How do I find a publisher?

The Developer Online resource discussed with the heads of major studios what a developer needs to do to find the right publisher. We share a retelling.

The image shows the concept art for The Escapists game

In the last few years, the heyday of indie publishing has begun.

Not a month goes by without news of a new publisher who promises that he will promote your new game and sell it to the most discerning audience.

Of course, getting help at the release stage is sometimes useful, as well as finding the right company that would help bring your original idea to life. But how do you find what’s right for you in a market full of publishers like Devolver Digital, 505 Games, Team17, Curve Digital, Kiss, Versus Evil, Sold Out, Green Man Loaded and so on?

Added value

The head of Team17, Debbie Bestwick, whose company helped the indie hit The Escapists earn $10 million, advises to make sure that the publisher adds value to the project. This implies a lot of things, from advertising in the media, internal testing, localization or porting to the console, to helping to improve the project with the involvement of additional resources.

Debbie Bestwick, CEO of the company Team17

“If the publisher you’re talking to can’t add value to the project, just turn around and leave,” Bestwick recommends.

However, in negotiations with the publisher, there are many points that need to be taken into account.

Garry Williams of Sold Out advises developers to avoid publishers who want to assign a license or demand a share of the company’s shares in exchange for a publishing contract. “Find out more about the people you are going to work with. Ask developers who have already dealt with them – whether the publisher is delaying payments, whether it is fulfilling promises,” he recommends.

Harry Williams, Director of Business Development at Sold Out

Williams also advises paying attention to how the publisher reacts to a game that shows poor performance immediately after release. After all, not all games are destined to get to the top. “Of course, we all want our games to sell to the maximum. But we need to be sure that the publisher knows what to do if the game doesn’t fire – and will save the day, and not just shrug his shoulders,” he comments.

A difficult conversation

Williams argues that the developer should prepare for business negotiations. You need to know what you are asking for and what you want to get in the end. At the same time, he believes that a good publisher does not need to give in too much to force you to sign a contract. He also warns that one should be wary of those who set too tight a time frame.

Tim Woodley, Senior vice president of marketing at 505 Games, recommends asking a potential publisher what his relationship is with leading platforms such as Valve, Apple, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft and Google. It is important to make sure that the publisher has established connections with the largest players of the target platform of your game.

Tim Woodley, Senior Vice President of Marketing at 505 Games

“The big players are new wholesale stores, and getting into the feature in key stores is no less important than it used to be to get on the front shelves in supermarkets. Ask your publisher what his relationship is with leading retailers, how often they see each other, and what his approach to selling titles is.”

Making sure you know what you want from the publisher is only the first step in preparing for negotiations. We also need to prepare a convincing presentation of the project.

Debbie Bestwick believes that developers don’t need to worry too much about it. If the game is good, then the contract is in your pocket. Nevertheless, there are a few points that are good to keep in mind.

“In my opinion, the most useful advice is to always look for information about the game you are doing beforehand. Find every similar game and be ready to answer the question of how exactly your project differs from what is already on the market and from what will be there by the time of release,” Bestwick recommends.

Keep your presentation short. This will help you focus on the key details and remove unnecessary information.

Self-belief

Williams believes that in order to get a contract, a developer must demonstrate not only a good idea and enthusiasm, but also proof that the team is ready to work and there is a plan for future work on the project.

“Despite the fact that the idea of SWOT analysis [a method of strategic planning, which consists in analyzing the factors of the internal and external environment of the company and dividing them into four categories: Strengths (strengths), Weaknesses (weaknesses), Opportunities (opportunities) and Threats (threats), – approx. editors] seem boring, you still need to be able to convey to the publisher why you want to work with this genre, how you are going to bring the game to mind, and how you will then present it to customers,” he explains.

“It seems as if we are talking about obvious things, but many are too carried away by the concept and the target audience, but they forget to devote the necessary time to the schedule, cost, marketing and planning,” Williams continues.

The head of marketing at Kiss, David Clark, says that he wants to understand as quickly and easily as possible what exactly the game is about and how it differs from the rest. “If we are not able to understand this, then how will the buyer understand it?” he comments. So if you have prepared a 400-page disdok, then this simply indicates that you are good with the text, but it will not say anything about the game.

David Clarke, Head of Marketing at Kiss Ltd

It is important to note that publishers receive a variety of game presentations in a variety of ways. Tim Woodley says that 505 Games often draws conclusions about the project based on the opinion of the team. If the studio is large, then a well-prepared presentation with detailed details is expected from it. Woodley, however, notes that publishers tend to be sympathetic to novice developers, and therefore do not expect much from small indie teams at this stage of development.

“When we meet with representatives of micro-studios, for example, at MCV or Developer’s Interface conferences, we often have to deal with people who have no experience working with publishers and do not know how to do it. We ask them questions that may not have occurred to them before, and thus help them put the presentation in order before the official discussion of the project.”

The right time

After you have studied the information and chosen a publisher, and also understood how to prepare a presentation, one pressing question remains – at what stage of the game’s readiness is it best to contact a potential partner? Each publisher has a different answer.

“They say about me that I can sign a publishing contract after seeing a couple of screenshots and gameplay videos. Despite this, ideally I would still like to see the game live, and, more importantly, play it, even if it is still in the prototype stage,” Bestwick comments. – Another thing that needs to be demonstrated at the meeting with the publisher is how you imagine the further development of the game, as well as information about the development team. Because the team is just as important as the game it’s going to make.”

Woodley agrees that a successful presentation requires at least a prototype of the game. He believes that “a good idea is always a good idea,” and claims that he will devote time to any game, no matter if it is close to completion or is at the concept stage. And yet, the best thing is the embodied idea. “It’s immediately clear that the developer believes in his own concept and was not afraid to bring it to life,” Woodley notes. “I would say that all the most successful projects that we eventually decided to approve had some kind of ready-made prototype.”

Williams adds that if you can already “hold the game in your hands” at the early stages of development, then this will help save time when it comes to working with a publisher.

“There is no need to postpone the creation of a prototype for later, since it is convenient to plan a marketing strategy at the concept stage. We really believe that we have the skills that will help you increase the profit from the project, so feedback at an early stage of development ultimately helps to save effort,” he emphasizes.

People in the gaming industry still sometimes scare each other with horror stories about developers who were ruined by an unsuccessful contract with a publisher. However, now the situation in the publishing segment is far from the same as five or ten years ago. Developers now have much more influence, thanks to the fact that it is now possible to release games on their own. Although at the same time, the issue of visibility of projects remains open.

Woodley claims that publishers now have great respect for developers, because they are “the foundation of our industry, we are nothing without them.” He believes that “publishers are much more flexible and dynamic these days than in the past.”

Simon Byron, head of the publishing department at Curve Digital, believes that the main difference is that the mystery that surrounded publishing is no longer there. Good publishers are responsible, open and honest,” he says. Byron says that he witnessed cases when developers, for example, did not see the royalty report. He describes such cases as “absolutely unacceptable.” He notes that in the era of social media, publishers who allow themselves such things will very quickly find themselves in the headlines of thematic resources and lose the trust of developers.

Simon Byron, Head of Publishing at Curve Digital

Byron adds that given all the difficulties publishers have to face, they have to work much harder than before.

“We need to work hard to convince our partners to work with us. Often, developers are convinced that the result from both an independent release and from working with a publisher is the same. Plus, all the proceeds go to the author of the game. But a good publisher is the sun that energizes, not a dark cloud that only does what sucks its percentage of revenue from the developer.”

A source: http://www.develop-online.net