monster info screen
+Bridges working again after something broke in last build
+Issue with Dew Cave not loading properly fixed
+Can now leave the code entry screen without issues
+Code menu text no longer sticks around after leaving that menu
+No longer does it look like you can stand on top of the head of some auction NPCs
+can now deposit/withdraw more than 1 at a time from the bank
+Code menu shows all the characters now properly
+Invisible walls issue additional attention and from preliminary testing on discord, seems entirely fixed.
+Breeding lightning volume level put in sync with other music/sound level
+Jungro, Nautlus, Bileat, Duserp added to wild tamer/egg pool
+Adjustments to the Encyclopedia (dex) in the notebook to make it easier to use and clearer
+Can now use Encyclopedia to view seen wild/tamer hybrids
+Completing a monster's genetic family marks it with a golden crown in the notebook
#Please note that we want to keep the primary EA build stable so new builds will be uploaded to the EA-BETA branch for 24 hours before being moved to the main stream. Anyone can access this branch, just right-click Monster Crown in Steam, go to properties and select the EA-BETA branch to have the up to the minute, bleeding edge updates.
This build really stabilizes a lot of things so we're going to have it reviewed by our publisher tomorrow to make sure it's as stable as we feel it is and then push it out on the main branch.
My next focus? ONLINE BATTLES! Planning to put a lot of work into them this week to make them smoother and more fun.
another day, another patch! Check out the patch notes below. One cool addition is a notifier of the completion of a monster genetic family in the encyclopedia!
Closed Beta v1.444
----------------------
+Shouldn't be any more empty tamer packs
+Can no longer go the long way around to Humanism and find encounters there
+With certain names you can see the "butUse" symbol in text when getting the canoe, this is now fixed
+Increased the speed of transitions to new rooms by about 20%
+Monster set for primary/secondary being incorrect appearance until menu repopen fixed
+More reliable retrieving monsters from storage
+Overall breeding menu UI code tweaks for more reliable performance
+Issue that affected certain (not all macs) where sprites did not appear on the party/monster info screen
+Bridges working again after something broke in last build
+Issue with Dew Cave not loading properly fixed
+Can now leave the code entry screen without issues
+Code menu text no longer sticks around after leaving that menu
+No longer does it look like you can stand on top of the head of some auction NPCs
+can now deposit/withdraw more than 1 at a time from the bank
+Code menu shows all the characters now properly
+Invisible walls issue additional attention and from preliminary testing on discord, seems entirely fixed.
+Breeding lightning volume level put in sync with other music/sound level
+Jungro, Nautlus, Bileat, Duserp added to wild tamer/egg pool
+Adjustments to the Encyclopedia (dex) in the notebook to make it easier to use and clearer
+Can now use Encyclopedia to view seen wild/tamer hybrids
+Completing a monster's genetic family marks it with a golden crown in the notebook
#Please note that we want to keep the primary EA build stable so new builds will be uploaded to the EA-BETA branch for 24 hours before being moved to the main stream. Anyone can access this branch, just right-click Monster Crown in Steam, go to properties and select the EA-BETA branch to have the up to the minute, bleeding edge updates.
This build really stabilizes a lot of things so we're going to have it reviewed by our publisher tomorrow to make sure it's as stable as we feel it is and then push it out on the main branch.
My next focus? ONLINE BATTLES! Planning to put a lot of work into them this week to make them smoother and more fun.