I have some unfortunate news about the game and its future development. It will require a bit of an explanation, so I invite you to listen to what I have been going through to get the game to this state.

TLDR: I am no longer allowed to run a company, as I will be going back to receiving unemployment benefits. Because I have to be actively job searching, I can’t guarantee full-time development at this point in time, but I have not given up on the game.

The practical side.

First off, I unfortunately had to make the decision to remove the purchase option for the game on the Steam store. If you already bought the game, you will be able to continue playing it, and I have the intention of fixing any critical bugs if they appear, as well as continuing development, though at a potentially slower pace. Should you want to refund the game, Steam should be able to help with that. I deeply appreciate anyone who has bought the game, and hope you have had fun with it so far. I am not intending on giving up on the game, but I have to take a step back from its development due to a rather complex situation.

If you are interested in the game, the best you can do is to wishlist it for now and share the store page with your friends. For anyone who would also want to play the game, I want to release a demo version, though I can’t give any time estimates at the moment.

Why this decision?

Monsterstone: Prelude had its early beginnings around 2013, when I started learning how to use Unity and Blender, while also attending university classes covering game development related skills such as programming, UI design, narratives etc. If you are curious, you can go to the Bended Rules Facebook page and take a stroll back in time, as I made a few posts about what I was up to back then, you can find it here: www.facebook.com/bendedrules - new posts get reposted on both the Bended Rules and Dragon Claw Community Discord if you are interested in development posts.

Fast forward to 2018, where I graduated from University, now a master of Medialogy with a specialisation in games. Since then, I have been attempting to get a foot through the door in the game development scene, but have had no luck landing any positions, even with several years worth of game development experience. I also had no success landing a job in other lines of work either, so it has been a very long and frustrating couple of years.

In 2020, the jobcenter I was getting help from suggested a programme called “innovative growth”, which I took part in. It spanned over the course of a few months, with business development “classes” and time given to work on your company idea. At that time, Monsterstone: Prelude was slowly taking shape, and I was able to release a demo version of the game on Itch.io, which is now unavailable due to the Steam release. The programme was split into 3 segments, and between each, you had to present your business idea to a panel of investors/business people, quite nerve wrecking stuff! If they deemed you worthy, you would progress to the next step, but they also had a limit on how many they allowed through their filtering process, so I got eliminated simply because I was alone on my team, and the idea was a video game. Still learned a lot, but it meant I had to return to the job searching market.

Then the epidemic hit, and made everything even more difficult. Getting a job or even an internship seemed impossible. In 2021, I started streaming on www.twitch.tv/dragonking2504 because I wanted to get better at making public appearances, and also sharing what I do. I met a lot of really cool people and learned a ton of practical skills that would improve the quality of the streams and more.

At the start of 2022, I had another opportunity through the jobcenter. This time, it was something called “micro loan”. This programme gave me 10 weeks of business development classes and sparring with a dedicated business coach, who also ran all the classes. Once those weeks were up, the product was a fairly fleshed out business plan, an application for this micro loan, which is essentially a low rate loan through the Danish government. Most importantly, I also got to have a registered company, allowing me to do official business, and the programme allowed me to do so, even while being unemployed, while also receiving social welfare benefits (money) from the government, and I wasn’t obligated to be actively job searching either. I got through this process, and everything was going well, though I often felt that I had to wait for the next bit of crucial information in order to continue, so some time was wasted here and there.

Why it is hard to get into the game development scene in Denmark

Normally, EU law forbids a government to “fund” local companies, and unfortunately, that also means you can’t receive any social welfare benefits (money), while also having a registered company, even if the company makes no money. This is important, because it makes it impossible to do a lot of what you have to in order to produce and release a video game. The worst that could happen is the government demanding you to repay whatever money you received over the last x months, cause they “caught” you running a company when you weren't allowed to, a risk I was not willing to take.

So I have been stuck in a situation where there were no jobs on the horizon and I could not establish my own either. For reference, there are about 20 game companies in Denmark that could use more people, but realistically, it is maybe closer to 6 companies that would be able to afford it on a more regular basis. This essentially means you have to compete with hundreds of other unemployed, with each year only adding more people that are fresh out of university, not to mention that you also compete with those that have better proven track records and have connections in the industry that I don't.

