I recently got back from a Uruguay. I was invited down to spend some time with local studios, educators/students and representatives from a tech incubator and the gov funded tech laboratory.

It was a very hectic week, with 4 major group lectures, meetings with 3 local studios, about 6 networking lunches/dinners and several debrief style meetings with the incubator/gov folks - all within three days of action.

Much like in other countries looking to catalyze knowledge/content industries, there is a lot of excitement around the potential of games for South America. I was encourage by the level of work already being done by Uruguayan studios (often for major clients like Cartoon Network, MTV, Comedy Central, etc).

As in most countries with relatively high piracy, their emphasis to date has been on casual/web and mobile game markets. Something I encouraged greatly, and pointed them to the principles of the long tail, as well as the free-2-play business model pioneered in Korea.

Was an enjoyable and insightful trip overall. A special thanks to Roger Leonard of the Centre d’Entreprises et d’Innovation de Montreal (CEIM) for referring me to this opportunity.

Here are some pics from the journey…


I got to stay in a quaint hotel in the outskirts of town, right near the beach.

 

 


Side shot of the main port and city of Montevideo.

 

 


Germán Martinez (Ingenio) in front of the fortress of General Artigas.

 

 


An animator from MTW Studios (one of Ingenio’s incubating companies) working on their new El Pequeño Héroe cartoon.

 

 


The city of Montevideo is pretty much surrounded by beaches. Nice.

 

 


The Holocaust Memorial at sunset. Very meditative.

 


Julio Fernandez (Universidad ORT) gives a personal tour of some of the more remote/scenic parts of town.

 


Esteban Lussich (Ludo) next to his wall of graffiti (which actually spanned the whole studio!)

 


Batovi’s dev wall. They were closing up work on a South Park web game…

 


An pleasantly “green” entrance for a studio called “Powerful Robot” ;)

 


Designers from Powerful Robot hard at work.

 


Powerful Robot animator Pepe Infantozzi still using the classic tools of the trade.


Powerful Robot “asador” Daniel Soulier cooking up lots of meat for dinner.

 


Local Guitar Hero champion Federico Medina.

 


The Uruguayan game industry: Several local studios/reps showed up at Powerful Robot for an informal BBQ dinner.

 


Winner of the indie game contest, Tank Busters.

 


The masterminds behind Tank Busters: Gustavo Brown, Jorge Felippone and Eduardo Felippone.

 


Juan Pablo Zorrilla showing off his Combat Orientale fighting game.