It’s finally here! Brazil’s Independent Games (BIG) Festival, the largest independent games festival in Latin America, officially kicks off this week and runs until May 9, 2021. The festival is the biggest event of its kind, featuring an incredible array of amazing indie games from developers all over the world, B2B networking, business opportunities, and panels and presentations from some of the biggest companies in the industry including Amazon, Xbox Game Studios, and Nintendo.
With 90 fantastic games to choose from in the various BIG awards categories, including “Best Game,” narrowing down the list of finalists for the event wasn’t easy, but titles like the dark, gritty thriller The Signifier: Director’s Cut (Chile), the stunningly animated Genesis Noir (USA), and the terrifying sequel to the hit horror title, Pathologic 2 (Russia) stood out from the crowd. Of course, Best Game is only one of many categories, and BIG Festival honors those developers doing important work with topical and contemporary issues by awarding BIG Impact: Educational and BIG Impact: Social Matters. These categories recognize important and underrepresented themes like race, sexual identity, dealing with abusive relationships, and environmental challenges. Check out the nominees here!
Make sure to check out the winners during the Awards Ceremony on Thursday, May 6, 2021, at 9:30 PM Brazil Time / 8:30 PM EDT. In addition to the awards ceremony, the entire event will also be broadcast online and free of charge — with the exception of business roundtables.
At BIG Festival, the games and awards are only part of the event, which also includes informative and enlightening panels and presentations from global giants like Google, Amazon, and Snapchat, as well as industry-specific titans like Nintendo, Xbox Game Studios, Ubisoft, Warner DC, Capcom, SEGA and many, many more. Amazon’s Paul Viglienzone, Head of North America Business Development, will speak on the amazing potential of cloud-based gaming. Nintendo will be on hand to present a panel on bringing games to their highly successful Switch platform. Global esports events producer and promoter Dreamhack will offer advice on how to take a small company from humble start-up to global sensation. For a complete list of panels and the full schedule, please visit https://event.bigfestival.com.br/talks/7. Watch the talks for free by heading to the BIG Festival YouTube page.
Big Festival 2021:
