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We learn more about 7 upcoming titles from the Indie Showcase at BIG Conference 2022

It's smaller games, but they got a bigger space this year at BEC in Bilbao and we stopped by the booth of seven indie projects to talk to their young developers and to discover them before they make it to the market.

Audio transcription

"Hi Gamereactor friends, we are in Bilbao for the BIG Conference which has a big space for the smaller indie games this year and there is plenty of games and we are going to tour around to find some highlights so come join us! Our first stop in the Indie Showcase at the BIG Conference in Bilbao is in the Crown of Wu so can you please tell us what is the game about?
We took a look at it in Malaga at Game Police so we really wanted to learn a little bit more about it Ok, the game is like a parallel story about the Journey to the West a classic Chinese tale and we have created a kind of new world in which technology and religion are the same thing and you have to recover the big crown that was used by Wu to commit crimes and now he was jailed for that and now he needs to recover it to destroy or to use it again And that's the story and what's the gameplay like?
Ok, the gameplay is adventures, a little bit of action with combats a new kind of combat which is more agile than the slow combats of Dark Souls it's more agile and also you have to solve some puzzles and a kind of platforming and the gameplay is challenging And what's the status of the project and on which platforms is it going to release?
It's going to be released in all platforms in March-April 2023 Thank you so much! Thank you Next stop in our Indie Tour at Big Conference is Nox which actually won the Best University Game Award yesterday So thank you so much for joining us, Yaumeh What I find lovely about this game is the premise, the concept which is all about sleep paralysis Tell us about it Sleep paralysis is a disorder when you wake up in the night but you are not really awake where you could suffer some hallucinations like watching people in your room or something that happens around you but the most important thing is that you can't move That was the basis to create Nox We explored and we wanted to approach that concept using also Esther to create that dream world with impossible architectures, impossible gravities a really big challenge trying to combine all that things to make a game that is not really a terror, it's more like a creep and all of that is from the first person perspective As we are seeing it's like an adventure and you have to face those fears What's the status of the project and when are you planning to release it and on which platforms?
We are just in the process to do it We hope that we could put it in the Steam as soon as possible We don't know what is going next but with the awards and some other opportunities that have been offered to us maybe we will keep going with the game because we have really nice ideas and things that we could try with the game but because of the time and other problems that we had we couldn't do it on time Thank you so much for your time Jaume Looking forward to playing it, take care and sleep tight Well, the same to you Alright, next stop had to be this booth here because you know a year ago I was talking to Arturo Monedero at a bar and then he told me I'm going to show you this idea and this was sort of in development and it was literally idea that now was nominated as the most innovative game at yesterday's awards Thank you so much for joining us Alexandra What is this idea about?
I kind of know but it's interesting because you are mixing real life images and what are players going to do here?
This is really fresh and unique Right, thank you Idea is a physics based platformer game where you lead a light bulb representing an idea of yours so you should lead it by bumping the bulb like in a pinball or a pachinko the bulb always falls down so you should lead it until one of the nine endings that you have around the map The map is captured by drones so each screen is a short 4K video and you have different ways or paths to lead your light bulb, your idea with or by so once you reach one of those endings a pop-up emerges and you can leave there your own idea for other players to read so when other players reach the same ending that you reached out can read your idea and leave an idea of theirs so it's like leaving a message in a bottle and others anonymously would read what your thoughts are the optimism of the humanity could be transmitted by a video game Was it released already and on which platforms can we expect to share our drone based ideas?
Right now we have a demo on Steam and it has been recently announced that we will release the game in January 2023 for Android, iOS and PC Can we expect it to land on the Nintendo Switch as well?
Yes, we can expect it but we are dealing about the booting and so on so we cannot ensure it will be ready to go in January 2023 but it will for sure Thank you so much for your time Alexandra Ok, next stop is Curse of the Sea Rats and it's a Metroidvania, well, a Ratoidvania that I was looking forward to learning more about which is based in Barcelona and it has a couple of things that are really interesting and different to the norm in the genre Thank you so much for joining us Moni and Claudia First of all, tell me about the graphics because you know the animation reminds me of the cartoons I used to watch when I was a kid but it combines 2D and 3D so what can you tell us about it?
About the characters are full 2D hand-drawn even the animations and all the environment is 3D with a cell shading for a more cartoony aesthetic The game has a lot of 80s references from animation and other video games Like Human, for example For example, we don't have to spoil the game or Pirates of the Caribbean so the player is going to find a lot of inside jokes so the game will be very funny to play individual, single player or cooperative If the game is a local cooperative you can choose your favorite character and play all the game with that character or you can change the portals with Master Wuyun As it's rated Vania what type of... I don't know if you have abilities that you unlock and then you can revisit or backtrack to some other areas in the map?
Yeah, you have special abilities based on elemental powers like fire, water, air and earth and there is a point when you can unlock them and play with it Ok, what's the status of the project?
When is it going to release and on which platforms?
The project is finished so in early 2023 will be released on PlayStation, Xbox, Steam and Nintendo Switch Alright, thank you so much for your time Thank you so much! Another stop at this booth as we are going to talk about a Mecha Werewolf with Howl of Iron I've been hearing a lot about this game but I don't know what it is actually about Well, it's a third-person action game in which you are Vincent Bulck he is our mechanical werewolf and you are trying to revenge your family because right here there is the dictatory company that rules the city it's forcing you to try to revenge them and you are moving through the city, Steamfall and it's an industrial city and you need to hunt the enemies because they are on patrols controlling the city to try to catch you What's the status of the project?
Are you guys looking for a publisher?
What can we expect from it?
We are looking for a publisher It's like a demo version of the game we do a vertical slice of that and we worked for 9 months and we are trying to get a little bit of..."

