"Indie development has turned from a creative endeavor into a business with million-dollar budgets," says Elena Morina from Ravenage about the main highlights of 2024

We continue to wrap up the year 2024 with gaming teams (or those associated with the gaming industry) and experts. Next up is an interview with Elena Morina, the CEO and founder of the publishing company Ravenage.

How was the year for the company? What achievements would you like to highlight?

It was a challenging year, but who had an easy one?

We had successful releases, and I would particularly like to highlight the games Heretic’s Fork and Megaloot, which resonated well with users and introduced new mechanics in the category of games designed for relaxation.

Amidst the changing situation in Georgia, where our office was based until recently, we decided to move forward: I relocated the main office to the USA.

We made significant optimizations to the team. This was due to two reasons. First, the next few months will be dedicated to relocation and supporting projects we've already launched. Second, we aim to focus on a specific game genre. Additionally, we plan to start our own development. So, the next few months will be more about organization and creativity.

How has the market changed for publishers over the year?

There are more publishers now. But there are also more developers. There are even more poor and overpriced games. A few years ago, the IT industry collectively lamented the overheated job market. Now it’s safe to say there’s an overheat in the developer market. We somehow missed the moment when indie development moved from being a creative endeavor, which had the potential to succeed and was carried out by 1-5 enthusiastic people, to being a business with million-dollar budgets and 40-person teams. Yet, the games haven’t gotten better. I’ve even stopped considering games with a budget over $100,000 and a development timeline longer than a year. It seems the era of burning mega-dollars on metroidvanias and platformers costing half a million is over and hopefully won’t return.

Has the practice of working with developers changed, and have developers themselves changed?

There are more of them, significantly more, as I mentioned earlier. The quality of pitches is top-notch, but their substance is often quite the opposite. Generally, it takes us only 3-5 minutes to decline, which we usually do. This makes the rare gems, which all publishers hunt for, even more valuable.

Heretic’s Fork

What trends in game publishing do you expect to strengthen or emerge in 2025?

More independence from developers and, as a result, more requests like “we launched a game on Steam a week ago, it’s not selling, now we need a publisher.” ChatGPT opens up huge opportunities, but it also gives many people a false sense of confidence.

What are the company’s plans for the upcoming year?

To find another 1-3 games for the next year and launch our own development. To successfully manage the new relocation.