Interview

The Big Indie Pitch interviews: Three Dots Games talks about their 80s inspired rhythm-based platformer

We speak to Three Dots Games, the winner of the first ever Big Indie Pitch in Jordan

The Big Indie Pitch interviews: Three Dots Games talks about their 80s inspired rhythm-based platformer

The Big Indie Pitch is a regular event run by the makers of PocketGamer.biz. It sees indie developers engage in a speed-dating-styled pitching competition for fame and those sweet, sweet promotional packages.

The event gives indies four minutes to pitch their games to a panel of press, publishers and industry pundits. The judges then pick three winners and everybody gets valuable feedback.

The indie view

The Big Indie Pitch is getting bigger and bigger as we bring it to events all across the world. To give you an idea of what the event is like, who attends the events and the games on show, we've sat down with a number of past BIP contestants to offer their views.

Today, we're speaking to Wajdi Azar from Three Dots Games, who submited Daft Jump to The Big Indie Pitch at the Jordan Gaming Summit 2017 and walked away as champion.

PocketGamer.biz: Tell us a little about yourself and your indie studio - who is in the team, and what are their inspirations?

Wajdi Azar: I am a games developer who studied programming in Ukraine and game development on the side. I graduated in 2009 and started my first job as a games/apps developer in Jordan. I then worked for several companies, whilst also developing a lot of games independently. Here are video references for some of the games.

Following this, I then decided in 2005 to quit my full time job and start Three Dots Games as an indie studio. This began with just myself, before being joined by Arwa Ismail, a creative friend of mine who is a games enthusiast, graphic designer and audio composer.

We then developed Drop the wheels together and the game has so far achieved 22,000 downloads and a 4.7 rating. After this game we started working on Daft Jump, and my girlfriend Yousr Amri, another passionate games developer, has Joined us. This completed the Three Dots.

Tell us about your latest project that you pitched at the competition.

Daft Jump is the first winner of the BIP MENA 2017. Daft Jump is a rhythm-based platformer game, with art and music style inspired by the 80s. Your target is to jump and dodge obstacles as in most platformer games, however the twist comes when a second character spawns, giving the game a new dimension of challenges.

The title will have 10 challenging levels, and what is more interesting is that when you reach level six there are new layers of challenges besides dodging the obstacles, including having to solve awesome puzzles in order to finish the levels. The final level, “Beat the Boss”, unlocks when you collect badges from all the hard mode levels.

How hard is it to survive as an indie developer working in mobile?

It is so hard to remain focused on your indie project, since you have to work on freelance projects to survive. But if you believe in yourself and the team, you can overcome all obstacles.

How did you find the experience of pitching as a part of the Big Indie Pitch?

We had no experience in pitching games before and it was a little bit scary, but when we met you guys, and especially Simon Drake with his awesome smile and believing that we did something great in Daft Jump, we were relieved.

What do you feel you have gained from the experience and what do you still hope to gain?

We have gained a great amount of experience in terms of how games are pitched. With huge lack of related events in the MENA Region, events such as these have indeed have a big influence and inspiration that will help in future.

Also, we have gained a boost in confidence and trust in ourselves and things we develop.


Want to show off your exciting new game? We host Big Indie Pitch events throughout the year, so be sure to keep an eye out on our events page for an event near you.

Upcoming BIPs include:

Developer Evangelist & Big Indie Pitch Manager / Special Features Writer

Queen of all things Indie. Sophia is Steel Media’s Big Indie Pitch Manager and Developer Evangelist. She’s also a global speaker and lifelong gamer with a fanatical love of all things Nintendo and Japan. So much so that she’s written a thesis on one and lived in the other.