Draft:Fair Play Labs

Fair Play Labs is a video game development studio headquartered in Costa Rica.

They currently stand as one of the members of ASODEV, a non-profit organization that promotes the growth of the gaming industry in Costa Rica.

Early Years (2005-2008)
Fair Play Labs was founded in 2005 by computer engineer Claudio Pinto after his 7-year-old son suggested he venture into creative software development.

Pinto initially faced challenges introducing a Latin American gaming studio to international publishers. He states that "I thought that my 19 years of experience working with boring software, for businesses, would carry over, but they did not respond. [Nintendo] told me that we had no experience that would allow us to aspire to make video games."

He decided to focus his company's work on mobile games, which were more accesible for independent developers. At the time, Apple offered a $99 license allowing anyone to publish software on their platform. This let Fair Play Labs launch Wackylands in 2008, a casual mini-game collection for the iPhone and iPod Touch that is often regarded as the first video game created in Costa Rica.

Foray Into Console Gaming (2008-2013)
In 2008, Sony opened a Latin American incubation program for game design, noticing they did not have any licensed developers in the region. They extended an invitation to Fair Play Labs to participate in the program, and granted the company a PSP development kit. This allowed the studio to port their iOS games onto the PSP, earning them official licensed developers status.

For the following years, the company would work on other titles across PlayStation, iOS and Android platforms. These include Journey to Real Madrid, an official Real Madrid football free kicks game, and Boss!, a game where players could control a giant monster who eats princesses while getting attacked by dwarf soldiers. The character from this latter game would become a recurring mascot for the company, being re-designed in recent years and used in various promotional materials.

First Major Launch (2013-2015)
In 2013, Sony provided Fair Play Labs with PlayStation Vita development kits. At the time, the studio had been working on an idea for Color Guardians, a fast-paced side-scrolling game originally intended for mobile platforms, which now would be re-worked for this new portable console. During it's development cycle, Sony showed interest in bringing Color Guardians to the PlayStation 4 and again provided hardware to make it possible, leading to an additional year of work to port the game to home consoles.

In 2015, Fair Play Labs launched Color Guardians for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita to mixed reviews. Commentators praised its' visual design and mentioned that “[Fair Play Labs] did a commendable job of taking full advantage of each new gameplay wrinkle”, while at the same time criticizing the game for being too challenging.

Claudio Pinto has been very vocal about his gratitude towards Sony for their support with this release. He's stated that ''“Sony helped us break the vicious cycle. Microsoft and Nintendo don’t even have contracts set up in Latin America. I think Sony is going to beat them to the punch — for indies in Latin America — working on their platform.”''

Continuing International Growth (2015-2020)
Felipe Cartín, a former member of the creative team at Fair Play Labs, noted that following the launch of Color Guardians, the studio was working on several new intellectual properties of their own, but that the company would primarily focus on outsourcing work for other clients for the time being. This resulted in the company working on games like Scribblenauts: Showdown (2018) with Shiver Entertainment, and G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout (2020) with Iguanabee.

During this period, Fair Play Labs also worked on several social benefit projects. In 2015, financed by a Franco-German cultural fund, the studio collaborated with CETAV to create Our Heritage, a game about climate change that was taken to the Paris Climate Change Conference. The company was also hired by a Lebanese organization to create a game about the women from the Sahel region of Sub-Saharan Africa, raising awareness about the harsh conditions girls face when seeking water that prevents them from focusing on their studies.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (2020-2024)
Fair Play Labs co-developed the crossover platform fighter Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl alongside the swedish studio Ludosity. This game held the number one spot as most downloaded game on Steam during October 2021, as well as being nominated as one of the best fighting games of that year at The Game Awards. After the success of the first game, publisher GameMill Entertainment would entrust Fair Play Labs to lead the development of the game's sequel: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2. Some critics have lauded the studio for their work on this installment of the franchise, noting that “developer Fair Play Labs’ second attempt at a Nickelodeon-based platform fighter is a massive leap forward from the first, with a more polished feel [and] more vibrant characters”. Others have been dismissive, expressing that “it’s easy to see that Fair Play Labs saw where the first game stumbled and worked to correct it with All-Stars Brawl 2, unfortunately, these changes don’t do much to help make the game feel much better than the first game”. Nonetheless, the game stills boasts a large competitive scene, having been featured in several esports tournaments.

Regarding the development of this sequel, Diego Rodríguez, studio director at Fair Play Labs, commented, ''“Players’ reactions to the first game was incredible. Seeing all the people hyped about the game and enjoying it so much on release was amazing. We are very happy with the reception and all the feedback we got on how to make the game better. [...] We’ve put a lot of care into building a much bigger and more polished experience for NASB 2 and we hope players notice.”''

Notable Games

 * WackyLands (2008)
 * Boss! (2011)
 * Color Guardians (2015)
 * Our Heritage (2015)
 * Scribblenauts: Showdown (2018)
 * G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout (2020)
 * Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (2021)
 * Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 (2023)