Brazil’s Independent Game (BIG) Festival is Pleased to Announce the 96 Finalists for This Year’s Event as well as New Categories and Bigger Prizes

Brazil’s Independent Games (BIG) Festival, the largest independent games festival in Latin America that takes place May 3 to May 9, 2021, is thrilled to reveal the finalists for this year’s event as well as announce an additional sponsorship deal with Xsolla, a marketing and monetization services tool for developers and distributors. With 510 entries from more than 50 countries and a record number of subscribers, BIG Festival 2021 is shaping up to be the largest ever, and Xsolla is upping the ante even further with a whopping $10,000 USD prize to the winner of the "Best Game: Xsolla's Choice" category!

The finalists list year hail from all over the world, with 25 of the 96 nominees representing the local scene in Brazil — a new record for the event and a sign of the explosive growth currently happening in the Brazilian game development industry. Categories for this year’s event include returning categories such as Best Art, Best Audio, and Best Narrative, but also cover important and often overlooked brackets like BIG Impact: Educational and BIG Impact: Social Matters. These categories recognize important themes like race, sexual identity, abusive relationships, and environmental challenges brilliantly explored through the immersion of video games.

“This year we had the largest number of subscribers to the Festival in the history of BIG. There were 510 games from more than 50 countries, but unfortunately, we were unable to reward everyone. Our curatorial team, after extensive and thorough evaluation, selected the 55 best games as finalists ”, says Gustavo Steinberg, director of BIG Festival.

Check out some of the awesome finalists for Best Game below:

A Short Hike (Canada)
Curious Expedition 2 (Germany)
Figment 2: Creed Valley (Denmark)
Genesis Noir (USA)
Interrogation: You Will Be Deceived (Romania)
Liberated (Poland)
Not for Broadcast (United Kingdom)
Pathologic 2 (Russia)
Per Aspera (Argentina)
The Signifier: Director's Cut (Chile)

Best Brazilian Game finalists include:

Cartomante (Garoa Studios)
Dandy Ace (Mad Mimic)
Enso (Universidade Feevale)
Fobia - St Dinfna Hotel (Pulsatrix Studios)
Hero Among Us (Fire Horse Studio)
Kaze and the Wild Masks (PixelHive)
Red Ronin (Wired Dreams Studio)
Retro Machina (Orbit Studio)
Slash Quest (Big Green Pillow and Mother Gaia)
Truth and Tales (Explot)The Signifier: Director's Cut (Chile) is the most nominated game of the year, with five nominations (Innovation, Best Art, Best Narrative, Best LATAM Game, and Best Game), followed by Pathologic 2 (Russia) with four nominations (Best Sound, Best Gameplay, Best Narrative, and Best Game), and Genesis Noir (USA) also with four nominations (Innovation, Best Art, Best Sound, and Best Game).

BIG Festival is also extremely excited to welcome returning partner Xsolla, who will be providing a bevy of prizes and cash incentives to the finalists. Not only is the company putting up a huge $10,000 USD grand prize for the winner of "Best Game: Xsolla's Choice", but they’ll also be providing $500 USD to every finalist! Other offerings from Xsolla include a complimentary six-month subscription for Xsolla RFP service, free usage of Xsolla Login and Xsolla Launcher products for the periods of Friends & Family and Alpha-test, free custom design mock-ups for Xsolla Launcher, Xsolla Login, landing pages and game forum built on the Xsolla Site Builder, and much more. All this adds up to a stellar $115,000+ USD in cash and prizes for the winners!

The Awards Ceremony takes place on Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 9:30 PM Brazil Time / 8:30 PM EDT and players will be able to follow everything online and for free. In addition to the awards ceremony itself, the entire event will also be broadcast online and free of charge — with the exception of business roundtables.

To see the complete list of categories and their respective nominees, visit the Awards website.

Register to attend BIG Festival 2021 by visiting the official website, here: https://www.bigfestival.com.br/.