Vander Caballero didn't have an easy childhood. Hailing from Colombia, he grew up in a household where he was forced to escape an alcoholic father through imagination. After a stint at EA he's set out on his own, starting Minority Inc., a small studio based in Montreal, Canada.

Caballero isn't sharing the foundation of his troubled past for sympathy, though. His relationship with his alcoholic father is the foundation for his upcoming game Papo & Yo . I'm not privy to all the inner workings of his mind, but, if anything, the completion of the game seems to be a catharsis -- a way of accepting, confronting and learning to love a person who played such an important role in his life.

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Papo & Yo is a third-person adventure about a child named Quico, his toy robot, and a lumbering hulk called Monster. Quico lives in a poor South American Favela, and escapes his tough life through his imagination. In his mind Quico can adventure in a surreal world where he can move houses simply by pushing around cardboard boxes, or where he can tug magical ropes to make stairs raise out of the ground. It's semi-realistic looking in its presentation, but mixes in enough strange scenery and bizarre looking environments that playing it is akin to moving through a waking dream. It's striking.The problem with this wonderful world is Quico's best friend, Monster. Quico loves him dearly, but Monster has an addiction to frogs. While Monster can sometimes be a force for good and help Quico overcome puzzles in the world, he also forces Quico to help him feed his addiction. Eating frogs transforms Monster into an emotionally destructive beast, tainting Quico's beautiful land of imagination and screwing up his relationships with anyone else he cares about.It seems that by giving Monster what he wants it does nothing but good. Monster suddenly goes from being a beast that Quico adores to something he fears. Yet when the dust settles and Monster returns to some form or normalcy, he's still at least partially the creature Quico adores and came to love in the first place. The solution is obvious: Quico must set out on a quest to find a cure for his best friend, Monster.It's heavy, and a welcome departure from a trade show full of games whose emotional impact are next to none. Don't get me wrong, I love a good shooter or platformer as much as anyone, but Papo & Yo is refreshing. It isn't coming out until 2012, but this PSN exclusive is already shaping up to be unabashedly honest, soul bearing, and utterly unique. This is one of the best games at E3 you won't hear enough about.