"It's not about escaping," says Minority Media's Vander Caballero, who says the studio's upcoming Silent Enemy was the result of looking inward and realizing the games can help confront reality, rather than provide a fantasy.
"Games can help other people; can help them to cope with reality. It's not about escaping."
- Minority Media's Vander Caballero, in an interview with GameReactor. Minority Media's first game, Papo & Yo, was drawn from director Vander Caballero's personal experience growing up with an abusive, alcoholic parent. For the studio's next game, Silent Enemy, the team are drawing upon experiences which will also hit close to home for many players: bullying. In the video interview above, conducted by GameReactor, Vander Caballero talks a bit about using games not just for fantasy and escapism, but to allow players to confront and cope with hardship:
When we finished Papo we started getting all these mails from people thanking us. "Thank you for doing Papo -- my father was an alcoholic and it helped me to cope with this." And then we'd get a mail every week. Even if the game has been out already six months right now we'd get these amazing e-mails from people. [...] What we learned with Papo is that actually games can help other people; can help them to cope with reality. It's not about escaping. We want to make games that are more like books in that you get something at the end, you get learning out of it.
Caballero also discusses what drove Minority to develop the game for Ouya rather than iOS devices. "It was a perfect fit," he says. Silent Enemy is expected to release in late 2013. You can learn more about the game, and its predecessor Papo & Yo, by visiting Minority Media's website.
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