Interview with Game Director Edouard Gaudel

Today, we’re bringing you a slightly different kind of devblog, and a very exciting one at that! We had the chance to speak with Edouard Gaudel, Game Director at Ludogram, the creators of Monsters are Coming!, and we couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead for the game.

Check out the full interview below, where Edouard talks about the team, the game’s design, inspirations, and much more! And if there’s anything you’d like us to ask in the future, feel free to leave your questions in the comments. We might come back with another interview down the line!

• Q: How did the idea for Monsters Are Coming first come to life?

A: For a long time, we had been thinking about making a game set in a world where a moving city was fleeing from something. When I was younger, I was deeply struck by The Inverted World by Christopher Priest, but we struggled to find the right gameplay for that idea.

Then the rise of survivor-like games suddenly made everything click. One morning, when I arrived at the studio, I started pitching the idea of a survivor game where you would play as a city on the run. The idea began to resonate with the team, until we eventually started prototyping it “just to see”… and quickly got hooked.

• Q: What were some of the earliest concepts or prototypes like? Did the game end up very different from the original vision?

A: At first, there was only a moving city that could travel in every direction. It was interesting, but visually, it didn’t really feel like you were building a city, because for the game to remain playable, the city had to stay quite small.

We then started exploring the idea of a wider, more extended city layout, and eventually, the idea of having a worker walking ahead of the city to help it progress emerged.

We’ll probably talk more about those early versions in a future devblog, because the game changed quite a lot during development.

• Q: What were some of the biggest inspirations behind the game’s world and gameplay?

A: One of the major inspirations for the world was The Inverted World by Christopher Priest.

On the gameplay side, Vampire Survivors was a strong reference, especially for how quickly it onboards players and how fast it delivers fun. And I would also add Dome Keeper: I really enjoy the design choices behind this title.

• Q: What’s your approach to designing gameplay ideas? How do new ideas usually come up during development?

A: There are several ways ideas emerge.

Sometimes, it starts with a creative intuition: “What if we added a worker who collects resources?” Other times, it comes from player feedback during playtests.

Very often, ideas also come from the team collectively struggling with a design problem. A good example is how death works in the game. At first, dying triggered a frustrating cooldown of ten to twenty seconds. Then Félix, one of our game designers, came up with a great idea: “What if, instead, players had to build a statue in memory of the fallen peon?”

That kind of idea is exactly what we love: it solves a gameplay issue while adding personality and fantasy to the game.

• Q: What does the team’s workflow look like on a typical day?

A: Usually, part of the team starts by looking at player feedback from Steam, Discord, streams, and other channels. Then we have a team meeting to discuss priorities.

Everyone shares what they are working on, where they are in their tasks, and whether they need additional feedback. After that, we keep iterating throughout the day to continue improving the game.

• Q: What has been the biggest challenge during development so far?

A: The biggest challenge has probably been the mix of genres at the heart of Monsters Are Coming: survivor, tower defense, and city builder.

On top of that, players have to manage both the hero and the city. We regularly had to make decisions about which direction to prioritize and how to keep the experience clear, readable, and fun.

• Q: Is there a feature, mechanic, or small detail in the game that the team is especially proud of?

A: Beyond the death mechanic mentioned earlier, we really like the fact that players can build on locations connected to the main building by a bridge.

More importantly, we are very proud of the fantasy behind having several different cities, each with its own identity and specific mechanics. At first, that wasn’t really the plan: we were mostly focused on the heroes. But during development, we realized there was something very strong in giving each city its own personality and gameplay identity.

• Q: Since launch, what has surprised the team the most about the community’s reaction to the game?

A: We expected it to some extent, but there is a big contrast in how players perceive the difficulty: some find the game too easy, while others find it too hard.

It is a delicate balance, and something we are paying close attention to. We are also trying to give players more control over additional difficulty options. That is actually how challenges were added to the game.

• Q: How important has community feedback been throughout development?

A: Playtests were key milestones for the project. Without them, development would have been much more complicated.

It is an approach we really value and want to keep strengthening. Now that the game is out, it is great to receive so much feedback from players and to keep improving the game with them.

• Q: What excites you the most about the future of the game?

A: Endless Mode! We are really excited to bring it to players.

More generally, we are very happy to have the opportunity to keep improving the game. That would not have been possible without the support of Raw Fury, Microsoft, and, of course, the players.

So, thank you all!

• Edouard