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Monaco steals, sells one million copies
Multiplayer heist game Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine reached a new milestone this week: One million copies sold. Developer Pocketwatch Games noted via Twitter that the sales landmark doesn't include free copies it distributed during special promotions. The game launched in April 2013 on Steam and received a very positive review from Joystiq's own Jess Conditt at that time, prior to its May 2013 XBLA launch. Monaco features clean, retro-inspired visuals and the ability to partake in heists with up to three friends, each using specialized characters with unique skill sets like the Locksmith, Pickpocket and Lookout. Pocketwatch Games issued the final update for the game in April before fully unveiling its next game about a month ago, an arcade RTS called Lead to Fire. [Image: Pocketwatch Games]
The early (early) concept of Monaco dev's RTSMOBA in Valhalla
Andy Schatz is doing it again. Monaco seemed to linger in development limbo forever because it received attention from the IGF early in its production process. In reality, it took 3.5 years to come out. Schatz's new project, codenamed Armada, is a vague concept at this point: He has a clear vision for the design, but the theme, style and development team – not to mention the name – are all still up in the air. He announced it anyway. "I don't care this time because, fuck it," Schatz tells me at GDC. He's not going to release a game until "it's worth buying," but this time around he plans to throw Armada up on Steam Early Access and get player feedback. Monaco launched on XBLA, so Early Access was out of the question. Schatz isn't shooting completely in the dark with Armada – he knows what type of game it's going to be, and he has an idea for the theme. He wants to build an RTS with MOBA elements, something accessible yet still complex. In the way Monaco twisted the stealth genre, he wants Armada to feel familiar to RTS players, but with layers that smooth out the learning curve. He throws around the name StarCraft, and elements such as "champions" and "decks."
'Armada' is Monaco dev's new game, an RTS
Monaco developer Andy Schatz has announced his next game will be a real-time strategy game, described as a "battle of wits, not a battle of clicks." Codenamed [Armada], Schatz wants to make a game where experienced players can compete at a high level, and where newcomers might be easily introduced to it by friends at a party. "With Monaco, we took an old school genre (Stealth), we simplified the controls, and then we built an incredibly complex game that could be played at high and low skill levels alike. I want to do the same with the RTS genre," wrote Schatz in the game's announcement on Gamasutra. He says the game's design philosophy will revolve around feeling like a traditional RTS, but all mechanics must be equally fun on keyboard/mouse as they are on a twin-stick console gamepad. Monaco's success has given Schatz the "leeway" to make whatever game he wants to make next. He has not announced a timetable for [Armada]'s launch. [Image: A.Schatz]
Monaco tops 750K sold, makes off with $215K in Humble Bundle 11
Sales of the neon stealth game Monaco have hit 750,000 following its inclusion in Humble Indie Bundle 11. During the bundle bonanza, Monaco earned approximately $215,000, developer Andy Schatz writes in a rundown on his blog. "That's a nice hefty sum," he adds. Monaco was one of the "beat the average" games, meaning customers had to pay more than roughly $4.70 to get it. The entire bundle earned $2.3 million from 494,000 units, and of those, 370,000 were "beat the average" purchases that included Monaco. Most customers chose to distribute their payment with the default settings of 65 percent to developers, 20 percent to charity and 15 to Humble, and with six developers plus three mid-week additions, Schatz walked with 8 percent of the total payments. During the Humble sale, Schatz tracked Monaco's Steam numbers to see if sales there would drop – and they didn't. "Despite the huge number of units that we sold in the Humble Bundle, it doesn't appear that our presence in the HIB affected our day-to-day Steam revenue," he writes. "Why is this? My guess is that customers tend to be loyal to sales channels." Schatz told Joystiq near the beginning of Humble Indie Bundle 11 that he'd never been disappointed with Monaco's sales, even though XBLA numbers fell below his expectations. "Prior to HIB11, we had sold about 375,000 units across all platforms, with XBLA accounting for about 10 percent of those," he said. "Part of the strength of our PC sales have been the huge free updates (of which we have planned one final one, which will wrap up the storyline of the Gentleman and his crew). No plans at the moment for a sequel; I'm actually just beginning work on our next title." [Image: Pocketwatch Games]
