Unreal Engine Monolith Bay [v1.1 Release] [Team Monolith]

[Team Monolith]

It's not about fighting them; it's about pressing them for more information on the basis of trying to work with them rather than against, and asking what needs to happen for them to allow it to be published on St*am. There's must be specific addressable concerns. In the end, if they allow it to be published, they'll get their % of the profits either way. Odds are there's some deeper issue like copyright infringement concerns, which I'm surprised they wouldn't disclose in their rejection.

St*am will allow absolute garbage to be published on their platform, and I mean absolute dumpster fire, flaming dog shit, trash. That fact makes me cry as a consumer, as they have zero curation anymore and you have to sift through mountains of the absolute worst indie cash grab garbage to find anything even half decent, and much of it is exactly what it looks like: shameless attempts at suckering people out of a couple bucks. Even if you only sell 100 copies to people that are curious, at $5 a sale, I'm still ~$350 richer than I was before.

Don't get me wrong, everyone has to start somewhere, but some dev's fail to be objective and recognize how much people value their work and want big name game prices for, well just plain bad games that arent worth the few cents of bandwidth they consume. Second lesson of sales is it doesn't matter what you think your product is worth, it matters what the consumer thinks it's worth, and convincing them it's worth as much as you think it's worth. Even if I poured my heart and soul into something, and think it's worth $50 cuz I worked so hard on it, if someone will only give me $20...hate to say it, it's worth $20 to the market. Sentimentality has no marketable value. This is not a hill you want to choose to die on, because you'll lose and still be broke; $20 is better than $0, don't be afraid to haggle though, push for $30.

I mean...they allow a game like Genital Jousting on the platform...and countless others like it. Obviously, the bar is pretty low for what they'll accept. In fact, that you got rejected is almost impressive, but its far more likely due to something logistical or clerical in your submission, rather than the content of the game itself. I can't find anything so far that I would find particularly offensive or violates any laws, other than the obvious parody of a handful of other IPs (R*ck & M*rty, V*caloid, F*nal F*ntasy 7) but that in itself isn't illegal. Basically, as long as it isn't illegal and it's marked for the correct age group, St*am don't give a f-; they get their money either way.

We tried talking. But their procedure is they reply once and ignore what you said in your message, give you some standard reply that does not answer what you wrote and end it with "we said everything we want to say", any messages after that just gets ignored...

 

[Savio]

Selling cheat access to your own game sets up a bad incentive structure. It doesn't matter what you intend to do in the final release just what you are doing currently in development. Here are a couple of scenarios that might illustrate the bad incentive structure you create here, which is very similar to those mobile games that sell premium currencies to skip boring/annoying gameplay:

Let's say John is a normal player, that has limited technical knowledge, and finds the game on Patreon and 'buys' it by pledging a minimal amount in order to test it out. You as the developer are now incentivized to get keep John paying monthly by delivering good updates, which is fine. But you are also incentivized to get John to become a higher tier Patreon, so by selling access to cheats you need to set the game up to be easy and fun at first to get John to start playing, but then make it more and more grindy and annoying. Hopefully, if you got John invested enough with the first part and annoyed enough later, they upgrade their Patreon level to get some cheats to skip some grindy gameplay. If they stop playing before that, well there are always bigger fish. You try to exploit your player base.

Let's say you are Alex with technical knowledge and encounter some grindy or annoying gameplay and are unwilling to pay for cheats. Then Alex discovers a cheat menu inside the game and is curious about it. They try to find the cheats by looking at the string table the game uses. Now you as a developer might fear that you might have made it too easy for them to find those cheat codes and try to hide them better. You and Alex start playing a cat and mouse game until either Alex is no longer interested in your game or you give up. In the process of this game, however, instead of befriending Alex, by getting their input and suggestion for improvement ideas from them, and possibly allowing them to create their own content on top in the form of mods or cheat tables (that might be similar to what you try to offer for money), you tried to discourage Alex from messing with it. You tried to prevent other people from being creative on top of your work.

I am not saying that you are doing this now, or that this sequence of events is inevitable, but that selling access to cheats for your own game is creating such an incentive structure, where this could happen. And the potential that this might happen will likely keep people start getting invested in your game.

So my suggestion: Just try to give your Patreons positive options to improve or contribute to your game (votes, credits, ideas, etc.), instead of giving them negative options where you allow them to skip gameplay or by giving them customization options that you took away from other players.

