By Camas Frank

A company in the Cal Poly Hothouse incubator program released a quirky little app on Wednesday, July 15. By that Friday, Apple had featured the product as one of the “Best New Apps & Games” of the week.
MonsterCreate Inc., a self described company with a mission to build “Creative Apps for Creative Kids,” is, of course, predicting success with the artistic set, but there’s room for casual gamers and math brains as well.
For $2.99 in the Apple App Store, MonsterMe allows users to create little monsters with snap together designs and place them in an interactive environment.
The developers, a team of five local students, boast “millions of different part combinations, from monocles and top hats to Viking helmets and lobster claws, [to] make each monster completely unique.”
Their first app, MonsterMusic, was part of the concept that got Monster Create into the SLO Hothouse and was named Editor’s Choice by Apple after it’s release.  The idea there was to teach kids the basics of music composition with “singing” monsters at their command.  Music is still a part of their new offering but their whole world has been expanded to let users play with gravity, and design and lay out the digital monster universe.
Being a Cal Poly affiliated project also gave them the opportunity to do some play testing at the University’s Child Development Center ahead of launch.
Luke Bayard, former president of the Cal Poly Entrepreneurs’ Club and the latest team member to join MonstersCreate as their outreach director said that newly incorporated start-up has a bit of a difference from the other app and product developers they’re sharing office space with.
“I just got onboard but Jacob and these guys have been coding and playing with these ideas for three years, “ he said. “As a start up we’re doing something really unique to inspire the next generation of artists and musicians.”
Find out more about the apps at: www.monstercreate.com