Papo & Yo - 8/14 - $14.99 - An Emotionally Mature Puzzle-Adventure PSN Game

Papo & Yo is the story of a young boy, Quico, and his best friend, Monster. Monster is a huge beast with razor-sharp teeth, but that doesn't scare Quico away from playing with him. That said, Monster does have a very dangerous problem: an addiction to poisonous frogs. The minute he sees one hop by, he'll scarf it down and fly into a violent, frog-induced rage where no one, including Quico, is safe. And yet, Quico loves his Monster and wants to save him.

As Quico, players will build their friendship with Monster by solving puzzles together and adventuring through a magical, surrealist world. Players will need to learn to use Monster's emotions, both good and bad, to their advantage if they want to complete their search for a cure and save their pal.

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I have always wanted to tell the story of my childhood, as the difficulties I lived through shaped the man I’ve come to be. But telling my story was a major endeavor for me as an artist. First I had to master videogame design so I could realize my vision; after that, I had to find an appropriate method to tell a difficult story in an engaging way. And finally, I needed to find a group of people who would believe in me and take the risk to dedicate themselves to a project like this. I’m very lucky to have the great, experienced team I have at Minority, who have completely embraced my initial concept.

But what is my story, and why would someone be interested in it, you ask? Well, the tale told in Papo & Yo is about myself and my father, a good man but also an evil one. Like many, he used alcohol and drugs to cope with a challenging life, and I was caught in the middle of it. The emotional core of this game is ultimately a fable about my relationship with my father.

Quico, our young hero, is a boy who lives in the Favelas in South America. His best friend and protector is Monster, a large beast that loves Quico. But Monster is addicted to frogs, and when he eats them he is transformed into an evil killing machine, his fury pushing him to destroy everything that is around him — including Quico. Quico’s only chance for survival is to find a way to cure his best friend.

I remember playing videogames in my difficult childhood days. I remember how the unpleasant world of adults loomed around me and made me feel vulnerable. But I did not feel like that when I was playing as Mario: I felt powerful and in control of a fantastic world. I loved defeating bosses that were larger than life to me, and today I thank you Miyamoto; now is my time to give back.

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Puzzle-platformers are no rare breed on PSN, but one upcoming title, Papo & Yo, is looking to revitalize the genre in a number of intriguing ways. Introduced in early June on the PlayStation.Blog, Papo & Yo tells the story of Quico, a young boy who has an unlikely best friend: a giant hulking beast named, appropriately, Monster. Together, the duo must navigate an ethereal world that’s reminiscent of a South American town but is set entirely in Quico’s imagination. The world itself is made up of dream-like neighborhoods to roam and populated with puzzles to solve.

After getting my hands on the game at E3, it didn’t take long to notice the unique approach developer Minority is taking when it comes to navigation and puzzle solving. Controlling Quico from a third-person perspective, I wandered a bit around Papo & Yo’s surreal world. Players can easily run and jump around the expansive environments, and also use visual cues to direct Monster (as well as a cute little flying robot named Lula) to points of interest. Utilizing all three characters to solve puzzles is key to progressing in the game, and once you learn a few basics—Monster is good at moving heavy objects, for example, and Lula can reach high areas inaccessible to Quico—the gameplay becomes surprisingly intuitive.

What really impressed me while playing is how the world changes according to Quico’s actions. Picking up a series of unassuming boxes near a line of houses causes the actual individual houses to lift off the ground and move according to where Quico places the boxes. Placing the boxes inside a nearby chalk outline causes the houses to create a rooftop bridge for Quico to cross. The entire segment really helped highlight the dream-like nature of Papo & Yo’s world.



There is, however, a dark side to Papo & Yo. If Monster happens to come across a poisonous frog (his favorite snack) and eat it, he’ll be thrown into a frenzied rage that puts Quico’s life in danger. Papo & Yo creative director Vander Caballero explained that Monster’s addiction to poisonous frogs is meant as an analogy to his own father’s substance abuse, which greatly affected the developer when he was a young boy (like Quico). Preventing Monster from eating the frogs, or hightailing Quico away from him if he does, is key to survival throughout the game.

There’s still plenty more of Papo & Yo that I can’t wait to see, but the game is already looking and playing wonderfully. Keep your eyes on the PlayStation.Blog for more news down the line.

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Hello everybody! We’ve been hard at work since we first unveiled Papo & Yo last summer, and the game has come a long way in the past few months. As we get ready to (finally!) show off more of the game next week at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you all a little bit about how Monster – a character very important to both the story and to me personally – has evolved since my initial concept into the Monster you see today.

