This is a transcript of an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session with Adolfo Aguirre, hosted by the IGDA Student SIG. If you’re interested in doing an AMA with students, you can sign up here.
“I’m an Industrial and Systems Engineer, and I serve as the PR & Publishing guy at Lienzo, a game studio located in Chihuahua, México. My role also involves managing the QA efforts, marketing, and community management. I’m in the gaming industry simply because I love video game so much and I couldn’t see myself doing anything else other than games. 🙂”
Follow Adolfo on Twitter: @AdolfoAguirreC
Livio
Hey Adolfo, you agreed to do a text-chat-only AMA right? If so, then we’ll just keep everything in this channel.
AdolfoAguirre
Hello!
Yes, text chat works best for me at the moment.
I’m ready to answer any questions you may have.
Livio
Awesome, to get started, can you give us a brief summary of your company and your career so far
AdolfoAguirre
For context, I’m head of PR & Publishing at Lienzo, a studio in Mexico, where we just launched Mulaka for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 & PC.
https://www.lienzo.mx/mulaka/
Livio
How big is Lienzo? Do you think of yourselves as an indie studio?
AdolfoAguirre
We’re just eight full-time people
3 programmers, 2 artists, 1 animator, 1 producer & director, and 1 PR/publishing guy
So, in terms of how many we are, it’s definitely a small studio
But we don’t really like to tag us as a “small” studio anymore, because we want the region and projects from here to stop being perceived as small, there’s a lot of potential for cool stuff.
Livio
That’s good. I’ve spoken to a few other local chapters around the world who were thinking about the same problem.
*IGDA chapters
JayM
Pretty cool to have a Switch game from an 8-man team, you guys did a lot, Mulaka looks cool.
Was it difficult getting it onto the Switch?
AdolfoAguirre
@JayM Thank you!
Well, it certainly wasn’t easy, but it was far from impossible.
A big challenge was getting noticed by Nintendo since right now everyone wants to be on the Switch and the Switch gold rush is very much a real thing, but we kept insisting everywhere and we managed to connect with the right people through Twitter and that was it.
JayM
They would be crazy not to pick this game up, it’s right up their alley.
AdolfoAguirre
On the technical side, we did face some challenges with optimization, but they were far more simple than what we expected. We worked with Unity, so that really made things go smoother on that due to its compatibility.
Livio
So at Lienzo, you said you are the PR & Publishing guy, but you also do a lot more, like QA and community management. Now that the game has shipped, what’s taking up most of your time now? Are you working on a lot of marketing and promotion for the game?
AdolfoAguirre
Since we’re a small team, all of us take a lot of different roles. For instance, one of our programmers is also the writer of the game, the cinematic producer, and the video producer (for trailers and such).
My main responsabilities are PR and publishing, but I do QA, marketing, community management, etc. At this moment, I’m spending more of my time on answering interviews (PR), replying to emails and messages (community management), public speaking at events (marketing?), and a few more things on the publishing side that I can’t talk about yet.
So a bit of everything, basically.
Livio
How about the rest of the team? Are you maintaining the game (fixing bugs) or are you starting a new project? Perhaps that publishing thing you mentioned involves their time somehow
A lot of beginners think that once the game is shipped, all the real work is done, but I guess my core question is to ask for a picture of what your post-release work has really been like.
AdolfoAguirre
A bit of both. We’re maintaining the game by fixing bugs and we already added a feature and improved some stuff based on player feedback.
We’re also starting a new project, and that involves a lot of discussions internally, but our programming team is definitely spending the majority of their time on updates for all the platforms where the game is available on.
Games are no longer “shelf products”, they’re basically living things in the market that you must support to maintain sales and keep a goodwill with your customers.
JayM
So how long did it take to make all this artwork with just 2-3 contributors? It’s a pretty impressive variety. And yeah, i hear that. it’s all about that long-tail.
Livio
related, how long was the game in development?
AdolfoAguirre
Production took a bit over two years, the whole team, including art.
We spend over a year before that looking for funding, doing concepts, research, etc., but full-time production, and with that I mean all of us from 9 am to 5 or 6pm at the office, Monday through Friday, took us just a bit over two years.
Livio
How’d you get funding? What kind of investors? Any publishers?
AdolfoAguirre
No publishers, we self-published our game
JayM
Any investors at all?
Livio
hehe yeah I was about to say, as the publishing guy it didn’t look like you had publishers
AdolfoAguirre
We did a Kickstarter back in 2015, but it was unsuccessful. That Kickstarter, however, gave us a lot of attention and exposure with media, especially within our country.
With that media attention, we basically put all of the logos of the outlets that covered our game and used that as a validation, as a sort of way to tell people “Hey, look, all of them believed in the project, it’s your turn to jump in.”
Livio
nice
AdolfoAguirre
We then managed to secure a small fund from our city hall, then a larger government grant from the federal government. With that support, we became more attractive to investors, and managed to get the full funding for the studio, not just this game.
So we basically made our dream true of working full-time on this, with salaries and all, and that came from people who are outside the industry.
Livio
Government grants are surprisingly common among small companies. It’s often from funds dedicated to either fostering a stronger local tech industry, or local arts & culture companies.
That’s great that you were so well supported. No one had to starve
When and how did you join Lienzo? Did you work on previous game projects?
AdolfoAguirre
Well, we did starve before that, hehe, but managed to get some stability with the funding
I joined Lienzo back in November 2014, just when the studio was looking to start the journey with Mulaka and look for funds
It’s my first entry in the gaming industry
I joined Lienzo back when I was still a student, I graduated in December 2015
Livio
neat
What’s the local games industry like? Are you in touch with other companies in the country or in your area?
