Monsters Ate My Condo post mortem

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by PikPok, Mar 27, 2012.

  1. PikPok

    PikPok Well-Known Member

    Nov 26, 2009
    938
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    Wellington
    Hi guys,

    Monsters Ate My Condo producer/designer Andy Satterthwaite did a post mortem on the game for Casual Connect magazine.

    You can read the article in its entirety (and see some early art) starting from page 28 here

    Enjoy!
     
  2. DaGreen1

    DaGreen1 Well-Known Member

    Mar 9, 2012
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    Florida
    #2 DaGreen1, Mar 27, 2012
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2012
    Edited due to stupidity on my part. Pay no attention.
     
  3. David Phan

    David Phan Well-Known Member

    Feb 27, 2012
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    President & Producer
    Vancouver
    Thank you for sharing the post-mortem, I've added it to my growing list of mobile game post-mortems and I also snagged MAMC for my iPad.

    Is there any chance of getting any of the following information on MAMC?

    - Team Size (I think it was 4-5?)
    - Budget
    - Development Duration
    - Development Tools/Technology

    Oh, if you can share any "what went right/what went wrong" about things outside development like pricing, marketing and PR for MAMC, that'd be cool.

    Understandable though, if y'all prefer to remain low key on the numbers and strategies.

    Regards,
    DP
     
  4. PikPok

    PikPok Well-Known Member

    Nov 26, 2009
    938
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    Wellington
    Er, what?


    The core team was 3 or 4 people throughout most of development, but they were supported by additional resource from concept art, animation, sound, QA, and usability as required.


    Cannot divulge.


    About 4 months I think.


    Mostly proprietary tools and technology including our own engine.

    We did use FMOD as a sound solution I believe though (and have used it across most of our titles).


    Don't have much to add in terms of what went right/wrong outside of the article.

    Working with Adult Swim and having them do TV advertising for the game was a big boost. They have been a great partner creatively, and we continue to work with them on other titles.

    Despite the critical and financial success to date, there is perhaps a case to be made that the business model as a paid download without IAP was flawed given the market is shifting away from that. Most of our upcoming titles are being created as free to play with ad support and/or IAP
     
  5. David Phan

    David Phan Well-Known Member

    Feb 27, 2012
    74
    0
    0
    President & Producer
    Vancouver
    Cheers for the extra information. Much appreciated.

    And yes, the consideration for paid vs freemium is a tough one to make for game genres that have not been traditionally built from the ground up for freemium such as puzzlers and platformers.

    This may be wishful thinking, but if Apple changes how app discovery and rankings work within the app store then that may actually benefit paid apps more as we'd get away from this "buy your way into the top 25 as a freemium" strategy.

    DP
     
  6. DaGreen1

    DaGreen1 Well-Known Member

    Mar 9, 2012
    159
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    Florida
    Oh wow. I feel like an idiot now that I have a clearer head. I thought the guy died. My bad, ignore my post then.
     
  7. sifter

    sifter Member

    Mar 20, 2012
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    Head of App Development, Dennis Publishing
    London, Inkland
    Excellent story, I loved MAMC, really interesting to see how they put it together. Felt very polished for 4 months of work.
     
  8. drelbs

    drelbs Well-Known Member

    Jun 25, 2009
    11,200
    7
    38
    Great article, thanks for sharing!

    MAMC is one of my 3-year-old's favorite games!

    I especially liked the concept art - it's neat to see how the game evolved.
     
  9. psk

    psk Active Member

    May 26, 2012
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    Interesting, could you talk at all about the tool chain for your animation ? it looks almost flash vector like, but i assume its not really - is it bitmaps?
     
  10. PikPok

    PikPok Well-Known Member

    Nov 26, 2009
    938
    1
    0
    Wellington
    We basically use Maya to animate "3D" flat components. We used pretty much the same technique for TapDragonDrop.
     
  11. PikPok

    PikPok Well-Known Member

    Nov 26, 2009
    938
    1
    0
    Wellington
    #11 PikPok, Jun 12, 2012
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2012
    In fact, seems like we are doing a live stream presentation covering the company and looking more closely at the art behind Monsters Ate My Condo at 12.30pm NZ time today, which is 5.30pm PST Tuesday (just a couple of hours away).

    Link here

    https://www.facebook.com/mediadesignschool/app_450898481606617


    Edit: hmmm. Or not.

    Edit2: on now.
     
  12. PèreGoriot

    PèreGoriot Well-Known Member

    Sep 9, 2012
    72
    0
    0
    Dear Mr PikPok,
    Your game crashes on old iHardware (iPhone1/iOS313). Please, fix it soon ! Thanks.
    ___
    Monsters Ate My Condo [adult swim] (os31)
    "[UIScreen scale]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x5563e0', 'NSInvalidArgumentException'"
     

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