Argentine video games in the CCK: from Martín Fierro and Güemes to a horror puzzle

The Argentina Video Game Exhibition (EVA) celebrates its 21st edition this weekend at the Kirchner Cultural Center. With local industry developers, enthusiasts and attendees who can try out local games, 88 Argentine video games They were shown this Friday and can be enjoyed for free this Saturday from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The event, organized by the Association of Argentine Video Game Developers (ADVA), began last Wednesday with a job fair, continued Thursday and Friday with business rounds between local developers and large publishers in the industry, as well as conferences about the industry .

But the space that stands out the most is EVA Playwhere you can try video games not only from Argentina but also from Latin America: this year you could play titles from Peru, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay (which even has its own stand).

On the ground floor are the most popular and largest games in the local industry. There you can see everything: from classic platformers, shooters and even virtual reality, to a stand where you can see the work of the Argentines involved in Mortal Kombat, one of the most popular fighting franchises in the world.

Among the highlights is “Shade”, a video game based on a historical fiction of the May Revolution inspired by the Martín Fierro by José Hernández. “It’s a game of stealth that combines strategy with action. Take a parallel plot and build a historical novel,” Jonatan Olavarría, game developer, tells Clarín. The stealth, or stealthis a genre within video games in which tactics to go unnoticed are prioritized over combat.

The historical component is in at least two more video games: Liberators’ Chroniclesstrategy, and The Infernalsdeveloped in Tucumán, both based on the figure of Martín Miguel de Güemes and the wars of independence.

The interesting thing about the system is that attendees can not only play the games for free, but also talk directly with the developers who, in general, are enthusiastic and enjoy explaining their creations, talking and answering questions from those who are interested in their products. games.

Another of the most striking games in this edition is called Dreamcore, created by Valentín Iribarren, a horror puzzle that has a first-person aesthetic with a filter that makes it look like an old VHS.

“The idea is that the player gets lost in a labyrinth where certain puzzles must be solved. With a couple of clues, you have to see how to escape from the place,” he says.

The designer made a demo that can currently be played on Steam, one of the most popular platforms in the world for downloading games on PC. At 21 years old, Iribarren learned self-taught: “I got into it out of curiosity, I downloaded Unreal Engine [un motor de desarrollo], I started using it, looking for information and I sent it. “It’s the first game I’ve ever made in my life,” he says, and he did it with two friends, Matías Ontiveros, who designed the sound, and Facundo Añasco, who contributed ideas.

The place also functions as a strong social and work nucleus, especially for those who are taking their first steps: “The great thing about being here is that you meet people who are in the environment,” he adds.

Memory, PartySaur (a kind of dinosaur Mario Party), Madison VR (a horror game in virtual reality), Era in a forest, Tenebris Somnia These are some of the games that were presented at the exhibition. The complete list of video games can be checked at this link.

Facundo Mounes, video game designer, directs an “incubator” of projects at Image Campus, an Argentine School of Art, Animation and Video Games. “We see the projects, which are usually the students’ theses, and we accompany them in the process of professionalizing these works so that they have commercial scope,” the director of this project, called IC-Cube.

Part of these games can be seen in this edition, where it stands out Tempomancya puzzle game where the player manages time with the art of an illustrator, Rocío Lee, who caught the attention of more than one attendee.

“The Argentine video game industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds. There are a lot of emerging studies. Argentina has a long history of development for third parties and now we are in the process of starting to have studies with their own intellectual properties,” Mounes contextualizes.

“This issue of putting them in an incubator is to help develop that talent in our own intellectual properties, to put us on the map beyond the fact that we have a good workforce, but that many times it lacks ‘the last mile,’ what is the commercial part”, he closes.

Also participating in the exhibition was Argentine Union of Television, Telecommunications, Audiovisual Services (SATSAID)which has been discussing unionization in local video game development, a field little explored by renowned local developers.

Thus, one more year, Argentina demonstrates its talent in an industry that has always been closely linked to the United States and Japan, but that already in 2023 has development centers around the world. And local development, as happens in so many other areas, He also exudes talent in video games.