BIG Festival – Brazil's Independent Games Festival – is the biggest independent game festival in Latin America. Every year, BIG exhibits the best independent games in the world. It aims to establish itself as a point of reference to national and international game developers. The festival’s program include activities exclusive to professionals of the industry and others open to the public.
The fourth edition of Latin America’s greatest indie games fest, BIG Festival, ended last week in São Paulo, Brazil, having received more than 60 international players and buyers from major companies of the world, such as Sony, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Square Enix, Bandai Namco and HTC. More than 190 companies this year scheduled 2040 business meetings – up from 600 reunions in last year’s edition, a 150% increase. This was the BIG Business Forum, which happened simultaneously with the exhibition.
However, other incredible numbers exemplify the importance of BIG Festival, having received more than 19.000 attendees, breaking last year’s record of 12.000 visitors – an astonishing 60% increase in public. The exhibition showcased 63 different games from 19 different countries; of those, 44 were finalists in BIG Festival’s main competition, selected from 745 submitted projects, from 48 countries. These numbers alone make BIG Festival the third largest independent games festival in the world.
For the main competition, the games were analyzed and judged by professionals and experts in digital entertainment from Bandai Namco, Square Enix, Google, Kongregate, Rovio and SNJV. The finalists competed in ten categories: Best Game, Best Brazilian Game, Best Latin American Game, Best Sound, Best Art, Best Narrative, Best Gameplay, Innovation, Best Games with Social Impact: Educational/Learning and Environmental, and the extra category “People’s Choice”.
The winners were:
Best Game – Horizon Chase (Aquiris Game Studio), Brazil
Best Brazilian Game – Starlit Adventures (Rockhead Games)
Best Latin American Game – Kingdom Rush Origins (Ironhide Game Studio), Uruguay
Best Art – Pavillion (Visiontrick Media), Sweden
Best Gameplay – Ape Out (Gorilla Loves Company), United States
Best Narrative – Late Shift (CtrlMovie), Switzerland
Innovation – INVERSUS (Hyperselect), United States
Best Sound – Ape Out (Gorilla Loves Company), United States
Best Environmental Game – Cloud Chasers – A Journey of Hope (Blindflug Studios), Switzerland
Best Educational Game – Optikammer (Optikammer), Great Britain
People’s Choice – Deed the Game (Sinergia Studios), Brazil
