BIG Festival 2018

The largest independent games event in Latin America, BIG Festival, has announced today the finalists for the sixth annual Brazil’s Independent Games Festival international awards competition, revealing a list of 54 nominated titles. 39 Days to Mars, developed by It’s Anecdotal, and Luna, from Brazilian’s developer Funomena grabbed the highest number of nominations within four categories, including Best Game for 39 Days to Mars and Best Virtual Game for Luna. In addition, BIG 2018 expanded its categories introducing best Multiplayer, Kids and Student games. The winners will be announced on June 28th during the award ceremony at Centro Cultural São Paulo, Brazil.

2018 BIG festival games selection was curated this year by an international group of industry professionals. A complete list of the team responsible for choosing the list of games nominated can be found below.

International Jury BIG 2018
Lauren Freeman: Senior Manager, External Development - Electronic Arts
Reginaldo Valadares: Head of Studio - Rovio
John Comes: CTO, tinyBuild
Luis Wong: Overseas Operations Manager - IndieNova
Paul Hendrets: Director - Good Shepherd Entertainment
David Wood: Business Development - Bandai Namco Entertainment America

BIG 2018 Specialists
Antonio Teoli: Sound Specialist
Ricardo Troula: Art Specialist
Carlos Eduardo Nogueira: Narrative Specialist

Gameplay Consultant
Marcos Venturelli

This year, BIG received 646 submissions from 53 different countries. A board of professionals, specialized in the video games and digital entertainment industry, has chosen the nominees. PC games have dominated the submissions, with 60% of them, followed by mobile games, representing 35%.

The finalists will compete in 14 categories: Best Game, Best Brazilian Game, Best Latin American Game, Best Sound, Best Art, Best Narrative, Best Gameplay, Innovation, BIG Impact: Educational Category, BIG Impact: Social Matters Category, Best Multiplayer Game, Best Student Game, Best Virtual Reality Game and the popular People’s Choice Award.

A total cash prize of R$45,000 will be distributed, divided amongst categories as follows: Best Game (R$ 10.000), Best Brazilian Game (R$ 10.000), Best Latin American Game (R$ 10.000), BIG Impact: Educational Category (R$ 5.000), Best VR Game (R$ 5.000). The remaining R$ 5.000 will be awarded to the public award winner. Last year, BIG Festival received more than 20 thousand visitors. Admittance is free and each finalist title will be playable during the festival by the visitors.

Besides competing for the Best Game award, 39 Days to Mars is also running for Best Art, Best Narrative and Best Sound. Luna, by Brazilian developer Funomena, is the Brazilian title with the highest number of nominations: Best Art, Best Sound, Best Virtual Reality Game and Best Kids Game.

The Best Brazilian Game award winner will receive, in addition to the cash prize, a sponsorship to participate as an exhibitor in Casual Connect ASIA 2018, taking place in Honk Kong, China, and a paid advertising campaign on IGN Brasil worth R$ 50.000. Last year, the Best Brazilian Game award medalist was Distortions, by Amongst Giants.

In 2017, Overcooked, a cooking simulation game, developed by Ghost Town Games and published by Team 17, won the Best Game Award category, and has since received recognition from video game critics and gamers across the world.

More about BIG Festival
BIG Festival (Brazil's Independent Games Festival) has been held since 2012 and is considered one the most influential and innovative independent gaming festival in Latin America. With the mission to strengthen the Brazilian video game ecosystem, the event produces a yearly international independent video game award competition offering significant cash prizes ($24,000 in 2018), a major exhibition showcasing hundreds of games including the awards nominees, a spectacular awards ceremony event, industry related lectures and business rounds. In 2017, BIG hosted more than 20,000 visitors, 3,500 of them having participated to lectures, and more than 1600 guests attending business meetings. This year BIG will expand its schedule of lectures and workshops by incorporating new topics and areas that are part of games development cycles, such as music, animation, virtual and augmented reality, a career center, among others segments already present at the event.

Check out the complete list of the 2018 BIG Festival finalists below which can also be found here.