"And on which platform is it running?
It's on PC, at the moment it's on PC Thank you so much for your time, Tony! Thank you! Another stop, this is a bullet hell game in which you don't shoot, I think and it also has a nice, interesting story background What can you tell us about it?
Thank you so much! You're welcome! So, Ball and Bounce Hell is a non-shooting bullet hell set in pre-Columbian America so the main topic about this game is that as you previously stated, you cannot shoot so in this case, the best attack is a good defense and it's inspired in pre-Columbian cultures so basically there are two levels the first one is set in a jungle environment and the second one is more like an urban settlement so basically you can see this transition inspired by all the cultures from this period And what about the powers you use?
Do you sort of absorb what you're getting as incoming attacks?
Yes, so the main thing is you use a staff a big staff as your main defense weapon so the enemies shoot at you like energetic projectiles and once you rebound these projectiles a combo bar, a combo meter bar is filled and then you can imbue your staff, your weapon in the powers of the enemies because they are special enemies for example, an explosive enemy might let you imbue your projectiles in explosive damage and for example, a sniper enemy might let you imbue your power, your staff in freezing powers so we play with these kinds of extra powers And what's the status of the project and when are you planning on releasing and on which platforms?
So basically now we have 10 to 15 minutes of demo so there are two levels currently the demo is available on itch.io and on Steam and currently we are assessing where we are at we are seeing the interest that the people have in our game and then we will plan if we move forward with the project or we just finish this or..."

"we are assessing the situation Ok, thank you so much for your time Thank you for your time too Alright, next stop had to be Party Games because this game was awarded as the best game from the best country so thank you so much for joining us, Miquel What can you tell us about the game?
I know the genre, I think The genre, I think it's a party game It's a party game, yes, it's a party game Well, we have a map, you toss a die and with the die result you go forward then there's a mini-game afterwards that determines a bonus for the next row so that gives a lot of fun to the players and well, what can I say?
It's a very interesting game, a very fun game oriented to the family and we have a big community behind that sent us ideas That's why you won?
Well, no, we won because our game is really fun and it's... well, people love it 2 million people have downloaded the game so I think that's a very good metric That's a testament So on which platforms is it available?
It's available in iOS and Android It's a mobile game after all Do you plan to release it on consoles?
Not at the moment, there's no plans for a console release because we are a mobile game studio so that's it After the award, what's next for your studio guys?
I mean, we're working on several projects because since we are like 25 people in the studio so we group on groups of 3 and 4 like 2 developers and 1 artist and 1 game designer and we work on a lot of projects I cannot say because we just ended 2 projects and we are going to start the meetings of next projects soon so keep in touch on our social media Stay tuned, alright, thank you so much for your time, Miquel Thank you so much"

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