We had the opportunity to interview Denis Sinner, head of Moi Rai Games, who are developing a Metroidvania x Pokémon mashup on Kickstarter (you can check them out right here!) named Monster Sanctuary. Denis used to work on games like Tropico and Might & Magic, but wanted to create something of his own. Read all about it in our interview, with an exclusive scoop!
As always, our first question for our guests is to introduce themselves. Can you tell a bit more about yourself and the company you work for?
Hey! I’m Denis Sinner – the developer of Monster Sanctuary. I’ve started developing games in 2001 as a hobby when I still went to school and have been working as a game programmer since 2010. I’m developing Monster Sanctuary mostly solo, doing the pixel art, game design, programming and music all myself. My brother helps me a bit with Story, Text & Design. I’m a fan of (J)RPGs, RTS and Trading Card Games.
Since there are a lot of Metroidvania games nowadays, it’s nice to see a new take on the genre. How did you come up with the addition of the ‘Taming’aspect?
Actually I wanted to develop a Monster Taming game and I wanted to try to create everything myself. I thought I’d manage the workload for pixel art easier if I do the game as sideview instead of top down – and since I’m a fan of metroidvanias, it sounded like a cool idea to develop the game into that direction.
Adding a taming aspect to a Metroidvania – a bold move, since you probably will be associated with a Pokemon/Digimon-label? What are your thoughts on this?
I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think that is actually a major reason for the success of the Kickstarter campaign. Besides the success of Monster taming games like Pokemon, the indie market doesn’t offer so many of this kind of games. Meanwhile most other genres are way more flooded in the indie market.
What is the biggest challenge in creating a game in general? Especially since you worked on games like Tropico and Might & Magic.
The biggest challenge is to manage and organize a big team working together on a single project I would say. Even more so if the Publisher is heavily involved and wants to have a saying on everything as well. I enjoy working on ‘Monster Sanctuary’ mostly myself for a change.
Do you prefer working on an Indietitle or on a AAA-title? Why?
For now I definitely enjoy working on my Indie game more. I have the freedom to develop the game the way I like, using an Engine, programming language and tools I like to use. Also I enjoy being very connected with my community around the game and have them be involved in the development of the game.
The game has been in development since 2015, but taken to Kickstarter in 2018. Why Kickstarter?
For the last three years I’ve been developing the game in my free time and I needed to do the step into full time development if I wanted to finish the game in a sane time-span. Also the Lifestyle of working a normal job and on my own project at the same time while having a family isn’t very healthy in the long run. Kickstarter allows me to finance the remaining development of the game.
What is your favorite console/game?
Console: Snes Games: Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 7, Dark Souls 3
Anything else you want to share with us? An exclusive scoop or sneakpeak? 😉
We are in talks with a known Indie Publisher. No fear, we will keep our creative freedom with the game.
We would like to thanks Denis for his time, and are really curious about the scoop.. You can back the project till Thursday through Paypal and Kickstarter itself! For those who still ponder if you would like this kind of game, there is a demo available on the Kickstarter page! You can check them out on Facebook, Discord & Twitter. We definitely give it the Gaming Boulevard stamp of approval :).
