Interview

The Big Indie Pitch interviews: Psyon Games talks about their science inspired strategy game Antidote

We speak to Psyon Games, the developer who came third at The Big Indie Pitch at Gamescom 2017

The Big Indie Pitch interviews: Psyon Games talks about their science inspired strategy game Antidote

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 Olli Rundgren and Matthew Bond from Psyon Games, who submited Antidote to the Big Indie Pitch at Gamescom 2017 and came third.

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

Olli Rundgren and Matthew Bond: Our team are a bunch of humans, on a mission to make science more accessible.

Antidote is our first game with this mission. It's a top quality mobile game, that feels a bit like a PC game with all the perks of being on mobile. We use science as our inspiration, which is what makes the game weird, even in our eyes.

We set out with the idea of a tower defence, but we ended up with something we could never have predicted, just by following the science.

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

Antidote is a science inspired tower defense game filled with super cute bacteria and viruses that want to destroy you. You'll need to harness your natural defenses to protect your stem cell from the invaders.

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

The indie pitch competition is a great concept. The developer gets great feedback, the judges are professionals and the atmosphere is inspiring, focused, but still very casual.

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

We're always improving the way we design and produce games. Our team has grown a lot - we've got our design and development processes well set up and we're productive with almost no crunch - pretty awesome compared to the early days/ We're looking forward to always growing and creating more.

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

We're looking forward to expanding to a second production or adding major new features to Antidote. We can't tell you more because you'd get too excited and pop. No one wants to clear that up! Okay, perhaps a few little teasers  weather, economics, rockets, fish, bears and an alarming amount of basophil.


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:

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.

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.