We spoke with Jon Cortázar, director and designer of the Bilbao studio Relevo, which will soon allow playing ball from the sofa at home in various settings around the world, including Bilbao.
Euskaraz irakurri: Esku-pilota PlayStationera helduko da ‘Frontball Planet’ euskal bideojokoarekin
The ball will soon jump into the virtual world with Frontball Planet: Get in the Gamea new video game developed by the Bilbao studio Relevo, with the support of PlayStation Talents.
Endorsed by the Spanish Federation of Pelota (FEPelota) and the International Basque Pelota Federation (FIPV), it is the first video game about Frontball, a sports discipline created in 2008 that breaks traditional barriers. This modality of recent inclusion is one more specialty of the sport of ball; an intersection point of different hand ball games practiced all over the world.
frontball planet will offer a local multiplayer experience on the streets of seven different cities: Bilbao, Dubai, Madrid, Miami, New York and Tokyo. It will also have two special scenarios: an indoor training field and a space station.
In this game, players You can choose between three different characters to face different rivals, in various modes that will allow them to earn points to exchange for unlockable items in the store offline of the game.
we have talked to Jon Cortázar, director and designer of the Relevo studioselected two years ago by Games Industry as one of the 100 world video game professionals seeking a more inclusive industryafter developing the game Treasure Rangers, available for PS4.
“Relevo has been part of the PlayStation Talents program in its Alliance branch since the very moment the initiative was created in 2015since we worked with PlayStation from even before”, explains Cortázar.
In fact, thanks to that alliance, Relevo became the first Basque studio to be certified as a PlayStation developer and publisher in 2013, and in January 2015 it was the first Basque company to publish a video game on video consoles. This journey of almost ten years of joint work has generated a relationship of trust between Relevo and PlayStation, “in which we are delighted and very proud to be a part.”
Developer Jon Cortazar. Photo: EITB Media
Details of frontball planet
frontball planet is scheduled for market launch in the first quarter of 2023and will be available at PS5, PS4 and PC.
Thus, the game can be purchased at a reduced price on the different publishing platforms. As of today, there are no plans for its inclusion in Playstation Plus, “but we have already had Relevo products in that subscription model, and perhaps it could be a good idea for the future.”
The game will not have micropayments of any kind. After buying it for its sale price, we will be able to unlock all the contents, playing and advancing in the different game modes.
Jon Cortázar: “We are delighted to be able to represent our city in a product with international projection”
According to the developer, frontball “is a fun game discipline, to play with friends, and with a lot of contact.” That is why in the video game they have also wanted enhance head-to-head matches between several friends from the same consoleand have preferred to put ahead of the possibility of modes on-line creating different game modes “great fun to play together on the couch”. In this way, you can enjoy the game with one person, against a friend and even in championships with up to eight players.
Cortázar does not rule out the possibility of making updates in the future, “including different playing fields or new players.” In any case, he points out that “at the moment we are focused on the creation of the game and, depending on the success and the demand of the players, the game would be ready to generate new and fun content”.
Sketch of the cover of the video game. Photo: Relay
Given the prospect of jumping from the local to the international and the global visibility that the launch of the game implies, the developer declares that “we are delighted to be able to represent our city in a product of international projection“.
“We hope that the players enjoy the different cities”, adds Cortázar, “and then, if they dare, that they come to see the real Bilbao!”.
Source: Eitb
Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
