Monster Lord - Tech Demo

Currently working on an erotic RPG, a pretty big project with many ambitions. Despite the erotic nature, the goal is to make a great game that would still be able to stand on it's own without the erotic content. So why the erotic content? I don't have a good answer for that other then it's something I want to do. This game is a culmination of everything I personally like in games. Simply put, it's a passion project.

Synopsis: The human race was eradicated during the war between gods that lasted eons. The protagonist is the last surviving human that was held in a research lab and preserved for roughly a millennia. As the lab malfunctions and allows him to escape, he awakens in a world long after the war. A world where humans are remembered as nothing but scary stories of the evil beings that once were. Join our protagonist as he tries to find his place in this new world that's openly hostile to his own kind.

Planned Features

Fully custom code

Completely written from scratch in the Godot engine. This makes it very easy to just add stuff on the fly, like mini-games, unique events or special boss mechanics. Basically, I'm not limited by the tools I've decided to use.

Unique gameplay

The game does not follow any conventional formula. The closest formula I could draw parallels from would be a completely revamped "Real-time first-person blobber". The biggest difference is the emphasis is on the real time strategy, focusing on AI customization similar to FFXII gambits to try and automate advanced party dynamics you'd normally see in old school MMOs such as hate control, ability chains and cooldown management.

The game will also have a big emphasize on drawing your own maps. There's a whole streamlined process already done. Many dungeon puzzles will exploit these mechanics offering some fresh experiences.

I'll showcase more in depth soon.

Great story

Story and lore expanding across 12 regions, each with their own conflicting politics, morals and issues. The story explores plenty intricate dilemmas. Each characters also have well thought out development and personal issues they have to surmount. I've been story-boarding and lore-building this universe for well over 3 years and it is the primary motivator behind the game. The story won't be a YOLO until I lose inspiration and don't know what to do next, it's already all planned out.

The story will be a little dark at times. It follows the story the of a man who unintentionally becomes a staple image of "evil" when all he was trying to do was do good in a world he didn't belong in. Betrayals, killings, drugs, mental illness, decents to madness, destruction, it'll be present in the story. But it's not all bad, just a warning to people expecting flowers and rainbows the whole way through.

The story will progress along a bit slowly at first, visiting each region, meeting the key characters, seeing their politics, getting a taste of their issues. Think of the first game of any legends of heroes series where the actual main plot only starts in the second game. The purpose of the first game was to acquaint the player with the universe. I'll be following a similar approach, it's much better than info dumping everything, and there's a lot of lore to share. Then, the story will pickup a bit and get a bit darker as everyones ideals are clashing all to finish up in a nice climatic ending.

Bottom line, it's a long story with lots planned. It will most likely take a few separate entries to complete.

Huge cast

50+ playable characters most of which are story related and romanceable. The gameplay focuses more on selecting the right party for the job rather than offering full customization of each individual member. So there's a few playable characters that only serve as units to fill a particular gameplay role, like fire emblem or disgaea. Focusing on party selection rather than individual party member customization allows all characters to shine and have their turn in the spotlight both in the story and in the gameplay. A big problem for games with big casts is the optimal way to play is to usually focus on one lineup, making most the cast completely useless, this game aims to fix that.

Special take on monstergirls

Yeah I love monstergirls, like a lot. Only problem is I've yet to see any monstergirl heavy story that suites my tastes. The closest thing was bunny black, but the monstergirls in there are barely monstergirls (still a great game). So, I'll make it myself. I'm not a fan of shota, I'm not a fan femdom, and those two themes alone account for pretty much 99% of monstergirl content. The monstergirls won't be sex hungry like the kenkou cross ones, they're more like actual animals and monsters. Pretty much how I'd envision them to function in order for a more realistic world to  function properly. Some are intelligent enough to speak and form civilizations, some are like animals that can be tamed, others are actual monsters out to kill you with the power akin to mighty dragon.

In a world where all monsters, monstergirls included, are regarded as abominations unfit of life. I'm gonna tell the story of the rise of the monster lord, the man who can tame the scary monsters and brought them together.

Short Term Goals

Tech demo

I'll start with a small tech demo. It'll be a small, but complete, non-canon game. The purpose will be to show all the mechanics and what to expect in a confined environment. Expect a full party of characters, some mobs, some bosses, a dungeon, a hub, a few quests, all mechanics fully functioning (UI, custom AI, mapping, encyclopedia with hotlinking, crafting, etc etc) and a couple h-scenes.

Basically I need this confined environment to properly test everything. You don't start with a full party or with all the features unlocked in the actual game and I need those to fully test everything. So, might as well make a small standalone game out of it.

Chapter 1-1

I have absolutely no experience to properly guess how long this will take. BUT, with the base code entirely done, and a workflow properly defined during the development of the tech demo. It's just a matter of creating the actual content (art, eventing, writting dialogue). I hope it will be as quick as I envision it. Chapter 1-1 will include the prologue, the tutorial and the entire sub-story of the first region. I envision about 10-20hrs of gameplay. I might make intermediate versions, I'll have to see after the tech demo when I have a better feel for the workflow and whats possible without slowing down overall progress.