(Be sure to catch up on all of our coverage of The Fine Young Capitalists campaign right here, including previews, interviews, and more.)
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Lola Barreto
Cliqist : Is Autobótika directly involved with the creation of TFYC or did you become involved after it was established?
Lola Barreto : We were directly involved with the projects look and feel at a very early creation state and before its launch in March 2014. We had been working with TFYC, and hammering out the best way to show the idea for months and gave substantial shape to the initiative that was taken down from the IndieGogo recently. But we are still a contactor and a separate legal entity which has been paid for our servers.
Cliqist : For our readers who are unfamiliar with TFYC, could you explain a little about it to us and how it was established?
Lola Barreto : Sure, The Fine Young Capitalists is a formerly Canadian organization that is focused in getting minorities involved in media production. I cannot tell how actually it was established and neither how they manage to do all the paperwork!. Our communications are narrowed to design approaches, art referents, timelines, project management, brainstorming, tests, research, animation, concept art, programming. etc. What I can really tell is that now there is an opportunity to give exposure to those ideas that had been never heard before and to be able to make them by proposing a playground where everyone can join. I met Matthew long time ago at a Toronto-based design studio.
Cliqist : Why is Autobótika making a shift into game design? Autobótika’s portfolio is impressive and versatile in media design, I can see where your staff would easily transition into game design.
Lola Barreto : Autobótika was conceived as a transdisciplinary space aiming to collaborate in a transdisciplinary way. This means, to be able to design transversally from a diversity and for industries while covering specific aspects for entertainment, culture, artistic and educational purposes. Videogames are also the best example of how individuals, cultures, groups, tendencies and design can meet all in one place. We see it as a medium of art to embrace human value growth in our peers.
Cliqist : Have you or anyone on your staff dabbled into game design before, professionally and as a hobbyist?
Lola Barreto : Yes, all the concept artists already have games under their belts and we have worked with one of the members of TFYC in designing a game for release and has designed multiple games for publication. Most of these games were not published by Autobótika directly and were created through a fee for service relationship. This mimics the relationship that Autobotika has with TFYC. We wish to be one part of a larger team designing the game. Some project a non disclosure agreement as were considered White Label at the time.
Cliqist : Will Autobótika shifting more into game development create more of a video game industry presence in Columbia? How strong is the media-oriented industry in Columbia currently?
Lola Barreto : Columbia is a changing economy with our industry and our government focusing on technological development in a number of sectors. Video games are a perfect blend of both art and technology and Autobótika wishes to be on the forefront of this development. It is difficult to know what the future may hold, but we will be working on more Video Games in the future and depending how the world reacts it may become a larger focus of our company.
Cliqist : Is there a development window already set for the most voted TFYC game? Like a projected release date is already in mind to meet.
Lola Barreto : One of the issues with crowdsourcing is it’s difficult to give specific explanation until funding goals are reached. The number given on the IndieGogo is the minimal amount of money needed for the production. Depending on audience interest we may expand the game, which would increase production time, or we may accelerate production, which is more expensive but will happen faster. Our estimate at the beginning of the production was 6-8 months.
Cliqist : Will TFYC’s game be DRM-free?
Lola Barreto : The games code will be released Open Source. Therefore individuals will be able to compile it for any platform using which ever type of Digital Right Management they prefer. Our opinion is the most popular version of DLC will be Steam’s DRM (If the project passes Greenlight on Steam) or “None.” If is important that the art for the game may be licensed under a different license set of rules to prevent cloning the game to easily.
Cliqist : I conclude all my interviews with this question, what five words would you use to sum up TFYC?
Lola Barreto :
Transparently trying to help people
Thanks to Lola Barreto for taking the time to speak with us! If you’d like to learn more about Autobótika you can visit their website. Head over to IndieGogo to learn more about the Fine Young Capitalists campaign.
(Be sure to catch up on all of our coverage of The Fine Young Capitalists campaign right here, including previews, interviews, and more.)
[divider][facebook][tweet][Google][pinterest][follow id=”Cliqist” size=”large” count=”true” ] [author image=”http://cliqist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/julie.jpg” ]Julie Morley is a freelance writer and comic artist from Spring, Texas. She attended the Academy of Art University for two years, studying Animation and Illustration. Whilst here, she learned about writing comic scripts, storyboards, and general storytelling. Since leaving college, she has been working on personal comic projects, stories, and illustrations. She aspires to release a self published comic within two years. For the majority of her life, she has been playing console games, typically being third-person shooters and sandboxes. Her favorite game of existence is Dark Cloud II (Dark Chronicle) and her favorite Indie game is Gone Home.[/author]
As a Colombian trying to teach myself game programming and design, I am absolutely happy to read this well thought out interview with Ms. Barreto. I would love to see more websites shed some light on this remarkable project and the endeavors of the people who are only trying to open up the videogame making world to others who might not otherwise have a chance. Thank you very much Julie.
Thank you !, we need to raise more female voices to share these ideas to the world. Help us to tell the the story. As some friend of me said ‘it is more difficult to make allies that fighting a battle’.
[…] industry, highlighting notable names such as Anna Kipnis and Corrinne Yu. Other smaller sites like Cliqist and Random Rocker are providing positive coverage but sites like Vice are still using it as a […]
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