Monaco breaks 500,000 sales on back of Humble Bundle inclusion
Top-down heister Monaco: What's Yours is Mine reached the milestone of 500,000 sales this week, no doubt thanks to its inclusion in Humble Indie Bundle 11. Andy Schatz's Pocketwatch Games trumpeted the news on Twitter, saying total sales are around the 520,000 mark, and only include about half of the total HIB 11 sales - at the time of writing the bundle's sold 270,000 odd. Monaco is a "Beat the Average" purchase in HIB 11, meaning it's a bonus for those who spend more than the average spent on the bundle. Monaco hit and ran onto Xbox 360, PC, Mac, and Linux last year, but eight months ago the sales news wasn't as encouraging. Back then, Schatz noted he was disappointed with the game's Xbox Live sales, conceding the parts played by an underwhelming demo along with the delay that prevented a simultaneous release alongside PC. That said, there should be plenty more Monaco sales to hit over the next fortnight, with Humble Indie Bundle 11 not set to conclude until March 3. [Image: Pocketwatch Games]
Monaco's 'The Architect's Patch' shortens, streamlines the game
A free update for Monaco: What's Yours is Mine, which has sold over 275,000 copies since its debut in April, adds an "Enhanced" play mode full of shorter, more streamlined maps that developer Pocketwatch Games hopes will make for an overall better experience. And if you're a purist, relax: You can still play the old-style maps in "Classic" mode. This update eliminates 'huge parts of our least favorite levels," Pocketwatch Games says in its announcement post. On top of tweaking the campaign, The Architect's Patch also adds a new campaign section, automatically unlocked for all players, full of three PVP missions and some new mechanics for the base campaigns – like doors that require certain keys to proceed and roaming NPCs who carry cash and items. A lot of the cuts come from Andy Nguyen, the level designer on Monaco. After the game shipped, he had a long list of gripes with each level – as did players – and so this update was borne. It's an update fueled by stats: Pocketwatch noticed less than ten percent of players who finished the first level actually made it through and completed the last level of the first campaign. The developer is hoping that'll change with The Architect's Patch, which is available now on Steam.
Monaco celebrates successful Linux infiltration with Steam sale
Monaco: What's Yours is Mine has picked the Linux lock today. The free update implements a smattering of new content, including a Zombie mode and new mini-campaign. To celebrate this new update and platform, Andy Schatz's co-op stealth game is down to $6 on Steam. A four-pack, which includes one copy for you and three copies you can gift to Steam friends (not only generous, but also useful given the game's multiplayer nature), is $18. The Steam sale ends on Wednesday, October 23 at 10am PT. Monaco, which is presented in a highly-stylized top-down view, stars eight crooks with varying abilities who team up to infiltrate secure locations and rob them of precious goods. Security cameras, guards and locked doors are just a few of the obstacles impeding player progress.
Monaco hits Linux on Monday with free, new content
Monaco is coming to Linux on Monday, October 21, breaking down another barrier to entry for crafty players. Monaco is already out on Xbox 360, PC and Mac, and it even has a European boxed collector's edition because it's a high roller. The Linux edition will have "a ton of free/new content," according to the announcement. Monaco on Linux is especially exciting given Valve's recent announcements: SteamOS, a Linux-powered operating system, and Steam Machines, in-home streaming and gaming boxes running on SteamOS. Every new system needs at least one great game, and now Steam Machines have Monaco. We certainly think Monaco falls into the "great" category. All technical speculation aside, the Monaco Linux announcement comes with a picture of a chibi Redhead in a penguin suit, which is adorable.
