Hey Joe, thanks for joining me. As a Day One backer of Making Monsters and someone who's been hanging out in the Sky Lion Discord and suggesting monster names, I've loved watching this game come together. For readers who haven't come across Sky Lion Games yet, could you give a quick introduction to who you are and what Sky Lion is all about?
I’m a lifelong strategy-game guy, but Sky Lion really began as a dad trying to protect joy in his house during a brutal time. I went through treatment for a rare blood cancer, and board games became the one thing that consistently gave me a way to show up for my kids, even on the hardest days. The table was where we still laughed, competed, and felt some normalcy
Sky Lion exists to create that feeling on purpose: games that look incredible, teach fast, and still have real strategic bite. I’m building a publisher you can trust. If Sky Lion is on the box, you’re getting a game that respects your time, creates big table moments, and makes you want to play again.
How would you describe your games to someone who's mostly played mainstream family games up to now?
Sky Lion games are the next step up from the mainstream family stuff. Family strategy+ with premium hand-illustrated art, built with a lot of love. The goal is that you can teach them quickly, nobody feels lost, and the table gets loud fast.
But they’re not just light fluff. Your choices actually matter, so you get that satisfying I kind of outplayed you there feeling that makes people want to run it back. I put a lot into making them beautiful on the table too, because I want the experience to feel like an event the moment you open the box.
I know Making Monsters has a really special story behind it. Without getting into anything you're not comfortable sharing, what was the spark that led to this game coming together?
It started in a pretty rough chapter of my life a couple years ago. I was going through treatment for a rare blood cancer, and overnight, my world got a lot smaller. I couldn’t do a lot of the things I normally do, but I could still sit at a table with my kids. And honestly, those game nights became a lifeline and a way to connect and spend time with my two little ones (now 8 and 12). It was one of the only ways I could feel like myself and still show up as a dad, even on the hard days.
Making Monsters clicked because it matched what our family needed right then: something funny, creative, and competitive in a light way. My daughters and I got completely into the process of making ridiculous monsters and arguing over which names were actually funny enough to keep. That energy became the heart of the project. At some point it stopped being “a game I’m publishing” and turned into the foundation for Sky Lion: making games that create laughter and connection on purpose.
You've assembled an incredible creative team: Jonathan Gilmour-Long and David Gordon from Dead of Winter and Dinosaur Island fame, Brett Bean with his Disney/Marvel background, and many more. How did those collaborations come about, and what did each of them bring to Making Monsters?
Thanks – I got lucky, but I also went after the best people I could, because this is my first swing as a publisher and I wanted it to be legit.
Jonathan Gilmour-Long and David Gordon as designers, were already on the project from earlier versions of the game, and when I stepped in, my focus was: let’s make it tighter, faster, and more fun every single turn. Those guys are absolute pros at that. They’re really good at cutting the stuff that sounds good on paper but drags at the table, and they helped make the game feel snappy and satisfying from start to finish. Also, this was close to David Gordon’s heart – he designed the idea with his son while in the car – so we both had a personal stake in this game’s success.
Brett Bean was the other big piece. Making Monsters depends on personality. If the art doesn’t make you smile, the whole thing falls flat. Brett’s style is perfect because it’s funny and charming without being gross, and it’s super readable. You can glance at a card and immediately want to show it to someone else, and that’s exactly the vibe I wanted.
And then honestly, a bunch of the “magic” came from the community and the press buzz (Good Morning America, radio, etc). The Discord people and playtesters shaped the tone a lot, especially with monster names. It’s been one of the coolest parts of doing this, this game doesn’t feel like it was made in a vacuum. It feels like it grew out of a table full of people trying to make each other laugh.
I was throwing out monster name ideas in the Discord during late development - what's one of your favourite monsters that came out of playtesting or community feedback, and why does it work so well?
I loved your names and the names we were getting out of our Discord community - great ideas for future expansions too. Swim Shady is the easy answer for me, because it hits everything I want Making Monsters to be. It’s instantly funny, totally family-safe, and you don’t have to explain it. You read it once and you’re already picturing the monster and laughing. And discord and others really loved it.
