At this year's Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan we once again ran our Very Big Indie Pitch competition - a speed-dating style event that we regularly take to shows around the world. It offers developers a chance to get their games in front of expert judges, gain valuable feedback, and maybe even a prize!
For a glimpse of what The Very Big Indie Pitch is all about, here's developer Mostafa Harb of Hyena Hon to talk about Crush! and their experience pitching at the competition.
PCGamesInsider: Tell us a little about yourself and your indie studio. Who's on the team, and what are their inspirations?
Mostafa Harb: Hyena Hon consists of two people, Jawad Karaky and Mostafa Harb (myself). We’re based in Lebanon and we mostly make arcade/party games.
We’re inspired by games with great storytelling - like the Horizon series, anything by Larian Studios, and pre-2015 Ubisoft. We also love flash games from the early internet era, especially ones from Newgrounds.
Tell us about your latest project that you pitched at the competition.
Crush! is a two player competitive party game where both players pilot the same vehicle. It’s a unique concept that started out as a game jam project about a duck and a worm fighting over a spaceship.
It’s gone through many iterations since then as we believed this should be a full-fledged game, and we’re glad we continued putting work on it as almost everyone who tried it at PGC loved it.
How hard is it to survive as an indie developer?
Being an indie developer, especially in Lebanon, can be a bit difficult. You have the usual hardships of being an indie developer which means a delicate balance between following your passion and paying the bills.
Your activities sometimes have to take a backseat to your immediate needs of getting a stable job in order to survive in an increasingly expensive world. You have to scrape for funding wherever and however you can to keep your dream, already battered and disfigured, from dying off completely.
Add to that the volatile nature of Lebanon itself. Inflation is at an all-time high, displacement because of war, the future of the entire country is uncertain. You have to live with double the stress and make double the effort to achieve anything.
How was your experience pitching as a part of the Big Indie Pitch?
At first, it was very stressful as we’ve never pitched to publishers before, but once the judges saw the game and got as excited as we are about it, everything went much smoother.
It was such a joy seeing them having fun playing it and just focused on the gameplay itself while also wanting to know more about it. It was a wonderful experience.
What do you feel you have gained from these experiences and what do you still hope to gain?
We’ve gained a lot of valuable feedback, from your casual gamers to the judges themselves, and every single one of those suggestions was written down and studied after the event was over.
We’ve actually incorporated a lot of the feedback we got and are continuing to do so. But most importantly, we gained more confidence about our game after seeing many happy faces (and ruined friendships) from trying Crush. Hopefully we gain more traction and funding to realize our vision for the game.
What are your hopes for this game in the future and do you have any plans for any future projects?
We hope to develop the game further with the help of artists and modelers in order for it to reach its full potential.
We imagine it with a unique cartoonish and goofy art style, different factions, and more mechanics to frustrate your friend/opponent. Ideally, we want to polish it well and release it on Steam so you can absolutely crush anyone who doubted your skills behind the wheel.
We have several ideas for future projects, but we still have not settled on which one we will commit to yet. The ideas include an educational cooking game to teach Lebanese recipes, a racing game set in Lebanon because of its unique roads filled with potholes, lack of any traffic rules and other hazards, a narrative game that is accessible for the blind about the life of Al Ma’arri where you walk through his shoes and experience life as the blind talented poet, as well as other ideas that still need fleshing out.
Want to show off your exciting new game? We host Very Big Indie Pitch events throughout the year, so be sure to keep an eye out on our events page for an event near you. Applications for Pocket Gamer Connects London are now open and filling up fast!
