March 21st 2011
By N65ultra, Lysonicstorm

Recently, Games That Matter interviewed the Argentina Game Developers Association. They are not a gaming developer or publisher, but rather an association of the best gaming companies in Argentina. To find out more about the Adva, including games set to release in North America, please visit http://www.adva.com.ar/adva_eng/.


Thank you for conducting this interview with Games That Matter. We are interested in gaming in your continent, and in Argentina. Here are some questions we have selected, if there is anything else you would like to comment on go right ahead.

Thanks for your time, and sorry for the delay in my reply.

Before start, I wanted to make a point clear: Adva (the Argentina Game Developers Association) is not a game development company, an as such, it doesn't produce or sell any games. That's a function of its affiliate companies, so in some of the questions I'll be giving answers both for the association and for the 'average company' in Argentina.

For more information about the individual game companies, you can contact those companies listed on the Adva Members section of the site,
http://www.adva.com.ar/adva_eng/?sec=2.

How large is the video game industry in Argentina? Can you think of any reason why this is so?

Here we should speak about two separate industries: that of game distribution, and that of game development. For the first, it's a small but important one in Argentina; I have no numbers, but there is more than a handful companies that have been working on that business for years. However, software piracy is a big problem in Argentina, and while that problem isn't solved, distribution won't ever get near its real potential. So the fight to piracy is a big concern for private and public organizations, and maybe next years we'll see important advances on that respect.

Game development industry is a different story. A much more recent story too. We had pioneers doing games since 1980 I think, but these were usually no more than hobbyists, and there was no serious attemps for doing business with games until about eight years ago. And even then, the early failure of the few tries on this field seemed to show we weren't ready for that, still.

But four or five years ago, it all started to change. By then, we had a bunch of development teams, and a lot of disperse but very talented lone developers. What happened is that some of these decided to meet, in what later became the Argentina Game Developers Association (www.adva.com.ar,
or www.adva.com.ar/adva_eng/ for the English version). It soon produced a powerful synergy which helped start-ups become full-blown companies, developers grow in their knowledge and experience, and so on.

This effect was specially evident during the latest two years, where this industry started an exponential growth. Currently, there are around 20 companies on this industry, where some are start-ups, others have been here for years, and most are developing products for the foreign market.

What genre of games are popular in Argentina? Are there any special types of games exclusive to your region?

No. People on this country consume a huge variety of computer games, mainly coming from USA, Europe and Japan. No genres are left apart, and there are no special genres that are present in Argentina and not common in other countries.

What gaming platforms does Adva companies produce games for?

Adva's conforming companies (and individuals) produce games for an interesting variety of platforms, including PC, Game Boy Advance, cell phones, the web, and in some cases even consoles like Xbox and PS2.

Is game content regulated in Argentina? In the U.S. we have the Entertainment Software Rating Board that gives games a rating (Early Childhood -> Adult), does Argentina have anything like that?

No, we have no regulation for game content here yet, but it's coming. There are some legislations on that respect that are being worked nowadays.

Do gaming companies in Argentina sell mainly inside Argentina, or do they ship into multiple nations?

There are a few companies producing original content for Argentina, and selling it locally, but the main focus for all of us is on other nations. Due to the current structure of costs we are a very interesting option for world-wide game companies requiring the development of games by third parties. So most of the game companies in Argentina have the world (more specifically, USA and Europe most of the times) as their core market, and the one in Argentina as a second one.

Our game companies are both developing complete products, and specific parts of their development. That is, for other game companies which actually outsource the development of these.

When was your company founded, and how did it come to be founded?

Adva's story started on 2000. There are a few companies from that time now, but most are from two years ago. And every year there are newer and
newer game companies starting to play.


How many employees, roughly, would you say that you have working for you right now? Are you a larger or smaller company compared to your competition?

Adva supports a a community whose size we estimate on over 300 - 400 developers, some of these working on Argentina game companies. There are game companies with one or two employees, and others with about 20, most are somewhere else on that spectrum.


Will any games designed in Argentina be released in North America to your knowledge, or will they stay local?

I'll point you to three of the most important companies going to release products on Usa in the near future:

www.ngdstudios.com.ar
www.sabarasa.com
www.evoluxion.com (more info about their game is on www.futboldeluxe.com)

What programs or software do you use to make your games?

Most game companies are currently using C++ and J2ME for programming; the entire development kit is generally an IDE, some 3d modellers, sound and graphic editors. These are the usual tools everywhere else for game development.

Games That Matter would like to thank H. Hernan Moraldo from the Argentina Game Developers Association for allowing us to conduct this great interview. We will have more information on games being released in North America from the Adva soon. If you have any questions or comments on this interview, please email mailbag@games-that-matter.com.