Fun & Serious Game Festival returns to Bilbao with an outstanding roster of speakers for its traditional conferences, to be held in the Luxua exhibition hall of BEC on December 10 and 11 and can be followed both in-person and online through Twitch.
Dinga Bakaba, Head of Studio at Arkane Lyon and Co-Creative Director of the video game DEATHLOOP, will be one of the ‘highlights’ on this year’s panel of presenters. Bakaba’s previous titles include Game Designer on Gray Matter at Wizarbox; Game Designer on Dishonored and Lead Designer for Dishonored 2 at Arkane Lyon; as well as assisting on the MachineGames developed Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot.
Luis Antonio, creator of one of the most interesting titles of the year, 12 Minutes, will be another of the most anticipated speakers. His first independent work, released by Annapurna Interactive for PC and Xbox, is a thriller that – with clear nods to the cinema of Hitchcock and Kubrik – is about a man trapped in a space and time loop and is played from a birds-eye perspective. Antonio has previously worked for Rockstar Games and Ubisoft, in addition to Jonathan Blow.
Also, Tim Schafer from the United States, who received the Honorary Award of the festival back in 2015, will be one of the most anticipated participators. The acclaimed man who helmed the Monkey Island saga has developed some of the most important Lucas Arts titles and in recent years, after founding Double Fine, has worked in the writing of, creative direction and directing of titles such as Brutal Legends, Costume Quest, Stacking, Broken Age and, currently on Psychonauts 2, a sequel to the acclaimed Psychonauts, considered a cult classic in the video game industry.
As for the rest, F&S maintains its commitment to promoting indie development studios by giving a platform to promising figures in the scene. Thus, in the 2021 edition, F&S will have presentations by Marina González from Deconstructeam who will talk about pixel art, as well as Elina Roinioti from Kickstarter Games and those responsible for one of the greatest indie hits of the year, Eastward.
In the next few days, ticket sales will be made available to attend the event both in-person (limited capacity) and online.
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.
