Fun & Serious Festival Relaunches The FS Play International Awards For Indie Developers

Fun & Serious, which celebrates its 11^th edition this year, re-launches, together with AEVI (Spanish Association of Videogames), its FS Play Awards, in search of the most innovative indie title on the international scene, as well as the best Basque videogame.

AEVI has been supporting the festival since its first edition and sponsors this international videogame event, with the aim of rewarding and promoting creativity and innovation in the development of independent videogames. It does so by offering both financial support through the endowment attached to its prizes, and by guaranteeing the visibility of these projects through public recognition.

“At the Spanish Association of Videogames (AEVI) we celebrate being able one more year to visit the beautiful city of Bilbao and collaborate in another edition of the Fun & Serious Festival, as we have always pulled in the same direction. We both work to boost the video game industry in Spain, to promote an ecosystem that draws in foreign investment and to publicize the talent of our creators,” says José María Moreno, CEO of AEVI.

According to the director of the festival, Alfonso Gómez, “it is an immense pleasure to have kept the AEVI alliance for another edition of the Festival. His vision and work, as well as his support for initiatives such as the international FS Play awards, make us grow year after year and, of course, hugely benefits the Spanish video game sector”.

The rules of the Awards, already in their 4^th edition, are available on the festival website and an endowment of 4,000 euros is provided for the best indie game (of any genre, theme and playable on at least one platform among PC, console or mobile devices). The endowment for the best Basque game is likewise 4,000 euros; in this case, only projects developed by studios located in the Basque Country and with 75% of their staff residing in this region will be accepted. The winner of the 2020 edition, the Bilbao company EduJoy Entertainment with its ‘Blockville’ videogame, has just been acquired by the giant Gamer Sandbox.

The FS Play jury, which will be made up by leading professionals from the industry, will take into account the narrative and artistic design of the game (mechanics, levels, script, world building …), as well as its sound, music and audio quality.

The deadline for submitting applications (which can be processed through this online form) closes on November 26, 2021.

In the words of Arturo Monedero, Vice President of Development of AEVI: “This edition of Fun & Serious is particularly special after a year and a half of not being able to arrange face-to-face events. We are very excited to support the event and to attend one of the key meeting points of the players in our industry: developers, distributors, students and the entire gaming community.”

AEVI is the main video game organization in Spain. It represents more than 60 companies and education centers that generate most of the jobs in the sector in Spain and represent 90% of videogame consumption in the Spanish market.

About Fun & Serious Festival

The Fun & Serious Game Festival, held every December in Bilbao, is the largest video-game festival in Europe and a key meeting-point for the industry as a whole.

The event’s mission is to recognize and promote the work of video-game producers, directors, artists and developers, based on a comprehensive program of conferences, roundtables, networking and activities, aimed at both companies and the general public. As is customary each year, the Festival will conclude with an exclusive Grand Prize-Winning Gala for the best video-games of the year.

The Fun & Serious Game Festival enjoys the support of the Basque Regional Government – SPRI, Bilbao City Hall and the Provincial Council of Biscay. The event’s strategic partners include Microsoft, PlayStation and Ubisoft. The Festival features the collaboration of the Spanish Video-Games Association (AEVI), UTAD, Virtualware and Digipen.