Fireborne Games and Magical Beast Games to travel to Game Developers Conference awarded by Uruguay XXI and CAVI

Amid a festive atmosphere and overflowing with expectations, the awards ceremony of the National Videogame Contest took place within the framework of Level UY, the most important event of the sector in Uruguay, now in its seventh edition.

Among the most outstanding winners were the studios Magical Beast Games with the game Cleanup Crew and Fireborne Games with the game Airborne Arena; first and second winners, respectively, in the category Best Indie Game, which Uruguay XXI awarded to travel in March to one of the most relevant events in the world in this field, the Game Developer Conference (GDC) held every year in San Francisco, California.

During the closing ceremony of Level UY, the executive director of Uruguay XXI, Sebastián Risso, highlighted the importance that the agency gives to the creative industries and the sustained and coordinated work it has been doing in recent years to promote the sector. He highlighted the presence of a growing number of Uruguayan video game studios that accompany Uruguay XXI to festivals such as BIG Festival in Brazil, EVA in Argentina, and the GDC. “Our goal is to continue working in this direction,” he emphasized.

Best indie game

The jury in selecting the two best indie games valued the quality in art, design, and commercial viability.

Cleanup Crew, from the Magical Beast Games studio - led by Leandro Mesquita, Anthony Garcia, and Ruben Garat - stood out in the bullet heaven genre for its “excellent cartoon-style art, refined gameplay, and abundant content,” as specified by the jury.

“We put everything on the line for the dream of doing our own thing; it was quite a busy year of development,” Mesquita told Uruguay XXI.

Airborne Arena, second best in the category, is a virtual reality game of racing and combat on flying motorcycles in 2058.

“GDC is the ultimate video game development event, ideal to grow professionally and connect the company with the rest of the global industry,” Enzo Gaiero, co-founder of Fireborne Games and creative director of the Airborne Arena project along with Marcelo Cotrofe, told Uruguay XXI.

This is Fireborne Games’ first title, although its creators already had experience working for Ironhide Game Studio, an industry standout in Uruguay and the world.

Other winners of the day were Melisa Benítez for Loss, who received the award in the Students category; Auto Necroches by Guillermo Barrios, which received the award for Art in Uruguayan Video Games; the Innovation award went to Newton’s Room by Treeview; the Indie Promise award went to Heat Division by Pío Riela and the game of the year went to Evil Wizard by Rubber Duck Games.

With more than 60 videogame studios, Uruguay has an unprecedented density of talent in the continent, in addition to a privileged location and a solid infrastructure to host international events. This makes it the Latin American pole of development and meeting point for the community, where opportunities are generated, and the knowledge of the best-qualified professionals from all over the world spills into the local industry.

Co-organized by the Uruguay XXI agency, the Uruguayan Chamber of Video Game Developers (CAVI), MIEM-Dinatel, the Uruguayan Film and Audiovisual Agency (ACAU), the Department of Creative Industries of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Antel and Ingenio, Level UY took place over two days at LATU and Alliance Française de Montevideo.