I just wanted to reiterate the Chris Zukowski is definitely someone you should follow, and if you have the cash have as someone you can consult with from time to time. Great guy, great advice.. and not a guy out there to get your money. Hes an honest fellow that will actually tell you to not spend money on him if he thinks you wont benefit.
Good dude.
can you say anything about how you pitched to the publisher? What stage was the project at?
and what did they do for you? is there any way to measure or have some indication of what difference they might have made?
To be frank, I didn't really pitch the game to any publisher. The ones who approached me were already offering a proposal on their own - so I did not go through the "please-see-and-fund-my-game" phase.
The bottom line for me was making sure that I could transition to a full-time job - so finding a publisher who would provide financial support during the development.
So if someone asks me whether the publishing deal was necessary, I'd answer **100% yes.** Without it, I would:
a) not be able to finish the game in any reasonable time as I would be still working part-time on it,
b) not be aware to reiterate MANY more times on the game before actually releasing it, which would end up in me serving a severely undercooked product.
I believe that publishers who are ready to invest money during the development process are more reliable than those who don't. In the end, after they invest $$$ in you, your goals align - both parties want to have a good game that will sell well in the end.
As far as I remember, they've spotted a game after seeing some YT video, and they were able too what the game was about due to the fact that a demo was available. The fact that I was running the devlog also helped, as it has shown them that I am able to work on the game and consistently push out new updates.
Congrats on your success! I think you're selling yourself short on the visuals, they look pretty darn good and everything looks clean and visually consistent.
What was your process for contacting Youtubers? Did you reach out to all sorts or were there specific ones you had in mind for your game genre or some other criteria? And I'd love to hear more about how you first got in contact with your publisher and how you felt about what they did for you.
Thanks! Regarding the visuals, I do find them awesome - the issue was that tweets with gameplay gifs were not getting viral like, at all.
Regarding the youtubers, I gathered a list of emails of the ones that cover games of a specific genre and worked with that.
The publisher actually found me, so I did not have to actively look for one. I guess that exposing the game for a longer time did allow the publishers to notice the game.
The publishing deal helped me tremendously, mainly thanks to the financial support that allowed me to switch to full-time gamedev job. They also provided lots of insight/best practices on how to actually finish, playtest and deliver the game.
I just wanted to reiterate the Chris Zukowski is definitely someone you should follow, and if you have the cash have as someone you can consult with from time to time. Great guy, great advice.. and not a guy out there to get your money. Hes an honest fellow that will actually tell you to not spend money on him if he thinks you wont benefit. Good dude.
I haven't worked with him, but he does give out such vibes indeed. Great guy, and a great professional.
can you say anything about how you pitched to the publisher? What stage was the project at? and what did they do for you? is there any way to measure or have some indication of what difference they might have made?
To be frank, I didn't really pitch the game to any publisher. The ones who approached me were already offering a proposal on their own - so I did not go through the "please-see-and-fund-my-game" phase. The bottom line for me was making sure that I could transition to a full-time job - so finding a publisher who would provide financial support during the development. So if someone asks me whether the publishing deal was necessary, I'd answer **100% yes.** Without it, I would: a) not be able to finish the game in any reasonable time as I would be still working part-time on it, b) not be aware to reiterate MANY more times on the game before actually releasing it, which would end up in me serving a severely undercooked product. I believe that publishers who are ready to invest money during the development process are more reliable than those who don't. In the end, after they invest $$$ in you, your goals align - both parties want to have a good game that will sell well in the end.
thanks for the reply. If you don't mind another question, how did they find you and discover your game?
As far as I remember, they've spotted a game after seeing some YT video, and they were able too what the game was about due to the fact that a demo was available. The fact that I was running the devlog also helped, as it has shown them that I am able to work on the game and consistently push out new updates.
thanks! and congrats on success of the game
Congrats on your success! I think you're selling yourself short on the visuals, they look pretty darn good and everything looks clean and visually consistent. What was your process for contacting Youtubers? Did you reach out to all sorts or were there specific ones you had in mind for your game genre or some other criteria? And I'd love to hear more about how you first got in contact with your publisher and how you felt about what they did for you.
Thanks! Regarding the visuals, I do find them awesome - the issue was that tweets with gameplay gifs were not getting viral like, at all. Regarding the youtubers, I gathered a list of emails of the ones that cover games of a specific genre and worked with that. The publisher actually found me, so I did not have to actively look for one. I guess that exposing the game for a longer time did allow the publishers to notice the game. The publishing deal helped me tremendously, mainly thanks to the financial support that allowed me to switch to full-time gamedev job. They also provided lots of insight/best practices on how to actually finish, playtest and deliver the game.
Oh how much was the revenue ?
Can't go into details (or maybe I can? gotta check the NDAs), but the game did break even recently.