Genna Khudilaynen on starting Monkey Strike Games during his studies

What made you choose BUas, and the Design and Production track in particular? 

Genna: 'I had always wanted to create games. When I finally got the opportunity to study it properly, I started looking up the best universities to do so, because my home country of Cyprus does not really have an impressive games course, in my opinion. BUas came up because it is one of the best in the world. It is that simple really. I picked it because it was very well rated everywhere, and I am glad I did.’  

‘As for the track, I have never been particularly gifted with drawing, and programming was not really my thing either. I had also been reviewing games for over ten years before starting my studies, which is where my passion for game analysis came from, and that is really what drew me to the Design and Production track.' 

Looking back at your studies, is there a project or memory that stands out? 

Genna: 'I really loved the programme. It does everything well in terms of letting you do things practically rather than focusing on exams. The team projects were definitely the highlight, every end of year project. For me specifically, heading towards a Creative Director role, any chance I got to lead people and learn how different disciplines need to work together was really valuable. I learned how to talk to different types of people and understand pipelines, which turned out to be exactly what I needed later on.' 

Tell us about Monkey Strike Games. How did it all begin? 

Genna: 'Dean Gray, another Design and Production student, and I founded the studio in our second year. We wanted to get ahead of the curve and started developing our first game part time, during evenings and holidays. That first project became High Noon Saloon, which is now known as Drink Up, Cowboy!, and it is still in development because for a long time it only got one evening a week of our attention. Pizzapocalypse came a bit later. It was not under the Monkey Strike Games name at first, as it started as a BUas project, and its sequel, Pizzapocalypse 2, became our official year four graduation project. Both games, Drink Up, Cowboy! and Pizzapocalypse 2, are now heading towards full development, and we are looking for publishers to work with.' 

What does your day to day work as Creative Director involve? 

Genna: 'It is about setting out the vision for our games, what I think players should feel, and the overall rules and guides for the art and design. I still do a lot of the art direction myself for now, until we hopefully find someone to fill that role. I also design a lot of the gameplay mechanics, and I talk to everyone on the team daily to make sure things stay cohesive and nothing drifts off track. Because we are a small team, I also take on production work alongside Dean, which means creating tasks for people and keeping priorities straight.' 

What does the team behind Monkey Strike Games look like? 

Genna: 'Right now we are six people. Dean and I are the two founders. He officially took on the producer role along with the business development side, while I bring a YouTube background, handle a lot of our social media, and lead the creative direction. Of course our roles bleed into each other quite a bit since we are a small team. We both jump into the engine as well, I am creating levels at the moment, and Dean has done a lot of the technical work on Drink Up, Cowboy! The rest of the team is just as versatile. We have a system and technical designer who also does our UI and a lot of the 2D art, and another system designer who is also a musician and very technically capable. We met most of them during projects in our first and second year, so we already knew how well we worked together before starting the studio.' 

Why did you choose to go indie rather than join an established studio? 

Genna: 'For me it is the creative freedom. I do love AAA games too, I will play pretty much anything except very realistic sports games. But indie is where you can really explore, and every project can be completely different from the last. One of our games is a platformer, and the other is a bartending multiplayer roguelike, so we can really be a bit silly with it, which is something I have always appreciated about indie games. It is a riskier path, but right now feels like the right time to take that chance, since neither of us has a family to support yet and we are not tied to stable jobs. We found a great team that works well together, so we thought, let us give it a shot. On top of that, the AAA industry is shaky right now, so going indie is not necessarily even more risky than staying on that path.' 

How did BUas and the wider Breda games community support you along the way? 

Genna: 'A few lecturers were really supportive once I told them what I wanted to do. Fabian Akker in particular was a huge help, equipping me with information I had no idea about when I first went to him in year two, things like how to bring people on board without any money to pay them, and how company structures work in the Netherlands. I also went to every guest lecture I could and talked to as many people as possible. At a Breda Game City Drinks event I met Matthijs van de Laar from Twirlbound, also a BUas alumnus, who basically told me to just start the company the next day, and that got the ball rolling. Tim Baijens from Stitchheads, another BUas alumnus, was also very helpful. Breda really does feel like it is becoming a hub where people support one another, and that is something we want Monkey Strike Games to keep doing for future developers too. We recently joined the B'GAME Incubator downtown, where we are seated alongside other studios, including fellow alumni teams Starbrew Games and Verdant Games. It has given us affordable office space and access to workshops and lectures, which has made a real difference.' 

What are your goals for Monkey Strike Games over the next few years? 

Genna: 'Mainly, staying with a team we enjoy working with, one we do not dread going to every day, and continuing to make games we are passionate about. More practically, that means securing funding so we can actually pay people to stay here. Everyone on the team has been working for free on our games so far because we believe in them, and we would even be happy with minimum wage as long as we can live comfortably while doing what we love. That, together with funding for the games themselves, is really the goal.' 

How do you go about finding funding and connecting with the industry? 

Genna: 'A lot of it comes down to networking events and simply talking to people. We recently pitched Drink Up, Cowboy! at Indigo in Utrecht, in a room full of investors and publishers. We also showcased Pizzapocalypse 2 at the Industry Showcase Day at BUas. Subsidies are something the Netherlands really lacks compared to neighbouring countries like Belgium, where developers can get paid to build prototypes that they can then pitch to publishers. That is the hardest part, you need a functional game to show publishers before they will consider funding the rest of development.' 

Curious to see what Genna and the Monkey Strike Games team are working on? Connect with him on LinkedIn or visit Monkey Strike Games.