Publishing Companies

#1 I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure publishing companies only want "proven hits."

If you have little to no experience and no succesful titles under your belt, finding a publisher is going to be difficult.

#2 Your probably dreaming if you think you will get a publisher, especially before the game is done. Finish a good game then you might be able to pick up a publisher to bring it to stores.

#3 Tim is totally right, unless you are a proven AAA team you have very little chance of getting the attention of a big publisher. The only avenue is to drop a completed mind blowing game in their lap.

--Rick

#4 Maybe we should qualify completed? A demo should be ok, you don't necessarily have to have the game ready to go gold at the drop of a hat.

#5 I disagree. I think it does need to be gold and showing promise. Sure you can get lucky with a demo probably... but are you wanting to really base all your hopes on a very lucky shot? Remember it has to be a Quality game to stand a chance.

When the big boys are dealing with indies its really unfair to the indies. I've been burned twice, once by a VERY well known Publishing Company and the other time by a well known Pro Developer Company. They make promises then decide on down the road they don't want to do it or they just break their promises, I mean your a nobody to them, so they only have to keep you interested long enough for them to be satisfied.

#6 We got real far down the path with a big name publisher (and a smaller name publisher), we had strong proposal work, but little completed electronic assets. They were interested enough to ask for a demo.

Then they shoved the proposal into a black hole ;)

Publishers want competent teams, with demonstrated experience working together and making a game. If you don;t have that, you pretty much have to have a completed game to even get their attention.

We got lucky (well, sorta, we also spent alot of money) and got a couple introductions from our engine vendor (not GarageGames for the project I am talking about) and got some facetime at E3.

But, like I said, for all the positive things that seemed to be happening, we got shelved (at least by that company), probably in favor of a team with a completed game and a proven record.

Live and learn ;) We'll make Lore, then we'll start bugging people again if we think it's really worth the energy to pursue the big boys again.

It may not be ;)

#7 Finish the game, because chances are they will ask for a bunch of other stuff to be put in. If they don't you are ready to ship before they can pass you over. Kind of a strike while the iron is hot thing.

#8 You're probably right on that point.

Another benefit to finishing the game on your own is that you've got a better bargaining position than you would have had if you needed their money to develop the game.

#9 Heh, its damn hard. The reason I am making indie games is that the company I worked for went under. we created a game funded by investors and had the game mostly complete when we got our publisher, which was not the best publisher out there but no one would give our game a look in.

We encountered several problems. the main hurdle being that allthough we had all made games before with other companies, most of us were ex atari, ex midway, 3DO etc and we had a cross platform engine, a game 80% done.

But we didn't have a shipped product that we had made as a team. Our first game was a vehicle combat title, and the twisted metal series had flopped since we started to create this one.

We had initially focussed on Xbox when all the publishers wree only interested in PS2. When we did get a publisher they wanted 75% emphasis PS2 25% Xbox and only because we allready had a xbox version.

We completed the game to the point that it was going through final QA testing. Our publisher had a row with sony about what, no one would tell us. Our publisher dropped the project without explanation and we had no funds with which to pursue the problem. The publisher refused to talk to us. Sony refused to talk to us and told us to ask our publisher.

In thd end we harassed our contact in Sony and managed to get the results from our second QA testing phase and the bug report was incredible. From it we gleaned that the publisher had intentionally submitted a beta version of the game to Sony in order to get out of our contract.

a week later the publisher released a nother title in the same genre made inhouse that bombed terribly, its an xbox game where you race arund circuits having heart attacks lol.

Anyway it was kind of an insult. We fnished the game and sold it for pennies and its coming out on a budget label in europe.

We tried selling a demo that was the equivalent of a baldurs gate 2 dark alliance with all the same effects on the PS2, masked cubic reflections and all that stuff, and had negotiations with about 5 publishers, ufortunately no one was able to find a license that they could put to the game. We got close to being published by midway but then midway west closed down. And in the end we went our seperate ways.

So getting a publisher without a proven track record even with a completed game is not impossible but not far from it.

Thats why I decided to try indie games and am currently the second half of a 2 man team that spent the last 3 months creating Aerial Antics.

there are a few screenshots in my latest plan if anyones interested :)

Hopefully this will get published By GG, and perhaps realone and being ony 2 of us we an at least make a little money out of what is a fun, addictive game that fits into a genre that hasn't already been done to death :)

#10 Ouch, Adrian!
I mean, I suspected that Big Players League had lots of dirty powerplay, but nothing of that scale..

This thrusts little trust in the very model of retail.

#11 Heh - Adrian.

I helped write the first Twisted Metal game. I did weapons, special effects, and some of the AI.

I didn't have as much to do with #2. #3 and #4 we blame squarely on Sony. Too bad your company wasn't able to pick up the torch and run with it. Then again, even when some of the original TM team went to work on a vehicular combat game (Rogue Trip), they couldn't recapture the magic.

I thought Twisted Metal Black looked pretty good. Haven't played it much though.

#12 For some reason, many developers uphold a publishing deal as the "Holy Grail" of game development. I have no idea why.

When we started our initial project, publishers wouldn't even look at us. We were inexperienced, without a proven product. We simply had "ideas" based on a well-known genre (however, that genre was untested and unproven in the mobile market) and the drive to succeed.

Even at our initial launch, OEMs and publishers were uninterested, because they needed "proof" of steady sales.

NOW, we have had numerous publishers and OEMs contact us about our games(s) in the mobile market. We have a complete game, it is a top seller 2 years running, winner of numerous awards including Peoples Choice- so it is a proven product. However the contracts they expect you to sign are a friggin joke, and their promises are even MORE laughable.

We own all our IPs (Intellectual Property), we own the future of our games and their potential, and nobody can "kill" our project without notice.

No, we don't get a steady salary during the design phase, but money isn't the main reason I am a developer (if it was, I would have taken one of the jobs offered to me). I design because its fun. I don't have to answer to anyone or hit a christmas deadline even if the game is only 50% completed. I don't have to play stupid political games, jump through hoops or lick anyones ass.

We released the game almost 2 years ago under our own marketing and sales avenues, and I still get royalty payments on a top-selling game I worked on for 4 MONTHS. This kind of freedom and payment is why I am an independent developer.

-randall

#13 It's probably an ego thing, but it's also that many developers don't want to bother with sales and marketing in any way. GG and such might be the best way these days for guys like that, since they won't rob you blind.

#14 Ego and a sense of validation might mean something. Publishers also provide some other services too, besides the VERY critical marketing and distribution. They CAN insulate a developer from certain costs. For example, if a publisher funds development, and the game tanks, it is the publisher that absorbs the losses. The developer may have a tough time working for that publisher ever again, but nevertheless they don't directly have to shoulder the debt.

I forget the exact numbers, but I heard that Doom 1 sold something like 150,000 copies via shareware... but Doom 2, distributed by GT and in the stores, sold something like 2 million. I guess everyone dreams that maybe their game could be the next Doom - and that has been the only way it would happen.

But I think as time goes on, publishers of all media are going to find themselves increasingly diminishing in their traditional role, and will have to re-invent themselves.