The Monster Breeder
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About the GameThis is a turn-based fantasy strategy game with RPG elements. The game has two main layers: the first is the monster breeding, the second is the tactical turn-based arena combat.
Main Features
- Create Monsters
- Tactical Arena Combat
- Large variety of tournaments
- Warrior training
- Forging
- Alchemy
- Base upgrading
Players can purchase eggs and juvenile creatures from local hunters. The next step is to set up a magical treatment to enhance the creatures’ strength, agility, and other attributes. Nearly all these traits can be manipulated with magic scrolls, potions, blood infusions and runestones, although overuse of magic and potions can cause severe illness, infertility, shorter lifespan, or even death.
Natural species are weak and perform poorly in the arena, but all have at least one valuable ability. There are three classes of creature available: insect, reptile and carnivora. Players can only crossbreed species within the same class, and the best offspring can then be selected for magic treatments to improve their combat performance. Only eggs and juvenile creatures can be treated. Adult monsters earn experience fighting in the arena and learn new skills when leveling up, but these skills are not inheritable.
There are multiple options for players to house their monsters in the various chambers and cellars of the Old Keep, or they can build a small hut or kennel in the courtyard and upgrade it. Depending on their temperature tolerance, some creatures can live in a flooded dungeon cellar while some others need a warm environment to remain healthy. Only healthy creatures can fight and earn money for their masters.
Combat in the arena is tough but not always deadly. Beginners can participate in non-lethal tournaments without the risk of losing a character or monster. Lethal combat pays much better, but this is a game with permadeath, so be aware!
How much risk are you willing to take? Which tournament are you going to enter? Only you decide. Players get money if they take part in a tournament, but only the winners receive the glory and extra rewards.
Warriors, archers and sorcerers can be hired to fight side-by-side with monsters in the arena. Players can personalize their training and equip them with weapons that match their skills and strength, although to be overburdened with armor comes with serious penalties in combat.
Characters earn experience in the arena and gain new skills when leveling up, and older warriors can be valuable trainers depending on their intelligence and trainer skills. Some hired characters may refuse to participate in lethal tournaments, but slaves can also be trained for combat.
Players need to hire a blacksmith and alchemist to be able to craft items like weapons, armor or potions. Every craftsman has unique skills and traits affecting their products’ quality, their rate of work, and the amount of material they use.
Various types of equipment can be purchased to enhance productivity: recipe books, alembics and extractors are all useful accessories of the alchemist’s lab, while weapon and armor molds, alloy smelters and special forges are exceedingly beneficial to the blacksmith. Apprentices can be hired to improve productivity and players can employ them as blacksmiths or alchemists when they graduate.
Players can construct or upgrade various types of buildings, allowing them to keep more monsters, incubate more eggs, create more weapons and potions, or increase storage capacity and the size of their living quarters.
Some buildings have unique features: Hatchling’s Cabin provides the possibility of using runestones and magic fields to modify juvenile creatures’ traits, while the Alchemist’s Shack and Blacksmith’s Hut provide more places to hire craftsmen and also give an efficiency bonus. The Old Keep is the default building at the beginning of the game. It has multiple chambers and cellars, all of which can be assigned to any purpose.
Game Discussion
Steam User 12
I have over 170 hours in the game. Its a great game. Love it. Why am I leaving a thumbs down? Everytime the Dev updates the game, you lose your save file. I have meticulously clawed (no pun intended) my way close to the top, just starting to breed powerful monsters, just starting to reap the sweet fruits of my labor, only to have it all wiped clean. Twice. Done wasting my time and happy to change my review if the Dev announces post-update save compatibility. Till then, Goodbye Monster Breeder, I hope to finish you one day.
Edit: The dev was super quick in immediately working on the issue. It has been resolved and all is well. I will now strongly recommend this game. I was particularly impressed with how dedicated this dev seems to be, seemingly working non-stop to fix the problem after I reported it.
