In a recent interview with Toho Kingdom, Louisa Gallie, Chief Creative Officer at Hunted Cow Games, offered a deep dive into the development of Godzilla x Kong: Titan Chasers. The mobile title, which launched globally on February 25th of this year, is currently available for Android, iOS and PC.

Toho Kingdom: When did work on the game begin? Did you approach Legendary about creating a game or did they reach out to you?

Louisa Gallie: The introduction was made via Tilting Point, before even Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) was in theatres. We were exploring ideas for what our next game project would look like, and of course Legendary have a number of amazing projects that would make a great game. As a huge fan of big monster movies, we were already partial to the Monsterverse!

The topic was put on hold during the pandemic, but after Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) was such a smash hit, and opened up the universe by showing us Hollow Earth, the potential of a game set in the Monsterverse became even more exciting. It was really a mutual decision at that stage, and we quickly got to work to develop the full concept.

 

TK: How did you prepare to take on the task of making a Monsterverse game? How did you conceptualize what kind of game it would be?

Gallie: We knew certain things from the start. Our strength as a game developer is in multiplayer strategy games, so that was the game premise we started with.

Battling monsters was a given as well, but we knew we wanted these fights to be on more than just a grand strategy level – we wanted to let players do battle in closer quarters. So, we developed the single-player campaign to do just that.

This gave us additional advantages – it allowed us to let the player fight as a team of humans, or as a pack of monsters – which we knew that Monsterverse fans would definitely want! It also allowed us to explore a narrative within the Story Mode, in a way that we’d never been able to do before.

The idea of collecting the monsters presented a challenge – in the Monsterverse, superspecies are not pets you can tame and befriend. But we knew it was absolutely something fans would want. We built on the ideas from Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) to develop the ORCA-M technology, as a way that monster behaviour could be studied and influenced, if never fully controlled.

We know the big question will be “why not just play as the monsters all the time?” While we know this is a divisive subject, we do love our human characters! They are the lens through which we experience the Titans, and we wanted to get to play the human heroes building their place in a world that’s now shared with monsters. How would the world be different? What new technologies, career fields, opportunities and dangers would be present? A human perspective lets us explore all these things.

Plus, Kong may build great Wartdog traps, but as humans, we get to build and design our own outpost on the Siren Islands, which lets us bring in fun things like Titan statues and other cosmetic items.

While discussing this with Legendary, trying to define exactly what role the players would take on, we came across the term “monster stormchasers”. We knew right away that this was the type of character that we wanted to feature in our game – people who are fascinated by the Titans and want to follow them into adventure.

 

TK: What inspired the setting of the game, the Siren Islands? Why did you decide on the name “Siren Islands?”

Gallie: We knew the game needed a setting outside of regular civilisation, where monsters could roam free. We wanted an element of survival, of exploring the wilderness, where players could set up outposts and compete over territory, and where Titans could have city-smashing battles repeatedly without regular civilians or geography being too much of a concern.

We did consider Hollow Earth as a location, but based on the events in GvK we felt that Hollow Earth access was a rare and difficult thing to achieve. So we came up with the Siren Islands as a bridge between worlds. They were formed during Rise of the Titans, by the worldwide natural disasters that occurred as a result of Ghidorah’s brief reign. Elements of former civilisation are scattered across the islands, creating resources for players to scavenge. The Vortex at the centre makes it a hotspot for monster activity, and the presence of Titans allows nature to flourish and give us all sorts of options for new flora and minerals to emerge.

The name “Siren Islands” came from the idea that this place is both incredibly tempting for adventurers, scientists, and monster fanatics, drawing Chasers from all over the world. But, like the Sirens of myth, they’re also absolutely deadly.

 

TK: Along with many familiar faces from the films and comics, you’ve introduced some new beasts to the Monsterverse. Did you have a lot of freedom with creating these new superspecies?

Gallie: We did. It actually took us some time to find the right direction. When designing monsters, especially ones that can be inspired by myths, it can be easy to swing too far in either the horror or fantasy direction. These creatures needed to feel grounded in familiar nature, but still be something never seen before.

We hit our stride when we considered the elemental nature of many of the Titans and other superspecies. From Skull Island’s Florafauna, and Rodan’s bio-volcanic nature, this inspired us to combine familiar creatures with other elements. Hence the Volt Panther, the Magma Jackal, and the Sporeflies.

 

TK: How involved was Legendary with the story, creatures and characters?

Gallie: Legendary were with us every step of the way. They gave us a lot of runway while helping us with guidelines so everything we did stayed within the bounds of the world they are building. And in some cases, they helped nudge us to go further – like with pushing the boundaries of the tech within our world – than we might have gone ourselves. They were most heavily involved with defining the setting, the Story Campaign narrative, and the creatures, but also gave us feedback on the characters and their backgrounds.

 

TK: Is there an estimated date that the game’s story takes place?

Gallie: The game begins slightly before the events of GxK, but exists in its own timeline so future events will unfold slightly differently to how they might occur in the films. As the film universe progresses, so will the game, but this means we can also let players encounter all their favorite Titans from across the franchise.

 

TK: There’s a surprisingly well done story mode in the game. Was it important to you to give the game a new story that enriches the Monsterverse?

