BIG Festival Independent Game awards.
The spirit of innovation is alive in the indie games scene. With a solid slate of over 100 finalists, this year’s 50 person international judging panel have narrowed the list down the winners. With a thriving indie scene, and countless ideas, it is always a challenge to cut down such a solid list, but with only so many awards to give out, it had to be done.
The winners for each category can be found below:
- BIG Festival People’s Choice: Gravitational from Electric Monkeys (Brazil)
- Best Game: Curious Expedition 2 from Maschinen-Mensch (Germany)
- Best Game: Latin America: Per Aspera from Tlön Industries (Argentina)
- Best Game: Brazil: Retro Machina from Orbit Studio (Brazil)
- Innovation Award: Genesis Noir from Feral Cat Den (USA)
- Best Multiplayer Game: Hypercharge: Unboxed from Digital Cybercherries (UK)
- Best Mobile Game: HoloVista from Aconite Co. (USA)
- BIG Impact: Diversity: Arrog from Hermanos Magia and Leap Game Studios (Peru)
- BIG Impact: Educational: Please, Touch the Artwork from Studio Waterzooi (Belgium)
- BIG Impact: Social Matters: Svoboda 1945: Liberation from Charles Games (Czech Republic)
- Best Audio: Genesis Noir from Feral Cat Den (USA)
- Best XR/VR Game: A Rogue Escape from Spare Parts Oasis (Italy)
- Best Game for Kids: Vamos Brincar de Cozinhar from Akom Studio (Brasil)
- BIG Brands: Cartoon Network Golf Stars from Avix Games (Argentina)
- Best Student Game: Symphonia from ISART DIGITAL (France)
- Best Art: Liberated from Atomic Wolf (Poland)
- Best Narrative: Lost Ember from Mooneye Studios (Germany)
- Best Gameplay: Not for Broadcast from NotGames (UK)
- Xsolla’s Special Award: Figment 2: Creed Valley from Bedtime Digital Games (Denmark)
- GameJam+ 2020 Award: Do Not Disturb from Hollow Harpy (Brazil)
The BIG festival managed to deliver exciting talks, panels and sessions focusing on the Latin American games scene. It featured industry leadings guests, and gave a taste at the potential in the Brazilian industry. Even though the festival is starting to wind down, there are still plenty of talks well worth exploring, with today featuring: Paul Viglienzone, Head of North America Business Development and Game Tech at Amazon will discuss how developers can use cloud services to improve their game development during their panel titled “AWS: 10 Reasons to Use the Cloud for Your Game Development”.
Capcom will also be speaking and will introduce the cast that will bring to life the Portuguese voice-over for Resident Evil Village. Nintendo will talk about the potential for success on their massively successful Switch platform and how Brazilian developers can get their games in the hands of Switch players.
The BIG Festival has been in operation since 2012, where it has become something like the United States’ Game Developer’s Conference, for developers and fans to learn the ins and outs of the industry from all levels. While networking opportunities have created “more than 4,000 meetings between 630 game industry professionals from 34 countries” during its in-person festivities, the digital event that took over in 2020 due to concerns from the COVID-19 pandemic still drew in “3,876 business meetings between more than 333 publishers, developers, and investors from a stunning 38 countries.”
For more information about the upcoming event, visit the official website: https://www.bigfestival.com.br/.
