It’s a cloudy afternoon and I find myself in a quiet office sitting down at a table with Florencia Fole and Marcos Ribatto Crespo, president and producer of the Asociacion de Desarrolladores de Videojuegos Argentinos (ADVA) respectively, and organizers of the Exposicion de Videojuegos Argentina (EVA) 2024, the biggest gaming industry event in Argentina.
For over two decades, ADVA has been one of the major representatives of the Argentinian gaming industry, and the biggest supporter of the local independent studios. “We’re reaching 22 years this year, and the expo came first, actually. It served as an excuse to create the association,” Fole says. “The first years were hosted in different places, and even though the talks could be hosted comfortably in the former venues, we needed a bigger space to let developers show their games.”
Outside the office, attendants fill the corridors of the venue, eager to try new video games and get their posters signed by developers. Even though it was the very first day, the expo was already bustling with people walking around the Palacio Libertad.
Back in 2020, the COVID pandemic forced the event to go fully digital; still, once the country returned to normalcy, it came back as a physical event, and the expo considerably grew in scope. “In 2022, we got the opportunity to do it in the Palacio Libertad, and that’s what helped the event to grow this much,” Fole explains. “Before the pandemic, we received around 4,000 people in the former venue, then in 2022 we went back to in-person events and we got 18,000 visitors; last year we had 29,000, and this year we’re looking to rise above the 35,000 mark.”
With more than 140 associates, ADVA has often showcased Argentinian indie games at major international events, always making a strong effort to bring in publishers so they can discover the creativity of Argentinian video game developers and take their projects to wider audiences. “We have several teams working on different areas, from development education to communications, internationalization of projects, and such,” Fole states.
“Those teams work with the Argentinian Chancellery, the Agency of International Trade, and we have the support of several provinces that work closely with us to help develop plans to internationalize studios from those provinces,” she adds. “Beyond that, we always maintain the same annual schedule; we participate in GDC, then BIG Festival - now Gamescom Latam-, Gamescom [in Cologne], and we close our year with the EVA.”
During the following days, I noticed many developers showcasing their games at the expo, with big names like Devolver and New Blood having booths at the event. “This is actually the first year with the presence of publishers at EVA,” Fole says. “After years of picking their heads, they’re starting to come here, which is great to see, and it’s also proof that we need a collective effort to make it happen.”
This comes at a time when South America as a region shows signs of significant growth in the gaming industry, and with triple-A companies hiring more South American talent to work on projects like xDefiant and Fortnite, Argentinian developers, in particular, prove to be better positioned than in other parts of the region. “We have several big publishers investing in game development here because they’re noticing the quality of our work,” she says. “Being in a similar time zone and having a similar cultural affinity helps a lot, and it’s great to see local names in products like FIFA, Fortnite, and Mortal Kombat, as it proves we’re competitive enough.”
But to maintain this streak, local talent needs to be fostered, and that’s where projects like MPVP come in. “MPVP, or Mi Primer Videojuego Publicado [My First Published Videogame] is a yearly mentorship that identifies projects with huge potential, and then gives them the resources and tools they need so they can make them happen,” explains Ribatto. “We give them a period of seven to eight months of mentorship, finishing with a practice pitching round, and we currently have 13 projects shown at the expo.”
Of course, initiatives like this wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for this country’s audience; the passion people have for video games here rivals any other major territory in the world, and in some cases, I’d say it’s even more intense. Argentina’s love for gaming and the creativity shown here helps developers to create a different flavor of video game that can be found on the many projects showcased at the event, and it’s thanks to events like EVA and the people working at ADVA that the talent in this country can be introduced to the world at large.
From fully-fledged open-world titles like Into The Abyss showing dystopic, horror-filled Argentinian streets, to immensely funny ideas like Cebador, where you must serve God the perfect yerba mate beverage to enter heaven, seeing my culture reflected in projects that also hype me up enough to play them fills me with a different kind of pride that I couldn’t experience otherwise, and gives me nothing but hope for the gaming industry in my home.
