Why supporting indies is the key to growing the Brazilian games industry
“Juliana,
I
sold
a
company
that
I
don’t
have,
can
you
come
and
make
me
a
company?”
Juliana
Brito
became
the
co-founder
and
CEO
of
indie
accelerator
programme
Indie
Hero
after
her
business
partner
Ian
Rochlin
went
to
reality
TV
series
Shark
Tank
Brazil
and
sold
25%
of
the
not-yet-launched
company
for
$R1.
Yes,
your
read
that
correctly.
“The
video
went
viral,”
Brito
smiles,
remembering
Rochlin’s
Shark
Tank
appearance
and
his
phone
call
to
her
about
needing
help
to
set
up
the
company.
“At
the
time,
we
[already]
had
Game
Jam
Plus,
the
biggest
game
development
marathon
competition
in
the
world.
We
are
in
42
countries
right
now;
we
had
5,000
participants
last
year.
“And
then
he
went
to
Shark
Tank
and
he
did
a
pitch
about
a
company
that
would
be
the
biggest
game
producer
without
producing
games.”
Rochlin’s
gambit
was
to
only
ask
for
a
$R1
investment
because
he
deemed
it
more
important
to
have
investors
on
his
side
rather
than
money.
That
paid
off
and
securing
their
support
opened
many
doors
for
the
duo,
leading
to
the
creation
of
Indie
Hero.
The
accelerator
programme
primarily
works
as
a
platform
which
connects
Brazilian
developers
with
investors.
But
from
that
initial
idea
of
supporting
indies,
Indie
Hero
noticed
other
needs:
while
there
was
funding
available,
most
studios
“were
not
ready
for
it,”
Brito
says.
So
the
firm
took
a
step
back
and
also
included
support
to
learn
how
to
pitch,
how
to
self
publish,
and
more.
“We
started
to
see
other
kinds
of
necessities
for
the
indies,
so
we
started
organising
B2B
events,
[and]
we
started
organising
Brazilian
Game
Fest,
a
B2C
event
so
[studios]
can
actually
grow
[their]
social
media,
and
we
just
kind
of
grew
around
that,”
Brito
continues.
“Because
our
mission
is
that
everyone
who
wants
to
[make
a
living]
from
[making]
games
should
be
able
to
do
it.
The
industry
is
big
enough,
and
there’s
enough
money
in
it
that
we
can
actually
provide
that.
So
it’s
an
acceleration
programme,
events,
and
all
this
kind
of
stuff.”
“I
think
the
biggest
challenge
for
[game
developers
in
Brazil]
is
to
see
themselves
as
entrepreneurs”
Game
Jam
Plus
and
Indie
Hero
have
1,500
mentors
around
the
world
to
support
budding
talent.
The
company
is
also
about
helping
Brazilian
developers
set
up
their
studios
from
a
more
practical
point
of
view,
as
they’re
often
focused
on
the
game
and
not
the
business.
“I
think
the
biggest
challenge
for
[game
developers
in
Brazil]
is
to
see
themselves
as
entrepreneurs,”
Brito
says.
“They
go
through
a
lot
of
challenges
to
understand
that
in
order
to
do
the
game
they
want
to
do,
they
actually
have
to
build
a
business
around
it.
And
so
that’s
very
hard
for
them
and
sometimes
takes
years
before
they
either
get
a
business
partner
that
will
take
this
part,
or
[realise],
‘Okay,
we
have
to
do
it’.”
The
recent
adoption
of
a
legal
framework
for
games
in
Brazil
has
been
a
monumental
step
forward
in
this
regard;
something
you
can
read
more
about
in
this
article
about
the
implications
of
the
breakthrough
legislation
in
the
country.
That’s
all
the
more
welcome
that
Brazil
has
a
very
fertile
ground
for
the
games
industry,
having
grown
exponentially
in
the
past
decade.
“Brazil
has
120
million
players,”
Brito
says.
“That’s
because
we
don’t
have
100%
penetration
of
smartphones
yet,
we
have
80%,
so
there
are
still
people
who
don’t
have
smartphones
that
are
acquiring
[them]
right
now.
And
also
some
regions
that
are
[still]
getting
the
internet.
So
this
number
is
going
to
grow.
“We
are
the
tenth
biggest
game
economy
in
the
world
today.
So
I
think
there’s
a
huge
opportunity
for
us
to
look
to
our
own
market
to
provide
games
that
would
be
meaningful
to
the
Brazilian
population
itself,
with
some
regional
things
that
we
will
identify
ourselves
with.
Most
of
the
120
million
people
are
playing
AAA
games,
but
they
do
like
indie
games.
I
think
there
is
an
untapped
market.”
Brito
runs
an
event
called
BrasÃlia
Game
Festival
in
the
country’s
capital,
and
she
says
the
enthusiasm
for
indies
has
been
increasingly
noticeable.
“We
received
60,000
people
in
May
there,
and
the
indie
alley
was
one
of
the
most
visited
areas
of
the
event.
