Papo & Yo introduces players to a boy named Quico and his new best friend, Monster, a cuddly creature with an unfortunate addiction to poisonous frogs. Players will lead Quico though a vibrant, 3D adventure, solving puzzles with Monster’s help… but they’ll have to avoid being torn limb from limb by his amphibian-fueled rage in the process. Papo & Yo will take players on an emotional journey that explores the relationship between a boy and his sometimes-scary best friend. As players progress, Monster will react differently to their actions based on his current desires. If Monster is in a good mood, he will play with Quico and help with tasks; if Monster is hungry, he will seek out food; if that food happens to be a poisonous frog, he’ll transform into a terrifying killing machine bent on nothing but destruction. Players will need to learn to use Monster’s emotions, both good and bad, to their advantage if they want to complete their search for a cure and save their pal.
Minority chose UE3 in part because its team members have had success using the toolset in developing triple-A games such as "Army of Two" and also because it was easy to staff up with experienced developers thanks to Montreal's thriving UE3 talent base.
“‘Papo & Yo’ is excellent proof of what small teams can quickly produce with the UE3 toolset,” said Joe Kreiner, North American territory manager of Epic Games. “There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you have a great creative vision and leverage Unreal Engine technology.”
“We knew UE3 would get us creating gameplay mechanics and levels very quickly. We wanted to quickly start building gameplay elements and puzzles and iterating on them. UE3's material editor allowed us to get beautiful characters and environments without a lot of work," said Julien Barnoin, Minority Lead Engineer. “When artists or designers come to me asking for a new feature, I can often just point them to how to do it right in the editor, and can get back to coding the features that are really unique to our game.”
Using Epic's engine as the backbone of the company's flagship game meant more than just time saving, however. The community around UE3 was very helpful in the process, Barnoin said, "The resources available on UDN are always very advantageous. Even after years using the engine, there are always things for me to learn-either new features or useful little tools I've never known were there-so reading documentation and keeping an eye on relevant mailing lists is a must to make the most of the engine."
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