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publishing a big indie game be like:
-30% from steam
from that -60% from publisher
from that -~40% taxes
giving you a grand total of 17% of sales dollars that you can use for yourself
crazy how many medium sized indies fell for this trap repeatedly over the past ~15 years
happy that it happens less nowaadayas
-30% from steam
from that -60% from publisher
from that -~40% taxes
giving you a grand total of 17% of sales dollars that you can use for yourself
crazy how many medium sized indies fell for this trap repeatedly over the past ~15 years
happy that it happens less nowaadayas
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@snacks @lebronjames75 publishing a game without a publisher is suicide
big companies will sue you over anytjing knowing you cant defend yourself
big companies will sue you over anytjing knowing you cant defend yourself
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@paula8 @lebronjames75 and there's still self published games releasing and being succesfull
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@lebronjames75 @paula8 only case of this actually happening i can think of is palworld
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@snacks most indies in ye olde days of more than 5 years ago believed strongly, that to get on steam, the only possible way is with the help of a large publisher (which before Steam Greenlight, was outright true. however the past belief also stayed way after that too. only around 2017 with Steam Direct, did the widespread belief start to disappear and people started to not fall for the publisher scams so much). the devs would finish the game, sign a contract with a publisher, see that "this is the industry norm" and get fucked 900 fist fucks per second in the ass, stomach and face.
Devolver Digital claim to fame as a publisher for indie devs paraded on the fact that "you need a publisher, but we are not scummy!"
Cave story on steam is a famous example of this happening. The publisher does nothing, lies to the one or two man team dev, the devs fall for it, the devs get practically nothing, they might even lose value or the IP permanently.
Paradox Interactive used to be a scummy, evil, bad-actor who took indie-games to steam as a publisher- most their steam-published games got an absolute dogshit contract with lower-end, single digit % revenues for the dev (after steam cut). This wasnt the exception, this used to be the industry standard until 2015-2017, and then in a few years after it transformed into the status that seems more logical today (why pay 90+% of your revenue to a publisher for not even advertising your game or protecting it from court cases AND stealing your IP so you cant do any sequels yourself?)
Devolver Digital claim to fame as a publisher for indie devs paraded on the fact that "you need a publisher, but we are not scummy!"
Cave story on steam is a famous example of this happening. The publisher does nothing, lies to the one or two man team dev, the devs fall for it, the devs get practically nothing, they might even lose value or the IP permanently.
Paradox Interactive used to be a scummy, evil, bad-actor who took indie-games to steam as a publisher- most their steam-published games got an absolute dogshit contract with lower-end, single digit % revenues for the dev (after steam cut). This wasnt the exception, this used to be the industry standard until 2015-2017, and then in a few years after it transformed into the status that seems more logical today (why pay 90+% of your revenue to a publisher for not even advertising your game or protecting it from court cases AND stealing your IP so you cant do any sequels yourself?)
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@lebronjames75 @fiore @paula8 activision blizzard is a publisher tho? Blizzard entertainment and the cod studios are technically seperate companies published by them as far as i understand
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@snacks @fiore @paula8 my jab's point was, that using "has publisher" boolean as a metric is worthless for declaring a game "indie" or not since 15(+?) years ago. that would make games like Starcraft 2, diablo 3 (and arguably also activision blizzard post merger games), half life 2, half life alyx, the most recent counter strikes into indie games (or atleast partially indie games). goes against the alternative indie requirement, which is much more commonly referred to, budget and workforce size (both of which's limits at which one becomes the other, are vague on purpose). simultaneously, such a boolean metric would invalidate games like Cave Story, Hotline Miami (and every devolver game), Darkwood, to name a few, from being considerable as Indie games. If a game is 95% developed by a shoestring budget by a 2 or 5 man team, and has near no input from the publisher during the last 5%, then it doesnt make sense to round up the 5% into a 100%. in fact, there is a better much word for that: "Self-Published" or "Published". not the word "Indie" or not.
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@lebronjames75 @fiore @paula8 tbh, just brought it up because there was a controversy around that basically because it has too good graphics
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@fiore @paula8 @snacks
i think the following
Exp33 has:
>~10 million budget
>~40 workers
>doesnt have weird in-house engine (is UE5)
it is AA (double A), similar to Hades, HollowKnightSilkSong, Ori&The Will of the Wisp. Can be called Indie, as its in the inbetween limbo of being close to a triple AAA triple digit million dollar budget title, but still falling shy from it. at the same time, not being forced into development constraints by a giant publisher from the get go (or worse, being essentially commissioned by a giant publisher to make a slopsequel).
funnily, the only time i heard about it was for the Game Awards wins the game had, i never saw or watched anything about it before or after it. i forgot i even heard about the game at the Game Awards.
i think the following
Exp33 has:
>~10 million budget
>~40 workers
>doesnt have weird in-house engine (is UE5)
it is AA (double A), similar to Hades, HollowKnightSilkSong, Ori&The Will of the Wisp. Can be called Indie, as its in the inbetween limbo of being close to a triple AAA triple digit million dollar budget title, but still falling shy from it. at the same time, not being forced into development constraints by a giant publisher from the get go (or worse, being essentially commissioned by a giant publisher to make a slopsequel).
funnily, the only time i heard about it was for the Game Awards wins the game had, i never saw or watched anything about it before or after it. i forgot i even heard about the game at the Game Awards.
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