If you’ve been following Papo & Yo, you may remember that Monster represents my father, a man I had a difficult relationship with. To tell the story I wanted to tell – my story – I knew that this character had to show the positive aspects of the man I loved… and the negative aspects of the man I feared. This turned out to be challenging – I knew who Monster was, but not what he looked like. Luckily, I’m extremely fortunate to have friends like Nilo Rodis, a man who has worked on the art for movies ranging from Pixar titles to Star Wars, and the man who helped me find my father in Monster.

Nilo and I met during my time at EA, and when I started Minority as a way to make more personal games, he was one of the first people I started talking to. After I came to Nilo with the concept of Papo & Yo, we didn’t talk for a while – I basically buried myself in developing the game. When I finally had a prototype ready, Nilo liked it but saw problems with the way Monster looked – too much like a puppy, he thought. He asked me, “Do you see your father in that character?” and I honestly couldn’t say I did.

Nilo agreed to help us redesign our characters, and our final Monster, which you can see below, is big and powerful. 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.

Can’t wait to show you more of Monster and the game in the coming months!

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Hola I’m Vander, the creator of PAPO & YO, Thanks for your feedback on the monster, I really like the Rhino too. I remember going from the first sketches to a 3d model to putting him in the engine, but inside of me there was always something wrong with the character I couldn’t describe. Talking to my friend Nilo I realized what it was – I was mixing the monster with my dog! I love playing with my dog and got stuck in the loop of playfulness I wanted to have with my father which I never had. But when Nilo asked me if I see my father in the monster I had to be honest and admit that Rhino, as much as I liked him, was more my dog than my father.

The monster looks a bit scarier now and that is how I felt when I was a kid. When Nilo sent me some concept art for the new monster I saw my father in it and I feel that is a more honest view of my past.

We are still working on improving the texture and I look forward to showing you his animations soon, new monster is attaching too.

I know many will not like the new monster but I really could not ship with Rhino knowing he is the representation of my father mixed with my dog.

V

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SN6Vnv4_Ew

Hello again! Last time I was here I talked about the redesign of Monster – now I want to give everyone an even closer look at the creative and design process for Papo & Yo in our first-ever dev diary. Please take a look – you’ll get a glimpse of Minority’s office, some new ways you can interact with Monster, and even see the first prototype I designed for the game!

If you’ve been following Papo & Yo‘s development, you know that the game was inspired by my childhood in South America and my relationship with my father. But I don’t want that to be the only thing that people see when they get to play the game. Papo & Yo is also about a child’s imagination, and experiencing “fantastic realities” – transforming the real world into a special world that can both help and challenge you. I feel such joy when I play with my boy and see him imagining his toys coming to life – I hope that everyone will feel this when they play Papo & Yo.

Thank you – and stay tuned! We are working on another dev diary that will give you insight into what went into creating Papo & Yo’s music (hint: it involves a great composer and a big trip to South America). Also, be sure to look out for us at E3 again this year!

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Hello everyone! As some of you may already know, the wonderful team at PlayStation is giving us an opportunity to show off a brand new demo for Papo & Yo at their booth next week during E3. We’re thrilled to have another opportunity today to give you an early peek at some of what attendees will be playing during the show, as well as a few parts of the game that have never been seen before. With that, I’d like to present the latest Papo & Yo trailer, which we’re calling “the Changing World!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAkUDP5ZqYY

We hope you like it, and keep an eye out for some great stories about Papo & Yo from Los Angeles over the next week!

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Hello everyone! It’s hard to believe that Papo & Yo is so close to launch! This story has been in my heart for a long time, but thanks to the hard work of the whole team at Minority you all will finally be able to experience it next Tuesday, August 14th.

To celebrate the upcoming launch, we wanted to share something special with all of you. Although we are a small indie studio, we are lucky to have been able to work with the experienced filmmakers at Rezolution Pictures and talented Montreal director Alfonso Maiorana. They have created an amazing cinematic launch trailer for our game that not only shows the start of Quico’s story, but also the inspiration behind Papo & Yo’s fantastic world. We hope you like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFMdjcj6xmU&feature=player_embedded

Since we are part of Sony’s PSN PLAY promotion this year, PlayStation Plus members can pre-order Papo & Yo starting today for $11.99, and non-subscribers can do the same for $14.99.

You can also get part of that money back if you buy some of the other wonderful PSN PLAY titles from our fellow developers! If you’d like to place your order for Papo & Yo today and get a copy of our pre-order exclusive PS3 theme, visit PlayStation Store.

I look forward to having you all finally play Papo & Yo next week!

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