Hey everyone! It's been a really long time since I've uploaded on here! Even though I talk about my process every week or two in descriptions of my art on my FA, I wanted to put a comprehensive list together for people who might be out of the loop or may be interested in knowing what's up! ^vv^/

Chapter 2 is coming along nicely! While Chapter 1 did take a while to fully release because I built it from the ground up, there are still some major mechanics that have to be started in Chapter 2 as well! Luckily, I have gotten a bit of help from Zeocin recently, so I'll be sure to credit them in everything they make for the project!

That all said, here's a list of concepts/additions that are already finished or are currently being worked on for Monster Mystery Chapter 2! I provided links to where you can see some of these things if I've posted them elsewhere! ^vv^

• A new HUD, complete with new gameplay mechanics! The new HUD includes a mh-inspired clock, an expandable HP bar that grows as your maximum does, as well as a yellow bar that depicts your stamina (also known as your fullness)! It also has a bottom menu when you open the menu, showing details about the locale, your party, and your exploration team's stats!

• Quest timer and night time
• Currently 1 new locale and 8+ new mons! (See below how many are planned!)
• New map generation features, allowing for dynamic floors with different room counts, monsters, items, rivers, obstacles, and more!
• New music and sfx by Zeocin!
• Monster Dens
• Traps >vv> And of course lots of updates to AI to make sure your teammates dont just step on them lol
• Items like the Mystery Charm and the currency: Tokies
• Abandoning and failing Quests
• Learning over 4 skills, letting you forget one temporarily to make room
• The option to choose any monster in the entire game to play as (Or just less restrictions!)
• A new tilemap for the Burrow, as well as some of the vendors and structures
• A bunch of new skills and effects
• Lots of bug fixes and tweaks
• Subquests, which you can grind for Rank Pts or use to escape a locale early (You'll need Rank Pts to progress the story!)
• Explorer Codes! Send a code to your friend to share you and your partner with their own team! (And share the codes of subquests if you see one that you like!)

I hope that sounds appetizing already! But of course that isn't all that's planned >vv< We still have a bit of work to do! Below is a list of features/mechanics and more that we still have to work on >vv<

• 2 more tilemaps and roughly 18 new monsters (We haven't really cracked down on the sprites for the tilemaps and monsters, since I've been working on the major mechanics more than the art so far >vv<)
• A few more npcs for the Burrow, as well as decorations to make it look better
• Mechanics surrounding the Burrow (like buying, selling, storage, banking, skill management, and eating)
• The ability to recruit monsters
• Party management and departing on quests (This should allow you to take recruited monsters with you, other exploration teams, and even other players' exploration teams! So long as where you are going supports it of course, since main quests may have tighter restrictions)
• The cutscenes and progression of the story for Chapter 2 (Should be the easiest part of this list honestly!)
• New level cap: 20 (This will demand new stats, skills and genes for all monsters in the game!)

I'm so excited to show off more of Chapter 2 as we get closer! I'm really grateful of everyone's patience since this is just a passion project of mine and I'm learning new things all the time >vv< Zeocin has been a great friend of mine and has made quite a bit of music and a few of the monster sprites thus far (not to mention helping me learn some advanced computer science stuffs for it!)- I'm sure he can't wait for you to experience it too! 

I can't give a solid date on when this will be complete of course since it's quite a ways away still, but I wholeheartedly believe we are over half-way to Chapter 2! I have asked on both FA and Twitter, but if you're interested in doing some spritework with us, shoot me a message somewhere and we'll get in touch! (I'll probably ask more formally on here at some point down the road >vv<) ^vv^ Either way, in the meantime I hope I can make you smile through my art! I expect the next post on here will be the announcement of Chapter 2 itself, so if you'd like more up-to-date info or just wanna see my art, feel free to follow me at my links (found on the page for Monster Mystery!)

Anyway, all these updates should make the gameplay length of Chapter 2 somewhere in the few hours, and it won't hold you back from playing even more and collecting as much as you want after it concludes >vv< So excited! Thank you again, and see you soon! ^vv^/