A Troll, a Unicorn and a Very Strange Studio

A troll, a unicorn, a sci-fi mystery and an office arena full of terrible ideas walk into a studio. That sounds like the start of a joke. Around here, it is also a fairly accurate project list.

I’m Jonathan, and Spinning Monkey Studios is putting games and the worlds around them at the center of its creative work. I like games that have a clear personality: a mystery that makes you lean closer, a puzzle that gets a whole group talking, a cartoonish fight that makes you laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. The projects take different shapes, but they share one ambition: make something people want to play and remember.

Small puzzles, big trouble

Lava Monster Puzzle Playgrounds is a Roblox game in early playable development. The current two-level build sends players across a playground ringed by lava to find picture pieces, put the image together, claim a portal key and escape. You can take on the route alone or bring friends; with a team, someone can scout a path while another carries the last piece. It is a simple little adventure with room for monsters, new playgrounds and more ways to help each other. Studio playtesting and publishing are still ahead, so this is a look at a game taking shape, not a launch announcement.

Then there’s Braincell Breakdown, our comic office arena brawler. Smooth Brains and Smart-Arses turn an ordinary corporate tower into a gloriously bad place to have a very serious disagreement. It gives us permission to build silly characters, chaotic spaces and a game that does not take its office politics too seriously.

A mystery, a musical and a unicorn

Mysterious Stranger Club is a sci-fi point-and-click mystery. It is our anchor for a wider world of clues, characters and strange connections. Brewed Awakening brings a different rhythm to that creative slate: a musical story with its own songs, characters and comic heart.

The shared universe is a thread between some of our stories, not a rule that every game has to follow. Meridian Universal, the fictional corporation and broadcaster associated with Mysterious Stranger Club, gives a few projects a way to share familiar companies, broadcasts or a small visual easter egg. Sometimes a detail connects two stories; sometimes it is just a reward for players who like looking closely. Each game should still make sense when it is the first one you play.

Troll & Unicorn has a whole other kind of energy: fantasy, friendship, grumpy heroes and a unicorn who believes in them. Its game slate ranges from Candy Dash, a free-roam browser platformer, to the larger Realms of Corruption adventure now in early development. There is also Castle Smash, a playful physics prototype about building a tower and taking it apart again with character-shaped projectiles. The comics and games each have their own entry point, so you can meet the characters wherever you like. Visit Troll & Unicorn to explore that world.

What we’re making next

Some of these projects are playable, some are in development, and some are still being worked out. You can see the current game slate on our projects page and follow new work in studio updates. I’m also exploring a larger Unreal Engine game direction. It is still at the sketchbook stage, which is a good place for a big idea to start.

Games are the creative focus, and practical WordPress tools for businesses and publishers remain part of the studio’s software work. Longer term, I’m curious whether advertising could belong inside a game world in a way that adds to the setting instead of interrupting play. That is something to explore carefully as the games and their audiences take shape.

For now, I’m happy to be making a mystery, a lava playground, a musical, a tower that needs smashing, and a universe with room for all of them. Tell me what you’d most like to play through the contact page.