Thursday, March 25, 2021

How 'Monkey Quest' Helped Create 'Glitch Techs'

In the early '10s, Nickelodeon had a very popular massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) called Monkey Quest. Launched in April 2011, the free-to-play game allowed players to create a monkey warrior avatar and gear up for battle as they embarked on an epic adventure, fighting evil monsters bent on stopping them from completing quests, joining tribes, and ultimately unlocking the secrets of the legendary Monkey King and saving Ook. The game amassed over 10 million registered users, and was so popular that Nickelodeon once planned to produce an animated series based on the title!


In 2012, Nickelodeon turned to Glitch Techs co-creators Eric Robles and Dan Milano to adapt the online game into an animated series - in fact, it's how Robles and Milano first met! During their time working on the Monkey Quest animated series, Robles shared his concept materials for a show about kids who use technology to capture digital creatures that escape from video games. Milano immediately became obsessed with that idea and together they formed a fast partnership, developing the concept into a 22-minute series for Nickelodeon Animation.

Drawing on their mutual love of Saturday morning cartoons, video games, Ghostbusters (Milano kept an arsenal of full-sized Ghostbusters equipment props handy in his office!), toys, and adventure films they soon brought their enthusiasm to both the Nickelodeon Artists Collective and their own custom think tank of show collaborators. By opening their creativity up to the input of others, they vastly expanded the potential for the show’s world, characters, and themes — raising the quality of the project to something they both felt was new, exciting, and challenging.

Unfortunately, in September 2014, Nickelodeon decided to close down Monkey Quest so that they could focus on other digital and mobile experiences. And it seems like the Monkey Quest cartoon series met the same fate. However, Robles has been sharing some awesome development and concept art from his time working on the animated series Monkey Quest on Twitter!





While we unfortunately never got to see the Monkey Quest animated series, fans can stream Glitch Techs on Netflix!

Would you have liked to have seen a Monkey Quest animated series? Let me know in the comments!


Additional source: Super Brawl Wiki.

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