Stackhead selected as one of the finalists at the GAMESCOM LATAM BIG Festival

A benchmark festival for videogame creation

The BIG Festival (Brazil’s Independent Games Festival) is one of the biggest international showcases for independent games and emerging productions. Organised as part of Gamescom LATAM, every year the event brings together studios, creators, publishers and industry professionals from all over the world.

The festival has established itself as a veritable springboard for talent, thanks in particular to its numerous awards, which showcase innovation, creativity and new voices in video games. Among them, the Best Student Game category recognises the most promising projects produced in an academic setting.

For the 2026 edition, over 966 games were entered in the competition. Stackhead‘s presence among the finalists is therefore a remarkable achievement for this team.

The event will take place from 29 April to 3 May 2025 in São Paulo, Brazil, where the selected projects will be presented and evaluated by an international jury.

Stackhead, a fast-paced platformer shooter

Inspired by classics like Mega Man, Stackhead is a 2.5D platformer shooter combining action, humour and a colourful world.

Players take on the role of Stackhead, a robot in charge of maintaining Automa Park, a gigantic amusement park run entirely by artificial intelligence.

But behind his repetitive maintenance tasks, Stackhead has a dream: to make the park’s visitors laugh and entertain them. Every time he tries to step out of his role, however, he is reproached by his colleagues.

Until the day he decides to stop obeying.

Stackhead then embarks on a journey through the park, moving from attraction to attraction to create the show he imagines. The artificial intelligence that manages Automa Park sees this initiative as a threat and sends robots to stop the troublemaker. But these spectacular confrontations quickly become the public’s new favourite attraction.

A collective project signed by 10 students (class of 2025)

The game was designed by a team of ten ESMA students:

• Max-Emilien Allegre
  
• Arthur Bataille
  
• Aurélie Bellande
  
• Emanuele Berenge Cirronis
  
• Marion Donadille
  
• Lauriane Jauze
  
• Benjamin Lafage
  
• Matias Lavoye-Sol
  
• Jules Morquin
• Mickaël Roussin

Their project is now a finalist in the Best Student Game category, a particularly gratifying distinction in a competition involving almost a thousand games.

ESMA warmly congratulates the whole team on this success, which illustrates the creativity, technical mastery and collaborative spirit developed throughout the course.

Rendezvous in São Paulo

The results will be revealed at the Gamescom LATAM BIG Festival, to be held in São Paulo from 29 April to 3 May 2025.

The whole school would like to offer its encouragement to the Stackheadteam for this international final.

Stay tuned for more news about the game and the results of the festival!