Gallie: Absolutely. Our narrative team are all big Monsterverse fans, so the opportunity to add our own stories within the universe was incredibly exciting. We wanted the campaign to have a greater overall enemy than the monsters. The monsters are, after all, just forces of nature – not villains (well, maybe except for the Skullcrawlers…). So we have a brand new enemy faction that stands as a threat to both the Chasers, and to the monsters and the natural world in general.

This mode also lets us reveal bits and pieces about the Chasers, their stories, and how they’ve evolved with this new world. What we’ve shown is just the tip of the iceberg – we’ve got a lot more to come.

 

TK: You got to introduce a bunch of new characters to this universe. How much time goes into developing an individual character?

Gallie: When we were in pre-production, we explored a bunch of ideas around how regular people could fight monsters. What sorts of tech and tools would they have access to? What kind of skills would make sense for monster survival? What kind of personalities and motivations would lead someone to become a Titan Chaser?

From there, we developed a lot of sketches and rough ideas, and gradually began refining down our roster. Most of our early characters went through several redesigns as we explored art direction, technology, and clothing styles before settling into the final look and feel we wanted for them. The design team came in to ensure we had enough variety in combat roles, and characters would be tweaked to accommodate certain skills from a gameplay perspective.

We usually didn’t go in with a pre-determined idea of a character’s backstory so their stories and personalities evolved as we finalised their look and gameplay design. There was the odd exception – we knew we wanted Kenzo, as one of the first characters introduced, to be former G-Team so he had the authority and experience to take the lead, and a connection to Monarch that fans would recognise.

When it came to fully developing the backstories, we had a great time developing small additions to the world building, such as adding Isha’s VARUNA background, and making little connections to the events of the films, like Reagan’s history as a firefighter in San Francisco. These were the final touches that made us feel our characters truly belonged in the Monsterverse.

 

TK: Do you have any personal favorites among the Chasers?

Gallie: Mei is a lot of fun to write – she’s gradually evolved into our in-universe monster fangirl, who just wants to befriend and adopt them all (and occasionally forgets not to get too close.) Her concept passed through a lot of hands, but I also got to do the final pass on her outfit, so I’m personally very fond of her design as well!

We all have a soft spot for Daniel. We gave the poor guy such terrible luck in his backstory, right up to the point where you meet up with his character. We compensated him by making him an excellent team healer!

 

TK: There are several Chasers in the game that don’t play a role in the story. Can we expect to see them in future expansions to the storyline?

Gallie: Yes, you can! We’re looking forward to having some of our other Chasers play more of a role in later episodes of the Story Campaign, as well as events.

 

TK: Are there plans to continue adding more storylines at regular intervals?

Gallie: We are working on the next stage of the Story Campaign right now. This was just the first episode – we’re building up to bigger things!

 

TK: Are there any plans to bring established characters in as Chasers, such as Ford Brody, Warrant Officer Barnes or Lee Shaw?

Gallie: Not currently. While this would be awesome, we’d need additional permissions to use the actors’ likenesses outside of the film, so it involves some extra steps.

 

TK: Will there be cosmetic skins for Chasers and creatures?

Gallie: In the long term, this would be a lot of fun! Right now though, we are focused on expanding our initial roster of characters and monsters. In terms of the monsters, I also think we’re more interested in exploring the variants of different species and having them as unique characters with their own abilities, rather than just swapping appearances.

 

TK: Are there any plans to expand to other regions, such as Skull Island, Hollow Earth or Axis Mundi?

Gallie: Hollow Earth exploration is definitely in our plans! In our timeline, as in the films, Skull Island no longer exists, but we have considered the idea of doing flashback events where we visit past locations and iconic battles, so it’s not off the table.

 

TK: You have a collab with Madrinas where an unlock code for a special Boba Stand is packed in your collaborative partner’s Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire Collector’s Boba Boxes. Can we expect more fun collabs like this in the future?

Gallie: We expect so! The Monsterverse just keeps expanding, so we hope there will be future opportunities to collaborate with other partners.

 

TK: There’s a lot of mobile games on the market. What do you think makes Titan Chasers stand out from its peers?

Gallie: We’re the only standalone Monsterverse title on mobile, and we’re the biggest Monsterverse game ever launched. It’s a position we take seriously!

While we are a smaller team than some of the giants out there, we also have a history of building games that last for years, with strong communities that we take the time to listen and respond to. We take a lot of pride in building games that are accessible and fun for players of all levels of experience.

Our team are also genuinely passionate about the Monsterverse and how we can bring it to life in your hands. We’ve got so many plans in the wings, and we’re excited to keep building on what we’ve done so far.

 

TK: Any hints or teases as to what we can expect to see next in Titan Chasers?

Gallie: Our first major update is now out, and we’ve responded to a lot of the feedback received over our launch month. We’ve added some new events, balance tweaks, quality of life improvements, and there’s even more to come.

Throughout the rest of the year, you can look forward to Godzilla and Kong taking on their GxK forms, the Skar King and Shimo emerging onto the Sirens, and more ways to interact with and support your favourite Titans!

There will also be new monsters to battle and to recruit in both the Campaign and on the World Map, plus new storylines.

You can also listen out for updates about the Vile Vortex zone and more future Titans later this year!