AdolfoAguirre
The local gaming industry is almost non-existent, to be honest, but it’s slowly growing.
JayM
Haha, that’s exactly what I said in my head: “probably non-existent.” I’m glad they funded you.
AdolfoAguirre
We’re connected with almost every studio in the country and try to make friends with all of them because we need to lend a hand to our fellow devs, wherever they are.
But as of now, there isn’t much happening. It’s slowly getting there and we’re seeing more new studios being born, some of them even inspired by what we did, which is our main goal, but it’s still a very small scene.
Livio
I heard Rami Ismail talking about how every local games industry usually needs at least one “big” hit before people start to take it seriously.
AdolfoAguirre
That’s very true. Look at CD Projekt, for instance
For many people, we’re that “big” hit, and we hope that does make a difference and that five years from now we can be talking about several games being made here.
Livio
Is the IGDA Mexico chapter still around?
they used to have the http://igda.mx domain which I thought was really cool.
AdolfoAguirre
Funny thing that you asked, since we tried to “revive” that, be part of it and even take some leadership and push it forward.
It exists, but it’s not doing anything.
It’s dormant, basically.
Dunno why, but on paper there is someone in charge of it, but nothing is happening.
Livio
that domain might be up for grabs right now hehe
AdolfoAguirre
As far as we’re all concerned, at least.
Devs in Mexico instead associated under different banners and such.
Livio
yeah that happens to a lot of local chapters. Eventually some volunteers will get busy and if they don’t immediately hand it off to new volunteers, then it dies, then someone revives it, then it’s active for a while, then the cycle continues.
ah, what are the main professional groups in Mexico? Are they more regional?
AdolfoAguirre
It’s always more complicated when it’s run by volunteers and I understand that. It requires time, and time is money.
There is an Mexican Games Association that is fairly new.
We’re part of it and as of now it’s probably the most serious association we’ve seen in the country. It’s, at the very least, the one with the most studios on it and the most representation on events
Livio
that’s awesome. Do you have a link to it?
AdolfoAguirre
That’s precisely what I’m looking at right now, but for some reason, the website is only in Spanish. Ugh.
Livio
I wonder if you can get government grants to support either that association or the IGDA Mexico chapter 🤔
AdolfoAguirre
Oh, but the industry report is in English.
http://mexicogames.org/wp-content/themes/accesspress-mag/images/MexicoGamesIndustry.pdf
Livio
that’s fine, I want to be able to share it anyway (and I speak spanish 🙂)
AdolfoAguirre
It’s very tough to get government grants. The Mexican government isn’t too interested in it and are of the idea that games are harmful to children and instead want to impose restrictions and such. The money we got from government was due to the game’s subject matter, not much because of the fact that it’s a video games.
Livio
What are some of the other challenges that game studios in Mexico face? Is it mostly the lack of a strong scene, and therefore not having the accumulated knowledge and experience of other regions?
AdolfoAguirre
It’s way tougher for us to attend events like E3 and GDC.
The exchange rate and purchasing power we have versus Americans really screws us badly.
You think San Francisco is cheap? Attending GDC just one year is a significant portion of a game’s budget for us.
For many studios over here, it’s either going to GDC or making a new game. They cost the same.
JayM
Even living right here in Everett by Seattle I can relate to that. Rent comes first you know, so it’s been a couple years and I haven’t been able to make some events. It’s a barrier for sure. And I can imagine it felt pretty cool to get that grant because they’re not just handing them out.
Hard to get exposure with so many people in the games-game, too.
AdolfoAguirre
It’s a competitive industry, for sure.
This happens in the US, too, but I believe that the taboo around games is greater around here.
We’re either rockstars or weirdos, that depends on who you talk to.
JayM
*Oh nah man people are nuts but I think like %80 of us are addicted to one game or another.
That’s rough. I grew up in a pretty traditional area so I did experience some of that.
Livio
I thought the U.S. had grown past that but then a lot of San Francisco locals started mocking international GDC attendees online who were complaining about the city feeling more dangerous than in past years. Most of the insults had to do with people being wimps for working on games all day 🙄
By the way, I met you at GDC but I don’t remember where exactly… was it the Speaker party? Did you speak at the conference this year?
JayM
*In this case “Oh nah” meant “yes, probably” 😛
AdolfoAguirre
San Francisco definitely feels like an unsafe city, and that’s coming from someone living in Mexico. I feel far, far safer where I live. SF has a problem that shouldn’t be ignored. (Slightly off-topic, sorry)
Livio
I agree.
AdolfoAguirre
@Livio Huh, not sure. Maybe at Indie Megabooth? I didn’t speak at the conference.
Livio
hehe well the Microsoft Xbox LatinX party was in the same place and same day as the speaker party so maybe that’s where
Livio
Looks like we’re out of time. Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to chat with us. I’ll let you know when we put the archive up if you’d like to share it. 🙂
JayM
Good luck with Mulaka, I’ll tell people about it if they’re into adventure games. My sister might pick it up.
AdolfoAguirre
I was at that party, too. Maybe that was it.
No problem! Thanks a lot for having me.
Livio
So it sounds like Indie Megabooth helped you go to GDC this year
AdolfoAguirre
Feel free to reach out anytime if you have any other questions and such. My Twitter is @AdolfoAguirre93 and my email is adolfo.aguirre@lienzo.mx
Yes, we were there with Indie Megabooth, and with the government of Mexico at Game Connection
Livio
Thanks again Adolfo!
Have a great day 😃
AdolfoAguirre
You too!