Elemonsters History

It all begins with a question: what if the chemical elements came alive as monsters? Inspired by a playlist of songs about the elements, animator, author and director Andreas Dihm develops the Elemonsters.

Every element has its own properties and characteristics: aggressive or peaceful; light or heavy; solid, liquid or gaseous. Out of these grow personalities that come to life as fantasy characters.

Within the Academy for Children's Media, the basic concept develops into a transmedia adventure world for children aged 6 to 10.

That same year the project receives the “Kultur- und Kreativpiloten Deutschland 2012” funding award from the German federal government's Initiative Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft. From the very beginning, the concept rests on four pillars: stories, music, knowledge and games.

Together with Story House Productions and Digitrick, pre-production takes shape for an animated TV series: a story bible and a finished series pilot. Three children end up in the parallel world of the Elemonsters and have to survive its adventures.

The pilot is funded by the Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg.

Play video

As a standalone format, a music video is created in which the silicon monster tells where the element can be found everywhere and what it is good for. The video premieres in 2014 at the opening event of the International Symposium for Silicon ISOS in Berlin — a meeting of silicon experts from all over the world.

Play video

The story world becomes a game. Card values are derived from the scientific data: atomic number, melting point, occurrence... Playing teaches the logic of the periodic table almost by accident.

In parallel, the first explainer videos appear, with the monsters demonstrating chemical reactions — Oxy and Hydro performing electrolysis and the oxyhydrogen reaction.

Play video

The musical side keeps evolving, too:

From the idea of converting an element's emission spectrum into tones through sonification, a software music instrument emerges, implemented as a prototype by Marc Lingk. The resulting sounds also flow into the card game's companion app.

At the Long Night of Science at the Institute of Chemistry of TU Berlin in 2019, the Elemonsters appear live for the first time, marking the 150th anniversary of the discovery of the periodic table: a science show with experiments and a real-life Elemonster.

At the same time, the first publicly available edition of the card game is released, including the augmented reality app, in a limited run of 250 copies. Almost 100 games are sold on the first day alone.

The pre-release also sees the first complete Elemonsters periodic table, printed as a poster.

The Elemonsters card game gets its regular release, distributed by the German Chemical Society (GDCh). It is tested in schools and settles into its place between family game and educational material.

In 2021 the game is presented to a wider gaming audience at the Berlin Brettspiel Con.

Play video

Play video

A personality test extends the playful experience around Elemonsters: Answer 12 questions and find out which Elemonster is inside you.

Together with Richard Schweiger, the game rules are being completely reworked. Elemonsters Explore appears as a new edition: redesigned cards, twelve additional elements, expanded game rules and three game modes — from a quick game to tactical trick-taking.

The companion app continues to bring the monsters to life via augmented reality. Elemonsters Explore is the start of the game under the Nut & Shell Games umbrella. More games are in the works...  Schweiger-Dihm now in the team!