The Big Indie Interviews: Holy Cow Productions and Hobo Interactive discuss racing their way to the crown at the first ever digital Big Indie Pitch

09.02.2024 - 12:05 / pcgamesinsider.biz / Mario Kart / Interactive

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

The event gives indies five 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 Goutham Dindukurthi from Holy Cow Productions alongside Nirmal Kolady from Hobo Interactive, who submitted Bot Rods to The Big Indie Pitch (PC+Console Edition) at Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1 and walked away as the champion.

PCGamesInsider.biz: Tell us a little about yourself and your indie studio. Who is in the team and what are their inspirations?

Goutham and Nirmal: Bot Rods is a collaborative effort where three different indie studios from India came together to create a fun world of racing Bots. While we share the IP across our studios, Bot Rods is the brainchild of Hobo Interactive, who also leads the design and concept of the game. Holy Cow takes care of the programming and UI while The Cirqus handles everything on the art and animation front.

Bot Rods started as a concept for a racing centered animated series and was just begging to be made into a game. Our main inspirations are the Crash Team series, and of course the legendary Mario Kart.

We wanted something fun and family-friendly that anyone, regardless of age could pick up and play.

Tell us about Bot Rods that you pitched at the competition.

Bot Rods is a high adrenaline racing game with bots set in a futuristic world. The world is inhabited by adorable characters from many species and their equally lovable Bots (legged robot vehicles). The game is about all-out racing and using a trick or two to get an advantage over your opponents, including quirky weapons and downright ramming your opponents to slow them down. The game will include a single-player campaign mode where you follow a character's journey from rookie to Star Bot pilot. Local Split-Screen Multiplayer on PC and Consoles such as the Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch is a big focus for the game.

What do you think are the most unique and interesting aspects of Bot Rods that gamers may never have seen before?

Unlike traditional arcade racing titles that generally have vehicles with wheels or boosters, Bot Rods uses quadrupeds running around gorgeous tracks and worlds.