Life at Monsters Blog

2016 was a great year for games. We loved many. We played even more. And we decided to let you know which games rocked our world. These are the favorite games for each Monster Dev. Opinions are personal.

Final Fantasy 15 - Alex Maniotis, Animator
One of the best open world experiences also has the most awesome choreography of 2016! Honorable mentions to Halo 5, Firewatch, The Last Guardian, Dark Souls 3 and many others.

INSIDE – John Koumoundouros, Game Designer
There's love and polish in every single detail. A visual and audial masterpiece that kept me captivated from start to end.

Apocalypse Cow – Elias Koumoundouros, Programmer
Easy pick! The brilliant level design and superb action of Apocalypse Cow rocked my world!

Uncharted 4 – Michael Georgoulopoulos
Awesome storytelling and superb cinematic feeling. Alex told me to love it!

Ori Definitive Edition - Alvaro Vera Torres, Illustrator
I played the definitive edition that came out this year, the graphics are simply phenomenal.

The Witness – Asimakis Reppas, Sound Designer
I've been waiting for it since I played Braid! Thank you Jonathan! It is finally here!!!

Digital Universe is in the books. Seeing so many people love the game and finish the demo again and again was quite the morale booster! It was also an amazing opportunity to catch up with other Greek indie developers and see the progress they've made on their fantastic games. Till next time everyone!

This weekend Digital Universe returns with its third installment and Monsters will be a part of it! We will have a Station in Room 2 running Apocalypse Cow for you to try! We are also scheduled to Present our Games on Stage on Saturday, 24th at 5.30pm.

And if that wasn't enough, we'll participate in the Game Development Forum, ready to answer any crazy and improper questions you might have for us.

It's going to be a blast!!!

This year we decided to make the super long trip to Seattle to present ourselves at one of the biggest indie game tradeshows on this planet, PAX Prime 2015. And it was amazing! This is the story of this adventurous trip...

We landed on Tuesday after a long and tiring flight, with a huge smile on our faces. We were really here! We hastily checked in and left our lugagge to run to the convention center. After all we had to collect our badges, right? Taking a peak around was entirely accidental...! Let me tell you, it was like a video game fairytale.

All of the heavy hitters were on the 4th floor, already hard at work building some mighty impressive booths. Behemoth had a huge space, unpacking gorgeous cabinets that would act as their gamestations. Right as we turned the corner Ubisoft was lifting a monstrosity of a vinyl banner for their upcoming Assassins Creed Syndicate. People working everywhere, booths almost done... booths almost done? Were we too late??

We hastily took the escalator to the 6th floor, home of the indies (and of our booth) and immediately felt at ease. What a striking contrast. Almost nobody working, most of the booths still empty... The indie way baby! We found our cute little corner booth, briefly discussed screen placements, took another stroll downstairs and then left.
 

The next couple of days really are a blur. I kind of remember raiding the local Fry's and Best Buy to purchase computers, controllers and monitors, ordering furniture from Amazon, renting stands and ordering graphics for the booth. What I do know is this: it was Thursday night when we had everything in our possession... and the show was starting the next morning!

We got everything to our booth and worked as long as jet lag allowed us to. Half past midnight we still had a lot of stuff to do but I decided not to pull an all-nighter, we would need the rest. So we hesitantly went to sleep, hoping everything would run smoothly the next morning.

I absolutely hate Murphy and his freaking law.

An amazing number of things went wrong and in a nutshell, despite getting there early we were still trying to finish the booth when people flooded the room. Focusing on the work at hand we managed to get one station operational, then another one, then the TV for the trailers. By noon we were up and running, albeit with some minor issues that would be fixed the next day.

When I finally had a chance to compose myself and look at what is happening I smiled. People where crowding our tiny booth, playing, watching, laughing. I hid my badge and stood in the crowd. "What is that, it looks cool" was the most common phrase, often followed by the louder question "Where is the cow?". That is when Tobias, our amazing booth assistant, jumped over to explain the game and the story.

It was intense. It was taxing. It was so very interesting. And I never got a chance to see the rest of the show. It must have been a great one!

Was it all worth it? Hard to say. One of the best things I got from the show was confidence that we are making a cool game. Seeing people playing and then returning later in the day  to give it another go... Seeing people bringing their friends over, anxiously asking us about the release date.. it was quite the confidence booster. We also did get some coverage. I am still not sure if it was worth the hefty 5 digit pricetag. We will have to wait and see.

See you next year!

1. Beta is not for Hybris but for an unannounced action platformer.
2. Sessions will take place on  Apr-25, Apr-26, May-2 and May-3. You can state the date/dates you prefer in your email.
3. You can expect a session to last between 1 - 3 hours.
4. There is a limited number of spots available and will be given on a first emailed first served basis.
5. You are not guaranteed a spot until you have received your verification email.
6. Snacks will be made available on premise.
7. We also plan to hold a tournament and you will have a chance to go against the makers of the game. Can’t promise we won’t cheat though!

1. Press professionals are welcome but please keep in mind that the build is not indicative of the final product and a proper preview build will eventually be made available.
2. Fellow game developers are welcome - it will be a nice chance to get to know each other.
3. Younger gamers are welcome to bring their parents, we have a nice lounge with a TV where they can wait while you fight to save the universe.

We have had a few interns over time and it was always an interesting experience. We do not accept interns easily. So is it worth the effort to get in? Recently Dimitris completed his internship as an environment artist and we decided to ask him a couple of questions...

Briefly describe a day in the office

The day begins at around 10.15 (the privileges of working on creating art). As I open the door and enter the office I am greeted by my ever working colleagues! I start drawing almost immediately (hey, It's my passion after all) until 11.00 when Alex rings the bell and it's time for the famous stand-up! After everyone's progress report the true game begins! Hours pass filled with work, game sounds (we call it playtesting), sharing game news funny internet stuff and puns until it's time for our lunch break. Funny videos, Southpark and even documentaries (mostly about game history and development) are on the menu. Some times we even play ping pong after lunch!  Then it's back to work until I have to force myself to stop (did I say it's a passion ??) and start packing for home.

What did you learn from your internship?

How to play ping pong! Just kidding, I already knew that! I learned how to work as part of a team under a schedule and integrate my workflow to that of others. I had the opportunity to follow an art style already established by another artist and work on my cartooning skills which up to then I had never really tried. Last but not least I learned to accept criticism and guidance from people who I knew they wanted the best for me.

Is game development what you thought it would be?

Until I applied to Monsters for my internship I had never thought of working as an environment artist. I knew game development would be quite a run but in Greece? Wow those guys have guts! It's an energy draining process but it's all worth it when you see your work coming to life in the game! Plus the priceless feeling  when you nail it and create something that makes everyone laugh!

What would you suggest to someone who wants to intern in game development?

Be ready to overcome any setbacks and prepare for a great ride!

Any last thoughts?

I am very happy for meeting all you Monster guys and I hope the effort and energy invested in this initiative will pay back.

Sprint planning is over. Our project management software is up to date. Post-its are on the wall. We now have two weeks to make it happen - it is almost an adventure game. We have to help those poor tasks cross over to the finished side. I am just out of our sprint meeting, everybody seemed to be on board with the decisions we made and the next couple of weeks will be defining. Can't wait! Let the first sprint of 2014 begin!