 

[asdfafsfa]

I find it funny a MB dev is here of all things

 

[asdfafsfa]

Pizza minigame is a nightmare in these labyrinthian streets with no map available during delivery

its the same route everytime, its pretty easy

 

[TheVegnar]

Selling cheat access to your own game sets up a bad incentive structure. It doesn't matter what you intend to do in the final release just what you are doing currently in development. Here are a couple of scenarios that might illustrate the bad incentive structure you create here, which is very similar to those mobile games that sell premium currencies to skip boring/annoying gameplay:

Let's say John is a normal player, that has limited technical knowledge, and finds the game on Patreon and 'buys' it by pledging a minimal amount in order to test it out. You as the developer are now incentivized to get keep John paying monthly by delivering good updates, which is fine. But you are also incentivized to get John to become a higher tier Patreon, so by selling access to cheats you need to set the game up to be easy and fun at first to get John to start playing, but then make it more and more grindy and annoying. Hopefully, if you got John invested enough with the first part and annoyed enough later, they upgrade their Patreon level to get some cheats to skip some grindy gameplay. If they stop playing before that, well there are always bigger fish. You try to exploit your player base.

Let's say you are Alex with technical knowledge and encounter some grindy or annoying gameplay and are unwilling to pay for cheats. Then Alex discovers a cheat menu inside the game and is curious about it. They try to find the cheats by looking at the string table the game uses. Now you as a developer might fear that you might have made it too easy for them to find those cheat codes and try to hide them better. You and Alex start playing a cat and mouse game until either Alex is no longer interested in your game or you give up. In the process of this game, however, instead of befriending Alex, by getting their input and suggestion for improvement ideas from them, and possibly allowing them to create their own content on top in the form of mods or cheat tables (that might be similar to what you try to offer for money), you tried to discourage Alex from messing with it. You tried to prevent other people from being creative on top of your work.

I am not saying that you are doing this now, or that this sequence of events is inevitable, but that selling access to cheats for your own game is creating such an incentive structure, where this could happen. And the potential that this might happen will likely keep people start getting invested in your game.

So my suggestion: Just try to give your Patreons positive options to improve or contribute to your game (votes, credits, ideas, etc.), instead of giving them negative options where you allow them to skip gameplay or by giving them customization options that you took away from other players.

I know the developer needs a source of income, but I definitely feel this way.

 

[asdfafsfa]

Oh wow, something must have broken this version. If you like you can also share your save here or in DM and I can look into it.

Mine says thats the end of the dating options for her atm and ive done up to her squat workout scene

 

[Team Monolith]

Selling cheat access to your own game sets up a bad incentive structure. It doesn't matter what you intend to do in the final release just what you are doing currently in development. Here are a couple of scenarios that might illustrate the bad incentive structure you create here, which is very similar to those mobile games that sell premium currencies to skip boring/annoying gameplay:

Let's say John is a normal player, that has limited technical knowledge, and finds the game on Patreon and 'buys' it by pledging a minimal amount in order to test it out. You as the developer are now incentivized to get keep John paying monthly by delivering good updates, which is fine. But you are also incentivized to get John to become a higher tier Patreon, so by selling access to cheats you need to set the game up to be easy and fun at first to get John to start playing, but then make it more and more grindy and annoying. Hopefully, if you got John invested enough with the first part and annoyed enough later, they upgrade their Patreon level to get some cheats to skip some grindy gameplay. If they stop playing before that, well there are always bigger fish. You try to exploit your player base.

Let's say you are Alex with technical knowledge and encounter some grindy or annoying gameplay and are unwilling to pay for cheats. Then Alex discovers a cheat menu inside the game and is curious about it. They try to find the cheats by looking at the string table the game uses. Now you as a developer might fear that you might have made it too easy for them to find those cheat codes and try to hide them better. You and Alex start playing a cat and mouse game until either Alex is no longer interested in your game or you give up. In the process of this game, however, instead of befriending Alex, by getting their input and suggestion for improvement ideas from them, and possibly allowing them to create their own content on top in the form of mods or cheat tables (that might be similar to what you try to offer for money), you tried to discourage Alex from messing with it. You tried to prevent other people from being creative on top of your work.

