The BIG Pageant is the most important gaming occasion in Latin America, bringing the area’s vibrant gaming scene to the world stage with panels, reveals, and an award ceremony.
One of many huge winners of the evening was Argentinian indie studio An Otter Recreation Studio, which beat off stiff competitors from the likes of Aquiris Recreation Studio and Icon Video games to take dwelling the Finest Cell Recreation award with its title, Sequenza – a musical puzzle sport.
We spoke to An Otter Recreation Studio founder and director Martín Fernández in regards to the sport, the Argentinian video games business, and the award.
Please inform us about An Otter Recreation Studio and your function within the firm
An Otter Recreation Studio is a brand new and small studio primarily based within the metropolis of Rosario, Argentina (enjoyable truth for soccer followers, it is the town the place Lionel Messi was born).
We give attention to making our video games extra introspective, making the participant really feel completely different feelings than what they’re used to experiencing. We’ve studios equivalent to Ustwo Video games and That sport firm as references.
I’m the founder and director of the studio, I guarantee that all the pieces works and that the path we’re moving into is evident. Because of the dimension of our studio, I additionally often put on the hats of lead programmer and sport designer.
What did it imply to your studio to win finest cell sport on the BIG Pageant awards?
For such a brand new studio, any business validation of our work is a big increase, as we began out with a small portfolio to fall again on when searching for funding for our initiatives. As well as, the truth that our first sport gained in its class offers us the reassurance that we’re heading in the right direction and that the work we’re doing is of top of the range.
Alternatively, profitable a global competitors dispels the notion that many Latin American studios have that we can’t compete with larger studios with extra expertise and extra sources.
Profitable a global competitors dispels the notion that many Latin American studios have that we can’t compete with larger studios with extra expertise and extra sources.
What’s it about Sequenza that makes it stand out?
To be trustworthy, once I noticed the opposite video games in our class, I did not assume we had an opportunity, as a result of it was apparent that the opposite video games have been nice video video games with larger productions. Perhaps that’s what makes Sequenza stand out, that it’s so easy in all facets and but manages to evoke intense feelings.
The place do you assume Argentina sits within the Latin American gaming panorama?
I feel Argentina is clearly rising. I feel that due to our historical past and our tradition we have now lots to inform, and videogames are an excellent channel to take action.
Sadly, the financial scenario and unhealthy political administrations don’t permit us to develop as quick as we must be rising. That’s the solely factor that retains us slightly behind the most important ones (Brazil and Mexico).
Fortunately we have now a really sturdy neighborhood and we help one another. This may be seen in our nationwide occasion EVA (Argentinean Videogame Expo) the place yearly there are increasingly more of us, and the standard of our video games is getting higher and higher.
I additionally assume we have now superb references like Trivia Crack by Etermax within the cell market, Nimble Big co-developing Star Trek Infinite, and Senscape co-developing Silent Hill: Ascension within the AAA market or Daniel Benmergui with Storyteller within the indie market amongst many others. Our business has lots to present.
Pondering again over the previous couple of years, what’s the greatest hurdle you have confronted?
The fact is that our greatest impediment, as I discussed earlier than, is our nationwide economic system, which on account of financial inflation doesn’t permit us to save cash and that makes us dwell day-to-day with lots of danger and takes away our projection capability, particularly once we are simply beginning and we would not have so many instruments to counteract it. However it’s a downside that every one Argentines need to cope with.
Significantly in our studio, what we discover most troublesome is to search out the stability between making video games for purchasers to be able to survive and discovering time to develop our personal video games.
Which, if any, new expertise within the video games business excites you most?
Truthfully, we’re not the kind to run after expertise, we search to focus extra on producing an emotional impression from simplicity, as we did with Sequenza. From a private standpoint, I’m intrigued by what might occur with AI as soon as the copyright of the works it feeds on is regularised.
What can we anticipate subsequent from An Otter Recreation Studio?
Our first goal is to increase Sequenza, and to have the ability to attain the widest attainable viewers. After that, we have now a number of initiatives within the pipeline on the studio, with which we hope to develop our personal aesthetic and identification. These initiatives discover completely different mechanics, which intention to take the participant on a extra introspective journey.
In March, a Knowledge.ai report examined Latin America’s gaming market.
window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
// init the FB JS SDK FB.init({ appId : 250161755076617, // App ID //channelUrl : '//'+window.location.hostname+'/channel.php', // Path to your Channel File status : true, // check login status cookie : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the session xfbml : true // parse XFBML });
FB._PG = { url: "/useractions/loginfb/", response: "allowed",
// Common handler to fetch FB details and reload the page process: function(me){ $.post( FB._PG.url, { username: me.username, uname: me.name, uid: me.id, uimg: 'https://graph.facebook.com/' + me.id + '/picture?type=large' }) .done(function(xml){ if ( $("status", xml).text() == FB._PG.response ) window.location.reload(); else alert('Error: Something bad just happened. Our tech department has been notified. Please try again later.');
}) .fail(function(xml){
alert("Error: something wasn't right there, please try again.");
}); },
// Used by event subscriptions to handle the response handleResponse: function(response){ if (response.authResponse) { FB.api('/me', function(me){ if (me.name) FB._PG.process(me); }); } },
post: function(text, image){ image = image || $("#fb-image").attr("src"); FB.ui({ method: 'feed', display: 'popup', link: 'https://www.pocketgamer.biz/interview/81941/big-best-mobile-game-award-winner-martn-fernndez-on-big-and-the-argentinian-games-space/', description: text, picture: image }); } };
FB.Event.subscribe('auth.statusChange', FB._PG.handleResponse);
FB.Event.subscribe('edge.create', function(response) { $.post('/ajax/social-links/', { site: 'facebook' }); }); };
(function(d, s, id){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));