Created by friends from college, MMaxixe works on a game that combines peripheral, literary and classic references from the gaming world
From classmates to classmates. This is the path traced by Magno Borges, Matheus Pigozzi, César Mosca and Mathias Codas, manager of Estúdio MMaxixe. Game design graduates, they develop games that highlight the periphery and present new perspectives on these regions.
The partnership between the quartet emerged during college, around 2016. From the very beginning of the course, they were encouraged to think entrepreneurially and produce games that valued Brazilianism.
Due to their experiences as suburban residents, the decision to incorporate these features into the games was natural, even though they encountered misunderstandings from teachers and other classmates.
“We had to get a teacher to let funk be used in the game. He didn’t understand that it made sense, that he had a place there,” recalls Magno Borges, 38, who grew up in the Jaraguá region, west of São Paulo.
“I remember another time we went to pitch a piece of the game and our character was wearing [óculos] Juliet and armored hair, tactel shorts. They said she looked like a thief. And he was a child, a black boy. It was pretty scary,” adds he, who is a designer and level design at the studio.
Level design is the professional responsible for planning the game, the narrative that will be developed, the mechanics and the overall player experience. In MMaxixe, Magno also deals with projects and public tenders in which the studio is registered.
Since deciding to turn MMaxixe into a company after finishing college, the quartet has bid on three public tenders for technology companies. Two of them came from Vai Tec, from the municipality of São Paulo, and are currently with the ProAC (Cultural Action Program), of the state government.
“We followed two types of mentoring at Vai Tec. We had classes on fundraising, prospecting, how to start the business. It was great because we had this idea of what we needed to sustain ourselves. The other one, focused on games, went a long way to see if what we were doing made sense in the market,” says Magno.
For this new public announcement, the group is working on the development of a game called Melusina. The game saves the first digital project they created in college, combining the work of Potiguar author Câmara Cascudo with the Adventure game, an Atari classic released in 1979. And of course, bringing the peripheral perspective.
“It was very evident, doing this work, that we didn’t need to be portrait painters. There is a fantasy place that ends up saying much more. Thinking of a dungeon game as a suburb takes us out of this realistic place. We’re not being disrespectful, we’re just showing that the suburbs can be fun, a magical and surprising place.”
While the release of Melusina does not take place, it is possible to follow this mix of references between fantasy, pop culture and suburbs through the illustrations that Magno and Matheus usually publish in studio profile on Instagram.
There you can also find the drawings of another game the group worked on, Kintal, which was the subject of the course’s conclusion work. “There were several minigames inspired by children’s games. Because it’s multiplayer, it would be too expensive to release commercially, so we put that project on hold,” says level design.
Source: Terra
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
