Interview with Eldar Basic - Monster Theater Games’ director and creator of Atomic Owl

Wordfoxes - Atomic Owl is a unique blend of synth-wave aesthetics, anime, and birds. What were the main inspirations behind the game's style?

Eldar Basic - From a young age, I’ve always been interested in two things - esoteric Japanese anime films and the Saturday morning cartoon feel of the 1990s. Atomic Owl is a blend of something like Ronin Warriors and Demon City: Shinjuku.

WF - Does the name Atomic Owl hold any special or symbolic meaning to you?

EB - It’s funny, but ‘Nuclear Owl’ was actually the game’s original title. But then I got in my own head about how people might not like that word. However, there’s already a game called Nuclear Throne, which did pretty well. Anyway, I changed it to Atomic Owl because I once saw the movie ‘Atomic Blonde’ and thought that was a really cool name.

WF - The development team has a strong Brazilian presence. How was this multicultural team formed?

EB - Lots of students from Brazil are interested in games and form an ecosystem of freelancers who are online looking to work on indies. I slowly amassed a team of Brazilian game developers also from references from current team members. We’re also close friends with lots of other game studios, like the team that is making Eden’s Guardian. We’re sort of like Kickstarter brothers in arms with that studio!

WF - Is there any interesting or memorable story involving the Brazilian team members during the development of Atomic Owl?

EB - Well, one of our lead programmers lives in Rio. All I can say is how often I hear about his wild weekends, haha!

But more on the serious side, some of the most talented programmers and artists (particularly pixel artists) are from Brazil that I’ve worked with. It’s been fascinating to hear about their career paths from bedroom developer to student, to paid dev!

WF - What is the work culture like at the studio? Is there any special effort to integrate team members considering the cultural differences?

EB - The work culture is very light. We’re a team of part-time contributors who give time to the game when we can. It’s my full-time job, but I’m the only full-time member – we’re mainly focused on the game, but we engage a lot in games outside of the studio, and of course, share memes, goof off, and share videos of people playing Atomic Owl (the demo) on YouTube.

WF - What types of skills or characteristics do you look for when hiring members from other countries?

EB - This is a big one for me! I made a lot of mistakes early on with hiring. I didn’t properly interview potential hires which led to a lot of strange situations.

I look for enthusiasm and knowledge of game history. If you’re excited about working with me on my games, and you know video game trends and have played the classics, we will work well together. I don’t hire differently from other countries than I would be hiring someone from North America, though.

WF - Do you have any advice for Brazilian developers who dream of working remotely with international studios?

EB - Portfolio, portfolio, portfolio. The stronger your portfolio is, the less you need to impress in a potential interview. Be C to native in English or German, maybe French. A degree doesn’t matter as much as it used to. Learn a game engine like the back of your hand.

WF - Do you think Brazilian talent is being recognized in the international gaming market? What could be done to improve this?

EB - Absolutely! I have been seeing a lot of amazing games coming out of the Brazilian markets (like Kaze and the Wild Masks, for example) and lots of successful Kickstarters from Brazilian developers. To improve this, I think there needs to be a HUGE indie hit (like Balatro-level) to emerge from that market, and as long as the Brazilian government keeps funding creative endeavors like they have been, we will see some huge swell from that market.

WF - What are the studio's plans after the release of Atomic Owl? Are there any plans to expand the team or develop other games with this multicultural approach?

EB - I believe we’re always going to stay multi-cultural. We sort of fell into the Brazilian development market, but with our next game, we’re retaining all of our Brazilian and Spanish development teams. Realistically, we’re likely going to be working on two games at once (Naughty Dog style!) with our next projects. One will be a direct follow-up to Atomic Owl, and the other will be something completely different.