The Gamescom Latam Big Festival 2025 awards kicked off today in Sao Paulo, Brazil, starting with a lifetime achievement award for Shu Yoshida, who championed indies at Sony’s PlayStation division during his decades of work at the company.

Rodrigo Terra, CEO of Abram Games, the Brazilian game association, presented the award to Yoshida, who will do a fireside chat with me at Gamescom Latam on Thursday evening in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Yoshida left late last year after 31 years at Sony, where he held jobs such as head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Studios at Sony PlayStation.

The best game award went to Nine Sols by Red Candle Games in Taiwan.

The best pitch for regional game development went to Rogue Snail for its game HellClock.

The best mobile game award went to Levil Devil by Unept.

Best sound went to The Holy Gosh Darn, from Perfectly Paranormal As/Yogust

The winner for best art was Naiad, development Elwin at HiWarp.

The winner for innovation was Sol Cesto, Geraud Zucchini and Chariospirale of Goblinz Publishing in France.

The winner for best multiplayer was Bang Bang Garrage from Monkey Bread/Spiral Up Games in China. It was made by a two-person team.

Best narrative went to Neva by Nomada Studio, published by Devolver Digital.

Best XR/VR went to Sugar Mess — Let’s Play Jolly Battle by JollyCo in the U.S.

The winner for best gameplay went to Animal Well, by Shared Memory and published by Bigmode in the U.S. It was made by solo game dev Billy Basso.

Best game for Latin America went to Grizzly Man, created by LCB Game Studio in Argentina.

Best game for Brazil went to Mullet MadJack by Hammer 95 Studios and published by Epopeia Games. The studio has been making games for more than 10 years. The game has been wishlisted 500,000 times and it has sold more than 200,000 units to date.

“Brazil is making excellent games,” said the winner.