You have to get out there and network says Alistair Aitcheson

my name is alistair aleister acheson i work as a one-man band indie studio i do all my own coding artwork and design as well as well as doing all the business marketing pr side do everything as a kind of one-man army against the world really so what have you come to pocket gamer connects to achieve and what are your aims for the conference i mean my big thing that i'm doing today is i'm demoing my latest game through the expo area the game is called tap handle sabotage and it's a multiplayer can party game for giant touchscreens uh sports up to 52 players on the same screen which is uh yeah it's pretty cool it gets quite hectic and that's uh what i really wanted to use the conference to do was to you know get the game in front of people get the game in front of other developers get getting in front of

people from the press and also get the game in front of useful contacts within the industry because if i can show them what i'm capable of doing then that could be very helpful in building useful contacts in the future how important do you think these conferences are for indie developers i think i mean i have i've been full-time indie for i guess uh just over three years now and it's one of the biggest things that i've learned is just how important it is to go out there to network to meet people it doesn't matter whether they're doing the same as you and they're also in the developers or if they're you know big companies had networks press or even general public um every opportunity you have to meet people is an opportunity to help you grow your business and help you understand what you're doing better and it makes you realize your mistakes and makes you realize the new opportunities that are open to you so i mean i am adam and every indie should go to as

many conferences as humanly possible have you had a chance to network with a lot of people yeah guys it's been really good actually um i've had a lot of opportunities to network there's been a good crowd of people around there's uh a lot of indies like myself which uh it's good good fun some familiar faces some new faces that i haven't met before um yeah no it's been really good so far it's only the beginning right now but uh i can't wait to see how it builds up yeah i mean obviously you've not taken part in the beginning yet you're going to be doing that later today but for now what challenges do you face growing your business in the current climate and is getting your game discovered the biggest issue yes getting my game discovered is the biggest issue um as an indie developer especially on mobile the marketplaces there aren't there's nothing window space in the marketplaces um no matter what platform you're on which makes it quite difficult um to get spotted unless you have some kind of leg

up from somewhere another issue that mobile faces is because a lot of people you know even hardcore gamers approach mobile with a lot more of a kind of casual attitude there's fewer people looking for the next big thing on mobile people in a way i think a lot of people a lot of players and consumers expect to find that through the app stores just by having it presented to them which means as a developer you really have to work very hard on promoting just what it is about your game that makes it special unique the kind of experience that no one would ever have had on any other um from any other developer have you had a chance to speak to any members of the press today um yeah no i've i had a couple of uh the pocket gamer writers playing the game i had a good chance to tell them all about it i'm obviously looking forward to the indie pitch because there is a really good crowd of uh journalists there

um and i'm really just looking forward to meeting as many as i can not just right now but also at the drinks evening afterwards um these things are always uh you know going to the pub afterwards is always a very good way to network um it's not just about the time you spend at the venue absolutely and finally what are your targets for this year and what mobile trends do you see dominating during the next 12 months so tap happy sabotage my new game i'm planning to get that out in the next few months on windows as well as ios and android and i want to i want this new game is designed predominantly for giant touchscreen so i want to get this game out onto as many giant touch screens as possible i want it played at public events like uh events like the wild rum first and uh the multiplayer game picnics that you get in

the netherlands i really want to have my games as a part of these kind of events and really establish myself as someone who is doing really exciting stuff with these giant touch screens um because that's one of the big things that uh particularly windows 8 at this stage i'm sure other os's will catch up um but it's an os which allows you to work with a giant touch screen and it's an incredible incredible interface especially for social play and i want to be able to say to the world look there's incredible stuff you can do with this um and i'm busy exploring it right now and talking to wizard the android large sort of tablets as well i think also android are you doing anything for that or do you think that markets may be a bit too limited um i really i want to get it on anything and everything if it's got a big screen i want you to be able to play

my game on it i'm building a game in unity which means it's easy to port to a lot of different platforms um android uh ios and windows 8 are all included and so i don't yeah definitely the giant android tablets are definitely within my size because uh well a why not and b if you have one of these devices i want you to be able to enjoy this social experience okay i wish you the very best of luck at the big individual later thanks cheers