As most everybody who regularly reads my articles should know, I’m a fan of indies. You might even say a BIG fan of indies. And that goes for indies regardless of what region they’re from. Having said that, I should note I’ve seen a lot of amazing indie talent come from Brazil. Which is why the BIG (Brazil’s Independent Games) Digital Festival happening next week has me excited. While I’d say my best experience with Brazilian developers thus far is the good folks at JoyMasher, far be it for me to say they’re the only ones to watch.
The BIG Digital event starts next week on the 22nd. The first few days will be all about meet and greets between the various developers and publishers, while the last two days will be open to media. And because this is happening in the time of Covid-19, the event will of course take place solely online. Which while a slight bummer also makes total sense.
Keep reading below for more details about the BIG Digital Festival, and stay tuned to oprainfall for more coverage of promising indie games.
For those deep in game development, considering dipping their toes in, or those who just want some insider knowledge, BIG Digital will present an incredible roster of free seminars — both in English and Portuguese — by some of the world’s most exciting voices in the international games industry. During a seminar titled, The State of the “Indie-stry”, panelists Yves Le Yaouanq (Ubisoft), Christopher Wulf (Those Awesome Guys), Paulo Luis dos Santos (Flux Games Studio), and Limpho Moeti (Nyamakop), discuss the independent games industry and how power has shifted from publishers to developers and what that means for independent studios and their chances for success.
Along with that, there will be a multitude of other amazing panels, guest speakers, and seminars at BIG Digital. You can view the lineup by visiting the program guide found here.
Many of the amazing Brazilian indie studios have BIG to thank, at least partially, for their exploding success. During the 2019 festival, Double Dash Studios, the creative team behind the highly-rated shmup Sky Racket, was able to gain international exposure when the premiere title became a finalist in two categories of the BIG Festival game awards: Best Brazilian Game and Best Gameplay. This garnered attention from Nintendo, which led to the release of Sky Racket on the Nintendo Switch earlier this year.
Likewise, the award-winning independent virtual reality game development studio ARVORE — found success at BIG Festival 2017 and 2018 after presenting their VR adventure Pixel Ripped to representatives from HTC Valve and Sony, leading to two stellar launches in the series in 2018 and 2020 for Pixel Ripped 1989 and Pixel Ripped 1995, respectively.
Taking place from June 22 through 24, 2020, BIG Digital carries on the traditions of its massively successful physical counterpart, Brazil’s Independent Games (BIG) Festival, as a fundamental business hub for video game professionals across the globe. This year’s virtual trade show will host free developer seminars, panels, showcases, networking events, and digital face-to-face business development meetings. Those who register to attend will have the opportunity to get in direct contact with market giants including Epic Games, Devolver Digital, Electronic Arts, Google, Microsoft, Konami, Nintendo, Sony, Supercell, and Ubisoft.
