Spotlight on Studios: Fair Play Labs in San Jose, Costa Rica
Founding partner Diego Rodríquez Calvo is the chief of operations at Fair Play Labs, which produces games for kids 8-80 from their studio in Costa Rica.
As part of the Spotlight on Studios series, we asked Diego about what his team is working on—and glad to say, it’s an Endless project—and the values he and his team believe should be built into education games.
Q. What is it like to be on the team at Fair Play Labs?
Fair Play Labs is a studio located in San Jose, Costa Rica. We are thirty people strong, ranging from developers, artists, game designers and admins (those of us that do the boring stuff). Usually during lunchtime, the team likes to play some Magic: The Gathering or Smash Bros. The team is quite good of both.
Once a month we have what we call “game nights”, where we get some pizza and select a board game or video games and spend the night having fun together. Of course, we use the time to get some ideas as well.
We are working on a couple of Endless projects: Dragon’s Apprentice, Whitehouse, and Canyon. These games are quite special and different from other games we have done. They are exciting and challenging for the team, because they give us the chance to create fun concepts that aim to motivate players to learn programming skills. It’s not always easy but very fulfilling when you play the game and actually have fun with it.
Cherished values for us are dedication, creativity, and fun. We always want to put all three into our games. Dedication is important because we want to put in the effort to make something we are proud of. Creativity is important because we express ours through our games. And fun, because we want to have fun making them because we think that will help other people have fun playing them.
It’s great to see people play our games and notice that they really do see the little details we have added. And, of course, seeing them mirror the fun and creativity that is so important to us when they look for creative ways to play is great.