The average computer user likely imagines that software is created by people in cubicles under fluorescent lights in a large office park somewhere in Redmond or possibly Silicon Valley. But one West Seattle based company is changing that notion and rising to the top of some important lists with incredible speed.

Monster Costume Inc. is an iPhone and iPad development company focused on Multi-touch design. They are based on Alki and they have a hit on their hands in the form of an interactive children's puzzle book for the Apple iPad called Bartleby's Book of Buttons. Volume 1: The Far Away Island.

The company, led by Kyle Kinkade, is only six months old but has an impressive resume and more importantly has gotten the attention of Apple itself who put their fresh creation in a featured position on the iTunes store. It's selling rapidly at $4.99 a download. "We're the #2 top paid book app on the app store. The #1 top paid ipad app is a book about the table of elements. This means that:

Bartleby is the now the #1 children's book on the app store," said Kinkade.

Monster Costume is comprised of Erik Fleuter, Nate True, Blair Argust, Nick Czajka and Kinkade, who come together, either virtually over the web or often in Kinkade's home office close to the beach. In fact they sometimes sit directly on the beach, laptops churning out code or creating new apps. Rachel Hoover handles the operations of the effort. "She's the one that makes sure we stay afloat and that things run smoothly," said Kinkade.

They don't really have titles, aside from Kinkade "who has to have one legally" but whose role is "Developer, Leader and Guy Who Shouts a Lot, I guess."

Argust works in Client Relations and Business Development. Nate True is a developer with a deep background in games and iPhone development not to mention a computer science degree. Nic Czaika has both a physics and math degree but had never done software development before Monster Costume. He was working a Zeek's Pizza and Kinkade brought him him because he has a brilliant mind.

"The basic qualification to work here is, you have to be a genius," said True.

Eric Fleuter is a developer who brings game design elements to the company and has a degree in this area.

The company creates work in house and develops for external clients and a new game in development, all for the iPad.

"Development is like a box of chocolates you never know what kind of client you're going to get," said Kinkade, "Sometimes we get people who have the excitement to be on the iPhone or the iPad but have no idea where they want to start, and we like those clients the best."

Kinkade and True are former employees of a well known company in the field called Tapulous where True created one of the single most popular games for the iPhone called Tap Tap Revenge (sometimes called Tap Tap Revenge Classic). The goal of the game is to tap a series of colored balls when they reach a line at the bottom of the screen. If the ball is hit on the beat, the player gains points, but if not, it counts as a miss. The spinoffs and variations on the game have been downloaded 15 million times.

Tapulous was recently sold to Disney for $70 million.

To build Bartleby's Book of Buttons, they were contacted by a firm in Hawaii called Octopus Kite run by Denise Van Ryzin and Henrick Van Ryzin who had the basic look and feel of the project but needed the coding and functionality expertise that Monster Costume could provide. The "book" consists of a simple adventure story in which the character Bartleby travels to many locations to collect buttons he puts in a book. But each page can offer both puzzle elements, interactive touch based features and motion effects that leverage the functions and capabilities of the iPad.

Kinkade, who sports a forearm tattoo that says 'Capitalist', points out that the impression people have about software development is wrong. While some is certainly done in corporate settings, "Most of it is done by a lone guy, at 3 am coding away until he gets it right."

What Kinkade and his team have done is bring together some incredibly smart people who are blossoming and growing in an environment more conducive to creativity. "The reason why we actually chose Alki Beach as a primary area for development," Kinkade said, " is because when we are working on the iPad or the iPhone (…) if you want creative people to be creative, put them in an environment that lets them be that way."

The company is actively seeking software developers with an emphasis on creating for the iPhone and iPad. They can be contacted at jobs@monstercostu.me

If you have an ipad here's the link to buy Bartleby's Book of Buttons