I have to agree with you here, just to give some contra to the opposition. Being a patron of something is different than investing in it - it makes you emotionally attached to it somehow. And that creates people who are excited about your games and will most likely follow it and talk about it more than any ad or forum post could do. On another topic you raised, how do publishers fit in here? What do they ask in return? Revenue share? Links to their own games? Their name on the game? All of the above?
You and BravadoWaffle were mentioning publishers, small and large. Then you mentioned specific ones like Crecent Moon Games?...
Mr ugly is making a point, there's not a lot of publishers out there, it would seem, that are legitimately good options. At least none I know of. Liv Games mentioned they might invest in projects they believed in, but other than them and crescent moon I'm not familiar with any others. Occasionally you will hear about a fund here and there, but that's more funding and not so much publishing. It would be cool to try and partner with one of the more successful indie devs and work a deal where they act as a publisher and leverage their fan base to help publish your game. But most are busy making great games!
And how should such a partnership work? I can guess what's in it for me: in-game cross-links for example, and appearance on their site and perhaps pushed to other review sites. Does it also mean using their resources? In terms of graphics, sound etc? And what's in it for them? Presumably revenue sharing? If so, what normal in this case? Thanks!
Those are things you'd have to work out with them. I really don't have any answers since I've never personally worked with a publisher. However ideally they would give you access to their expertise, artists, and programming advice should the need arise. That is the 'personal touch' that seems to be lacking with big publishers right now. I do know when seeking actual investment capital in businesses I usually look for much more than just money to be on the table if I am to go with a potential investor.
You nailed it. We will have our first published game released at end of this month. You should see an announcement soon. We invest in all the above; Production, feedback, testing, marketing, art, suggestions etc. We are an indie developer and know how. It's overwhelming for a lot of developers, of how much work it takes to make a game successful. We learned this first hand and our goal is to help talented indie developers succeed. Again, it's only projects we believe are true passion projects from the developer and not a quick cash in or clone.
Awesome! You guys rock. I hope you start a trend. Maybe Mika Mobile will even consider doing something similar. This is how real successful businesses are born in a market that is getting more difficult to enter by the day!
