Like so many other Brazilians, Luiz Sampaio tried something different during the pandemic. Luiz has always understood himself as a poet, although he has paid many bills as an astronomer. Now, he would dedicate himself to something unimaginable: his first game.
Luiz Sampaio, poet and creator of Aspire: Ina’s Tale
Image: Personal archive/Luiz Sampaio
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With a difference: Luiz is a 70-year-old man. Without any experience in the area. He didn’t even play video games.
The result is Aspire: Ina’s Tale, which arrived this Friday (17) for PC (via Steam), XBox One e Nintendo Switch. It is the magical adventure of a girl who awakens trapped in a tower. But the building is a living monument, and Ina doesn’t just need to find her way out – she also needs to find out why she was imprisoned.
“It was a challenge! I really immersed myself in the magical world of the Tower, I lived with the characters and I hope I managed to transmit feelings and teachings”, he says.
It’s a very poetic narrative, so it’s clear where Sampaio came in with his talent. But if he took care of the metaphors… who did you take care of the code?
A meeting at karaoke
It was on a busy night in 2019, at a karaoke bar in the Liberdade neighborhood in São Paulo (SP), that Sampaio met Nickolas Jaques and Pablo Abraham.
In one of those unusual partnerships that only the bohemian is capable of creating, the duo agreed to help Luiz take his verses to social media. After that, the “collab” never stopped.
—Nickolas Jacques, Luiz Sampaio and Pablo Abraham, from Wondernaut, the night they met
Image: Personal archive/Luiz Sampaio
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“Our success with the dissemination of the poems led us to a bigger dream: to create a game studio, which was Pablo’s passion”, explains Sampaio. “We wanted to develop poetic, aesthetic games that lead the player to enriching experiences and their development as a human being.”
Abraham is now CEO of Wondernaut Studio and Jacques was the audio designer for Aspire: Ina’s Tale. Sampaio became the financial director.
“That was a magical and inexplicable night, any action different from what had been done, for sure, would not result in what we created today, the Wondernaut.” Pablo Abraham, CEO and Director of Wondernaut
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Jimi Hendrix, Alice e Chihiro
To get out of her prison, Ina needs to gain new abilities along the way. But, in line with the higher expectations of Abraham and Sampaio, these skills aren’t just pragmatic, as in most games.
“They can be both for overcoming physical space, but also for evolving your soul and essence,” explains Abraham.
Four poems by Sampaio inspire the central points of the narrative. THE team also brought a lot of their feelings and influences, both in aesthetics, in the music and in gameplay, according to Abraham.
One of the genesis of the idea was the song “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix. But animations such as A Viagem de Chihiro, Alice in Wonderland, Gris and INSIDE also came into this broth.
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Each one brings it to the table… virtually
Like so many other typical projects of the pandemic, Aspire was carried out collectively but at a distance, with everyone in the home office.
Sampaio, part of the covid-19 risk group, participated remotely in the meetings, with ideas, opinions and advice (“the good side of being more experienced, without necessarily being older”, he assesses, laughing).
“The team insisted that Luiz appear periodically to talk to everyone, and these meetings were always very positive”, says Abraham.
—The Aspire: Ina’s Tale team, in a rare face-to-face meeting
Image: Disclosure/Wondernaut
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“We believe that we build more than a studio together, we talk a lot about values that allowed us to build a loving family.” Paul Abraham
Luiz also had an unexpected key collaboration: as he has also handled other businesses, he used his negotiating experience to partner with the Polish publisher Untold Stories, which is helping to launch Aspire: Ina’s Tale.
“It’s clear that they admire Luiz’s trajectory and his courage to invest in something totally new and innovative like games,” analyzes Abraham.
Everywhere is poetry
Untold executives are not the only admirers that Sampaio has gained. As he learned a little bit of modeling and programming, his colleagues also began to take a greater interest in poetry.
“I’m suspicious to say, but Luiz is actually my favorite author,” says Abraham. “The poems are ‘easy’ to read and usually talk about everyday things, which everyone lives, lived or will live”.
—Luiz Sampaio, poet and creator of Aspire: Ina’s Tale
Image: Personal archive/Luiz Sampaio
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On the other hand, Sampaio says that he still hasn’t been able to bring his passion for games to other people in his private life, but he still received a lot of support and “positive energies” in this turn.
“Thank God I’m in great health and I’m all focused on the future. The past is really what happened. Every morning I put my feet in the present and I predispose myself positively to the good things that will happen”, he summarizes.
And now Ina will poetically take that same lesson to players around the world.
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