MonsterCare_Schedule_1yr
MonsterCare: production schedule
Companion to MonsterCare_Core_Design_v0.3. Working draft, June 22 2026.
Scenario: 1 year
Scope this plan commits to
- 5 guests, each a full 5-beat arc, plus Sparky's meta-arc and the ending.
- Ship on PC (Steam), Steam Deck verified. No console certification this year.
- Animalese, no full VO. No procedural content. Localization light or post-launch.
Starting point: the existing prototype
An early prototype already exists from the previous design, which retires most of the greenfield engineering risk. It includes:
- Systems (proto): gardening, cooking, scheduling, building and placement, guest AI, dialogue, the day-phase cycle, inventory and items, and a tagging system.
- Characters: 3 guest models with animations, plus Sparky.
- Art: a starting library of interior, furniture, and appliance assets. By current estimate this is about 40% of the ideal set, so roughly 60% of the art is still to make.
The catch: much of it was built for the old tycoon and wellness design, so it needs retooling. Give each piece one of three verdicts in the M1 audit:
- Reuse: furniture, interiors, appliances, the day-phase cycle, inventory. These mostly carry over.
- Refactor: the tagging system becomes the 4-axis preference model; the dialogue system adapts to memory beats; guest AI drops the old needs-depletion behavior and keeps routine and reactivity.
- Rebuild or cut: anything wired to cut systems (money economy, need bars, the wellness puzzle). Sometimes a clean rebuild beats untangling old assumptions.
Two character notes: the 3 existing guest models came from the old cast, so how many carry into the locked 5-guest cast depends on the cast-lock decision (a Grumble-to-Kruggle style remap reuses the art; a brand-new guest does not). And every reused asset still needs a tone pass to match the new direction.
Definition of done
Content-complete (5 guest arcs + Sparky's arc + ending), balanced (XP, garden, delivery), Steam Deck verified, store page live, gold build shipped.
Milestone gates
| Month | Gate | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| M1 | Scope locked | design freeze, cast fixed at 5, art style + pipeline + tech locked, prototype audit complete |
| M3 | Systems complete | playable shell: all 5 verbs, day loop, monster AI and barks, Memory Book, XP and ability tree, delivery, save and settings, running on placeholder content |
| M4 | First guest done (template) | one guest end-to-end (writing, art, scripting, audio, polish); proves the content pipeline |
| M9 | Guests content-complete | all 5 guests fully authored and in the build |
| M10 | Feature freeze + content lock | Sparky's arc and ending in; no new features or content after this |
| M11 | Beta | feature-complete, Deck-verified, first full balance pass, external playtest |
| M12 | Launch | gold build, store live |
Quarter by quarter
Q1 (M1 to M3): foundations.
- Design: lock scope at 5 guests; resolve the build-affecting open questions (concurrent-guest count, paused-phase texture); write the style guide.
- Engineering: finish auditing the prototype (reuse / refactor / rebuild per system); retool the carried-over systems to the new design (tagging into the preference axes, dialogue into memory beats, guest AI onto routine and reactivity); build the pieces the prototype lacks (Memory Book, XP and ability tree, keepsakes, delivery if absent, save and settings).
- Art: style guide, the inn plus base room plus garden, the UI kit, the shared furniture base with its first palette and texture variants.
- Writing: finalize the 5-guest bible (each guest's child, need, 5 beats, preference set, keepsake, resonance); full-draft guest 1.
- Audio (contractor on by M2): style exploration, the animalese system, first tracks.
Q2 (M4 to M6): template, then factory.
- M4 gate: guest 1 (Kruggle, the most authored) content-complete end-to-end. This is the template every later guest copies.
- Start the factory: guests 2 and 3 in parallel across writing, art, and scripting.
- Engineering: content-authoring tools to speed the factory; per-guest plumbing; polish hooks.
- Art: outsourcing ramps to peak (guest characters, animation, motif sets, decor-library growth).
- Design: stand up balance scaffolding (XP, garden, delivery); playtest guest 1.
Q3 (M7 to M9): factory peak.
- Guests 4 and 5 authored; guests 2 and 3 polished. M9 gate: all 5 content-complete.
- Art: remaining guest art and keepsakes; lighting and seasonal passes.
- Engineering: core feature-complete; begin the Steam Deck pass.
- Writing: Sparky's arc and ending drafted; the tutorial day authored.
- Audio: remaining tracks and full SFX coverage.
Q4 (M10 to M12): lock, polish, ship.
- M10: Sparky's arc and ending in; feature freeze and content lock.
- Full polish and game-feel pass; full balance passes; accessibility; Steam Deck verified.
- M11: beta and external playtest; bug-fixing.
- M12: launch (store, marketing beats, gold build, day-one patch ready).
The guest unit
Once the template exists, each remaining guest should clear the factory in about 3 to 4 weeks, with disciplines overlapping:
- Write: beats, preference set, interaction pools, farewell (~1 week).
- Art: character, animation, motif set, keepsake (outsourced, ~2 to 3 weeks, in parallel).
- Script: hook the beats, preferences, dialogue, and gating (~3 to 5 days).
- Audio: theme and stings (outsourced, in parallel).
- Polish and playtest (~2 to 3 days).
Budget (rough)
- Music and SFX - 3000 EUR
- Art outsourcing - 4000 EUR
- Trailer/marketing materials - 2000 EUR
- Admin - 500 EUR