Meet 4 The Elements and the journey of the Brazilian studio Mito Games | Mundo Indie

The story of an Espírito Santo based studio in the Brazilian gaming market

This week on Mundo Indie, we introduce you to another developer: Rafael Lontra, the face of Mito Games. To start, Lontra is a technical assistant in mechanics, mechatronic engineer, musician, teacher, and probably a few other things.

Our interviewee of the week has been passionate about games since he was young, from the Atari era, but the impact came when he saw those beautiful, more complex and colorful graphics of Prince of Persia being played on a PC. From there, his love for games only grew.

Originally from Vitória, Espírito Santo, Rafael Lontra gradually discovered how games worked and how they were made. Those strange names, like SEGA, that appeared on the screen of some games were not about a blind old lady, but rather a company behind several games. "Until my adolescence, the game came from the sky, something so divine could not be created by humans, then we understand," Rafael said.

Despite his love for games, the dream of being involved in it took a while, even though he had dabbled in the field while studying music. Thanks to his girlfriend, now wife, Carol, who pushed Rafael to take a game development course, a new chapter in his life and ours began, as we now have another great participant in the Brazilian gaming industry.

While taking the game development course, Lontra attended a Brasil Game Show (BGS), where he met his first partner, Fred Rischter, who invited him to Blue Pixel. After about four years, they split, giving birth to Mito Games, also founded in Vitória, Espírito Santo. Since then, it has been seven years of learning and creating for the Espírito Santo-based developer.

Mito Games from Espírito Santo

Mito Games has done a lot of things, from advergames, educational games, gamification projects, and other experiences, serving various companies such as Sony Pictures, Sebrae, and Shopping Vitória. Over time, and dealing with the difficulty of getting resources and positioning itself in the market, the studio had a turning point, the game WarDogs: Red's Return, a game made for Red Nose that was initially developed for Android and iOS, but the developer had the opportunity to bring it to consoles and PC.

Today, the studio has about 18 people and has been increasingly developing in game creation, even receiving the opportunity to create an Unreal residency program, thanks to the work done by the team that caught the attention of Epic Games. This is just the beginning to achieve Mito Games' objectives, which aim to have an increasingly international presence.

According to Lontra, one of the biggest problems for indie studios is that if it's difficult outside, it's even more so in Brazil. Every studio needs to deal with project scope issues, ideas that don't work out, and differences in thinking, but there are external issues that make everything more difficult, including the bureaucratic issues that are very present in Brazil.

In addition to the difficulties of the entire game development process, there are issues that would be easily solved abroad but are real obstacles for small studios in Brazil. Even so, Mito Games' determination does not let these issues end its projects.

Lontra also reports that game studies are much more advanced in other countries, with the example given being Belgium, where the content of the first semester there could surpass several final projects that he saw in Brazil. One of the studio's objectives is to blend techniques from there and find talent to complement what is already being done with the Brazilian team.

Meet 4 The Elements

Now let's get to know the latest title from Mito Games, 4 The Elements, a 2D action platformer inspired by various games of the 90s genre, such as Mega Man, where you control the four elements of nature, fire, earth, air, and water, which are trapped in a magical crystal and forced to share the same body.

The game raises the question of the player's need to control the four elements, but at the same time, they do not want to be together and, mainly, trapped in the same body.

With metroidvania elements, each stage unlocks new powers and each power allows access to new areas. In addition, each power is more or less efficient against each boss. With four areas and four different bosses, players must adapt to the difficulties and decide which path to follow.

The game also has a strong sense of humor, and we will see how the interaction between these four elements that don't get along very well, but are forced to work together to fight enemies. The scenarios are formed by the elemental chaos caused by the clash of the primary elements. Go through areas of ice, magma, mud, and smoke while facing different challenges.

The studio intends to release the game between July and August this year, however, they created a Kickstarter campaign on April 12 to improve what has already been developed for 4 The Elements and add even more things. Some of the improvements include more creatures, professional voice actors for the game, a new mode to challenge players, and an improved dialogue system.

More information about the game and fundraising goals can be found on the campaign page, and depending on the contribution amount, you can receive different rewards.

4 The Elements already has a demo on Steam and can be added to your wishlist. Don't miss out on following the latest game from Mito Games.

Mito Games can be followed on their official website, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

To learn about more indie developers and news that sometimes go unnoticed, follow Mundo Indie and discover several games that will surprise you. Also, be sure to share this initiative and support the developers presented here.

And if you are an indie developer and are interested in presenting your project here on Mundo Indie, just fill out the form below, and we will contact you.

https://forms.gle/mHiPVQWZ7Ab6aNS1A

You can follow this and other projects weekly on the website and also on our Mundo Indie Newsletter on LinkedIn.

Check out the trailer for 4 The Elements: