To Dream a Game

This document is an interview published in the 2020 issue of the gamevironments journal, in which Luis Wong of LEAP Game Studios discusses Tunche, an upcoming beat 'em up under development. The interview aims to present the studio's background, the game's concept and artistic direction, and the broader context of game development in Peru. It is a practitioner-focused account rather than a quantitative study, so its substance rests on the developer's own statements.

The studio, founded in August 2012 by four friends in their early twenties, reached early milestones including one of the first Peruvian console releases in 2015, a PlayStation Plus title, and a publishing contract for an original intellectual property. Tunche is described as a cooperative action game for up to four players, set in the Amazon rainforest and rendered in hand-drawn animation. Its design draws on Amazonian myths and folklore, including the title creature and characters such as Rumi and the giant dolphin Boutu, with the stated intent of differentiating the game from others in its genre through polished visuals and combat-focused mechanics.

The interview also covers the project's funding and development process. Although the studio already had publisher funding, it launched a Kickstarter campaign primarily to test player interest and to secure additional resources. The studio uses a gated development pipeline involving pitch, prototype, vertical slice, and production stages, and a free standalone version, Tunche Arena, was available on Steam at the time. The developer characterizes the Peruvian scene as small, with fewer than ten studios working full-time on games.