Minority studio debuts with Papo & Yo

Vander Caballero is trading in Salem and Rios for an even stranger pair of protagonists in his next game. The Army of Two design director today went public with his new studio, Minority, and its first project, the PlayStation Network title Papo & Yo.

Set for release next year, Papo & Yo is a 3D puzzle adventure game centered on a boy named Quico and his best friend Monster. Unfortunately, Monster has an addiction to poisonous frogs and flies into an uncontrolled rage whenever he eats them. Although it puts him in great danger, Quico would rather help Monster than run from him, and the game will follow the boy as he looks for a cure. In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Caballero said the game is largely about his father, whom he described as "a good man but also an evil one."

"Like many, he used alcohol and drugs to cope with a challenging life, and I was caught in the middle of it," Caballero said. "The emotional core of this game is ultimately a fable about my relationship with my father."

Papo & Yo is the debut game from Montreal-based Minority, which Caballero founded last year in partnership with the production company Rezolution Pictures. With a stated goal of showing the emotionally evocative potential of games, Minority describes itself as "the home for passionate and experienced creators who could not stand to develop yet another shooter game."

Minority is getting an assist from Sony in the creation of Papo & Yo, as the game is the latest participant in the PlayStation maker's PubFund program. The indie game developer outreach program has helped bring a number of PSN titles to market, including Joe Danger, Hoard, Explodemon, and Burn Zombie Burn.