Day 1 at Reliance Games’ Pocket Gamer Connects 2015 culminated amidst much fanfare and a grand party with the Very Big Indie Pitch being the highlight of day where one developer had a chance to win global publicity, investments and publishing contracts, and a cash prize of one million rupees, with an add on opportunity to be incubated at the Reliance Games studio.
Very Big Indie Pitch started as Game Hack across six cities in India, along with Frame your idea – Game Hack in FICCI Frames. The Game Hack had over 700+ developers participating to win big at PGConnects Bangalore.
Several game developers from Game Hack lined up at the I love Indie showcase with pitching occurring behind closed door and the final pitching happening at the end of the day. Five developers, put their games on show in front of the large audience for the mega prize. Top five developers of the day were BYOF (Discover O), Yellow Monkey (Socioball), Xigma Games (Super Nano Games), June Software (Mask Gun) and Dropout Games (UnWynd).
- [L-R] Manish Agarwal (CEO, Reliance Games); Chris James (MD, Steel Media); Winner – Himanshu Manwani, Xigma Games; Eli Hodapp (Touch Arcade, Editor in Chief); Alysia Judge (News Editor, PocketGamer.biz); Danny Russell (Writer, PocketGamer.co.uk); Peter Wellington (Editor, AppSpy); Keith Stuart (Games Editor, The Guardian)
Xigma Games emerged the winner of the Very Big Indie Pitch for its Super Nano Gamesat the Reliance Games’ Pocket Gamer Connects 2015 with Yellow Monkey securing the Runners Up position.
On winning at this platform Xigma Games, founder, Himanshu Manwani said, “For any aspiring Indie developer, the most difficult part is to get noticed by investors, publishers and the media. This is where Reliance Games’ Pocket Gamer’s Connect Bangalore – The Very Big Indie Pitch stepped in. I am very glad to have got this opportunity and having won a sum of 1 million rupees and the desired recognition. A platform where I could showcase my game Super Nano Games to the Indian and international stalwarts of the mobile gaming industry and receive their feedback and appreciation is a big achievement in itself and could not have asked for more. I am ecstatic with this win and thank the organizers and everyone who believed in my game. Really look forward to seeing this game go live and taking it global.”
The road for Game Hack does not end here as next year Reliance Digital CEO Manish Agarwal promises it to be bigger and will not be limited to India. Game Hack will be travelling to South East Asia with PGConnects being an Asian conference rather than India centric.