In today’s reality were most the majority of BJJ practitioners are quarantined at hom, you will be able to practice Jiu-Jitsu and even compete against great rivals from all over the planet.

The team at Smash Mountain Studio is the final stages of developing an amazing video game based on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: BEJJ !

The founders of Smash Mountain Studio, the video game company is Brazilians and is a BJJ practitioner: Luiz Eduardo Adler, Duda, founder and CEO

Users will be able to create and customize their avatar. Progress from white belt to red belt. Assemble teams with friends and, of course, participate in major online championships.

The CEO guarantees that the game will be available for download in the second half of 2020.

He told Graciemag (translated from Portuguese):

What benefits does the game offer to the Jiu-Jitsu community?

“Without a doubt, BEJJ adds a lot to all fighters. As much as you are not physically training the positions, the mental part is in full swing. Both during online fights and when building the avatars’ card arsenal. We can think of it this way: for a new student who has just entered Jiu-Jitsu, he will be able to use BEJJ as a study. Of course he can study through videos on Youtube, Instagram or purchased courses, extremely useful for sure. But, in the game he finds himself immersed in that environment. He is entertained, he competes, he makes friends and integrates teams. And this can be done anytime and anywhere, as long as there is internet. And for experienced fighters, nothing better than relaxing breathing Jiu-Jitsu, activating your head mass and even creating new ideas for when you are on the mat again to surprise your training colleagues. We have the idea of ​​creating a Jiu-Jitsu e-league through BEJJ, following the world trend of E-sports that very soon will be a bigger market than traditional sports. BJJ could not be left out!”

What are the main challenges you face / faced to implement the game?

“The challenges were and are many! But we can focus on 3 main ones. First, the main challenge: Jiu-Jitsu, in addition to being a fight in two situations (standing and ground), has very complicated rules. Only then, it already requires adifferent treatment from normal fighting games, where there is an HP bar which decreases as the fighters receive blows (punches, kicks, etc.). We don’t have that in BJJ (at least the competitive one). So how do you represent smooth art as faithfully as possible in a game? We think about exploring the side that BJJ is human chess. Therefore, we started with card game mechanics, aiming at strategy and tactics instead of motor and reflex skills in pressing buttons and making combinations. Maybe in the future we can make a mix of mechanics or even arrive at a model that makes it viable and fun in a second game, but for now it will be just card gameplay.The second biggest challenge is the technician. BEJJ is being developed for mobile. Even if we want to take it to the PC and maybe to consoles in the future, we cannot generate very elaborate graphics, because many people with average cell phones and average internet would not be able to participate in the game. We had to choose a middle ground. And yet, Jiu-Jitsu has many positions that use lapels and other parts of the gi, a huge challenge to be overcome in order to have more quality animations. We are still in this battle, not to mention other technical challenges that we will have to solve ahead.

And the third challenge?

The third and biggest challenge, which in a way is a complement to the second, is the financial challenge. We did all the development of the Beta version with an extremely small team for this type of game (free-to-play mobile). Developing a game is extremely complex and costly. Several professional skills are required, as there is a mix of art and software development. In addition, numerous tests are necessary to have a good final product. This is why the game is still in beta testing today. It is extremely important to listen to the community around the game, as they will consume it. We can’t just duck our heads and do things as we think best without listening to the audience. Therefore, a long period of development due to the reduced team is necessary, and this, even so, Today we have 50% of the game’s features ready. We want to reach 80% of them before launching a final version of BEJJ. Of these new features to be implemented, we want to focus on creating and managing teams, online championships and special (playful) cards called Perks to increase tactics during fights. Then we’ll look at other possible features. For this we are looking for investment to speed up the final version as soon as possible, providing a super complete and fun game for everyone.”