Monsters in your photo gallery with Filipino-made Puff Odyssey

MANILA, Philippines – Puff Odyssey by ShockProf Studios was built on the concept of collecting virtual creatures in real life.

Tech INQ spoke to developer and programmer Shaq Lintag about how he envisions his mobile game coming to life beyond the virtual world.

Early inspirations

Puff Odyssey launched in early access in May 2026 on the Google Play Store.

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“One of Puff Odyssey’s core features revolves around collecting monsters in the real world through your phone,” said Lintag in an email interview. “Mobile naturally became the perfect platform to bring that idea to life.”

One of his inspirations was Monster Retsuden Oreca Battle, a Japanese arcade trading card game released by Konami in 2012.

Gamers would line up in the arcade, battle monsters, and capture their own Oreca.

The machine would then print the card, which players could bring back to level up or evolve their monsters. In turn, the card acts like your own physical save file.

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Lintag also drew inspiration from the anime, Yu-Gi-Oh, when cards would turn into holograms on the battlefield.

“I loved the idea that after battling, you could receive a physical card that could be used to summon your monster again in the arcade machine,” Lintag explained. “As someone who grew up in the ’90s, I also remember imagining my Yu-Gi-Oh! monsters coming to life outside the game.”

“While playing Oreca Battle, I suddenly realized, ‘Wait… I’m a game developer. Why don’t I try creating my own version of this experience?’” He added.

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He met another Oreca Battle player and talked to him about the initial concept. Interested in its potential, Zeus Arinzol became Puff Odyssey’s game designer.

Lintag focused on programming and turning concepts into playable system. While, Arinzol took charge of the game’s creative direction, designing the Puffs, their personalities, skills, battle mechanics, and lore.

“Puff Odyssey wouldn’t be the same without that collaboration, and I think that’s one of the reasons the project has continued to grow over the years,” Lintag said.

A digital creature bank

To recreate the concept and make it his own, Lintag thought of how he could store monsters outside the game.

From here, Puff Odyssey’s signature mechanic was born. Monsters—called Puffs— are earned from the game, saved as digital cards and stored in the phone’s photo gallery.

Then, the digital cards can be scanned and used back in the game.

“I think what excites players the most is that Puff Odyssey tries to blur the line between the game and the real world,” he said.

“Instead of simply collecting monsters inside an in-game storage system, your Puffs become digital collectibles that exist in your phone’s gallery and can be scanned back into the game whenever you want to summon them.”

Puffs can be developed into whatever the players prefer. They can be made to be offensive, support, or tanks, allowing multiple possibilities.

This is what makes players fill their galleries with Puffs they’ve collected. Players tend to see how certain builds work or how they can compare to one another.

“We’re always looking for ways to make players feel like they’re building a personal bond with their monsters rather than simply collecting them. We want every Puff to feel like it’s part of the player’s own journey, not just another character stored inside a menu.”

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The future of Puff Odyssey

While still in early access, ShockProf Studios continues to develop and update the game.

One of the priorities is adding multiplayer for online battle, along with making adjustments based on player feedback.

“Our goal is to officially release the full version around the second or third quarter of 2027, with more polished content, multiplayer improvements, additional monsters, and new features,” Lintag said.

In the far future, their studio sees the potential community events with mini tournaments. They are also looking into physical Puff cards, and truly bringing their vision of a physical experience outside the mobile game.

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