Cuban studio launches first indie video game via Indiegogo campaign

HAVANA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In a country where most video games are pirated from U.S. studios and
shared on flash drives, one daring developer is bucking convention by
creating Cuba’s first independent video game, funding it through a
first-of-its-kind crowdfunding
campaign on Indiegogo. Josuhe Pagliery, a Cuban multimedia artist
and founder of Empty Head Games, is launching the campaign for Savior,
a fully-animated 2D platformer featuring artwork and animation
influenced by Pagliery’s career in Cuban art. The $10,000 Indiegogo
raise will fund development, animation, and art design for the game.

This is a bold step for Cuba, where a lack of banking infrastructure,
limited internet access, and strict government regulations still prevent
most forms of free enterprise. Undaunted, Pagliery is one in a new breed
of innovators who are developing technologies and products under trying
circumstances.

“Cubans are just as fascinated by video games as anyone else in the rest
of the world,” said Pagliery. “Players share games on hard drives and
jury-rig their phones to play Pokemon Go in the country’s slow, scarce,
and expensive Wi-Fi.”

Not only is creating the game in Cuba out of the ordinary, so is
the game itself. Early in the story, the characters discover they’re
inside of a video game that’s falling apart, and their existence
unravels from there. Players set out to save this world from total
collapse, encountering many strange creatures and worlds along the way.

The game is intended to entertain, but it’s a serious step forward for
the state of innovation in Cuba. The country only recently made internet
access available to regular citizens via public Wi-Fi hotspots. Many
Cubans can only access their favorite games, many of which are American,
via the illegal but tolerated “Paquete Semanal,” an offline internet in
the form of a weekly hard drive that customers pay to have delivered
directly to their door.

“The limitations in Cuba, especially the lack of internet access, make
it very challenging to develop a video game,” said Pagliery. “But we’re
confident that we can overcome them, especially with the help of the
Indiegogo backers.”

The campaign kicks off Monday, October 24 and will run through the end
of November. Donors to the campaign can receive early access to the
game, original artwork created by Pagliery, and VIP tickets to the
Savior demo event, hosted at an art gallery in Havana early next year.

“For us, this isn’t just a video game,” said Pagliery. “It’s a chance to
show Cuba, and the world, that something like this is possible. It’s our
opportunity to set the course for video game development in Cuba and
create a model for tech innovators in the country.”

Contacts

Gregory FCA
Leigh Minnier
Vice President
610-228-2108
leigh@gregoryfca.com