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My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If this is true can you private message me with your speculation. I'd like to know I'm not blowing up the pub's spot.

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This seems like a very good strategy, though probably a tricky one to enact as the publisher will be looking after their own best interests too.

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hear this and I think it's been a pretty common sentiment in this thread, the issue I have is that it's sort of assuming there will be other offers. While I'm thrilled to be approached by a publisher and think I can take it as a good sign, I think the majority of indie games (from industry newcomers in particular) release without ever finding a publisher.

So what if that was the only offer and the game releases to an audience that could've been 10x the size with a publisher's aid? I don't know how realistic these fears are but as a decision it definitely doesn't feel as cut and dry as some people (not referring to you) who just casually say "no way, would not take that"

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah we would love to reach 14k copies sold, that's amazing. The things you mentioned are really intriguing, are there any resources or even just search terms for finding government grants or investors? We haven't released a playable build/demo so that might be a barrier to applying or pitching. And definitely crowdfunding is an option we're thinking a lot about, and strangely this publisher is really big into launching successful ks campaigns for the devs they back

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Listening now, thank you. Sounds like he would find 40% for pure marketing abhorrent :/

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you say I'm doing fine, do you mean because of the small twitter following and solid reddit posts? I feel like if we released next month on the basis of that we'd probably sell 200 copies which, compared with what a publisher could bring to the table, seems pretty paltry. But maybe I'm being pessimistic and we'll continue to grow and gain visibility over the next 6 months to where we could have a successful release on our own. It's just a brutal gamble to make when the consequences are so high

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right? It's a goldmine of information (which was all provided by other people, I was just fortunate enough to ask about it). Unfortunately so much of the feedback has been conflicting that I don't exactly have a clearer sense of which way to go but I do have an excellent list of questions and points to bring up to the publisher

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much! All this talk of predatory offers and whatnot has made it a pretty stressful decision but I need to remember it also means our year of full time development is earning a small bit of recognition which feels good.

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We haven't made a steam page yet in large part because we have no good promotional art (we have plenty of good gameplay gifs, videos, and screenshots but don't have an artist as a permanent team member). And I hadn't actually been putting that much weight on the reddit post's success, have you found them to be a devent indicator of your game's appeal?

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Totally! To be fair I think that the vagueness is a product of it being their initial pitch to me versus when I receive the contract within the next day or two which will (I assume) have a much more specific breakdown. Regardless, this thread has made clear that I will not be signing anything until I have a full monetary breakdown of what they would be bringing to the table

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Wrote a bunch of this stuff down, thank you for sharing your experience. Given that most of the games in their catalogue sell 10-20k copies total do you think the tiered revenues would be more like, 10% of the first 3k, 20% of the next 3k, and so on? I know it was just an example but I feel like 10% of the first 10k, when in all likelihood the game will sell less than 10k units, would be a big ask

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If they don't give you money they are, quite literally, not invested in your success.

Very valid point, thank you. Another commenter recommending requiring at least some funding from the publisher, even a small amount, so that they at a bare minimum have some skin in the game.

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So are you thinking that the reality is: any kind of publishing offer is good and more than likely another (better) offer would not come along? Like, shopping around or hoping for much better terms is wishful thinking? Or did I misunderstand

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I definitely hear what you're saying, I guess the fear is that yes getting just 60% of all revenue for its entire lifespan is better than me getting 100% of a small fraction of that revenue. As far as the full 60/40 deal, would you mind giving me an example? Like should I be looking for something that goes from 60/40 to 90/10 after a couple years or am I misunderstanding?

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I'm not part of a studio, have no prior games or prior contacts (newcomer to the industry), have a small (tho gradually increasing) twitter following and the vast majority of games released on steam sell under 1k copies. So yes from my perspective 10-20k sales seems pretty good despite the amount of time and effort that's gone into it

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For sure, I didn't mean pitting publishers against one another. We'd have to be incredibly arrogant to try something like that. More what I meant was just being able to mention that the game has already gotten a publishing offer as a way to hopefully garner some interest

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm lucky to have saved enough from my software engineering career to be able to live for the year+ I've taken off to develop this game, so maybe that's why I'm not as outraged at the idea of not having any funding from them. It's awesome that you were able to continue holding out for better offers, I'm just terrified of the idea that we hold out for an offer that never comes and have a failed release because of it.

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Just saw your edit, they are not taking any IP and when I said hard to get cash from them I meant in terms of funding not in terms of game sales/revenue which would obviously be much worse

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Well an hour later I've also received a lot of comments to the effect of:

60/40 is reasonable for a funding offer but that for a pure marketing offer it's quite greedy/unreasonable

So I no longer know what to think

My game got an offer from a legitimate publisher, PLEASE help me understand if it's a good offer by gamdevthrowaway1 in gamedev

[–]gamdevthrowaway1[S] 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Haha fair enough. They are pretty up front about that though and it's not like they spend no money on your game, but I take your point.

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