News

Check out Polyganic, Planet Quest, and Flame Over, the three winners at our most recent Big Indie Pitch at Apps World

The big three

Check out Polyganic, Planet Quest, and Flame Over, the three winners at our most recent Big Indie Pitch at Apps World
|
iOS + Android + PS Vita ...

Yesterday we held one of our Big Indie Pitch events at Apps World in London. For those who aren't in the know, these are essentially speed-dating events for developers and journalists.

Devs get three minutes to pitch their game to a table of journos or other industry figures, then someone honks a horn and they shift around to the next table and make the pitch again.

Once all the pitches have been seen by every table, we tot up the scores, and decide on a top three, who walk away with some fabulous prizes. Including but not limited to a baseball bat.

There's food, there's booze, there's a bag full of balls that's slowly emptied, and it's generally a lovely old time.

There were a few standout titles at the show yesterday, but these are the three that took away the top prizes. They're definitely worth keeping an eye on.


First Place - Polyganic by Fluff Stuff Studios
yt
Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on

A retro-infused twist on the Flappy Bird formula, Polyganic mixes together shades of Geometry Wars, an endless runner, and an arcade dodge-'em-up to great effect.

There's a shape racing across the screen, and rather than controlling the angle of its darting, you need to shift the scenery so that it doesn't crash into any of it.

Essentially you're threading a speeding bit of cotton through the eyes of a bunch of needles that are in the wrong place.

Collecting gold coins sets off a fever mode that switches up the muted neon palette to something altogether more garish. It speeds things up too.

Your shape starts as a triangle, but upgrades as you play, turning into bulkier, more angular models that are harder to fit through the dwindling gaps you're creating for it.

It's sharp, it's fun, it's simple, and it definitely has its heart in the right place. Polyganic is set to hit iOS, Android, and Windows Phone later in the year, and it'll be free when it does.


Second Place - Planet Quest by outofthebit
yt
Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on

A brilliantly simple rhythm action game that sees you zapping creatures with a laser as they stomp around the side of a planet.

You need to blast the dancing beasts in time with the beat of some great music. It's all pixel noise and swooshes, chirrups and party kicks. And it's all built on the fly, as you play.

Flowers pop up from time to time as well, and you need to avoid shooting those or suffer the consequences. It's pretty tough, and in no way lenient if you start messing up.

Sometimes the camera zooms out and you're left squinting to see what's just popped up on the world and when you need to shoot it.

Bright, primary coloured graphics finish off a package that's riotous good fun and a huge challenge all at the same time.

Planet Quest is set to hit iPad and iPhone sometime later this year, and it's another one that'll be free to download when it lands.


Third Place - Flame Over by Laughing Jackal
yt
Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on

A roguelike-inspired fire fighting game that sees you traipsing through randomly generated buildings putting out fires, rescuing trapped civilians, and saving cats.

The game plays in a slightly skewed top-down perspective, and mixes fast-paced action with common sense fire prevention skills to make something pretty intriguing.

Different building are all made of different materials, all of which burn in different ways. You've got a couple of fire-fighting tools at your disposal though.

Pulling the left trigger on the Vita fires your extinguisher, and pulling the right trigger fire your hose. You control the blasts like you'd control the gunfire in a twin-stick shooter.

The extinguisher is betting at putting out flames, but the hose soaks the area as well, meaning the fire is less likely to catch again.

There are online leaderboards so you can share your run times with your friends, and the art style is chunky and nice to look at.

Flame Over is slated to hit the PSN somewhere around the end of January, and it'll cost somewhere in the region of £7-10 when it does.

Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.