In October 2016, a Kickstarter launched for Barcelona-based Beautiful Glitch's debut title Monster Prom. The multiplayer game was described as "a crazy twist on dating sims" starring classic monster tropes - ghosts, werewolves, demons, etc. - competing to find a date. Studio founder Julian Quijano said he wanted to "start something anew" with saved money, leaving the crowdfunding campaign to bolster its final steps and gauge audience interest. That Kickstarter quadrupled its 8,000 euro asking price, leading to a cult franchise with the latest release being last month's Monster Prom 3: Monster Roadtrip.
Quijano toyed with multiple ideas, including a perfume app, but said he settled on game development to leverage his experience as an indie PR manager. The "garage project" was made by a small team who felt they had something special, but never expected success. Beautiful Glitch wanted to sell 20,000 copies of Monster Prom in two years, but did so in just two days. This allowed the studio to try new things with future entries, including the introduction of survival elements in Roadtrip. Game Rant spoke to Quijano about how his team designed this survival-dating sim hybrid with intertextual humor.
Refining the Monster Prom Formula
The core Monster Prom team was built through personal connections. Quijano met programmer Elias Pereiras through his work in PR, and artist Arthur Tien while managing the 2016 artbook Indie G Zine. According to Beautiful Glitch's press kit, the studio aims to "create fine games without [...] geographical limitation." Monster Prom is built on a number of inspirations, but largely credits 2013's The Yawhg - a similar choose-your-own-adventure RPG with randomized events that can be experienced by up-to four players.
One of Monster Prom's driving design tenets was applying that style to a "neat and modern narrative" akin to an interactive TV show. "Many games have their narrative and dialogues subject to the game design or mechanics, and as a result said narrative bleeds a bit," Quijano said.
Optimizing the series' variability is a learning curve for the Monster Prom team. Beautiful Glitch wants to create games where every round feels unique, but Quijano said "we went overboard in the sense we produced too much content" - leading to fans only experience five or 10 percent of the original. Its sequel Monster Camp had abundant dialogue that made rounds longer than anticipated. Each entry offers fundamental lessons to carry forward regardless of what genre Beautiful Glitch tackles, but it all comes back to elevating dialogue, stories, and characters.
"It's always circling back to the fact the main drive for our fanbase is to experience hilarious dialogue with charming characters."
How Monster Roadtrip's Encounters are Designed
After Monster Prom became a hit, Beautiful Glitch launched a second Kickstarter in 2019 to fund a three-in-one "sequel" comprised of smaller games with a focus on different staples of teen romance: summer camp, a winter retreat, and a road trip. Each follow new and returning characters as they enjoy life, with Monster Roadtrip starring monsters who join werewolf Scott Howl and ghost Polly Geist on a cross-country trip that stops at kitschy roadside attractions.
Quijano said "many games about long journeys feature survival," leading the team to iterate upon its formula. Each round of Monster Roadtrip sees players tracking six stats: hype, magic, mind, money, soul, and stamina. Every stop on the trip raises and lowers one stat based on the choices made, with the party failing if any of those numbers drop to zero. Plenty of unexpected detours can happen along the way, like pausing to dig up monster variants of the Atari 2600 E.T. between a desert rave and crashing weddings; if the fandom-obsessed eldritch deity Zoe tags along.
"It was a challenge we chose to take, since we knew our fanbase would love a twist on the mechanics; but they surely would appreciate the possibility of still smooching some hot monsters. We figured out quickly that we could mix the idea of dating with the concept of taking a hitchhiker (and getting to know them better), then worked from there."
Beautiful Glitch's creative process is governed by a specific set of rules. Quijano and narrative designer Francisco Luque largely start by brainstorming locations using a recognizable field of tropes (over 60 are included in Monster Roadtrop). Each location gives players three possible actions, all of which affect different stats. Based on what action is chosen, players activate a unique "event" akin to what they've come to expect from prior Monster Prom games.
Each event in all three entries have begun with one-line concepts that may or may not lead to more developed skeletons for the writing team to flesh out. However, an important part of the process for Quijano is bridging the gap from generic tropes into some kind of absurd scenario or a "strong, unexpected twist" that captures the humor Beautiful Glitch is known for.
Writing with Intertextuality in Mind
Quijano recommends creative-minded makers need to have a foremost willingness to "consume a metric ton of fiction." As of this conversation taking place in early November, he said he had watched the first season of 70 new TV shows in 2022.
Having that knowledge of media construction and popular culture fosters one of the Monster Prom series' greatest strengths: Intertextuality, or the way different texts reflect and build upon one another. Quijano says the idea goes back centuries, with Don Quixote being one of the earliest examples of "modern" literature due to its examination of a man driven mad by his obsession with literature. Yet it became more pronounced through Internet "remix" culture.
"Today, we consume memes with 12 layers of meaning that only make sense because you know at least three or four references from which that one meme builds," he said. Capturing tropes that click with audiences is a key skill Quijano brings from his background in advertising, capturing insights people can't put words to, yet he feels it's just as important to make sure a worn trope says something new. Thus comes the balance of making things absurd without presenting the audience cheap nonsense.
The reception to Monster Roadtrip's unique take on this narrative style has been "incredible," according to Quijano. "I can't explain how happy we are that people see how this game shows the evolution of the studio." That gives Beautiful Glitch reassurance that it has a "good sense of direction" for what the Monster Prom franchise can be.
"We already have a list of Monster Roadtrip innovations that we want to implement in future games, to see if they can work well even if they're not survival-focused."
Monster Prom 3: Monster Roadtrip is available now on PC.