And that’s kind of the whole point of the game. The monsters are these ridiculous little characters you end up talking about after the game is over. When a name like that lands in the Discord and everyone immediately goes “yep, that one stays,” you can feel the game becoming a shared thing instead of just a product.
Sky Lion Games feels like it's off to a strong start with Making Monsters as your debut. What's the vision driving the company, and how does Making Monsters represent that?
The vision is: make Sky Lion a name people feel good buying. If you see our logo, I want you to think, “Okay, this is going to be fun, it’s going to look great, and it’s not going to be a rules slog.”
Making Monsters is basically the blueprint. It’s welcoming right away, it’s funny without being weird or gross, and it still has real decisions: timing, risk, reading the table (bluffing your friends!). But more than anything, it creates those nights where people are laughing, talking trash, showing each other their cards, and then immediately saying, “Alright, one more.” That’s what I want Sky Lion to be about.
When working on Making Monsters, what came first to you: the theme, the core mechanics or something else entirely different?
For me it was the feeling first, not the mechanics. I wanted a game night vibe where people are laughing, doing a little friendly trash talk, and making choices that feel clever without needing a big rules teach.
The “mad science fair” theme was perfect for that because it gives you permission to be ridiculous. Once we had that, the mechanics were really about supporting it: keep turns moving, keep everyone engaged, give you that push-your-luck tension, and set up those big reveal moments where the table reacts (the order phase where you bluff and try to predict your opponents move always creates a huge reaction!).
For readers who haven't seen it yet, what's your quick elevator pitch for Making Monsters?
Making Monsters is a fast, funny strategy game where you’re building ridiculous creatures and trying to outscore everyone else. The hook is that it’s not just build the best combo, but you’re also reading the table. Each round you’re making choices in the Order phase about what you’re going for, and there’s a light bluffing/mind-game layer because you’re trying to predict what other people are planning and time your moves accordingly. Then the reveals hit, people react, and the whole thing stays quick and lively. Easy teach, plays in under an hour….
Were there any big changes Making Monsters went through during development or playtesting that really improved the experience or surprised you?
Yeah, there were a few big changes that made a huge difference.
First, we tightened the gameplay a lot. Early on, there were a couple of places where the pacing could slow down, so we kept sharpening it until simultaneous turns stayed quick and the “mind game” layer really came through. The Order phase got cleaner, reveals got punchier, and it started feeling less like I’m doing my own thing and more like I’m watching you and trying to outplay you.
Second, we upgraded the whole presentation. We used to have trucks that moved around the board, but they were hard to build and not as fun as we thought, so we instead added the Lazy Susan center board, and that sounds like a small thing, but at the table it’s a game-changer. It keeps the flow moving, makes the board feel interactive, and it just adds this fun physicality that people remember.
And third, we levelled up the personality. We improved a bunch of names and we tightened the graphic design so Brett’s art really pops. Once that all came together, the game stopped feeling like a prototype that’s fun and started feeling like a finished product you want to show off.
Working with such high-calibre collaborators must have been exciting. How did you balance all those different creative visions into one cohesive game?
It was just a lot of tight iteration and healthy debate. Jon and David are great at the gameplay side, pacing, balance, and making sure the decisions actually land. I trusted their suggestions on mechanics and designer ideas. I tapped into my network of brand and artist friends to make sure the naming and art popped in the right way for the final version. Brett’s art and the graphic design needed to support the vision, not fight it, so we made readability a priority and pushed the visuals to really pop. My role was basically being the glue: protect the vibe, keep decisions moving, and make sure the whole thing feels like one cohesive Sky Lion experience instead of a bunch of good ideas stacked together.
With Making Monsters launching this year, what does 2026 (and 2027) look like for you and Sky Lion Games? Any projects you can tease, even if it's just vibes or working concepts?
2026 is about turning Sky Lion from a debut game into a real publisher with a pipeline.
The next game is The Wilder Cup by designers Brendan Hansen and Alex Cutler (Critter Kitchen). It’s a different vibe than Making Monsters, less pure chaos, more clever rivalry, but it’s still very Sky Lion: gorgeous on the table, easy to jump into, and surprisingly strategic. The quick hook is woodland factions competing for a trophy, and each faction feels like its own little culture: foxes throwing masked festivals, frogs running a coffee-fueled mage college, crows operating a bank that trades in secrets. It looks cozy and whimsical, but at the table it’s competitive in a really fun way.