I am not saying that you are doing this now, or that this sequence of events is inevitable, but that selling access to cheats for your own game is creating such an incentive structure, where this could happen. And the potential that this might happen will likely keep people start getting invested in your game.

So my suggestion: Just try to give your Patreons positive options to improve or contribute to your game (votes, credits, ideas, etc.), instead of giving them negative options where you allow them to skip gameplay or by giving them customization options that you took away from other players.

That's a really good point. The reason I never saw it as this is that I don't consider the game grindy at all, and we made it not grindy for the very reason. You can max out a girls relationship state with money form 5-10min depending on your skill.

But even if the "get around the grind part" is not the intention of the cheats, I see how they convey that message, and that's problematic.
We will consider removing every "advantage" cheats and keep it to "messing around cheat" like for example making your character 2x as big, which does not help in the game in any way.

We always considered voting power having bad taste (Like the more you pay the more your opinion is worth / money deciding the outcome of votes) and that's why we went with cheats. In our eyes, it seemed like the smaller bad incentive. But if the community thinks else wise we are willing to try it out.

So what you can expect to happen in the near future:
-Voting power linked to tiers
-Removal or price reduction of cheats that are not just for fun.

 

[Gamesman01]

That's a really good point. The reason I never saw it as this is that I don't consider the game grindy at all, and we made it not grindy for the very reason. You can max out a girls relationship state with money form 5-10min depending on your skill.

But even if the "get around the grind part" is not the intention of the cheats, I see how they convey that message, and that's problematic.
We will consider removing every "advantage" cheats and keep it to "messing around cheat" like for example making your character 2x as big, which does not help in the game in any way.

We always considered voting power having bad taste (Like the more you pay the more your opinion is worth / money deciding the outcome of votes) and that's why we went with cheats. In our eyes, it seemed like the smaller bad incentive. But if the community thinks else wise we are willing to try it out.

So what you can expect to happen in the near future:
-Removal of cheats that are not just for fun.
-Voting power linked to tiers

Well I would hope you leave the money cheat because the Pizza delivery mini game kinda sucks. The customers say here's a tip but you never get one and $10 is just to little. Hell even min wage in the US is better. And the actual driving also kinda bites. Maybe a better job like either store or a handyman job. Anything that earns more.

 

[Team Monolith]

Well I would hope you leave the money cheat because the Pizza delivery mini game kinda sucks. The customers say here's a tip but you never get one and $10 is just to little. Hell even min wage in the US is better. And the actual driving also kinda bites. Maybe a better job like either store or a handyman job. Anything that earns more.

Hmm yea that's the problem you can't always make everyone happy... Some say money for cheats is scumy, some say they still want them. And enabling them by default is dumb we might as well not even have money in the game and just give you endlessly from the start... Well we have to consider what we gonna do.
Your reward depends on how fast you are and how often you crash. should be relatively easy to make 30. But if that is too hard for you to reach you can fly for Drox, it always brings 50.

 

[blablubiblub]

its the same route everytime, its pretty easy

When you realize you can go through the tunnel unlike the other tunnel and not search like an idiot like I did

 

[nightsight]

is there pregnancy game ending ? or is that a mecanic?

 

[°Vergil°]

is there pregnancy game ending ? or is that a mecanic?

It's a mechanic. There are no game endings with pregnancy.

 

[ChillyDabs]

still waiting on said hot fix >.>

 

[ParadigmShift]

still waiting on said hot fix >.>

Nobody cares enough or is willing to pay $13USD / 10€ to share the hotfix, and the next version is supposed to be released at the beginning of Sept, so probably have to wait for that.

 

[GranberiaKnight]

I see the devs are still holding 'bugfixes' as premium patron builds.

 

[Team Monolith]

I see the devs are still holding 'bugfixes' as premium patron builds.

I said this twice before but in case you missed it. The version shared here has nothing to do with us, the uploads are from the f95 moderation team and community. (see the main post for that information)
You can't actually expect me to upload my own game to a pirate website, that would be an insult towards my Patreons. But as I said if anyone does it you have my ok, since it is just a fix.

 

[kitsunedawn]

That's a really good point. The reason I never saw it as this is that I don't consider the game grindy at all, and we made it not grindy for the very reason. You can max out a girls relationship state with money form 5-10min depending on your skill.

