Monsarrat could solve one of the biggest problems in video games: player retention. A video game maker has to spend money on advertisements to convince a player to download and try a video game. That’s expensive, so the video game must earn that money back and more. How long the average player stays and spends money is vital to the success of any game.

What a video game maker doesn’t want is to build expensive “content” (game missions, or game levels), to find that each new player burns through it quickly, playing each mission just once and then quitting the game or demanding more. Instead, video game makers succeed when a small amount of content keeps players coming back repeatedly, for a long time. Monsarrat achieves this in two ways.

1. Real World Community. Monsarrat’s founder, Johnny Monsarrat, is already an expert in player retention, having previously pioneered Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOs). He was Founder, CEO, and CTO of Turbine, one of the “big three” original MMO game makers, now a division of Warner Bros. MMOs use an online community to increase player retention. If you want to see your friends, you have to keep playing the game. You feel loyalty and belonging by joining a team of players, and the team has weekly goals and needs your help, so you have to keep playing the game.

The more that players entertain each other, the less content you need to build to keep them coming back over and over. When Turbine’s game Asheron’s Call ended after 17 years, it was international news because it still had an active community that wanted to spend time together. Two other Turbine games, Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online, are still going with active communities more than 18 years later.

Player retention factors based on community-building should be even greater in the real world for Monsarrat’s outdoor video games, because real world friendships are more valuable than online friendships. Monsarrat’s games will act as an icebreaker, a team-building exercise, bonding players together. Just as with sports or an escape room, moving around with someone helps you make new friends. That’s both a good deed and a huge revenue opportunity in the global crisis of loneliness, when people ache to feel connected to their neighborhoods and to others.

2. Physical Activity. Physical activity elevates your body chemistry and makes you happy. That’s why baseball, basketball, and other sports are infinitely repeatable. Sports teams don’t worry about making fresh “content” or new game levels. A football field, baseball field, and basketball court are always the same size and shape, but physical activity drives a mountain of repeat play. Athletes keep playing because they love moving around.

Even Pokémon Go proves this result. Pokémon Go famously has weak player retention, but actually its retention is excellent compared to its gameplay. It’s only a “collecting” game, an uninteresting and unpopular game genre not found anywhere else in video games. Who plays collecting games on PC or console? Players collect all the easy-to-find items first and then struggle to hunt around for the rare items. Collecting games get boring.

Yet somehow Pokémon Go supercharged this weak game type with a little walking around. Relatively speaking, its player retention was actually excellent for its game type.

Monsarrat’s games aren’t based on weak gameplay. Their innovative technology, based on 6 fully granted patents, support continuous game zones outside for the first time, which are required for blockbuster, proven game genres from PC, console, mobile, and VR, like action and roleplaying. Outdoor play accelerated collecting games to new heights. It will accelerate these established game types with strong economics even further. So even with just a little game content, Monsarrat’s games could retain players better than any other video game in history.

See videos and more at monsarrat.com.

Monsarrat, a video game maker in Los Angeles, continued to expand its presence in outdoor video games by winning its 5th and 6th patents. Meanwhile, competitor Niantic (Pokémon Go) has a stalled strategy in outdoor gaming and is in talks to sell off its game division.

Pokémon Go puts one simple type of gameplay outside ($1B/year), but its scattered map points don’t support the contiguous landscapes needed for proven, blockbuster PC genres like action and roleplaying. Who will bring those giant game types outside ($10B/year)?

Monsarrat is already doing it. Their technology lays out a 3D fantasy world across a real world space, which you walk through to play like the Holodeck on Star Trek, and is now available as a demo game, Landing Party, on Apple App Store and Google Play.

Monsarrat’s first 4 patents relate to placing a fantasy world into a small space such as your back yard, or a local park, or even playing indoors. That is vital to the future of outdoor video games because most players don’t live next to a large park. They want the convenience of playing in small spaces.

The 5th patent, fully granted this month by the US Patent and Trademark Office, relates to vehicles. As children we all played with toy cars and airplanes, walking around pretending to drive them. This new invention from Monsarrat brings that joy into AR walking games, outdoor mobile games, supporting for the first time a racing car game or airplane simulator game outside. This follows Monsarrat’s strategy to port the biggest and most successful PC game genres outdoors.

The 6th patent relates to hills and valleys. In augmented reality, normally a flat virtual world is overlaid onto the phone camera view of the flat real world. But what happens if you want the player to descend into a crater in the game world? What happens if the real world space, perhaps a public park, has tiny hills to walk up and down? Monsarrat has already coded a first take on this algorithm and it’s surprisingly immersive. It really does feel like you’re walking down into a crater in the game world, even when in the real world you’re walking on level ground.

Like its other patents, these two new patents have broad claims that cover “any algorithm” and stake out even more intellectual territory for Monsarrat in the future of outdoor video games. See videos and more at monsarrat.com.

Journalists love our demo game! Landing Party is the world’s first outdoor roleplaying, a free game on app stores now with 12 missions. It’s our stepping stone to our future full game.

Charlie Fink from Forbes praised the game twice, calling it “a remarkable outdoor roleplaying game” and “one of the best parts of AWE, a compelling demo”. At Augmented World Expo, Forbes chose us as one of only 16 companies to praise, from 5,000 attendees and hundreds of exhibitors.

