Pocket Gamer Connects London returns on Twenty second-Twenty third January 2024, celebrating its tenth anniversary. In fact, this additionally means the return of our flagship Very Large Indie Pitch, the favored pitching competitors that is been offering builders with perception, suggestions, and prizes for years. It is also nice enjoyable. We spoke with the organiser Sophia Aubrey Drake for her recollections and suggestions earlier in December.
What higher option to rejoice ten years of Pocket Gamer Connects than by reconnecting with a few of our most profitable builders? On this collection, we’ll be taught extra about the place they’re now, what they gained from their pitching experiences, and what recommendation they’ve for anybody heading to London for the Very Large Indie Pitch in 2024.
Subsequent up, we’re catching up with FINIFUGU && associates, the one developer to have gained the pitch again to again, to be taught extra about their previous, current and future.
Sophia Aubrey Drake: We all know you properly, however are you able to introduce your self and the workforce for individuals who might not learn about you?
Jai Bunnag: I’m the co-founder of FINIFUGU Video games, a studio crafting informal cell video games for a primarily feminine viewers. Alongside my accomplice Chris Li, we function a distant workforce unfold throughout Thailand, Hong Kong, and the UK.
Our first recreation as a duo started with Too Many Cooks, a co-op cooking recreation we submitted to the Large Indie Pitch, shortly adopted by Nood Climbers, which is self-explanatory.
You’ve been a part of the pitch quite a few instances, famously being the one developer to win it back-to-back. What first made you need to be part of the pitch?
Jai Bunnag: Earlier than teaming up with Chris [Li, co-founder], I’d been pitching at techy areas and occasions with my games-adjacent interactive cell experiences. Whereas attention-grabbing, they have been a bit too esoteric to be commercially viable, particularly for a primary mission.
Re-adjusting the content material for a brief format compelled us to establish what strongly resonated with audiences and made our video games particular
Jai Bunnag, FINIFUGU && associates
After partying up, we pivoted creatively to being extra intentional with our design imaginative and prescient with a transparent concentrate on the cell video games market. Too Many Cooks [TMC] got here collectively surprisingly shortly, and we submitted it as quickly because it was playable.
Getting into the Large Indie Pitch was our first step in testing our partnership and new course. So, the BIP was formally our first step into this trade and we’re tremendous grateful for such a heat welcome!
How did you discover the expertise? What was probably the most difficult side, and was there something you weren’t anticipating?
Jai Bunnag: By the point Chris and I despatched TMC over, we have been very heat and pitch-ready from a yr of failing and studying. So pitching on the BIP was fairly cathartic. It’s shockingly fast-paced, however it felt nice when our pitch plan held collectively.
We did lots of preparations and follow, however it felt like many classes discovered throughout that earlier yr have been now paying off, with renewed course and focus.
I feel choreographing the pitch was robust – juggling each execution and content material. A recreation, its story and its attraction are sometimes a lot bigger than the pitch time. However re-adjusting the content material for a brief format compelled us to establish what strongly resonated with audiences and made our video games particular which then helped to tell improvement.
What occurred with Too Many Cooks and Nood Climbrs following the pitch? Did your expertise as part of The Large Indie Pitch impression in your improvement and subsequent launch?
Chris Li: Following the pitch, Too Many Cooks partnered with Playstack and Noodle Climbers with Noodlecake. The Large Indie Pitch was pivotal in a number of features. It clarified our ideas, highlighting the energy and core worth of our design, and guided us in refining the design to be minimalist, approachable, and simplistic whereas sustaining the core attraction of the mechanics and gameplay.
It additionally helped us follow recreation pitching and promoting our concepts to potential publishers and companions, turning a small prototype right into a commercial-ready product. Furthermore, it drew the eye of trade stakeholders like traders, publishers, and app retailer representatives, marking an awesome start line for us as a newly established indie studio.
How have issues modified for you as a workforce since we final noticed you? Are you able to share a number of the stuff you’ve been engaged on since then?
Chris Li: There’s been lots of progress and alter. Our workforce has expanded to eight members with numerous abilities, enhancing our product high quality and improvement pace. We’ve explored completely different market positions, from commission-based work to hyper-casual video games and web3 initiatives.
This journey has laid a basis for growing extra industrial informal self-launched titles like Otter Ocean and a partnership title, Lifetime of King, printed by Pixio. We’re additionally excited a couple of new cute, idle-management recreation anticipated to launch in 2024.
Contemplating the fast-evolving video games trade, how tough is it to outlive as an indie developer? What adjustments have you ever skilled since collaborating within the Large Indie Pitch?
Chris Li: Surviving as an indie workforce is more and more difficult within the fast-paced and evolving gaming trade. The fast progress of cell video games and market saturation by giant studios imply {that a} recreation should excel in features like core mechanics, monetisation technique, retention optimisation, and advertising to succeed financially. We’ve been studying and bettering our design and improvement expertise to compete on this difficult trade and utilizing third-party providers to boost the sport cycle from design to customer support.
Be strategic along with your sources, and don’t be afraid to terminate initiatives early in the event that they’re not viable, to keep away from sunk prices
Chris Li, FINIFUGU && associates
Is there any recommendation you’ll give to indie builders on the market based mostly in your success?
Chris Li: We’ve managed to maintain and develop our workforce with some launched titles we’re pleased with. My recommendation to indie builders is to maintain constructing as a result of every mission improves your expertise for the following one.
Be strategic along with your sources, and don’t be afraid to terminate initiatives early in the event that they’re not viable, to keep away from sunk prices. Additionally, don’t hesitate to point out your video games to others! Platforms just like the Large Indie Pitch are wonderful for practising pitching expertise and getting invaluable trade suggestions.
How essential is attending conferences, competitions and networking alternatives for unbiased builders? What recommendation would you give builders contemplating attending conferences?
Chris Li: It is essential, particularly when beginning out. They supply insights into market traits and new applied sciences, that are invaluable for positioning your product sooner or later. My recommendation is to start out as a visitor or customer, get comfy with networking, and, after you have a working prototype, attempt to have a sales space for networking and suggestions.
Competitions are additionally helpful as a result of successful can enhance confidence, present invaluable presentation expertise, and open doorways to investments or publishing offers.
What’s your studio at present engaged on?
Jai Bunnag: We’re at present engaged on our second self-published recreation, Animal Categorical, the place gamers handle a prepare that ferries cute animals the world over. We’re additionally rising help for our ongoing recreation, Lifetime of King, a derpy, simplified prehistoric metropolis simulator.
Chris Li: Moreover, we’re keeping track of new gaming markets like AR, VR, and MR and exploring alternatives within the web3 gaming trade for potential new interactive experiences.
Need to point out off your thrilling new recreation? All particulars for the Very Large Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2024, together with the way to enter, could be discovered on our upcoming occasions web page on BigIndiePitch.com.
In case you simply need to attend the convention, then tickets for Pocket Gamer Connects London 2024 (22-23 January) could be discovered on the Pocket Gamer Connects Web site, with mid-term reductions nonetheless at present obtainable till the primary week of January.
Get the most recent information, interviews and in-depth evaluation on Twitter, Fb, and our day by day e-newsletter. We can be including extra Large Indie Pitch tales to the positioning every week.
