So Many Monsters is the first public game release from two Omahans who have been working on games together since 2011.
Tyler White and Lucas Hartman, both born and raised in Omaha, met as students at Metro Community College.
Both always had an interest in video games and computer animation so they met at a game design class and hit it off.
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White was the artist while Hartman knew the programming and 3D modeling. They formed KillSmile Studios and have done games before, but only for their own enjoyment.
On July 22, they publicly released So Many Monsters, an iOS game that has an Android version on its way.
The game is like many others that have become popular recently: there’s a single task that you try to get as high as score as possible on.
You have a team of “cute” monsters and “bully” monsters. The screen scrolls with floating islands with other monsters on them. You tap to launch the correct monsters to where they need to go.
The goal is to get as many correct pairs. Your game is over if you match them incorrectly. But it gets harder as it scrolls faster and faster the more you go.
So Many Monsters came out of a game jam, a 10-hour event where you create a game from scratch, White says.
“We’d seen a lot of ‘high score’ type games but most have lots of ads or in-app purchases that usually covers up the game,” White said. “Or with Flappy Bird, the art wasn’t that great, so what we wanted to do was add more substance to that platform. This is more of a promotional game to get our names out there.”
The game characters were created with Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator while Hartman used the Unity 3D game engineer to create the gameplay. It will likely appeal to pre-teens or those who appreciate the cute and cuddly factor, but the pair said they hope the demographic is “anyone who wants to have fun.”
“There’s a lot of ‘Call of Duty’ and other shooters, but it’s nice to just have a laugh and appreciate something cute, cuddly and colorful,” White said.
Their next game, Feral Planet, will likely cater to a different audience, they say.
But they hope to turn the game creation into a full-time job. They’re starting with mobile games, but hope one day they can go to bigger platforms.
“We’ve got a ton of ideas for games,” Hartman said. “The more we do them, the better and faster we are at this… so it’s becoming a lot easier for us.”
The pair got their start at a 2011 game jam in Lincoln where they won for best graphics on Block Monster. It took them a while to launch their first game publicly, but spent time with the Omaha Game Design Association researching how to create the best game possible before releasing one publicly.
As for the name KillSmile studios? It was one they just threw out there.
“We do nothing morbid, killing, etc., so it’s kinda funny,” White said. “We have KillSmile, but we make cute and cuddly things.”