Best Game

- Dead Cells (Motion Twin) from France
- Frostpunk (11 bit Studios) from Poland
- 39 Days to Mars (It's Anecdotal) from New Zealand
- Semblance (Nyamakop), South Africa
- Cultist Simulator (Weather Factory), from UK
- Galaxy of Pen and Paper (Behold Studios), from Brazil
- UNSIGHTED (Studio Pixel Punk), from Brazil

Best Brazilian Game

- Rock & Rails (Black River Studios)
- UNSIGHTED (Studio Pixel Punk)
- Galaxy of Pen and Paper (Behold Studios)
- No Heroes Here (Mad Mimic Interactive)
- Hexarmonic (6 side studios)
- Alkimya: Memories of the Last Alchemist (Bad Minions)
- Radar Warfare (DreamRoad Productions)
- Roguemance (Lucas Molina)
- Until Dead - Think to Survive (Monomyto Game Studio)
- IN (Epopeia Games)

Best Latin American Game

- Ship Ahoy! (OKAM Studio), from Argentina
- Rock of Ages 2: Bigger and Boulder (ACE Team), from Chile
- Iron Marines (Ironhide Game Studio), from Uruguay
- The Last Friend (The Stonebot Studio),from El Salvador
- Darkestville Castle (Epic LLama), from Argentina

Best Art

- Dead Cells (Motion Twin) from France
- 39 Days to Mars (It's Anecdotal) from New Zealand
- Chuchel (Amanita Design), From Czech Republic
- Semblance (Nyamakop), South Africa
- Luna (Funomena LLC), From United States
- The Gardens Between (The Voxel Agents), from Australia
- Haimrik (Below The Game), from Colombia

Best Narrative

- Path to Mnemosyne (SPHERICAL PIXEL S.L), from Spain
- 39 Days to Mars (It's Anecdotal) from New Zealand
- Tacoma (Fullbright), from United States
- Where The Water Tastes Like Wine (Dim Bulb Games), from United States
- The Mooseman (Vladimir Beletskiy), from Russia
- All Walls Must Fall (inbetweengames UG) from Germany
- STAY (Appnormals Team), from Spain

Best Gameplay

- Frostpunk (11 bit Studios) from Poland
- Dead Cells (Motion Twin) from France
- Keyboard Sports - Saving QWERTY (Triband) from Denmark
- Semblance (Nyamakop), from South Africa
- Cultist Simulator (Weather Factory), from UK
- DYO (Team DYO), from Germany
- Slime Rancher (Monomi Park), from United States

Innovation

- Tacoma (Fullbright), from United States
- DYO (Team DYO), from Germany
- Haimrik (Below The Game), from Colombia
- Cultist Simulator (Weather Factory), from UK
- Motif. (Yeta Game), from Turkey
- At Sundown (Mild Beast Games), from United States
- FROST (kunabi brother) from Austria

Best Sound

- Double Kick Heroes (Headbang Club), from France
- Chuchel (Amanita Design), from Czech Republic
- Rhythm Doctor (7th Beat Games), from Malaysia
- Luna (Funomena LLC), from United States
- 39 Days to Mars (It's Anecdotal) from New Zealand
- Hexarmonic (6 side studios), from Brazil

BIG Impact: Best Educational Game

- Rango Cards (Fira Soft), from Brazil
- Marvellous Inc. (Marvelous Soft), Brazil
- Alphabet (Spacefrog), from Brazil
- Slice Fractions 2 (Ululab), from Canada
- Water Generation (Feeval University - LOA - Laboratory of Learning Objects), Brazil

BIG Impact: Social Matters

- Fofuuú (FOFUUU SOLUÇÕES TECNOLÓGICAS PARA SAÚDE E EDUCAÇÃO LTDA), from Brazil
- The Mooseman (Vladimir Beletskiy), from Russia
- Florescer (PugCorn), from Brazil
- HEADLINER (Unbound Creations LLC), United States
- Lenin - The Lion (Lornyon - João Bueno), from Brazil

Best Student Game

- DYO (Developed by Team DYO at the HTW Berlin Institution), Germany
- Muddledash (Developed by slampunks, at the University of Edinburgh Institution), UK
- At Sundown (Developed by Mild Beast Games, at the University of Southern California Institution), United States
- Motif. (Developed by Yeta Game at Hacettepe University & Gazi University from Turkey), Turkey
- Impulsion (Developed by Driving Force Games, at the Institut de l'Internet et du Multimedia), France

Best Multiplayer

- ARENA GODS (Supertype), United States
- INo Heroes Here (Mad Mimic Interactive), from Brazil
- At Sundown (Mild Beast Games), United States
- Muddledash (slampunks), UK
- Treadnauts (Topstitch Games), United States

Best Kids Game

- Chuchel (Amanita Design), Czech Republic
- Alphabet (Spacefrog), Brazil
- Luna (Funomena LLC), United States
- Fofuuú (FOFUUU SOLUÇÕES TECNOLÓGICAS PARA SAÚDE E EDUCAÇÃO LTDA), from Brazil
- St. Ives (StoryMax), Brazil

Best Virtual Reality Game

- Luna (Funomena LLC), United States
- Ship Ahoy! (OKAM Studio), Argentina
- The Invisible Hours (TEQUILA WORKS), Spain
- Primordian (Stonepunk Studios, LLC), United States
- Rock & Rails (Black River Studios), Brazil