But even if the "get around the grind part" is not the intention of the cheats, I see how they convey that message, and that's problematic.
We will consider removing every "advantage" cheats and keep it to "messing around cheat" like for example making your character 2x as big, which does not help in the game in any way.

We always considered voting power having bad taste (Like the more you pay the more your opinion is worth / money deciding the outcome of votes) and that's why we went with cheats. In our eyes, it seemed like the smaller bad incentive. But if the community thinks else wise we are willing to try it out.

So what you can expect to happen in the near future:
-Voting power linked to tiers
-Removal or price reduction of cheats that are not just for fun.

Based on my own past experience with testing, it might not be a bad idea to include a 'fly' cheat to allow testers to get around the map faster without having to do the "ghost girl" summoning thing. Honestly, I wanted to keep looking around at the world to see where models could be updated or better meshed with the overall game world, but being stuck to just walking and not really able to zip around or use my usual testing tools, made it difficult to the point I gave up looking for map mesh errors.

 

[asdfafsfa]

anyone have a vip/elite cheat code?

 

[Team Monolith]

Version 0.27.0 flirt and have sex with pedestrians!

Hi everyone
When you talk with pedestrians you now have the option to flirt with them. Depending on your dialogue choices and character stats they might even be convinced to follow you somewhere private to have some fun.
Did you know you can name your character creations "NPC_Name" and they will show up as pedestrians in town?
Supporter download:

You must be registered to see the links

If you are just here for the update that's it
Here is some info about changes to our Patreon tiers:
We got feedback from the community that the prices for our cheat codes are too high. The reason for the pricing was that cheats add nothing no new content and are not necessary to play the game. They were meant as a small reward for especially generous support. But the high prices shed a bad light on it when people thought they are necessary.
We reduced the price of most cheats by half, and there are no more cheat rewards for the VIP tier.
As an alternative reward, the community suggested different amounts of voting power for different tiers. So we added that now to our tiers.
For the details of all the different tiers check:

You must be registered to see the links

We plan to now do monthly polls from now on. The first of these polls will come soon and will decide a sex position that will be added to the game.

have a nice day,
Team Monolith

 

[coretex]

Been watching this game develop for a while, being patient and biding my time.

Since seeing your updated pledge levels and descriptions and the recent discussion regarding the cheat codes,
just adding my 2-bits, if you care.

I am leaning on the side that having such high Monthly rates just to feel like you get all the in-game perks (the cheats) is a little too far. Id be a little less turned-off if it was billed on major releases vs monthly.. but regardless.
I get the need to draw in funds, I get the whole thing of "they are not necessary", but when they are treated with this kind of laissez-faire, people are going to want all the cheats.
And again, looking at the page with the update descriptions.. beyond getting all cheats, I could care less about any of the other non-in-game perks beyond the $13 level.

And briefly on the money side of things, (not just directed at Monolith, but this is also in general); I think for most things, anything beyond what I would pay for an MMO subscription is ridiculous. I think honestly most game devs who start to have levels beyond the 10-15 range a month (for super early release, or highly desired content, etc. not including custom-request/handcrafted content) are seriously mental/greedy/out-of-touch.
Sure you get more PER person.. but you get LESS people... if most things were within the 5-10 range, i would suspect more people would be willing to pay-in and end result is more overall money (isnt that the goal?). To have really high amounts, is kind of twisting the blade. If it was charge on major release it would hurt just a bit less, but it would still hurt. Again.. yes running a "company" taking "donations".. but still i think there are lessons to be learned in the "creator community" when it comes to this stuff.

Now as for Monolith's pledge levels.. I would be willing to do the $13 (even monthly if the update cadence is high and its kept to a consistent quality) but id want all the cheats. You could toss out everything else and id be fine.
So.. maybe consider that?... I have a feeling there are others who would rather get all the cheats.. vs "experimental VR builds".
I certainly could care less about that right now. So lets say make a 2nd $13 tier, or hell 10 or 15, whatever you feel would be fair, (i hate it when #'s dont end in 0 or 5) and have it just be latest build and all the cheats.

Thoughts?


(I know having high cost amounts for things like custom or handcrafted requested content is something that needs to be throttled else.. you got everyone and their dog asking for their special waifu and then nothing would get done. So, I do get the need for things of that nature, but for what would be normal game content.. no.)