Monumental Games has been in the news recently with a few announcements so Andrew Knight of MMO news site MMO-Gamer took it upon himself to interview this Nottingham-based MMOG middleware and game developer. The latest announcements were about their middlware using Vivox voice communication technology and the announcement of their first title, Football Superstars.
The MMO Gamer: Could you please tell us who you are and what role you have at Monumental Games, please?
Rik Alexander: Hi there, my name is Rik Alexander and I’m the CEO of Monumental Games.
The MMO Gamer: When was Monumental Games formed and where is it based?
Rik Alexander: Monumental was formed in September 2005 by Rocco Loscalzo the CTO and me. We’re based in Nottingham and have just moved to new offices in the centre of the city!
The MMO Gamer: Could you tell us what Monumental Games does, what are its main products?
Rik Alexander: We set up Monumental to make Massively Multi-player games and provide MMO Middleware to a rapidly growing MMO market. Football Superstars is our first MMO game and the Monumental Technology Suite (MTS) is our MMO middleware solution.
The MMO Gamer: Who are the owners of MG and how are your products funded?
Rik Alexander: Monumental is a completely independent studio owned by key directors and members of staff. We’re mainly self funded and also have a number of partnerships including the one with CyberSports for Football Superstars.
The MMO Gamer: How many employees are there at Monumental Studios now and how much has this changed since the company’s inception in 2005?
Rik Alexander: It started out with Roc and me working out of our living rooms back in September 05, we quickly recruited Gylan Hunter as the art director and we remained at 3 staff for around 6 months before moving into our first offices and adding Luke Smith as Development Director in July 06. We now have nearly 30 extremely talented staff at our offices and we’re always recruiting. Monumental has changed so much since we started it’s very hard to believe we’ve come so far so quickly.
The MMO Gamer: On the frontpage of your website you state ‘Over the coming months Monumental Games will be announcing a number of significant game development deals, technology and business partnerships.’ Are you in a position to give any further details or hints about these?
Rik Alexander: Well you’ve heard about the first one - Football Superstars - already, the new website and middleware licensing structure has just been finalised so we’ll be giving that a big push over the next couple of months, along with announcing the various partnerships we’ve been working on for the last year. Everything else is currently under wraps so you’ll have to wait a little while longer. All I can say is stay tuned as we definitely haven’t finished yet!
The MMO Gamer: Moving on to your recently announced project, Football Superstars Your FAQ implies, although it doesn’t state, that you will be self publishing the game. Is this the case, if so, what made you decide to go down that route? If that is not the case have you found a publisher yet or are you still looking for one?
Rik Alexander: The original plan was to self publish Football Superstars with CyberSports. However since we launched the website and announced the game to the world at large the global demand has been significantly greater than we anticipated. We’re now in talks with various established MMO publishers who can help us distribute and co-market the game throughout Europe to start with and quickly launch into the rest of the world once we’ve gained some momentum.
The MMO Gamer: Do you intend to market the game in the US, if so can we expect to see a name change to cater for their heathen ways?
Rik Alexander: Interesting question. We spent a fair amount of time agonising over the name of the game quite some time back, and eventually made the decision to call it Football Superstars. Football is the name of the game we all know, love and have grown up with. The game of football means so much to the fans we thought it would completely dilute the meaning, community and passion of the game if we called it soccer. Right now, we’re keeping the name as Football Superstars regardless of where we launch the product including the US.
The MMO Gamer: Can we expect to see recognizable tournaments in the game, such as The World Cup and The European Cup?
Rik Alexander: Yes definitely, we’re looking to tap into already established communities and fan bases that surround football. Part of that process is to recreate recognisable leagues, competitions and tournaments so that players can instantly step into our football world and start playing.
The MMO Gamer: As our last question, is there anything you’d like to add or tell our readers about Monumental Games or its upcoming products?
Rik Alexander: The first thing is to thank you for getting in touch, we love talking about our company and products and are humbled by the reception we’re getting from everyone so far. Thanks to everyone out there that is interested in what we’re up to.
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