Papo & Yo released on PS3 last year to critical acclaim, telling a fantasy story of a boy living in a Brazilian favela dealing with a monstrous creature, metaphorical for an abusive relationship with an alcoholic father. While the game is releasing now on PC, Minority Media co-founder Vander Caballero said that Sony helped both in developing and marketing the game.
“The PS3 release was one of the top sellers on PSN and we’re happy with the numbers,” said Caballero. “Papo cost $1.5 million to make and we’ve already made a part of our investment back. Hopefully, we are going to get the other part on Steam and make some profit. It’s a great opportunity for us because Sony really helped us to push the game out and make people know about it, and then they really helped us in the development, too. It was an amazing relationship.”
“If you are an independent you have zero marketing money,” Caballero explained. “You have nothing. Then you need someone to support your project. So, if someone asks you for exclusivity and it’s going to help you to bring out your product into the market, I think that can be good. Sometime, I think it’s the only way to get something out.”
Right now Minority Media is working on Silent Enemy, a game about bullying that originally started as a concept about survival hunting that turned into a story about dealing with bullying. The team started out on iOS but currently is making the title for the Ouya.
“At the end of the day… it’s all worth it when we receive letters about Papo and hear people thanking us for doing the game. We want our games to touch people and it’s really good to hear that it’s working,” Caballero concluded.
Source: Kotaku.com