What is Mediocre Monster?

Imps. Goblins. Slimes. Shitake Mushrooms. These are a few of the first and weakest monsters you face in classic JRPGs like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Chrono Trigger. These monsters lead a depressing existence: walk around the forest, get slashed by a level 1 hero a few times, and disintegrate in an orange blur. Or so you think.  

This is all in a day's work for the employees of "The Bestiary", the worldwide leader in random monster outsourcing. Employees go to the office each morning, get dressed, and go to work to pretend to die to heroes for their enjoyment.

Mediocre Monster puts you in the role of Gob, as he goes through everyday life working as a random monster. Follow Gob as he goes through a journey from being a lowly tutorial monster in the Tutorial Forest to being palette swapped into a well-respected monster who still dies to heroes easily, but after slightly more hits.

Gob lives in The Grind, which has seen better days. It was once a thriving, developing town in the 1990s, its main industry being outsourced RPG monsters. Since then, many monsters have left the town for greener pastures as better opportunities arose in the Mobile and FPS districts. 

Though some monsters who put up local businesses still chose to stay behind, the now near-abandoned town features very few random monsters and decrepit buildings.

As times grew tougher, town morale became low, and the villagers turned to cheap forms of entertainment. 

Sometimes, however, cheap entertainment is more expensive than one would hope. Chief Pocajello, the village mayor, grew addicted to free-to-play games. As his addiction grew, his habit became anything but free. Village funds were used to purchase virtual gems. And soon the town was in dire financial trouble and was in danger of being repurposed into a casual city builder location.

Chief Pocajello had no choice but to pressure the town's main source of income, The Bestiary, to cover his debts, and save the town.

The Bestiary enlists Gob, a lowly tutorial monster, as its new random monster recruit in order to bolster its ranks. 

The battle system will definitely look familiar, as you've seen the interface countless times. It's a traditional, turn-based JRPG battle system. This time though, you'll be playing the other side.

Cue battle music for increased enjoyment of this section:

When heroes face these regular monsters, they are oblivious to the amount of work and effort these monsters put in to give them a good experience (and experience points).   

The goal of the monster is to eventually pretend to die as the hero strikes a killing blow. There are a lot of tasks to be done, however, before your HP reaches 0.

A few pointers to remember (taken from the RPG Monster Handbook):

As seen in the trailer, Gob has several rules to follow in order to properly perform his tasks as a random monster. Below is an example of compliance and non-compliance of the taunt rule:

As Gob rises up the ranks, and faces higher level heroes with higher level abilities, more complicated rules are introduced. These include preparing for taunts, dropping the correct items, reacting correctly to elemental weaknesses, and others.  

Gob must perform all his tasks correctly and eventually give the heroes their satisfying victory.

Stop battle music, and play victory music:

Gob is then paid a weekly salary dependent on his job performance. As more mistakes are committed, more deductions are taken from his salary. Gob can then spend his money around town for training, skills, items, town upgrades, house improvements, and new buildings.

Eventually, Gob meets other monsters who he can join in work teams. 

Career opportunities abound in the random monster industry! Promotions are in store for monsters who do their job right! Benefits for higher positions include higher pay grades, more exotic work locations (everyone's tired of the forest), new skills and equipment, wider range of clients, and even body transforming palette swaps!

As an RPG monster working in the forest, Gob's main task is to "level-up" heroes to prepare them for higher level areas. This entails giving them good battle experiences (and thus, "experience points") and dropping items that will help them in their adventures. Heroes also have a happiness score which is determined by battle satisfaction and fulfilling their wants. (These can include receiving rare loot, not getting hit, activating their limit break, and so on.)

Hero Theme Music

Although monsters can face heroes from different parties and adventures, they are assigned a "main hero party" which they are especially responsible for.

Gob has been specifically assigned to the game below:

Once Gob has successfully leveled up the required number of heroes, including his assigned hero party, he is then eligible for promotion, which will enable him to work in different areas and environments.