Indie developers cautiously optimistic about self-publishing on Xbox One
Microsoft's reversal of its publishing philosophy for the Xbox One has obvious and wide-reaching implications for the indie development community. While the original plan mandated that developers release games through a third-party publisher or broker a deal with Microsoft itself, indies will now be able to self-publish. Furthermore, retail Xbox One SKUs will function as development units, which historically are more expensive and more difficult to acquire than off-the-shelf models. "Ideally, this news could have been broadcast more proudly and loudly months ago, giving indies more time to prepare strategies for upcoming games," Minicore Studios founder and CEO John Warren told us, "but I suppose they don't owe anyone that courtesy. We know now, so now we can prepare for life with a Microsoft console, which is something I wouldn't have said yesterday." Warren and his team at Minicore are in the process of Kickstarting PC, Mac and Xbox 360 versions of their latest project, Laika Believes: The Sun at Night. "I think releasing on Xbox One without a publisher is a big step forward, of course, but the fact that (eventually) I'll be able to use my retail console as our dev kit is huge," he added. "My secondary (maybe flailing and futile) hope is that the fees for publishing won't be insane. It's one thing to only have to shell out $600 for a dev kit, but quite another if we have to spend another $10k on publishing fees. My hope is they'll be content with 30 percent of revenue and be done with it." Cautious optimism was a consistent theme among most of the indie developers we reached out to, though some had greater reservations over Microsoft's inner machinations than others.
PSA: Limbo now on iOS, Monaco moves to Mac
If you're arachnophobic, you may take issue with having a giant spider on your phone. Limbo, Playdead's breakout video game with legs, is now available in the App store for $5 for iPad and iPhone. "Dark, disturbing, yet eerily beautiful, Limbo is a world that deserves to be explored," our own Richard Mitchell concluded in his review of the original Xbox Live Arcade release back in 2010. Another indie hit, Monaco, is on Mac today through Steam for $15. If you already own Monaco on Windows you can get the Mac version right away through Steamplay. The cooperative heist game also comes with a level editor with Steam Workshop support.
Andy Schatz lets slip scrapped competitive modes for Monaco
Andy Schatz took some time off from thievery in his recent release, Monaco, and sat down with the fine people of Reddit to answer all of the questions they threw at him, such as, "Which features didn't make it into the game?" "Cops and Robbers, and Thief vs Thief," Schatz replied. "We wanted to add two additional competitive game modes to the game. We got them to playable, but we discovered that for both modes the balance didn't really work within the existing levels." Thief vs Thief had players compete in a single stage, to see who could collect the most coins, grab the trophy and get out first – but the player who left the gate first had a huge advantage, sucking up all of the coins, and the mode didn't turn out to be as fun as Schatz had hoped, he said. Cops and Robbers added a police officer to every level, but the early stages were too easy and the later stages too difficult. With some tweaks, Schatz said he hoped to bring Cops and Robbers to Monaco "at some point," possibly as DLC. Monaco's characters evolved along with the gameplay, and Schatz described how each of them spawned, early in development: "The Gentleman used to be a hypnotist, The Lookout used to be the Prowler (parkour expert), The Mole used to be The Muscle, The Pickpocket used to be The Rat (could rat out teammates to save himself). The Redhead had a taser or a pistol at one point. The Pickpocket started out as dwarf twins instead of a man with a monkey." Stranger things. Once Monaco's final touches were all settled, Schatz said he had an idea to develop a "good console RTS (or at least simple-controls RTS) that is as strategically as deep as the competitive RTSes." First, he has to work on the Monaco level editor, expansions and maybe more ports – he singled out Vita and PS4, while Mac and Linux ports are already on the books.
