Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
Encyclopedia
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster is a video game developed by Double Fine Productions
and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in conjunction with Sesame Workshop
. The game, released on October 11, 2011, was released on the Xbox 360
console utilizing the Kinect controller where players will control the Muppet characters of Cookie Monster
and Elmo
and a new character, Marco, as they sing and dance. Though Once Upon a Monster represents Double Fine's first foray into licensed property, the title started as one of four smaller titles, alongside Costume Quest
and Stacking
, during an "Amnesia Fortnight" period during Brütal Legend
, and was later found to be easily adapted to the Sesame Street property.
and Elmo
; one chapter involves the new character of Marco who was the only attendee at his own birthday party. These chapters are then broken into a series of minigame
s that utilize the Kinect controller. In the example birthday party chapter, the games include a tandem race, represented as Elmo riding on the shoulders of Marco; one player, acting as Marco, shifts side to side to avoid rocks in the path or jumps to avoid fallen logs, while the second player as Elmo ducks at appropriate times to avoid being hit by tree branches. A subsequent game includes a lightweight dance game variant where the players must attempt to match moves by the other monsters on screen with their body. The chapter culminates in a big birthday celebration for Marco, where the players must then help him to blow out the candles on his cake.
, issues with publishers put the game's fate in question. To bolster the company, Tim Schafer
had split the company into four groups over a two week period to design prototypes for a new game. After this "Amnesia Fortnight", taking place around 2007-2008, the whole company reviews the generated prototypes and found them to be sound ideas to build from. After Brütal Legend was completed, they were told by Electronic Arts
that there would not likely be a sequel; Schafer turned back to these four games and set the company to develop the titles further while selling the idea of these smaller games to publishers. Though Once Upon a Monster was the first game to be completed as a prototype during the Amnesia Fortnight, it will be the fourth game published, following Costume Quest
, Stacking
, and Trenched
. The game was formally announced in February 2011 for a late 2011 release date.
Once Upon a Monster was based on a prototype developed by Nathan Martz, the lead programmer on Brütal Legend and who led the larger development for this game. The original game involved monsters singing and dancing, inspired by the antics of Sesame Street
and The Muppets
. In designing the prototype, Martz has set about to make a game that was "uplifting", citing games like Loco Roco that he called "overtly and passionately upbeat". The game as a prototype was named Happy Song, and Martz considered it a "musical toy" where the player helped the monsters to create music. The initial prototype used more traditional controls, but Martz found that the game fit in well with the Kinect motion controller, particularly as the unit was aimed at the family market. The game includes aspects of physical, musical, and aesthetic activities, with the latter two being translated to become more physical with the use of the Kinect controller.
The original prototype featured unique characters designed by Scott Campbell
, Double Fine's in-house artist. As they started to pitch the game for publication, they received comments that the game was a "natural fit" with the monster characters from Sesame Street. Schafer had initially excused the idea of producing a licensed work, something the company had not done yet to date. After hearing that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Sesame Workshop
has signed a deal together, Schafer and Martz actively pursued the licensing deal with the two entities. Schafer, Martz, and several other Double Fine staff were childhood fans of the show, and once they were successful in negotiating the license for Once Upon a Monster, they felt it was important to stay true to the Workshop's vision; as Schafer described, he "felt this responsibility, just how serious it is to work with the characters, and how important they are". They visited the Jim Henson studio in New York twice to review and discuss the construction of the Muppets for the show, which they then translated into their game engine; the engine includes dynamic fur simulation and skeleton animations that mimic the behavior of the Muppets. While the game includes at least two Sesame Street characters, Cookie Monster
and Elmo
, the original character from Martz's prototype, Marco, remained throughout the game's development. Another monster in the game, Seamus, also came from Campbell's original sketches, and given a shy personality, only able to be lured out by providing him with clothes that fit his mood.
Once they had begun working with the Sesame Workshop, Double Fine learned that the non-profit organization had several goals that they built into Sesame Street that were not immediate obvious, including a "Whole Child Curriculum" that helped to foster social and emotional development in children, and a "Healthy Habits for Life" aimed at nutrition and fitness, the latter which the Kinect controller would promote. They worked alongside the Workshop's Education Research and Outreach program, which reviews all Sesame Street-licensed products, to assure that the goals of the game would promote the mission of the Workshop. As a result, the game become what Mantz described as "emotional entertainment", teaching younger players "real human themes like shyness, friendship, bravery, sensitivity, empathy". While Schafer recognized that part of their job in developing the game was to promote the Workshop's educational goals, he also reflected that Sesame Street involves a good amount of humor; Schafer compared the performers that control the Muppets as live comedy performers, reaction to the situation as need be. Schafer and Martz also recognized that much of the humor is aimed at both parents and their children, and wanted to capture that for the game, allowing parents and children to play it together instead of letting the game be a "electronic babysitter".
