June 17, 2024 – Los Angeles, CA. 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, and we’ll soon have it available for Android on Google Play.

Monsarrat is a startup and Landing Party is just a test game, to show the concept and enable us to raise more funding. Please be kind in your reviews and ratings as we build this into a full game. However, Landing Party is much more than a demo. You’ll find substantial gameplay, with 12 missions.

We’d love to get your feedback! Join our Discord server, or email us at contact@monsarrat.com.

Forbes chose Monsarrat as one of only two startups to praise at Augmented World Expo 2023, against 450 speakers, 300 exhibitors, and 5,000 attendees.

In the article Boom Times For XR At AWE 2023, Forbes wrote:

“The best parts of AWE are often spontaneous demos given by developers and entrepreneurs in the hallways of the conference and convention center… Game developer and entrepreneur Johnny Monsarrat landed a very important and beloved sci-fi brand to build a location-based outdoor game. He raised a seed round, which has enabled him to create a compelling demo of what it’s like to walk around a real park that has been converted into an alien planet.”

XREAL is the world’s best-selling maker of consumer AR headsets. That excludes headsets like the Apple Vision Pro that are sold to enterprises because they’re simply too expenses for individuals such as video game players.

Monsarrat and XREAL have now formed a marketing and development partnership, to build and promote Monsarrat’s games on XREAL’s augmented reality glasses. XREAL founder PJ Jin said, “It’s the best AR game I’ve ever seen.”

Although iPhones and Android phones will always be the primary platforms for our games, because there are so many phones in the world, playing with AR glasses is a premium experience that makes for great gameplay and live video streaming!