Monke Blocks Returns to ‘Gorilla Tag’ Today with New Blocks and a Save Ability

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Last summer, Another Axiom introduced Monke Blocks to Gorilla Tag, adding a creative building mode to the freeform multiplayer playground. The mode proved very popular with the Monke community, and Another Axiom has brought back Monke Blocks bigger and better with a major update today.

The improved take on Monke Blocks offers a bunch of new features. The mode builds on the foundation players saw this summer: You can use the snap-together blocks to create structures and landscapes, alone or with other Monkes. But the fun isn’t just in seeing what you can make—you can also shrink down to climb, swing, and explore your way through Monke Blocks creations, even while other players are adding to them. The returning mode adds a bunch of new features, including a public space where players can build, shrink, and Monke around together, and private rooms so you can build alone or with friends.

The new version of Monke Blocks adds more blocks for all players to use, as well as new premium sets that can be purchased with Gorilla Tag’s in-game currency, Shiny Rocks. The first premium set, which carries a medieval castle theme, includes functional blocks like drawbridges, trap doors, and Monke-launching ballistas to add to your creations. If you play in a Monke Blocks room where another player owns a premium set, you can use the premium blocks while you’re playing together, even if you don’t own the set yourself. You’ll be able to expand your building capabilities with more premium block sets in the future, too.

Perhaps best of all, though, the return of Monke Blocks adds the ability to save your creations when you’re done working on them, so you can return to your Monke masterpieces later.

We sat down with Another Axiom’s Andrew Jepsen to talk about the new take on Monke Blocks, what the team learned from its initial release, and what’s new and improved.

What was the initial creative spark or inspiration behind Monke Blocks? How, if at all, has the sandbox block-building mode evolved during its development?

Andrew Jepsen:Gorilla Tag is all about playing together, and we have a super creative community that loves creating their own games already. Giving them a tool to build, play, and be creative together really felt like a natural fit.

Early on, we prototyped snapping the blocks together. Once we saw how good that felt, we knew how important it was to make the building itself really fun. Letting players shrink down and play on it while you were building really drove that home. We leaned into making the building itself as important to the experience as playing on what you ultimately build.

You originally launched Monke Blocks this summer, but it was temporary. Why did you decide to only make it available for a limited time at that time? What did you learn, and what kind of response did you see from players?

AJ: The temporary release was really about learning from the Gorilla Tag community. We thought Monke Blocks was something our players would enjoy. We thought we wanted to go further, but we were building a feature that was all about player creativity, so we thought it only made sense to see how our players used it and to listen to what they wanted.

We were pretty blown away by the positive response—so much that it was honestly difficult to pull it at the end of the two weeks.

What changes did you make to Monke Blocks since it originally debuted this summer?

AJ: We added a lot based largely on the great feedback. We added saving! That was feature request No. 1 from the community. Also, a lot of players felt limited by the piece selection that was available, so we added a system of dispensing shelves to let players recycle the pieces they don’t need and create more of the ones they want.

We also increased the overall number of pieces, expanded the size of the room, and added private plots.

It’s possible for some players to shrink down and play on the structures that other players continue to build. Did you run into any technical challenges getting that to work? If so, how did you overcome those obstacles?

AJ: We had some great groundwork from previous updates, like the basement, that allowed shrinking. The dynamic element caused a lot of issues, but once we saw how cool the simultaneous building and playing was, we knew it was important.

I think anyone who has ever built with blocks has dreamed of being able to play inside what they built. We had the chance to do that with Monke Blocks and VR, so we’re tackling challenges one bug at a time.

Tell us more about the premium-themed sets. How did you settle on the various themes? How often will new sets become available?

AJ: We’re starting with the castle as our first premium-themed set because, quite simply, we think it’s fun, and we think our players will, too. It lent itself to some really fun unique pieces, like the drawbridge, trapdoor, and Monke-launching ballista.

One of our favorite features of the premium sets is that when you buy one, you can share it with others just by playing in the same room as them. And when we switch our featured premium set, you’ll keep access to it just like when we update cosmetics.

Tell us about the design decision to include both a shared building area and private plots. Whose brainchild was that, and what was the motivation there?

AJ: The private plots were really the brainchild of the Gorilla Tag community. When we did the temporary launch, we saw that players enjoyed building together to show off their creativity but could also be frustrated by someone rampaging through their creation and tearing it apart. Private plots are for players who want to build a masterpiece in public. The shared build area is there for players who want to cooperate on one large build.

It sounds like there are a ton of options for things players can create, especially working together. How many blocks have you created for the mode already? And how big can players’ creations with Monke Blocks get?

AJ: The short answer is very, very big. We wanted to give players the freedom to build anything they could imagine. We’ve created over 50 types of basic, terrain, and specialty pieces for players to choose from. The first premium-themed set called “Castle” has more than 40 additional pieces for players to build. And there are many more pieces and premium-themed sets planned for the future.

It seems like the combination of pieces, especially with the functional blocks, can make for some pretty wild creations. What are the most ridiculous things you’ve made or seen other players make?

AJ: Using the fans to ping-pong a small Monke back and forth, launching a Monke with the ballista into a door with someone else trying to open the door at the right time to let them through, trees up to the ceiling, some amazing obstacle courses—the list goes on.

Did those elements interacting in unexpected ways create any interesting challenges, and how did you overcome them?

AJ: Our players get so creative that we often see unintended uses! Recently, we saw someone build a domino chain out of the blocks, which is not what they were made for. When we see a cool, unintended use, we try to support it if we can.

One of the interesting things about Monke Blocks is how it facilitates a different kind of emergent play in Gorilla Tag that’s creative and collaborative, but it also seems like it comes with its own set of problems, like worrying about the possibility of players griefing each other. Did that require a different kind of thinking for you in developing the feature? What was the experience like?

AJ: The freedom to build certainly allows new avenues for griefing, and we’ve had that front of mind during development. The temporary launch provided a lot of insights there and led to features like the private plots. The grow-watch on your wrist was partially born out of the need for small Monke to be able to escape if a massive Monke traps them into a closed space. We want to avoid restricting player freedom but need to prevent serious griefing. It’s a balance.

Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

AJ: Several months ago, we tested out the beginnings of a block-building mode. Thanks to the community and overwhelming demand, Monke Blocks makes a grand return to the game today. For questions, please visit our FAQ or Discord support, and stay up to date on all the latest updates at @realgorillatagvr.

Monke Blocks are back in Gorilla Tag on Quest today, along with the game’s first premium-themed block set. You can get Gorilla Tag and the Monke Blocks update for free right now on the Meta Horizon Store.

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