Minority-Inc
Latest
Papo & Yo coming to Steam on April 18
The emotional journey of Vander Caballero's Papo & Yo is coming to Steam. Speaking with Game Informer, Caballero revealed that the game, which was inspired by his life experience dealing with the struggles of parental abuse, would arrive on Valve's digital distribution platform on April 18.Papo & Yo originally launched on the PlayStation Network in August 2012 and was released with the help of Sony's Pub Fund. The Joystiq review noted the gameplay in Papo & Yo was lacking, but felt it to succeed on an emotional and autobiographical level.Caballero told Game Informer that he still receives letters from others dealing with similar abuse and hopes a PC version will encourage more people to find ways to cope.Update: An original version of this story cited SCEA as the publisher of Papo & Yo. The game was self-published by developer Minority and released with the help from Sony's Pub Fund. The story has been corrected.
How Papo & Yo takes more than inspiration from South American graffiti
Papo & Yo's gorgeous South American-esque world is punctuated by graffiti – from the cartoonish to the abstract. During a preview at E3, I found myself stopping to gawk at giant birds and other creatures for many moments, often resulting in the game's handler asking if I needed any help. What I should've said was, "Yes. Can you tell me who made these incredible images throughout your imaginary favela?"Thankfully, developer Minority realized that the art is incredibly appealing, and wrote up a post on the US PlayStation Blog detailing the history of the graffiti. As it turns out, rather than using source images and recreating a facsimile of South America's street art, Minority worked with three renowned South American artists to develop images for Papo & Yo's world.Sebastian Navarro (AKA Charquipunk), Simon Paulo Arancibia Gutierrez (AKA La Robot de Madera) and Inti Castro (AKA INTI) are all collaborating on the game. One such example of their contribution is just above, though I saw several different, very impressive pieces in just the 20 minute demo at E3. Of course, we'll all get to take a closer look when the game launches on August 14 on the PlayStation Network.
Papo & Yo gets a suit and a new trailer for E3
Our main little man from Papo & Yo got himself a fancy new suit to go with his fancy new E3 trailer, it seems. We'd like to tell him that the new duds are anywhere near as impressive as the sweet new gameplay clip, but that'd be a straight up lie. See both for yourself, just above.%Gallery-157413%
Papo & Yo's Monster redesigned, less like a puppy
Monster, one of the principal characters in the upcoming Papo & Yo for PS3, has seen a significant redesign. The redesign was aided by Nilo Rodis-Jamero, who has worked in an artistic capacity on many Hollywood films, ranging from Virtuosity to Return of the Jedi. According to Papo & Yo creator Vander Caballero, the choice was made to redesign the character when Rodis-Jamero remarked that he looked "too much like a puppy."Monster represents Caballero's father, and is meant to be able inspire both comfort and fear, as Caballero's real father did when he was young. In discussing the character with Rodis-Jamero, Caballero came to realize Monster didn't accurately represent his father. As you can see, the new Monster (top right) is less colorful, not quite as scaly, has less defined claws and a drastically altered head. In Caballero's words, "He's scary, but there is something that attracts you to him – something that makes you want to play with him, help him, even though he's a beast who could fly into a rage and kill you."Naturally, some won't approve of the change. Responding to a negative comment on PlayStation Blog, Caballero explained that the original Monster combined elements of his father with playful elements of his own dog. "I had to be honest," wrote Caballero, "and admit that Rhino [the original Monster], as much as I liked him, was more my dog than my father."
Papo & Yo preview: O meu amigo, o monstro
If you haven't seen Papo & Yo's endearing announcement trailer, you should probably go check that out right now. Go ahead, I'll wait. All set? Great. Now that you've seen it, you'll understand why it was one of the few E3 2011 games that I made a specific point of going to play, just for me. Papo & Yo is a story-driven puzzle game about a boy named Quico who lives in a Brazilian favela, and his two best friends: a quirky robot named Lula and a rhino-like creature named Monster. Lula, unfortunately, scares the hell out of Monster, rendering him too petrified to move when she's nearby. Monster, on the other hand, is an adorable, friendly giant. That is, until he eats a frog (he's addicted to 'em!), totally flips out and tries to kill everything. I didn't see that part, though -- the demo actually ended with Monster gobbling a frog and a fade to black. What I played, rather, was all about puzzle solving. %Gallery-126125%
