Antonio Uribe, developer of Arco, is originally from Michoacán, from a small town called Chilchota. A fan of cinema and the arts, it would seem very strange that he chose a career in technology when he had to decide what he wanted to do with his life. Video game development didn't come until he got together with friends to experiment and program applications in a market that was just emerging in smart phones at that time.
Thus, he began to participate in the creation of video games for cell phones by creating a company that would be called Hyperbeard and is still operating to this day.
The development of the Arco video game is peculiar, it seems that Antonio came across it by chance through a mutual friend. Contrary to what it might seem at first glance, Arco is not a game developed by Mexicans, nor by Latinos. As the Michoacan explains, it was created by an international and diverse team in which their task was initially only to provide a guide for matters related to Mexican and Mesoamerican culture.
Arco quickly grew in ambition and so did the Mexican's interest in the project, so much so that he asked to be formally integrated into its development.
Arco is a turn-based strategy video game with a story inspired by the Americas. It has RPG elements in which you invest skill points to improve your character, although I would say that this is secondary. The detail of the characters is minimal, but this is compensated by the simply beautiful landscapes that take us to jungles, deserts, mountains and fantastic cities. The anti-colonialist theme is present throughout the game in the form of a confrontation with foreign people to this land that we could interpret as Europeans. In an allegory of the conquest, these “comers” as they are named in the game, are a kind of mercenary company called the red company that come to plunder and exploit the natural resources of this new world. However, the characters and inhabitants have their own political relationships, their own disagreements, culture and ways of fighting. Arco's story is far from an indigenous idealization, it is rather a story inspired by the mysteries, tragedies, grudges and battles of the Mesoamerican peoples, all in a package tied together by turn-based battles that escalate in complexity as the game progresses.
The landscapes, the characters, the factions speak of a new but familiar interpretation of our history which for me, is reason enough to give it a chance and buy the game. But if this is not enough for you, the combat is mechanically robust and gives you enough freedom to experiment and find your own solutions in each battle. In short, Arco seems to me to be an excellent game worth playing if you are interested in anti-colonial, indigenous, Mexican or Latin themes.
Buy Arc on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2366970/Arco/
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