One of the joys of working in the Gaming industry is the experience of comradery, new ideas, and watching game developers thrive - there is one place where this is the most evident and that is at Gaming Conventions. Meeting people share your passions is a singular event unto itself, and is one that all of us at Wyrdren have greatly missed.
Since the shenaniganry of the past two years has started to subside, we were thrilled at being able to attend our first convention of the year, PG Connects (PGC). PGC is a mobile games conference that gives people from all backgrounds (publishers, press, investors, etc.) a place to meet and connect. This year, PGC opened its doors to PC developers as well, which included access to the Big Indie Pitch. The Big Indie Pitch is an indie developer competition where developers perform a five minute pitch of their game to 10 judges of various industry professionals, sort of like speed dating for developers. At the end, all competitors receive feedback about their game, and one lucky team will be named the winner of the Pitch and will receive coverage on PCGamesInsider.biz. Suffice it to say, we at Wyrdren were thrilled at the prospect of this opportunity, and were quite eager to attend and be part of the Pitch.
With hours of prep completed and our pitch deck ready to go, Wyrdren headed off to London to see what the day had in store.
There are many lessons to be learned in the process of making and performing a pitch. Whilst Wyrdren has made and performed multiple pitches in the past, it is still very important to customise and adapt to whatever your current pitch may need. In the case of the Big Indie Pitch, adaptability was the most important factor. Initially, we had prepared a pitch that highlighted both Wyrdren and Spellbound: the Magic Within. Once we were at the pitch, we then learned that the judges really only wanted to know about the game, so we quickly amended our materials to solely focus on the game rather than Wyrdren as a company.
As we began meeting with the judges, we started off by reading from our rigid set of notes, but over time adapted what we said to be more off the cuff. We noticed very quickly that the pitch was getting better with each set of judges, and it was allowing us to customise the pitch to fit the judges in a more organic way. By the end of it, we had performed five different pitches, with each one conveying different sets of information each iteration improving.
At the end of the day, whilst we didn’t win the Big Indie Pitch, the day as a whole was a huge win. The opportunity to meet other industry professionals, and receive feedback on both Wyrdren and Spellbound: TMW is priceless. It’s important to not expect perfection, because not only does it not exist, but you run the risk that you miss those opportunities for growth. We are always eager to learn and be better, which is part of the reason we so enthusiastically welcome and encourage feedback.
Conventions as a whole can be invaluable to developers, and PG Connects was a primary example of this. It was an amazing experience, and we were overjoyed to be able to attend and be apart of the Big Indie Pitch. We look forward to going again next year, with a new pitch in hand.
Thanks for reading, and remember to stay Wyrd!