Monaco for XBLA goes full monte this Friday
Monaco will break out of its Xbox Live Arcade certification holding cell this Friday, May 10. The game, which was supposed to sneak onto XBLA April 24, was delayed due to a bug, which would cause disconnects during online play. The PC version launched as expected. Our review of the game a couple weeks ago said Monaco "runs deeper than its heist theme, presenting a challenge for hardcore fans of strategy and clever design."%Gallery-168499%
Monaco made good on Indie Fund $100K before launch, what it means
Since 2010, Indie Fund has helped launch high-profile games such as Dear Esther, QUBE and Antichamber, each one recouping investment within days or even hours. The first game in which Indie Fund ever put its faith (and money), Monaco, launched last week and made back its $100,000 investment in negative time, before the game went live on April 24.Developer Andy Schatz opened Monaco pre-orders via the Humble Store in December, and Steam pre-orders went live on April 17. By April 20, Monaco had grossed $120,000, Schatz said, exceeding its Indie Fund investment a full four days before the game launched."For me the most significant thing about the early success with regards to Indie Fund is that it shows that there are many ways of approaching funding, from crowdfunding to investment models like Indie Fund, to personal loans – I know a number of devs that have taken loans from other devs – to the traditional publisher model," Schatz told Joystiq. "More options means the studios can customize their relationships to fit their personalities and their projects."Schatz used the Indie Fund investment partially to pay contractors and then to sustain himself and company expenses, including trips to PAX. Regardless of the cold, hard numbers, we thought Indie Fund's investment paid off particularly well with Monaco.
Monaco XBLA delay: Half of bug fixed, another patch to MS this week
Monaco was supposed to hit XBLA on April 24 alongside its PC version, but one day before launch, an issue forced developer Andy Schatz and Pocketwatch Games to delay the XBLA release. Today, Schatz explains that he submitted one fix for the bug, but it needs more work before it can officially launch on XBLA."It was a minor but important bug that was causing disconnects in online play," Schatz writes on Facebook. "I submitted an update to attempt to fix the bug early in the week, but unfortunately it only half fixed the problem. I'm working on another fix now that I'm hoping to submit this week. Once it's confirmed fixed it shouldn't take long to push it through and get the game out."Schatz can't set a release date now since that decision is up to Microsoft, but he promises to share more information as soon as he steals has it."I do know that fans are starting to get a little impatient with the lack of information," he says. "I wish I could give you more specific information, but until I have a confirmed fix, I won't be able to give a date. Hoping to have a little more information for you and fill you in on more of the details as soon as I have it!"For what it's worth (we know you don't get out of bed for less than six figures) we found the PC version of Monaco to be a complex and gorgeous strategy game in the vein of Ocean's 11, but with more pixels.
Monaco pre-orders start this week, 'Wednesday is the plan'
Monaco: What's Yours is Mine, the stylized, indie, heist game from Andy Schatz and Pocketwatch Games, will be available for pre-order this week – "Wednesday is the plan" – according to the official Monaco Twitter.Monaco pre-orders will go through the Humble Store and will come with a Steam key, and Schatz will have four-packs available. "Also there will be some MAJOR preorder bonus goodies," the Monaco Twitter promises.Schatz previously slated Monaco for a simultaneous launch on PC and XBLA, with Mac to follow.
First full-level playthrough of Monaco is intense, even for a casino heist
Last year Monaco won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and the Excellence in Design awards at the IGF, and this year developer Andy Schatz is hosting the entire show -- and Monaco isn't even out yet. It does, however, look like it can live up to its seemingly preemptive praise in the above video, which offers the game's first full-level run-through. (We've got a preview for you as well!) The video shows Schatz playing a co-op level, Monte Carlo Casino Heist, with the Hacker and the Pickpocket characters. The gameplay seems frantic, perhaps because this is a later level and Schatz knows what he's doing fairly well, or maybe because robbing a casino is a chaotic task in general. Monaco will launch on PC/Mac and at least one console when it's finally completed.
