[Industry Interviews] Adrian Vega from Ratalaika Games

If you’re a fan of (n)indie titles, then you are in for a treat with today’s Industry Interviews! The Switch Effect is proud to welcome Adrian Vega, founder and owner of Ratalaika Games. Ratalaika Games is a game development company founded in 2013 that focuses on 2D games for the console and PC. With many of the games that Ratalaika published onto the Switch (and more on the way), we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to learn more about this company!

Thank you so much for speaking with The Switch Effect. Before we get into it, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved with the gaming industry?

Well I started learning coding and developing videogames for fun since high school. However, it started to become more serious in my college years when I decided to create Ratalaika Games S.L. I started with creating PC and mobile games but we moved to porting to console since is where I like to play the most on.

What was the first console/game you ever owned?

The first one I remember was the Game Boy Color I really loved playing Pokémon on it! I still remember my Pokémon Silver!

Growing up, did you always want to pursue a career in the gaming industry?

No, haha, I even wanted to become a doctor at some point.

Let’s talk about Ratalaika. For those unfamiliar with your company, can you provide some history as to how the studio was formed and decided to work with other indie developers to bring their games to consoles and mobile devices?

Well as I said before, I created Ratalaika Games S.L. when I was in college to keep making the games I wanted to. Little by little we managed to get access to developing for consoles and one day I found a game I really liked on OUYA! Since I had the opportunity, I talked to the developer to see if I could port and publish it to the Wii U so other people could enjoy it as well. The developer was rather happy and a really nice guy so I decided to help other developers get their games onto consoles.

Can you describe the process on how your company and indie developers connect to porting his/her title onto a console or mobile device?

Well sometimes I contact the developers and other times they come directly to me. Mainly I need to review the game to see if it fits onto consoles and if I can make the port, the estimated amount of time it takes, etc. Then the developer and I discuss the terms of the contract, etc. I start with the porting process and when it is finished I usually send the developer some videos so he can check the final version of the game before it is published.

Aside from the publishing side, Ratalaika Games has also developed a few titles including Defend your Crypt and The Minotaur. What’s it like creating an original game?

Well it is fun, but really hard to decide on the theme, the aesthetics and the most important the difficulty of the game. This is especially true since you need to test a lot while developing it. It’s easy to make it harder than intended.

It’s time to “switch” gears. Let’s talk briefly about the Nintendo Switch! What are your thoughts on Nintendo’s newest console?

Well it is indeed original. I’ve got mine since the release date with the Zelda and Bomberman and it was really fun to play on it. As for the developer point of view, it is a good platform to work with and very versatile.

Were there any challenges or new opportunities that came with bringing titles to the Nintendo Switch?

Well it is always a challenge to start porting to a completely new platform; everyone has its own peculiarities and special features. On the plus side, since there were few porting companies with accesses to Switch, we managed to get a nice amount of porting requests.

What can Switch owners expect to see next from Ratalaika Games?

I think we are going in the same direction as always. We are going to search for fun and good games that couldn’t get to console and try our best to share them so everyone can enjoy playing.

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to share?

We will keep working to bring games to console so please support us!

Thank you again for taking the time to speak with us today and make sure to check out Ratalaika Games to see all the amazing indie titles available on the Nintendo Switch eShop today!

Use the links below to follow Ratalaika Games!