University students open game studio for “dreamers”

Holly McCoach/Staff Writer

Dreams can be difficult to remember for some University students, but they may now only be triangular, circular and x-shaped buttons away.

The term oneironaut refers to someone who explores and travels in their dreams. It became part of the name of the gamestudio, Oneironaut Games—a creation of two University students.

Incubated in late July at the Game Developers Guild on campus, Gio Peralto-Pritchard, a sophomore information technology major, and Carlos Gonzalez, a junior communication arts major, formed the studio.

“People have aspirations. People have dreams. As a company, we all have dreams,” said Peralto-Pritchard.

Without a South Florida or Miami game group, Peralto-Pritchard and Gonzalez harvested Oneironaut Games hoping to cater to the strong culture and community.

Although the studio is young, and not yet at its peak, two games have already been strung up by the creators, along with other members of the studio.

Their first game is currently available to the public. With the mindset of providing free, fun and games, Oneironaut Games starts their journey with “Battle Ninja Otter.”

Their second and newest game “HarmEvil” is their first real game with good development provided by a great programming team. Gamers create characters to match their personality to provide engagement between the character and gamer.

Examples of characters include a tiger which quickly battles obstacles, a tank that is slow but strong, and a mouse that is neither slow nor fast and uses intellect to outsmart the others.

Even though the creators are avid fans of all games, they have their preferences when it comes to how video games should be created.

Gonzalez is encouraged by the solid stories and characters of modern games, but finds that it makes the game tedious. However, his fascination with them continues to make his viewpoints positive.

“There’s a whole culture to [fighting games]. It’s a competitive feel to the game… it’s like reading a book,” said Gonzalez.

However, Oneironaut Games focuses on improving the foundations of mostly old school games.

“We are about the challenge. We are trying to reinvent all the ways of challenge. We are going for entertaining the players themselves while they are playing the game,” said Peralto-Pritchard.

Oneironaut Games is interactive with the public, because its creators demand feedback from students and gamers alike.

“We want to be open to anyone who is interested in our goals. We like testers, and we want people to really be critical,” said Gonzalez.

The creators recently began a Kickstarter account, a website that allocates a platform for projects of all sorts. With the Kickstarter, students and gamers can help support Oneironaut Games.

“If people are really interested in the game development industry, they can look at the Kickstarter tiers. We say in the Kickstarter that you can meet up with us,” said Peralto-Pritchard. “We will be teaching you the tools of the trade,” he said.

For enthusiastic gamers, this is the opportunity to meet up with the game developers, provide feedback, and learn more about the industry. The Game Developers Guild also provides hands on experience for learning possibilities.

Although Oneironaut Games is a small group, they work as a company and hope to create a culture, or perhaps even further current one.

With influences from Nintendo to the Game Developers Guild, Oneironaut Games hopes to grow into something huge, something that gamers of South Florida can identify with and expand with.

-holly.mccoach@fiusm.com