SUBMISSIONS TO PITCH@BIG OPEN TODAY
Brazil’s International Games (BIG) Festival, the largest independent games, creation, business and networking event in Latin America, has announced that submissions are now open for its official pitch competition, Pitch@BIG. The initiative is the result of a partnership between BIG Festival and Abragames (Brazilian Games Association), which promotes the pitch sessions and sponsors the participation of Jason Della Rocca, a games industry expert slated to present the sessions and manage two mentorships for the general public. One mentorship will be held online on May 17, and the other is scheduled to be held in person at BIG Festival (details will be announced later).
Abragames has been BIG’ partner since the beginning of the Festival. The Association aims to promote Brazilian studios by catalyzing game production within the country through training and marketing insight. In partnership with ApexBrasil, the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, Abragames created the Brazil Games Export Program to boost the Brazilian games industry internationally and develop new business opportunities.
Submissions to Pitch@BIG begin today, March 20, 2023, and will remain open until May 26, at 11:59PM, Brazil time (GMT-3). This year, the annual event takes place from June 28 to July 2, online and in person, at the São Paulo Expo in São Paulo, Brazil. At least five studios will be selected as finalists to pitch their games during five minutes to some of the biggest game publishers and investors in the world. They will be evaluated by a panel of judges made up of industry specialists.
On top of all the attention from media, publishers and investors at the event, the Pitch@BIG winner will receive two business meeting tickets (with access to the VIP Mixer) for BIG Festival 2024. Form and rules are here: Pitch@BIG.
Jason Della Rocca will present the event and help the judges choose the winner. With decades of games industry experience, Della Rocca was an early stage investor in over 20 independent game studios from North America and Europe. He served as the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) from 2000 to 2009, and has been honored with the inaugural Ambassador Award at the Game Developers Conference (GDC). In 2009, Jason was named to Game Developer Magazine’s “Power 50.” He remains a prominent industry figure today, hosting lectures at conferences and universities all over the world.
“Pitch@BIG gives studios the opportunity to impress some of the world’s most esteemed game industry professionals and score a deal within a matter of minutes,” says Eliana Russi, Director of Operations at Brazil Games. “It also gives developers, aspiring gamemakers and other members of the audience a chance to learn more about the pitch process and see what seasoned veterans look for in a professional pitch deck, all stylized in an intense, live, all-or-nothing presentation on the big stage. We can’t wait to see what studios will bring to the table during Pitch@BIG’s debut.”
This year’s BIG Festival is set to be the event’s largest iteration to date with an estimated audience of over 50,000 attendees. This year’s edition broke the record of 631 games submitted from 55 countries.
Last year, BIG Festival broke records with around 30,000 visitors, more than 300 million social media interactions among partners, around 6,000 scheduled business meetings, and 669 companies in attendance, with 429 originating from Brazil. More than 1,300 games industry professionals attended BIG Festival 2022, and the event spurred an estimated $100 million in new business.
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