Hollywood Monsters

Hollywood Monsters is a 1997 graphic adventure game developed by the Spanish company Pendulo Studios and published by Dinamic Multimedia. It takes place in an alternate-history 1950s, where the creatures from Golden Age monster movies are played by real monsters who lead otherwise normal lives. Controlling reporters Sue Bergman and Ron Ashman, the player seeks to unravel a mystery surrounding the murder of Frankenstein's monster. In the process, the player undertakes a globetrotting journey to locations like Transylvania and Egypt, while solving puzzles and interacting with characters such as Count Dracula, the Invisible Man and the Mummy. Development of Hollywood Monsters began at Pendulo in mid-1994. The company sought to heavily improve its design practices, graphics production and engine technology over those of its first game, Igor: Objective Uikokahonia (1994). While Igor had involved six people, Hollywood Monsters required roughly 40 contributors, most of them outside contractors. Pendulo's goal was to create a traditional adventure game with nonlinear gameplay and difficult puzzles. At the request of Dinamic, the team worked with Spanish new wave group La Unión to create a theme song for Hollywood Monsters. After a challenging development cycle that lasted two-and-a-half years, the game was released in Spain during December 1997. The game drew attention in Spain as a major release from the country's small game industry, which had collapsed after the golden age of Spanish software. Spanish publications cited it as evidence that domestic games were maturing; listeners of the popular radio program Game 40 voted it the best Spanish-made game of 1997. In Spain, Hollywood Monsters sold 250,000 units and helped to establish Pendulo as an important developer. However, the game's planned English version was never released, as Pendulo failed to find publishers beyond Southern Europe. The game has retrospectively been labeled a "classic" by Spanish outlets, and as one of the country's greatest graphic adventure games. Longstanding fan demand led to the spiritual successor The Next Big Thing (2011), named Hollywood Monsters 2 in Spain.