Great beginnings seem to start in Belize for Austin entrepreneur Lucas Martell.
It's where he went on his honeymoon years ago. And it was on an island off the coast there where the roots for Austin-based digital entertainment and gaming studio Mighty Coconut LLC were planted in 2012.
Yes, being on a remote island with around 1,000 people in a tropical setting can be inspiring. But it was more than the sand and waves that helped Martell and his filmmaking friends come together around the idea.
"We had internet, but the internet was so slow that people couldn't really get too distracted by it because loading up a YouTube video would take way too long that you wouldn't just go off on social media or anything," he said. "So that was, I think, actually probably the real trick."
In the beginning, Mighty Coconut was more focused on films, animation and special effects. For example, Martell is co-creator of the 2009 short film "Pigeon: Impossible." That inspired 2019's "Spies in Disguise," an animated feature with Will Smith and Tom Holland.
These days, Mighty Coconut has made a names for itself in gaming communities for its virtual reality game Walkabout Mini Golf, a putt-putt game that has a variety of courses from a dark, dungeon-like setting to tropical paradise and an elaborate space station.
The idea for Walkabout has its roots in Martell's childhood when his family would stop at touristy mini golf places during family trips from their home in rural Illinois.
"I kind of grew up doing that, and we would even use building blocks to design our own holes around the living room carpet," he said. "So, yeah, I kind of grew up designing mini golf courses. So, in a weird way, this is all kind of come full circle."
Martell started designing the game as a mobile app, which was a new iteration of another game, called Laser Mazer, that he had created. He quickly parlayed the app-based golf game into VR after the launch of the Oculus VR headset. He showed it to Oculus at a conference in Santa Monica, California, and they were interested.
"I started kind of working on it, and, ultimately, we were chipping away at it," he said. "When the pandemic hit, I really needed something to keep my hands busy so I doubled down and really focused on trying to get this 100%."
What's your coming-to-Austin story? I was a music major in school. I'm a sax player. And so right after graduation I needed to get out. I needed a little change of scenery. We were looking around and settled on Austin, and I had kind of come here expecting to start really getting into film. I was hoping to come here and get into sound for film. I got my first internship at 501 Post, a company that's not around anymore. Ultimately, I didn't end up getting into the sound side of things. I ended up getting on to the color and post-finishing. So the very first gig they brought me on for was actually "Sin City." I was an assistant — basically like an assistant post editor or assistant colorist. Right about the time, I was starting on "Pigeon: Impossible."
What is the hardest part of your job? Balance. Managing a team remotely is a lot more work. And it's just harder to get all of the pieces to really fit together nicely. I think that's probably the hardest part of the job, but it's also been a challenge because we're scaling up and so there's been a lot of training. But you're not in person with them and so there's a lot with that. So things are getting things but yeah, maintaining your work-life balance while running a remote studio is definitely a challenge.
Do you have a morning routine? We have two young kids — a 7-year-old and a 2-year-old. So the morning routine is taking care of them and getting them off to school. And then, hopefully at some point, we're able to start working.
My day varies wildly. There are several days where it's literally just back-to-back meetings for eight or nine hours. My best creative time is in the morning, and I spent a good chunk of my professional career more on the screenwriting side of things. I've always found that mornings are my more creative time. So I would always try to get up and get into that groove as quickly as possible because if you start answering email or do much of anything, you pretty quickly zap that creative energy.
Do you play Walkabout a lot? And, if so, does it feel fun or more like work? I enjoy it, and I do think that it's tough to just play without constantly be looking for issues because 90% of the time that I and many of the team are playing it, it is because we are checking if things are working correctly. We're looking for problems in order to fix them. So it's a bit tough to forget that side of it and just go in and enjoy.
I will say, though, that some of the best times for us happened kind of earlier on in the process when we first play a course for the very first time because at that point it is new to everybody. It might not be finished, but we know where it's going to go from there and what it will look like when it's all done. I like all the courses, but by the time one of them launches, I'm usually really tired of that course because it means we've been playing it nonstop for a month.
Do you play regular golf? I was on the high school team. It's been a couple of years. I actually want to go out and play again. So, I'm not by any means a regular.
What's on your playlist and when do you listen to music? I wish that I had more time to listen to music. Most of the time, I listen when I'm doing creative stuff. So I tend to play a lot of stuff without words. A lot of jazz, a lot of soundtracks. I've been on a reggae kick lately. I think I'm just ready for summer. I tend to make playlists for different things, especially when I'm writing. I'll kind of have a playlist that's for that particular script that I'm writing. And then whenever I put that playlist on, it helps just get you back into the mindset.
Do you have a favorite place to eat in Austin? Probably Cipollina. It has a special place in my heart.
If you could have dinner or drinks with anyone, who would it be? I had a very brief conversation with Ed Catmull, who is the president of Pixar. He is a really bright dude. I would love to have an hour with him.
What's something that very few people know about you? I make pretty good homemade pizza.
What's your method? How do you go about it? It's pretty basic, but it is sort of like a medium thick crust. It takes about three hours to fully make. It's an old, old recipe from my mom that I don't get to make as often as I'd like. And Hawaiian. Put pineapple on pizza because it's delicious, and everyone who doesn't agree with that is a hater.
Lucas Martell
Title: Founder, executive producer and owner, Mighty Coconut
Age: 40
Family: Wife and two kids
Education: Millikin University, bachelor's degree in music
Email: press@mightycoconut.com