Cliff Bleszinski to host GDC Awards, Schatz returns for IGF Awards
Planning to attend GDC? If you are, you'll get to see everyone's favorite design director of Epic Games, Cliff Bleszinski, host the 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, replacing Double Fine's Tim Schafer as host. The Independent Games Festival Awards is kicking it old-school with 2007-2009's host, Andy Schatz of Monaco, winner of the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Excellence in Design awards in 2010's IGF. Peruse the list of finalists for both award shows right here, and look for winners to be announced March 7 from GDC.
Monaco preview: Get in, get out, get paid
You know what? My friends and I are better thieves than George Clooney. Well, we are if Monaco is any indication. Sure, George may have all the charm and handsomeness, but if there's any one trait I look for in my friends, it's the appreciation of a good heist. And Monaco is all about stealing some stuff. The premise of Monaco is simple: Take your team into a heavily guarded building to steal a trophy, and get out without getting caught or killed. A retro feel, a top-down camera angle, and a simplified control scheme comprise its approach to getting some co-op good times going. Rather than implement an overly complex control scheme that requires a specific set of controls for each class, Monaco designer Andy Schatz has culled the controls down to a two-button system. Every action, like hacking a computer, breaking into a safe or unlocking the door to the escape car is done by running into the object for a couple of seconds. %Gallery-117834%
E3 reader meetup: Monaco
Monaco is basically the game version of the film Heat ... basically. Four co-op players control one class each, working together towards pulling off a successful heist. As you can see in the gameplay demo after the break, Monaco employs an interpretation of a top-down view for gameplay, with pixelated characters navigating perils toward the eventual thievery. If the unique premise doesn't do it for you, the gorgeous graphical style should. Remember Loaded (and Re-Loaded) for PlayStation 1? That's okay, most people don't, but that's the nearest it gets in terms of graphical similarity -- and that was 16 years ago. It's worth noting that Monaco isn't anywhere near as brutally violent/gory as Loaded, they just both feature a beautiful top-down art style. Anyway, developer Pocketwatch Games is bringing Monaco to our E3 2011 Reader Meetup Extravaganza this coming Friday evening for attendees to play, and we think you'd be a fool to miss it. In preparation for the event, Pocketwatch Games kindly sent over new images, which we've dropped into the gallery below. Pocketwatch dev Andy Schatz notes that since maps are "generated dynamically from the level data," folks will be able to create levels with the same complexity as the devs themselves, "or whatever they want." However, we get the feeling that our levels won't look quite as good as Pocketwatch's.%Gallery-125352%
Come hang out with Joystiq (and play a bunch of great games!) at our E3 2011 reader meetup
We love you, Los Angeles, you know that. Sure, it's been awhile since we last hung out, but we wanna make that up to you. And not just any boring old dinner-and-a-movie kinda thing either, a full blown party! Next Friday, June 10, Joystiq will take over the La Cita bar in downtown LA between 5:30 and 9:00PM PST for a game-filled, giveaway-packed reader meetup. As our staff will be all up in your city for the duration of next week, we took the liberty of renting out a bar for a few hours so you -- our best friends -- could hang out, talk about the week's big news, play a bunch of great games, and take all the game swag that's been piling up in our domiciles. Chris Hecker will be swinging through with SpyParty, as will Andy Schatz with Monaco, to name just a few of the games/game devs at the event. And how about a chance to play Harmonix' next project before anyone else? 'Cause that'll totally be there too. Unfortunately, for our friends under 21, the event space is restricted to those of us with legal access to alcohol. We're really sorry and we still love you! It was, as they say, out of our hands. An extra big thank you to all of our participants! SpyParty, Chris Hecker (@SpyParty) Nidhogg, Mark Essen (@Messhof) Unannounced Project, Ska Studios (@SkaStudios) Monaco, Pocketwatch Games (@MonacoIsMine) Retro City Rampage, Brian Provinciano (@RetroCR) Q.U.B.E., Toxic Games (@qubegame) Unannounced Project, Harmonix (@Harmonix) Still with us? Head past the break for details, and make sure to RSVP on our Facebook event page so we know how many of you to expect!
