Colombian video games for Smart phones among Apple’s best

Apple acknowledged Audio Ninja, a Colombian-made product, as one of the top three games in Latin America and Spain that launched in 2013. "This is great news not only for us as developers but for the country, as it bears the sign of an emerging and promising digital industry," said its creator Juan Pablo Reyes, Director of Crocodile Dog.

According to Reyes, who joined forces with the Colombian studio, Brainz, to help launch the game in August 2013, the success is driven by a mixture of "nostalgia for the simple games, a good design, a story of adventure and the knack for rhythm. Furthermore, players develop musical skills in an intuitive and natural way. "

On the road to success

Reyes along with Margarita Torres, the company’s co-founder and responsible for the strategic design, created Crocodile Dog in 2011 after retiring from a digital design company to fulfill his dream: to develop video games.

"You have to spend a lot of time researching. Usually a developer is stuck with one kind of technology. So I explored several programming languages and platforms, a huge contribution to my personal growth as a developer" said Reyes.

He also approached PROCOLOMBIA where he began a plan to internationalize Crocodile Dog’s services. “They have helped us to structure the company in order to export. We are now doing business with a client in the United States” he added.

Audio Ninja has earned Reyes the recognition among the 10 innovators “under 35” in Colombia, in a list published by the MIT Technology Review.

The goal now is to lead the music game category. “We want to make more games that integrate music and adventure and be number one in the online app stores. I think if I was to give advice to other developers, I would say that the most important thing is to truly believe in what you want to do, whatever it is, if you believe it, you can achieve it.”