Steam User 6
this is the sort of game ive dreamed about, i love games about hybrids, like hybrid animals, but that was the only game about hybrids that i had found until i found this, and this has monsters, AND their close enough to biologically plausible! its all of it! i love it! 10 outta 10! and please, f there are any other games about hybrids, even if its just a background feature, tell me it!
Steam User 4
I love this game. It has its flaws, but the game is unique and addictive enough that I overlook them.
Pros:
1. Addictive gameplay loop (Buy / breed monsters, send them to battle, level them up, crossbreed for the best traits.) You'll dump plenty of hours into this game to make it worth the cost.
2. While it uses skinner box techniques for the addiction aspect, it also frequently has terrain you can use to your advantage to require some amount of skill.
3. Helpful if small community.
4. Novel game idea, which is why you'll overlook all the flaws. You're not going to find something like this elsewhere.
5. Different classes / difficulties for more replay-ability.
6. Bug free as far as I can tell.
Cons:
1. User interface is the worst I've ever seen, no joke. I tried the demo and quit before a single turn because it was so unintuitive. Fortunately, my brother plays and talked me into suffering through it.
2. You'll get carpal tunnel playing this game. I'm not kidding. The user interface is so bad, there's tons and tons of clicking. It's sad because a few simple QoL tweaks would solve this.
2. The camera positioning is beyond horrible. If you get motion sick, you'll often have to close your eyes on the enemies turn if you're in a cavern because the camera will spin around a lot to ensure that you get the worst possible angle rather than simply translating the camera while maintaining the POV. I have never seen camera control this bad in any game. 3rd person 3D has never made anyone motion sick... until now haha. I guess the dev wins that distinction.
3. Graphics are bad, but not horrible. Think Kenshi.
4. Potion descriptions are detailed when you buy them, but not always when they're in your inventory, so you'll often need to remember what things like "Resilience" do, or you'll need to search the community board.
5. You have to play a long time before you get into the crossbreeding part of the game. You'll need upgraded tiers of the breeding building to have monsters that live for more any length of time otherwise. This gives you something to stretch for, but it also means that you'll spend more time doing human gladiator matches and regular breeding for a while. This gives you a chance to learn the breeding mechanics at a simple level first though, so I don't know that I'd consider it a huge con.
Steam User 3
Let me tell you. The UI is horrid, the worst I've ever seen but I suffered through and got used to it.
The game is superb, I live for the creatures you can breed the design is freakish and I said "Eww" or "WTF" outloud numerous times.
The Design especially shines on insect hybrids
Steam User 1
A game in the vein of Monster Rancher, with a very large focus on the breeding aspect - you'll need to build up your strength over generations of creatures - don't get too attached to any one of them.
It's not a great game, but it might be the best of it's kind. The UX is crude and what little story writing there is, is best disregarded. I don't know how enemies get stronger or if you can fall behind. That said -
The monster breeding has a lot to play with. Mixing together all kinds of creatures with their stats and abilities, enhancing them in their growth with magic fields, potions and other substances, it's fairly compelling. I have a constant feeling while playing that there's a better game here waiting to be made, but this game is alright fun as it is.
Steam User 1
Amazing unique game, an absolute undiscovered jewel, it has so many mechanics under the hood your head will spin, combat has layers of strategy to it, a robust fear mechanic that can wipe you if you ignore it, or help you win some wicked fights if you bring the right creatures/weapons, your pets have a finite amount of hits they can take spread across their entire career, it will slowly go down and result in injure when that threshold is finally broken, agility play a massive role in your ability to avoid damage and extend that bar, but you also have to breed damaging stats because a shorter fight also saves on the bar, I have never played a game quite like this, and once you get into the meat of it you will find a deep game with quite a lot of replayability.
The solo developer is still adjusting and tuning the game, and is trying to cater to ideas and wishes from his gamers.
A gem of an indie game :)
Steam User 1
I "like" it in the same way that a drug user "likes" their drug of choice. It's an effective game loop, but fails to offer real satisfaction. Just missing days, and a feeling of shame.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need a fix.