We know Brazil for its coffee, the Amazon rainforest, and perfecting football at the 1970 World Cup, but could it also become the new home of indie gaming?
Here at GameMaker, we’ve seen a steady rise in game engine downloads and indie game uploads from Brazil, which got us thinking about the indie scene in the world’s fifth-largest nation.
We didn’t have to dig for long to discover the passionate development community fuelling the country’s brewing indie revolution.
If you’re feeling native this Brazil Week, this article is also available in Portuguese.
GameMaker in Brazil
Brazil has been flying up the ranks in a number of key GameMaker metrics over the last few years:
- Between 2019 and 2021, new Brazilian GameMaker users increased by 65%, and the number of projects exported by Brazilian game devs also increased by 63%
- Since January 2022, Brazil has been the third-highest source of GameMaker downloads anywhere in the world, surpassed only by the US and UK
- Brazilians have also consistently been among the top three monthly active users of GameMaker since the start of 2022
Number of games exported by Brazilian GameMaker users
Moonleap and the #NoticeMe Game Jam
We’d been tracking Brazil’s meteoric rise for a few months by the time the #NoticeMe Game Jam was reaching its exciting conclusion.
Among the contenders was a 2D puzzle platformer called Moonleap, submitted by Brazilian game developer Guselect.
Between its polished pixel art and its deceptively simple gameplay, we knew Moonleap would prove popular among the voting public, but we couldn’t have predicted the reaction of the Brazilian game dev community.
Tô entre os finalistas da #NoticeMe Game Jam então ME AJUDEM COM UM LIKE, RT E VOTEM NO MOONLEAP 🌜✨ Jogue: http://guselect.itch.io/moonleap Vote: http://gxc.gg/game-jam/votepic.twitter.com/ghZJ3r0iUB
— guselect ✨ (@guselect 30 March, 2022)
Guselect’s Tweet garnered over 700 retweets and nearly 2,000 likes. The Brazilian gaming community had mobilised, and by the time voting closed on April 5th, Moonleap had accrued thousands of votes to claim the crown.
Moonleap, winner of #NoticeMe Game Jam 2022
GameMaker Brazil Week 2022
In 2022, GameMaker ran its first-ever Brazil Week (#GameMakerBrazil), highlighting the nation’s rising indie scene and the developers that helped put them on the map.
Over the week, we interviewed four developers:
- Nana Moon, head of the Keylocker development team
- Gagonfe, developer of GX.games’ first free premium game, Doomed to Hell
- Thiago Olivera, developer of Red Ronin
- Guselect, developer of #NoticeMe Game Jam winner, Moonleap
On the final day of Brazil Week, we also published our first Portuguese GameMaker tutorial, created by Guselect.
The tutorial is currently only available in Portuguese, but we’ll be translating it into English in the near future.
Which games were made by Brazilian developers?
“Alright, GameMaker’s popularity in Brazil is interesting and all,” we hear you cry, ”But what about the games?”.
Some of the best games developed in Brazil include:
- Asleep
- BlackJack Math
- Blazing Chrome
- Colorful Colore
- Dininho Adventures
- Doomed to Hell
- Dungeon Color
- Endless RPG
-
Flatland franchise
- Frogue
- Gemini
- Jester's Helper
- Keylocker
- Make the Burger
- The Momodora franchise
- Moonleap
-
Moth-Kubit Grimes
- Nami
- Nevermore: The Chamber Door
- Raven’s Hike
- Railgunners
- Red Ronin
- RoadOut
- Road Warriors
-
Sophstar
- Spooky Chase
- Super Chicken Jumper
- Super Hiking League
- Tiny Witch
- Toroom
- Virgo versus the Zodiac
32 games made by Brazilian developers
Which game developers come from Brazil?
Some of the most well-known Brazilian game developers include:
- Gagonfe, developer of Doomed to Hell and Toroom
- Guselect, developer of Moonleap, and #NoticeMe GameJam Winner
- Danilo Dias and Thais Weiller, developers of Blazing Chrome
- Thiago Oliveira, developer of Red Ronin and Frogue
- Moonana, developer of Keylocker and Virgo Versus The Zodiac
- Dininho, developer of Dininho Adventures
- Creative Hand, developer of Tiny Witch
- Bombservice, developer of the Momodora Franchise
- Burning Goat Studio, developer of Spooky Chase
- All-x Dev, developer of Jester's Helper
-
Kyuu Fujisaki, developers of the Flatland Franchise
- Rastrolabs Game Studio, developer of RoadOut
- Sewer Cat and Heavy Sheep, developers of Super Chicken Jumper
- Expresso Studios, developer of Railgunners and Nami
- Burning Bright, developer of Nevermore: The Chamber Door
- Gabriel, developer of Moth-Kubit Grimes
- Black Hole Games, developer of Asleep
- Kezarus, developer of Endless RPG
- Bit Ink Studios, developer of Super Hiking League DX
- Banana Bytes, developer of Sophstar
Brazilian GameMaker resources
Here’s a list of some of the stand-out Brazilian GameMaker resources we found, but if you know of any others that deserve to feature here, let us know!
Brazilian GameMaker forums
The two most popular Brazilian GameMaker forums are:
Both GMBR and The Game Makers Brasil offer their own community-made tutorials to help newcomers get up to speed, and even their own assets and art files to download.
Both forums also feature a completed projects section to showcase the incredible work of their communities.
Brazilian GameMaker YouTubers
Some of the most popular Brazilian GameMaker YouTubers we found include:
- Ponto e Vírgula
- OPINIÃO COM ANIMAÇÃO
- None
- Botão Select, run by Moonleap developer Guselect
All four creators offer video tutorials and discussions on a range of GameMaker topics, including tile sets, how to make an RPG, and our 2022 GameMaker Update.
Ponto e Vírgula also uploaded a trailer for the demo release of their upcoming 2D RPG Moth Kubit, which looks creepy and unnerving in all the right ways.
Brazil is enjoying an indie game boom right now, with thousands downloading game engines and bringing their ideas to life. Will your game be Brazil’s next smash-hit release?
Happy GameMaking!