Timeline-wise, it’s in active development now. I’m aiming for 2026, and if it needs more time to hit the bar, then early 2027. And then Ascent is the bigger, mythic fantasy conflict project planned for 2027.
You've gone from idea to Kickstarter with an all-star creative team behind you. What's one thing you wish you'd known at the start of that journey?
I did get the buzz, but I still wish I’d known how hard the whole thing is, even when things are going well. Early on, I thought, if the game is great and the team is strong, momentum will carry it. What I learned is you still have to fight for clarity and trust every single day.
So if I could go back, I’d start even earlier on two things: getting the pitch down to one sentence that anyone instantly understands, and getting more proof out into the world, prototypes in hands, videos, people talking about it. Buzz helps, but it doesn’t replace the grind of making it obvious, over and over, why someone should back and why they can trust you’ll deliver.
The Sky Lion Discord has been buzzing with backers and playtesters. How has that community shaped Making Monsters, and what's been the most rewarding part of building that connection?
The Discord has shaped the personality of the game more than people probably realize. Making Monsters is already a funny game, but the community helped us dial in the tone, especially the monster names and the table talk vibe. When a name lands and everyone instantly reacts, that’s real feedback you can’t fake. It’s like the game found its voice with a crowd instead of in a vacuum. The most rewarding part has been watching people feel ownership. It’s the whole reason I’m doing this. It stops being a product I’m selling and turns into a thing we’re building together, and that connection makes the game nights feel bigger than just one box on a shelf. It’s been a lot of fun seeing the enthusiasm from individuals about the game and getting to know people around the world.
For readers thinking, "I'd love to design a game one day," what advice would you give them from your own experience?
I love that! Go for it - jumping in is the hardest part. I’ll be honest: I’m more of a publisher and developer than a pure designer. I’m good at taking something with potential, stress-testing it, improving it, and building the team and the plan to bring it to life.
So my advice is two things. First, get your game on the table early and often. Don’t polish in private for a year. “Don’t let perfect get in the way of good” was a common model used in my robotics days and it’s the same here. Make a rough prototype, play it with real people, and pay attention to where they light up and where they check out. That feedback is everything.
Second, find great collaborators and be clear about what you need. If you’re a strong designer but weak on art or development, partner up. If you’re great at theme but not structure, find someone who loves systems. The best games I’ve worked on come from honest collaboration with people who can challenge each other, iterate fast, and keep the bar high without ego.
For anyone who wants to follow your work, back Making Monsters, or get involved, where can they find you—online and at the table? (website, social media, Discord, conventions, friendly local game stores, etc.)
Making Monsters is arriving for purchase on our website by late February and will be out to backers in March (and available for direct purchase). To pre-order now, and get the game fast, we are leaving the Backerkit store open.
Our website is the best place to order/find up-to-date info.
You can find a lot of great images and review of the game (especially on Instagram). For example UK boardgame review group: https://www.instagram.com/ukbg_review_circle/ already has 6-10 separate reviews on the game (keeps going up!)
https://www.facebook.com/SkyLionGames
https://www.instagram.com/skyliongamesco/
https://discord.gg/QaPyz86HkU
Are there any events or shows this year where you're hoping people will stop by, say hello, or try a demo?
Obviously have to say – Buy from Zatu (who is carrying the game online).
GenCon in the U.S. will be fun as we will have prototypes of Wilder Cup and finished copies of Making Monsters. Drop me a note on Discord or direct - I’ll always respond.
Thanks for your time today and honest insight into you and Sky Lion Games’ journey. I can’t wait to play Making Monsters and see the future releases from Sky Lion.
About the author
Chris Ridley is a digital marketer by trade and father to twins by luck. He also runs Small Space, Big Plays, a social media account that helps busy adults to curate a versatile game collection that collects plays, not dust. Outside of playing and writing about games, he is an avid runner, with the 2026 London Marathon as his first ever marathon.
