Maranhense abandons pie shop to make games – 04/23/2023 – Market

Ana Ribeiro was determined to leave public service and open a restaurant in 2009. She had even named the new venture in São Luís (MA): “Empadas Quero Mais”. However, as the name itself indicated, she was not satisfied.

“I took a course at Empretec, and it was there that a speaker asked the question that changed my life. ‘If you could start from scratch tomorrow, what would you like to do?’ And I thought: ‘Wow, I could be playing games'”, says Ana, 39, in her hotel suite in San Francisco, USA. She was there for the announcement of “Pixel Ripped 1978”, a game she is developing in partnership with the legendary Atari.

It is the first title in virtual reality launched by the pioneering company in the video game console market and the third in the “Pixel Ripped” franchise, created by the Maranhão based on games she played in childhood.

The protagonist Dot, for example, has her armor colors inspired by characters she was a fan of. Pink is a reference to Peach, princess from the Mario games, and green, to Link, hero of “The Legend of Zelda” series. Furthermore, the character’s movement and arm-throwing ability are homages to “Mega Man”, and the gameplay borrows features from “Sonic”.

Daughter of a physician father and an artist mother, Ana was born in São Luís into a large family. With two older brothers and several cousins, she came into contact with video games at a very young age, sharing controls with her relatives.

As a teenager, he even formed a “Counter-Strike” clan with only women, but he had never thought of turning his passion into a profession. “We even had sponsorships, but that was the beginning of esports. I already felt like a superstar just winning a coxinha at the lan house and not paying the registration fee for the championship”, she says.

Until she was able to see games as a career option, she went through several areas. She graduated in psychology, but realized during the course that that was not her vocation. Without much idea of ​​what to do with her life and already in her last year of college, she decided to enroll in a judicial technician contest at the Court of Justice of Maranhão.

“I worked there for five years, typing documents for a family court judge. It was these things about alimony, divorce… It had nothing to do with me”, he says. “The security thing, not being able to be fired, felt more like a prison.”

In her spare time, she enjoyed cooking. The hobby got serious when fellow forum members started ordering the pies she took to eat at work. By word of mouth, the fame of her delicacies grew and, when she realized it, Ana was already cooking more than 4,000 snacks a month.

Initially, she set up a small industrial kitchen at the back of her parents’ house, but when she started to resell the product to bars and restaurants in the region, the business gained new proportions and Ana decided to open her own restaurant.

She hired a manager, and together they developed a five-year plan for the company. The second floor of the restaurant was almost ready, just missing the plaster finish, when Ana suddenly decided to drop everything and throw herself headlong into the adventure of becoming a game developer.

“Only my mother understood me. She was the first to support me. There were cousins, friends who called me scared, asking if everything was okay”, remembers Ana. “That’s why it’s important for us to know what we want. If it were the advice of others, I wouldn’t have done it.”

At the time, she was close to turning 30, the age when many developers have already finished their first game. But, for Ana, that was one more reason to face a new career. “I didn’t want to feel like I was old and thinking, ‘What if…’ I hate that feeling. I thought, ‘I’ll give it a try. If it doesn’t work, I’ll go back to making pies.’

And it worked. His first game, “Pixel Ripped 1989”, was born as the final project of his master’s degree at the NFTS (National School of Film and Television), in London. In it, the player takes on the role of a boy who tries to play a portable video game (inspired by the GameBoy) in every imaginable situation, until games and reality begin to merge.

“I was fascinated by the idea of ​​creating a time machine where people would have the possibility to go back in time and relive the evolution of games, see them changing and evolving”, says Ana. “And virtual reality is the perfect way to do that.”

The year was 2014 and the Oculus Rift –one of the first modern virtual reality devices to hit the market– would still take two years to be launched, but the industry was already looking for ways to explore this technology and the boldness of Ana’s project drew international attention. .

She even received a proposal to sell her project, but, advised by lawyers from the English college, she refused and decided to found her own company. To enable the commercial launch of the game independently, it accepted an investment from an accelerator in Silicon Valley.

Due to contractual obligations, Ana moved to California with the friend who helped her to open her company in England. During this period, she encountered common obstacles for women looking to grow in male-dominated markets, such as games.

“There were about 30 companies [na aceleradora], and only us, two women, among about 70 men. Like it or not, this was strange for investors. There were many of these parties they had and they didn’t invite us. We missed many opportunities. Many deals were closed after these meetings”, recalls Ana

“It’s very in-between. It’s not like anyone said they won’t do it with you because you’re a woman, but it felt like you were being left out. Sometimes you saw men with less talent getting things so much easier and us women having to put in so much more effort,” she says.

This reality changed when Ana met Ricardo Justus, CEO of Arvore, who invested in her project. It was as creative director at the São Paulo company that she made possible the official release of “Pixel Ripped 1989”, made the sequel “Pixel Ripped 1995” and is now developing “Pixel Ripped 1978”.

“The more women get involved in games, the more strong protagonists, like Dot, and interesting professionals will appear. This will increase the number of girls who like video games, forming a snowball so that, more and more, things get better . But it won’t be overnight.”