Double Fine Productions
Double Fine Productions is an American video game developer founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer after his departure from LucasArts. He started Double Fine with Programmers David Dixon and Jonathan Menzies in what was once a clog shop in San Francisco...
and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in conjunction with Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop , is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world...
. The game, released on October 11, 2011, was released on the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
console utilizing the Kinect controller where players will control the Muppet characters of Cookie Monster
Cookie Monster
Cookie Monster is a Muppet on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating phrases: "Me want cookie!", "Me eat cookie!", and "Om nom nom nom" . He often eats anything and everything, including danishes, donuts, lettuce, apples,...
and Elmo
Elmo
Elmo is a Muppet character on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is a furry red monster and currently hosts the last full 15 minute segment on Sesame Street, Elmo's World, which is aimed at toddlers. His puppeteer, Kevin Clash, uses falsetto to produce his voice...
and a new character, Marco, as they sing and dance. Though Once Upon a Monster represents Double Fine's first foray into licensed property, the title started as one of four smaller titles, alongside Costume Quest
Costume Quest
Costume Quest is an adventure role-playing video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ. In the game, the player controls a child that is trick-or-treating with their twin on Halloween night when they encounter a monster that kidnaps the sibling...
and Stacking
Stacking (video game)
Stacking is an adventure/puzzle video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ; like Double Fine's previous Costume Quest, it is a smaller title created during the development period of Brütal Legend, and was released in February 2011 for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation...
, during an "Amnesia Fortnight" period during Brütal Legend
Brütal Legend
Brütal Legend is an action-adventure/real-time strategy game created by Double Fine Productions and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was released during October 2009 in North America and Europe...
, and was later found to be easily adapted to the Sesame Street property.
Gameplay
Once Upon a Monster is presented as a storybook divided into a number of chapters. Each chapter features a monster with some type of problem to be solved by the Sesame Street monsters Cookie MonsterCookie Monster
Cookie Monster is a Muppet on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating phrases: "Me want cookie!", "Me eat cookie!", and "Om nom nom nom" . He often eats anything and everything, including danishes, donuts, lettuce, apples,...
and Elmo
Elmo
Elmo is a Muppet character on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is a furry red monster and currently hosts the last full 15 minute segment on Sesame Street, Elmo's World, which is aimed at toddlers. His puppeteer, Kevin Clash, uses falsetto to produce his voice...
; one chapter involves the new character of Marco who was the only attendee at his own birthday party. These chapters are then broken into a series of minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
s that utilize the Kinect controller. In the example birthday party chapter, the games include a tandem race, represented as Elmo riding on the shoulders of Marco; one player, acting as Marco, shifts side to side to avoid rocks in the path or jumps to avoid fallen logs, while the second player as Elmo ducks at appropriate times to avoid being hit by tree branches. A subsequent game includes a lightweight dance game variant where the players must attempt to match moves by the other monsters on screen with their body. The chapter culminates in a big birthday celebration for Marco, where the players must then help him to blow out the candles on his cake.
Development
During the development of Double Fine's Brütal LegendBrütal Legend
Brütal Legend is an action-adventure/real-time strategy game created by Double Fine Productions and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was released during October 2009 in North America and Europe...
, issues with publishers put the game's fate in question. To bolster the company, Tim Schafer
Tim Schafer
Timothy Schafer is an American computer game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in January 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts...
had split the company into four groups over a two week period to design prototypes for a new game. After this "Amnesia Fortnight", taking place around 2007-2008, the whole company reviews the generated prototypes and found them to be sound ideas to build from. After Brütal Legend was completed, they were told by Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
that there would not likely be a sequel; Schafer turned back to these four games and set the company to develop the titles further while selling the idea of these smaller games to publishers. Though Once Upon a Monster was the first game to be completed as a prototype during the Amnesia Fortnight, it will be the fourth game published, following Costume Quest
Costume Quest
Costume Quest is an adventure role-playing video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ. In the game, the player controls a child that is trick-or-treating with their twin on Halloween night when they encounter a monster that kidnaps the sibling...
