Between May 3 and 9, Brazil is once again on the stage of the world of games thanks to the 9th edition of Brazil’s Independent Games Festival – or BIG Festival for short. In our second coverage of the event, we’re bringing the Festival’s highlights to you.
For those of you who never heard about it (this time, you are forgiven since we didn’t cover its 2020 edition), BIG Festival is one of the most important gaming events of Latin America. The Festivals has been a reference since its first version in 2012, exhibiting some of the most innovative games from the whole world. Here, the public can find lectures, workshops, keynotes, and the most prominent business forum for games in all LATAM.
What makes BIG Festival so unique to me is that different from other larger events such as E3, GDC, or even BGS (which is also a Brazillian event), independent studios are on BIG’s central stage. We also have some big names of the industry in the Festival, like Warner and Soedesco, but they share space with smaller studios on equal terms in this online world.
The event is composed of several attractions:
BIG Business Meetings: an exclusive area for business meetings between companies and business people. This is the only paid area of the event.
BIG Brands: dedicated to games and interactive digital experiences under demand, part of the strategy of big brands.
BIG Careers: with info and tips for those who want to venture into this always-growing market.
BIG Creative Industry: with a lineup dedicated to creative economy areas connected to games.
BIG Dev: with lectures oriented to game development, including art, programming, game design, usability, production, and many others.
BIG Diversity: an area dedicated to discussions regarding all kinds of diversity and social inclusion.
BIG Educators: an area dedicated to the best practices in educational games.
BIG E-sports: an amateur championship open to visitors of the event and keynotes about the E-sports market.
BIG Forum: lectures, workshops, and keynotes to professionals and with professionals of the area.
BIG Impact: dedicated to games with a positive impact that transforms society, with lectures and prizes.
BIG Latin America: a spotlight to Latin America developers. It is an important space for studios from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Paraguay to exhibit their projects.
BIG Publishers: a showcase for big publishers.
BIG Ventures: approximating public and private investors, with a lineup focused on entrepreneurship.
BIG XR/VR: public game showcase and discussions related to virtual reality and extended reality.
Since 2020, due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, the event that used to take place in São Paulo is now happening 100% online. We miss the contact with developers and people of the industry. Still, being online, the event can reach a greater audience – which is great for the studios presenting their games in the show.
And now we mentioned the games presented in the show, it’s time to talk about the competition at BIG Festal! This year, 96 titles are competing for prizes in 16 categories:
- Best Game,
- Best Game: Brazil,
- Best Game: Latin America,
- Innovation,
- Best Multiplayer,
- Best Mobile Game,
- BIG Impact: Best Game in Diversity,
- BIG Impact: Best Educational Game,
- BIG Impact: Best Game about Social Issues,
- Best Sound,
- Best XR / VR,
- Best Game for Children,
- Best Game by Students,
- Best Game BIG Brands
- Best Art
- Best Narrative
- Best Gameplay
The voting is still open (both for the public and for the jury) until May 6, when the winners in each category will be announced. Throughout the week, we will talk more about the finalists in each category.
Besides the game competing for prizes, there are more than 30 Brazilian games only for the exhibition – what used to be my favorite part of the Festival! We can discover some jewels developed by Brazilian Studios that will soon be available on most (if not all) platforms!
You can all visit the site to play the games exhibited, watch the lectures, and know more about the Festival. If you feel a little intimidated by the idiom barrier, don’t worry: We will bring daily articles talking about the show and the games presented there for you during this week.
See you tomorrow!
With a history of gaming that goes from his old man’s Atari 2600 to his Xbox One, Rafael or RAF687, our Brazilian editor, has a love for games as old as he can remember. He has already spent countless hours in many consoles (Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Saturn, PS1, PS2 and Xbox 360) and is always ready for more (as long as his wife is asleep). Raf has been writing for LifeisXbox since 2017, with a passion for games of almost all genres – though we know he has a special place in his heart for RPGs, racing games and anything that includes pixel art. Writing about games has always been a childhood dream to Raf, dream that he has fulfilled reviewing games for you here. You can drop him a message at Twitter, Facebook or Xbox Live at any time.