What happened during the micro loan period (6 months)?

After signing the papers for the loan, I was provided with 6 months to become self-sufficient. 6 months to ready the game demo for an Early Access release, spread awareness and interest, set up the store page and all the other small time consuming tasks that would pop up. If by the 30th October I was not self-sufficient, I would have to either deactivate the registered company into a dormant state, or continue running it, while also doing a part-time job at the side. Given my previous experience on the job market, I was not confident that I would be able to get a part time job on such short notice, so I defaulted to going back to job searching and disabling the company for now.

I spent the first 4 months on doing full-time development of the game, and did a decent amount of development streams, which are all available on my Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UClvlZgo7JS01BB0c0lumeeg/videos

During this time, I failed to promote development on the game on other platforms, and I also failed at making weekly status updates. I was getting quite stressed because of the time pressure, and I realised it would take a lot of my time to just work on the game. 4 months later, and the game had sound and music, an ingame configuration menu for most settings, and I had laid the groundwork for adding more content. The 5th month, I spent mostly working on the Steam store page, as there was a lot of text that had to be written, art assets to be sorted out and also some really annoying practical hurdles, such as my passport having to be renewed and also needing a company bank account. This meant a lot of waiting around for things to happen, but I did my best to do tasks in a proper order to eliminate as much waiting time as possible. Whenever there was downtime, I would work on the Upgrades Update, so I only needed to spend an extra week on it after the Early Access release.

Now the game was out in Early Access… and I didn’t have a proper plan to follow at this stage. I could only plan so far ahead, but a lot of the ins and outs of the Early Access onboarding process, and what to do post release, was foreign to me. I had to learn as I went on, and that just wasn’t fast enough. I was alone, with a problem I had to solve, and a strict deadline looming overhead. The game was not selling any significant amount of units, I panicked a bit, and figured I would give the game some time, and work on the update.

Realistically, I should have postponed the Early Access release until I had finished the update and included it at launch. I felt pressured into rushing the EA release due to the deadlines, so when I did, the game had only very basic upgrades, and I was not happy about marketing the game in that state.

The final month

I now had a game in Early Access, with enough content for me to consider it acceptable, and a clear path on how to make more with relative ease. Too bad I was out of time.

Now I had only 1 month left to become self-sufficient, and Monsterstone: Prelude was not doing as well as I needed it to in terms of sales. It was becoming really difficult to deal with the stress at this point too, but I had to give it a try. So I started doing what I should have done on day 1. I had already sent out requests for curator reviews on Steam, but it was far from enough. If no one was directed to the store page, barely anyone gets to read those reviews. To make matters more stressful, I was also having more talks with my business coach about the situation and what to do forward, taking time away from other tasks.

I began preparing marketing material that I could send out to influencers, as well as offering a game key in return for some exposure, and hopefully establish some kind of collaborative situation where both parties would benefit. I have been in talks with some of the amazing people I have met through my 1 year of streaming and sent out a few keys, but there is still a long way to go.

Because the deadline is the 30th October, I actually have slightly less than 6 months, as I will be on my own the day after the cutoff date, if I don’t set things in motion for a transition several days prior. This means the purchase option removal, deactivating the company and applying for social welfare benefits as well as returning to the job market. I should be fine in regards to the micro loan, as I haven't had many expenses for the company.

What will happen moving forward?

Besides what I have already mentioned, I can’t say for sure or give any time-frame for anything. Generally, I will be slowing down, so I can do everything I need to at a more reasonable pace, and not feel like everything has to be rushed, ending up in bad decisions. For the more practical side of things, it largely depends on what activities the jobcenter wants me to partake in, and what else might happen.

I still want to work on the game, and also try to create an interest in it. If I manage to get a job, there would be nothing preventing me from reactivating the company, which would allow for the store purchases to be re-enabled too. I would only do that, if I consider the job position to be stable though, as I can’t be going back and forth with the availability of the game.

If something noteworthy happens, I will make sure to keep you updated through Steam, Discord, Facebook and Twitch.

For now, thanks again for giving Monsterstone: Prelude a chance, and I hope I managed to satisfy any potential questions.