If you were to visit the Media Molecule studio, you’d see that it’s very us. The pink carpets lead you through to a work space that’s filled with bright colours and interesting or curious things to look at. In a bid to keep our surroundings inspiring and as conducive to creativity as possible, we’re spoiled rotten with creature comforts and toys to play. To a visitor, all of this can make for quite a tour.
As a visitor though, you’d only get to see a brief glimpse of the studio – enough to take in the big picture, but not enough to truly get a feel for the place, and they say; the devil is in the detail. If you were able to spend more time here, you’d start to notice all the little things that are perhaps less immediately enticing as a ping pong table, but are far more interesting, and quite often, downright odd.
It’s the slightly weirder or out of place things that I think truly reflect the creative eccentricities of this merry band of game developers. See that mountain of paper? Have a bit of rummage and you’ll discover that it’s actually Rex’s desk, and its made from a treasure trove of doodles. Siobhan’s desk plays host to an exquisite collection of snow globes, and Alex’s cluttered mess could very well contain the secrets of the universe, if only it could be deciphered.
In an attempt to offer the world a more detailed glimpse inside the studio, I’ve put together a selection of some of my favourite oddities from around the place; purposeful art, random graffiti, endearing decoration, and things of unknown origin. Some can be found in plain sight, others might require looking a little closer, but all of them will give you a glimpse inside the head of the average Molecule, rather than simply the studio they work in.
Make of them what you will!