Born and raised in Salvador, Brazil, Filipe has always been fascinated by his country’s culture and past. So much so that he decided to study history, eventually becoming a teacher and researcher. Also a long-time gamer, Filipe saw the game as a creative way to tell stories and realized it was a good way to reach people outside the classroom and share Brazil’s heritage with the world.
So with his business partner Victor, he founded Aoca Game Lab. Now a team of eight, Aoca Game Lab recently released their first mobile title, ÁRIDA. Backland’s Awakening, a survival game that follows the adventures of a young girl in the historical city of Canudos, Brazil. And they were recently selected as one of the recipients of Google Play’s Indie Games Fund, which supports small game studios based in Latin America.
Filipe shared his story in our latest feature on #WeArePlay, which celebrates people around the world creating apps and games. We talked more with Filipe about combining his passions for history and games, the studio’s next step, and the team’s latest trip to Canudos to present the game to those who inspired it.