Advertisement

Article

Massive Joe Studios’ Mike Su introduces Age of Monsters

Christopher Park

Christopher Park

  • Updated:

Rock, paper, scissors is an international game.  It’s played everywhere in the world to solve disagreements, make bets with, or just pass the time when you were five years old.

Massive Joe Studios are bringing the game back to iOS on iPhone and iPod Touch.  Massive Joe Studios’ most well known member might be Jeff Matsuda.  Previously a comic book artist, Creative Director on The Batman cartoon, Matsuda is the artistic driving force behind Massive Joe Studios.

I met with CEO/Co-founder Mike Su to talk about Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors; what is planned to be the first game in the created universe of Age of Monsters.

From my first impression of Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors; it appeared to be very simplistic with a serious direction towards multiplayer.  The game is focused on multiplayer with single player only for a practice mode.  But even though the game mechanics are simplistic, the visual assets of the game immediately grab your attention.

This was the first thing I talked to Su about.  Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors doesn’t feel like a full game experience, but a teaser for something coming next.  Su actually echoed my thought in saying that the goal of Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors was two-fold.

On one hand, they wanted to release a simple game that was very social.  Having multiplayer battles with friends and placing bets against each other was one of the big thoughts about Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors.

Su admitted that the game was simple, but they were working on the next update which would theoretically include a coin wagering system and add the ability to purchase and unlock new monsters added with app updates.  I mentioned to Su that one purchase the in-app store needed was concept art and wallpapers highlighting Matsuda’s incredible visuals.

The second goal with the release of Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors was to introduce the universe of Age of Monsters.  The team at Massive Joe Studios spent a lot of time developing the characters in the world, establishing backgrounds and tweaking the visual look of each character to be recognizable and unique.

Su told me that they were in pre-production for what is planned to be the second title in the universe and exploring a different genre.  Massive Joe Studios are well aware that the simplicity of Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors won’t keep players around for too long and they focused the game to be made for short gameplay time with incredible visuals.

I said that from seeing the different characters, the first thing I thought was that the visuals of the game looked perfect for a 2D side-scroller.  Su replied that they’re plan was to expand on the Age of Monsters universe through different games which could easily use different genres.

With Matsuda’s and Su’s background, they saw that mobile development allowed for bigger risks than the media companies they worked with previously.  The short development time of Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors shows that while the content of Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors is small, there is a solid investment on the IP of the product.

I asked Su about why Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors was only for iPhone and iPod Touch saying Matsuda’s art would look incredible on the larger landscape.  Su agreed with me, but said that they were so focused on releasing the game; they didn’t have time to really think about developing a universal app.   Su did confirm that the second game being an universal app was being explored.

The presentation of Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors is what sets it apart from other apps and games on the App Store.  There’s an amazing amount of detail that most users won’t even see, but after seeing some of the concept art up-close, it was easy to see that Matsuda is having fun with these characters.

Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors is definitely a teaser for the world of Age of Monsters.  From the overall background that Su told me about how the Age of Monsters universe works, they have unlimited potential in the directions they can go.  I hope that Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors garners enough attention so Massive Joe Studios can really show off Age of Monsters in another title.

I think Massive Joe Studios is going to surprise a lot of people with Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors’ style.

I have to thank Mike Su from Massive Joe Studios and Ashley Yang for setting up our talk.

Check out my review of Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors!

Christopher Park

Christopher Park

Latest from Christopher Park

Editorial Guidelines