, Stacking
Stacking (video game)
Stacking is an adventure/puzzle video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ; like Double Fine's previous Costume Quest, it is a smaller title created during the development period of Brütal Legend, and was released in February 2011 for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation...
, and Trenched
Trenched
Iron Brigade, formerly titled Trenched, is a video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Microsoft Studios as a downloadable Xbox Live Arcade title on the Xbox 360...
. The game was formally announced in February 2011 for a late 2011 release date.
Once Upon a Monster was based on a prototype developed by Nathan Martz, the lead programmer on Brütal Legend and who led the larger development for this game. The original game involved monsters singing and dancing, inspired by the antics of Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
and The Muppets
The Muppets
The Muppets are a group of puppet characters created by Jim Henson starting in 1954–55. Although the term is often used to refer to any puppet that resembles the distinctive style of The Muppet Show, the term is both an informal name and legal trademark owned by the Walt Disney Company in reference...
. In designing the prototype, Martz has set about to make a game that was "uplifting", citing games like Loco Roco that he called "overtly and passionately upbeat". The game as a prototype was named Happy Song, and Martz considered it a "musical toy" where the player helped the monsters to create music. The initial prototype used more traditional controls, but Martz found that the game fit in well with the Kinect motion controller, particularly as the unit was aimed at the family market. The game includes aspects of physical, musical, and aesthetic activities, with the latter two being translated to become more physical with the use of the Kinect controller.
The original prototype featured unique characters designed by Scott Campbell
Scott Campbell (artist)
Scott Campbell is an Production Designer for Double Fine Productions and illustrator living in New York, New York.-Biography:...
, Double Fine's in-house artist. As they started to pitch the game for publication, they received comments that the game was a "natural fit" with the monster characters from Sesame Street. Schafer had initially excused the idea of producing a licensed work, something the company had not done yet to date. After hearing that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop , is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world...
has signed a deal together, Schafer and Martz actively pursued the licensing deal with the two entities. Schafer, Martz, and several other Double Fine staff were childhood fans of the show, and once they were successful in negotiating the license for Once Upon a Monster, they felt it was important to stay true to the Workshop's vision; as Schafer described, he "felt this responsibility, just how serious it is to work with the characters, and how important they are". They visited the Jim Henson studio in New York twice to review and discuss the construction of the Muppets for the show, which they then translated into their game engine; the engine includes dynamic fur simulation and skeleton animations that mimic the behavior of the Muppets. While the game includes at least two Sesame Street characters, Cookie Monster
Cookie Monster
Cookie Monster is a Muppet on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating phrases: "Me want cookie!", "Me eat cookie!", and "Om nom nom nom" . He often eats anything and everything, including danishes, donuts, lettuce, apples,...
and Elmo
Elmo
Elmo is a Muppet character on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is a furry red monster and currently hosts the last full 15 minute segment on Sesame Street, Elmo's World, which is aimed at toddlers. His puppeteer, Kevin Clash, uses falsetto to produce his voice...
, the original character from Martz's prototype, Marco, remained throughout the game's development. Another monster in the game, Seamus, also came from Campbell's original sketches, and given a shy personality, only able to be lured out by providing him with clothes that fit his mood.
Once they had begun working with the Sesame Workshop, Double Fine learned that the non-profit organization had several goals that they built into Sesame Street that were not immediate obvious, including a "Whole Child Curriculum" that helped to foster social and emotional development in children, and a "Healthy Habits for Life" aimed at nutrition and fitness, the latter which the Kinect controller would promote. They worked alongside the Workshop's Education Research and Outreach program, which reviews all Sesame Street-licensed products, to assure that the goals of the game would promote the mission of the Workshop. As a result, the game become what Mantz described as "emotional entertainment", teaching younger players "real human themes like shyness, friendship, bravery, sensitivity, empathy". While Schafer recognized that part of their job in developing the game was to promote the Workshop's educational goals, he also reflected that Sesame Street involves a good amount of humor; Schafer compared the performers that control the Muppets as live comedy performers, reaction to the situation as need be. Schafer and Martz also recognized that much of the humor is aimed at both parents and their children, and wanted to capture that for the game, allowing parents and children to play it together instead of letting the game be a "electronic babysitter".