Work-life balance is very important in a random monster career. When Gob isn't busy facing heroes, he spends the rest of his day in town, where he can interact with fellow monsters.

You really can't enjoy walking around town if you don't have music to back you up. Here are three pieces of music (available on the soundtrack) to accompany you:

Day Theme

Night Theme 1:

Night Theme 2: 

The town is populated by monsters of different species. Aside from being RPG monsters, the town's inhabitants serve various roles in the community. A skeletal mage serves as the town librarian, an android serves as the town blacksmith, and a weeping ghost naturally serves as the town crier. 

Gob is also tasked by the mayor to help out in reviving the town. Gob can use his hard earned gold to improve the town aesthetics by improving roads, fences, and street lights and by constructing new buildings.

Gob can also invite new monsters to repopulate the town. Decisions are made on which monsters to recruit, which affects the town, and the industry as a whole. As more monsters move in, the town takes shape, which open up new opportunities and activities for Gob.

Improving the town is vital to saving it and keeping it afloat. Gob and the rest of the townsmonsters must work together to make sure that their town is not taken away from them.

Why Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is a great platform to get feedback from the public while we are still in the middle of developing it. We value external feedback and putting our project on Kickstarter helps us get the community involved in making our game the best that it can be.

The positive feedback that we have gotten through various media channels such as Kotaku and the Square Enix community has encouraged us to keep the community involved in the development of our game.

We have pooled all our time, funds, and energy into making this game. If we could grind monsters to earn more gold, we would. But since we can't, we need your help to give us a push financially and help us finish our game.

Thank you in advance for your support! May your critical hits always trigger, your drops always be rare ones, and your levels go up!

Monetary stretch goals will be provided once the game has reached its funding target. For now, we have a backer quest stretch goal that you all can contribute to!

Backer Quests Stretch Goal

Complete the 8 quests below (cumulatively) to unlock this stretch goal! 

Send all proof of quest completion to: 

[email protected] or facebook.com/mediocremonstergame

Description of Rewards

DRM - Free Copy of the Game - A digital copy of the game available for download once finished, and a steam key if desired.

Your Name in Credits - Your name in the credits. Tell your friends!

Digital Soundtrack - A copy of the full soundtrack of the game, ready for playing during life's random encounters. Fighting for a parking spot? Battle Music. Finally found a parking spot? Victory Music.

Beta Access - Play the game before anyone else does! Get access to closed beta when available.

Digital Artbook and Comicbook - Get a PDF version of the Artbook, which will contain character profiles, early character sketches, early concept art, and more! Also get a PDF copy of all Mediocre Monster webcomics. (Webcomics are available online at comic.mediocremonster.com)

Hall of Fame - See your name in the monster hall of fame, along with an icon of your chosen monster type displayed in the town!

Tombstone - See your name and your own personal message in your very own tombstone in the village Cemetery!

Caricature in-game - Get a caricature of yourself (or someone else) as a monster in the game's art style! This caricature will also show up in the game as a portrait or poster.

Additional Copy - Get not one, but TWO copies of the game!

Song About You - We will write a song according to your chosen details and theme (or you can write the song yourself), which will be sung by the village bard when you visit the bar! The song will also be on the game's soundtrack!

Physical Package - Keepin' it old school! Get a CD of the soundtrack, a physical copy of the artbook and comicbook, a shirt, and a poster! 

3D Printed Figure of Gob - Get a hand-painted, 3D printed mini figure of Gob for display at your desk!

Create-a-Hero - Become one of the heroes that Gob faces in battle! We will work with you to create and design your very own hero complete with all animation sets and skills!

Create-a-Party - Create a whole party of heroes according to your design and theme! Also, you can decide on the "game" that these heroes are taking part in an adventure of.

Major Character - A Major character will be designed according to your likeness and name! Be part of the Mediocre Monster story!

Opal Squad Games - Get all future game releases from Opal Squad!

Hey you made it all the way to the end! 

Thanks for the support and please help us spread the word!

Mediocre Monster will be released on PC and Mac.