Pocket Gamer Connects London returns on Twenty second-Twenty third January 2024, celebrating its tenth anniversary. After all, this additionally means the return of our flagship Very Huge 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 reminiscences and ideas earlier in December.
What higher approach to have fun ten years of Pocket Gamer Connects than by reconnecting with a few of our most profitable builders? On this collection, we’ll study 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 Huge Indie Pitch in 2024.
Subsequent up, we’re catching up with FINIFUGU && mates, the one developer to have received the pitch again to again, to study 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 staff for individuals who might not learn about you?
Jai Bunnag: I’m the co-founder of FINIFUGU Video games, a studio crafting informal cellular video games for a primarily feminine viewers. Alongside my companion Chris Li, we function a distant staff unfold throughout Thailand, Hong Kong, and the UK.
Our first sport as a duo started with Too Many Cooks, a co-op cooking sport we submitted to the Huge Indie Pitch, rapidly 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 wish 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 cellular experiences. Whereas fascinating, they had been a bit too esoteric to be commercially viable, particularly for a primary challenge.
Re-adjusting the content material for a brief format pressured us to determine what strongly resonated with audiences and made our video games particular
Jai Bunnag, FINIFUGU && mates
After partying up, we pivoted creatively to being extra intentional with our design imaginative and prescient with a transparent concentrate on the cellular video games market. Too Many Cooks [TMC] got here collectively surprisingly rapidly, and we submitted it as quickly because it was playable.
Getting into the Huge Indie Pitch was our first step in testing our partnership and new route. 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 facet, and was there something you weren’t anticipating?
Jai Bunnag: By the point Chris and I despatched TMC over, we had been very heat and pitch-ready from a 12 months of failing and studying. So pitching on the BIP was fairly cathartic. It’s shockingly fast-paced, nevertheless it felt nice when our pitch plan held collectively.
We did plenty of preparations and apply, nevertheless it felt like many classes discovered throughout that earlier 12 months had been now paying off, with renewed route and focus.
I believe choreographing the pitch was robust – juggling each execution and content material. A sport, its story and its attraction are sometimes a lot bigger than the pitch time. However re-adjusting the content material for a brief format pressured us to determine 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 Huge Indie Pitch affect in your improvement and subsequent launch?
Chris Li: Following the pitch, Too Many Cooks partnered with Playstack and Noodle Climbers with Noodlecake. The Huge Indie Pitch was pivotal in a number of facets. 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 allure of the mechanics and gameplay.
It additionally helped us apply sport 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 buyers, publishers, and app retailer representatives, marking a terrific place to begin for us as a newly established indie studio.
How have issues modified for you as a staff 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 plenty of development and alter. Our staff 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, revealed by Pixio. We’re additionally excited a couple of new cute, idle-management sport anticipated to launch in 2024.
Contemplating the fast-evolving video games trade, how tough is it to outlive as an indie developer? What modifications have you ever skilled since taking part within the Huge Indie Pitch?
Chris Li: Surviving as an indie staff is more and more difficult within the fast-paced and evolving gaming trade. The fast development of cellular video games and market saturation by giant studios imply {that a} sport should excel in facets like core mechanics, monetisation technique, retention optimisation, and advertising and marketing to succeed financially. We’ve been studying and enhancing our design and improvement expertise to compete on this difficult trade and utilizing third-party companies 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 && mates
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 staff with some launched titles we’re happy with. My recommendation to indie builders is to maintain constructing as a result of every challenge improves your expertise for the subsequent 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 Huge Indie Pitch are glorious for practising pitching expertise and getting precious trade suggestions.
How vital is attending conferences, competitions and networking alternatives for impartial 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 precious for positioning your product sooner or later. My recommendation is to begin 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 useful as a result of successful can enhance confidence, present precious presentation expertise, and open doorways to investments or publishing offers.
What’s your studio presently engaged on?
Jai Bunnag: We’re presently engaged on our second self-published sport, Animal Categorical, the place gamers handle a practice that ferries cute animals the world over. We’re additionally growing help for our ongoing sport, 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 sport? All particulars for the Very Huge Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2024, together with methods to enter, may be discovered on our upcoming occasions web page on BigIndiePitch.com.
If you happen to simply wish to attend the convention, then tickets for Pocket Gamer Connects London 2024 (22-23 January) may be discovered on the Pocket Gamer Connects Web site, with mid-term reductions nonetheless presently accessible till the primary week of January.
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