Dean Takahashi from Venture Beat wrote an 1,800-word feature on the game, noting its patented technology, and how competitor Niantic (Pokemon Go) has struggled to evolve from its “collecting stuff” gameplay outdoors.

Tom’s Guide wrote “I just saw the future of mobile gaming“.

At GDC, journalists loved the demo game, noting:

• How it works well in small spaces, calling it “breathtaking easy”,
• How surprisingly immersive the game felt, more than you would expect from a small mobile phone screen, and
• That nothing like this has ever been done before.

Here are the GDC press videos with testimonials praising the game:

• Overview video
• Jasmine Lehrman, AtomBombBody
• Don Hopper, Upload VR
• Giovanni Colantonio, Digital Trends
• Kahlief Adams, Spawn on Me
• Erik Hartley, XREAL Insider
• Alex Wawro, Tom’s Guide

And fans have loved the game, too. See ecstatic reactions in these videos by:

• Professional game makers at Game Developer Conference, some of whom called it “the best innovation at the show”, and
• Ordinary game players at Fan Expo Boston, who went even more nuts for the game.

About Monsarrat

Based in Los Angeles, Monsarrat makes the world’s first Outdoor Roleplaying Game. Their first demo game, Landing Party, supports deeper, MMO-style storytelling and player interaction than previous outdoor games, which have all been collecting games.

Monsarrat is now seeking business partnerships, and funding to build out their future full game.

Press kit: https://monsarrat.com/presskit

Videos: https://youtube.com/@monsarratgames

Contact: Johnny Monsarrat, CEO, jmonsarrat@monsarrat.com.

Monsarrat, a Los Angeles startup, today launched Landing Party, a demo game that is the world’s first Outdoor Roleplaying Game.

This is the second time that its founder, Johnny Monsarrat, invented a new type of game. He previously co-invented MMOs, as the Founder, CEO, and CTO of Turbine, one of the “big three” first MMO game companies. Turbine’s MMOs included Dungeons & Dragons Online, D.I.C.E. “RPG Game of the Year” Asheron’s Call, and PC Gamer “MMO Game of the Year” Lord of the Rings Online. Warner Bros. later bought Turbine for $160 million.

Now Monsarrat is taking his expertise outside. Outdoor walking games were defined in 2016 by Niantic’s Pokémon Go, which has earned a staggering $8 billion, including $566 million just in 2023. But Pokémon Go gameplay has nothing like the creativity and community of powerhouse MMO games that Monsarrat knows so well. Niantic struggled to evolve its entry level Pokémon Go, where you collect stuff, into mature products with better performing player retention and monetization. Harry Potter and Marvel heroes don’t spend all their time collecting stuff. Fans wanted real storytelling and roleplaying adventures.

Monsarrat’s new launch, Landing Party, could show the way. It’s an Outdoor RPG inspired by its founder’s background in MMOs and backed up by 4 patents. Instead of placing one creature at a GPS point, Landing Party lays out an entire fantasy world across an open map space, which the player walks through to play. The game has no fixed locations, allowing players to set their next game mission in their back yard, a local park, or any other open space, even a small one.

CEO Johnny Monsarrat said, “In the global crisis of loneliness, people are craving a reason to go outdoors. But some people aren’t drawn to sports. They want an alternative outdoor activity that’s more creative and less athletic. That’s what we’re building, and we see three key market drivers: creativity, community, and convenience.”

Landing Party is so far just a demo game, but it’s free and has 12 missions that could be the future of outdoor video games. It is now available on Apple App Store and Google Play. See links and videos at monsarrat.com.

About Monsarrat

Monsarrat is an AR game company based in Los Angeles, whose first demo game, Landing Party, is an “Outdoor RPG”, a new type of AR mobile walking game that supports deeper, MMO-style storytelling and player interaction.

Monsarrat is now seeking business partnerships, and funding to build out their future full game.

Press kit: https://monsarrat.com/presskit

Videos: https://youtube.com/@monsarratgames

Contact: Johnny Monsarrat, CEO, jmonsarrat@monsarrat.com.

We had a blowout success at GDC! Game Developer Conference, a week in San Francisco, is perhaps the world’s most important video game conference, with many calling us the “best innovation at the show”.

Our partner XREAL, the world’s biggest selling of consumer-priced AR glasses, brought ten journalists to meet us, and we gave demos on both regular smart phones and on the XREAL glasses. We also explored the expo hall and grounds, giving demos to attendees and taking investor meetings and partnership meetings, with Roblox, Samsung, Meta, Amazon, and others.

Our new mini-game, Landing Party, is just a first step to our final full game with a Hollywood franchise. But it has 6 missions and shows how it works. It’s a brand new category of video game. People loved it!

See videos of press reactions to our demo, and reactions from other attendees.

We did it! Monsarrat is glad to announce the launch of Landing Party, a completely new type of video game never seen before by anyone.

Unlike Pokémon Go, with its “collecting game” gameplay, Landing Party is an Outdoor RPG, a roleplaying game where an entire game world is laid out across a local park. You don’t just see one creature. You walk through a landscape of game content, interacting with environments, objects, buildings, and creatures with deep storytelling.

Download it from Apple App Store or Google Play.

Monsarrat is a startup and Landing Party is a demo game, but you’ll find substantial gameplay, with 12 missions, as we build our future full game.

We’d love to get your feedback! Email us at contact@monsarrat.com.