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 Happy Volcano's Jeroen Janssen, who submited The Almost Gone to the Big Indie Pitch at Develop:Brighton 2017 and came second.

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

Jeroen Janssen: I’m one of the founders at Happy Volcano, a small indie studio from Belgium. I wear many hats: producer, game designer and business developer. But I guess my main job is to make sure that the rest of the team can do their job without interruption.

The two other founders are Peter Maasen, lead developer and David Prinsmel our art director. We come from different gaming backgrounds and we not only like different games, but also play very differently. David is very competitive, Peter is a completionist and I just want to rush through games and experience it from beginning till the end. I play most games on easy and I have no shame.

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

The Almost Gone is a mystery point-and-click adventure game where a young girl’s spirit looks for a way out in a magical afterlife. She must fix the moments of death of the people that died in the same second as her. Allowing them to pass over.

In the end, she will have to choose between life or death. It’s a very dark game as her own story is one of family abuse that made her end up in this afterlife. It definitely needs a trigger warning.

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

It’s though as an indie if you work in mobile, desktop or console. There are too many great games and not enough players to play them. We must resort to work for hire to bring in money. It’s finding a balance between client jobs and the thing you want to do.

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

It was a blast, but it’s very hard. You only get a limited amount of time. Four minutes to convince a table of judges and that five times. The first table I did our normal pitch, but it needed to be faster and tighter. Getting to the core much more quickly.

By the end of the 20 minutes I got it down. It was a very good exercise in communication. For that alone it was worth it.

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

We got second place. That’s recognition from industry people we respect. It felt good. We also made some great contacts. Both on the judges’ team, as well as other contestants and even amongst the people who came to support the event. The marketing fee we won is going to come in handy once we release the game.

What are your hopes for this game in the future, and do you have any plans for any future projects?

I hope it touches people. It’s a dark story about death and abuse. We think it’s important that these stories are also told

Personally, I hope the game sells enough for us to be able to work on the next game. So yes, we do have plans for the future, but it’s a little early. First, we want to concentrate on The Almost Gone and make it the best possible game we can.

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:

• The Big Indie Pitch @ Jordan Games Summit 2017 (November 11th 2017)
• The Big Indie Pitch @ G-STAR 2017 (November 16th - 18th 2017)
• The Big Indie Pitch in Dundee 2017 sponsored by Amazon Appstore (November 30th 2017)
• The Big Indie Pitch at The Games Hub, Essex 2017 (December 14th 2017)
• The Very Big Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2018 (22nd - 23rd January 2017)

But there's more! For the first time ever this year we'll be hosting The Big Indie Awards 2017 in association with indieSky. Having just hosted the remote judges voiting, you can look out for our countdown of the very best of The Big Indie Pitch 2017 right here very soon.