We
had
36
indie
studios,
they
were
fully
booked
the
whole
time,
a
lot
of
the
studios
did
sales,
and
we
had
an
average
of
800%
growth
in
[social
media]
followers
during
three
days
of
events.
That
shows
we
have
a
public
with
an
appetite
for
indie
games,
if
we
know
how
to
tap
that.
And
that
comes
[back]
to
the
biggest
difficulty
for
indie
developers,
to
see
themselves
as
a
business.
You’re
doing
business,
not
a
game.”
“We’re
not
Europe,
but
there’s
still
more
funds
[in
Brazil]
than
anywhere
else
in
Latin
America”
The
number
of
public
funds
has
also
increased
over
the
past
three
years,
Brito
says,
thanks
for
instance
to
the
Paulo
Gustavo
law,
a
public
funding
initiative
to
help
the
audiovisual
sector
recover
post-COVID.
She
also
mentions
the
Aldir
Blanc
cultural
fund,
launched
in
2023
as
the
largest
public
investment
into
the
cultural
sector
in
Brazil’s
history
at
$R15
billion
($2.6
billion).
“We
have
some
public
funds
for
gaming
that
we
didn’t
have
in
the
past,
and
besides
that
we
have
now
two
venture
capitalists
that
have
funds
for
games,”
Brito
says,
naming
Osten
Games
and
Bossa
Nova
Games.
“And
that’s
something
that
happened
in
the
last
two
years,
so
that
was
pretty
cool.”
She
adds:
“So
we’re
not
Europe,
but
there’s
still,
I
think,
more
funds
than
anywhere
else
in
Latin
America.”
Being
able
to
fund
new
studios
is
a
cornerstone
of
growing
the
Brazilian
games
industry
because,
as
Brito
puts
it,
it
simply
does
not
exist
without
indie
developers.
“The
Brazilian
industry
is
done
by
the
indies.
We
don’t
have
any
AAA
studios
here.
So
if
you
say
you’re
going
to
grow
our
industry,
you
should
grow
the
indie
game
industry.
That’s
the
only
thing
we
can
grow.
We
have
big
companies
like
Kokku,
Dumativa,
Puga,
that
do
a
lot
of
outsourcing
for
AAA
studios,
but
they
are
not
the
main
part
of
our
market
–
they
will
be
10%
of
our
market
maybe.”
Brazil
does
have
prominent
mobile
studio
Wildlife
(which
recently
cut
its
workforce),
while
one
of
its
biggest
studios,
Aquiris,
got
acquired
by
Epic
in
2023
to
form
Epic
Games
Brasil.
“And
now
we
have
Hermit
Crab
and
Gazeus
also
[making]
some
millions,”
Brito
continues,
mentioning
the
diversity
of
Brazilian
indie
studios
and
its
“healthy
ecosystem”
with
developers
working
across
all
platforms
and
genres
(there
were
1,042
studios
in
Brazil
as
of
last
year).
“We
need
a
healthy
base
of
small
studios
so
we
can
keep
a
[sustainable]
market.
To
actually
have
success,
to
use
a
pyramid
[image],
you
have
to
have
a
lot
of
studios
at
the
base,
and
then
you
get
some
in
the
middle,
then
you
get
some
at
the
top.
All
industries
are
like
that,
so
we
need
to
have
a
healthy
base
so
we
can
actually
have
an
ecosystem.
It’s
super
important
to
support
indie
studios.
And
everybody
also
knows
that
the
real
innovation
will
come
from
indie
studios
in
the
world.
The
big
studios
and
publishers
are
not
innovating,
because
it’s
a
big
risk.
The
ones
that
are
trying
to
do
new
kinds
of
games
are
the
indies.
That’s
where
the
innovation
will
come
from.”
Looking
ahead,
Indie
Hero
is
hoping
to
provide
more
support
to
the
indies
it
works
with,
and
help
them
rise
to
the
top.
“We
are
building
platforms
to
become,
not
a
publisher
in
itself,
but
to
help
distribute
more
games.
So
we
are
looking
to
educate
the
Brazilian
and
the
Latin
America
publics
in
general,
to
not
just
play
big
games
but
also
to
play
indies.
All
our
actions
aim
to
do
that
right
now,
to
actually
build
a
community,
and
produce
content
so
that
all
of
these
studios
can
find
their
own
niche
inside
of
our
community.”
She
continues:
“We’re
doing
deals
with
some
[developers],
just
so
they
can
get
some
cash
going
inside
the
studio,
and
actually
get
some
traction.
Our
goal
is
to
actually
[teach
developers]
how
to
be
financially
stable
and
to
bring
some
recurring
revenue.
With
some
studios,
we
did,
like,
‘Do
a
game
a
month’,
and
then
they
launched
them
on
Steam
to
generate
$500
or
$1,000
monthly.
In
dollars,
that’s
a
lot
for
Brazilians.
Now
we’re
doing
this
kind
of
stuff
so
they
can
actually
have
some
ways
that
the
studio
doesn’t
go
broke
while
they
are
working
on
a
bigger
intellectual
property.
Our
mission
right
now
is
about
solidifying
this
day-to-day
for
the
studios.”
reporting
by
James
Batchelor
