Killmonday Games

Killmonday Games is a Swedish independent video game developer based in Hedemora, founded in late 2012 by married couple Natalia Martinsson and Isak Martinsson. The name came from the fact that they both had day jobs when they started, meaning they could only work on games at weekends, and Monday represented the end of that time. They operate as a two-person studio, self-publishing their work, and are best known for Fran Bow and Little Misfortune, two dark horror adventure games told from a child’s perspective.

Killmonday Games Origin Story: From Filmmakers to Game Developers

Before Games

Before founding Killmonday, Natalia and Isak worked together making short films, animations, and music videos under a company called Ofokus. They found the medium too limiting for the kinds of stories they wanted to tell. Natalia’s background is in animation, studied in Stockholm after emigrating from Chile, and she had also worked in acting. Isak handles programming and music. When they discovered game development they realized it gave them the creative freedom that film never had. The stories could be interactive, the scope could be whatever they imagined, and they could do it independently.

Building Fran Bow

They began developing their debut game Fran Bow in 2013, funding it through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign after releasing a demo. Natalia wrote the story, designed the characters, handled art and animation. Isak programmed and composed the music. The game was built in GameMaker. By the end of 2015 they had completed it and were out of money. The sales of Fran Bow were critical to whether the studio would survive.

Killmonday Games Games

Fran Bow (2015)

Fran Bow is a point-and-click horror adventure following a ten-year-old girl who witnesses the murder of her parents and ends up in a mental institution. She escapes with the help of her cat Mr. Midnight, and pills that allow her to see a darker version of reality. The hand-drawn art style mixes cute and disturbing imagery in a way that is immediately recognizable as Killmonday’s. It found a devoted audience and gave the studio the economic stability to continue. The game was later released on consoles in 2023.

Little Misfortune (2019)

Little Misfortune is set in the same universe as Fran Bow, following eight-year-old Misfortune Ramirez Hernandez on a journey through the woods guided by a mysterious voice called Mr. Voice who promises her eternal happiness for her mother. For this game Killmonday switched from GameMaker to Unity and brought in collaborators for animated cutscenes. Natalia voiced the protagonist herself. It released on PC in September 2019 and consoles in May 2020. The reception was mixed, with praise for the art style and themes and some criticism for the limited gameplay, scoring 57 on Metacritic. It sold enough to fund further development. The game is known for it’s dark humor, which I personally loved.

What’s Next for Killmonday Games

After Little Misfortune, Killmonday attempted to expand from a two-person studio to a larger team to take on more ambitious projects. That expansion proved difficult. By end of 2023 Natalia publicly shared that the experience had led to burnout, financial strain, and the need to let staff go. The studio returned to its roots, with Natalia and Isak working as a small team with freelance collaborators. They are working on a Fran Bow Chapter 6 project. The studio’s honesty about the difficulties of scaling an indie company is unusual and worth paying attention to. They are still making games on their own terms.