Exploring the Past, Present, and Future of Indie Gaming’s Most Prolific Publisher

When it comes to getting your game into the hands of prospective customers, going with a publisher is often a smart option. They can help with funding, marketing, and in some cases, even development. But not all publishers are created equally.

Some are horrible to work with, cut you bad deals, and don’t really let you create what you want to create.

I took a deep look at Devolver Digital for Playboy Gaming, from its founding, to its position now in the middle of 2016, and even looking forward at its future. I interviewed founders of the company and even chatted with some of the talented developers that make games under the Devolver umbrella.

In all cases, everyone had nothing but amazing things to say about the company:

Of all of the different developers I spoke to who have worked with Devolver over the past few years, there wasn’t a single negative thing to be said. “Due to bad luck and circumstances at the time, we would’ve shut down our studio in 2008 if it weren’t for them. We’ll never forget that,” said Damjan Mravunac from Croteam. That’s a common sentiment held by the developers Devolver has worked with.

Here is Nigel Lowrie, one of the co-founders, on how they locate the games that they eventually publish:

“I go through everything from TIGSource to IndieDB and Steam Greenlight, just browsing through to see what might be neat out there,” said Lowrie. “I get probably five to ten emails a week on pitches for games of varying sizes. But honestly, we’re still out there grinding. We walk through events, we cold call people, we do whatever we can. If we see something we really like and we think there’s something special there, we’ll do whatever it takes to get there. We don’t have a sales team; this is all us.”

And here is Graeme Struthers, one of the other co-founders, on what the game industry means to him:

“One of the things that draws me to this industry is the endless creation of ‘something’ from ‘nothing,’” said Struthers. “There’s a kid, right, and he or she has this idea about a game or a story he wants to tell. And they can’t think of doing anything else except getting this thing, this story or game or whatever, out of their head and into the world. That’s an almost magical thing, right? And in games, the industry just keeps doing this exact thing — creating things from nothing on a daily basis. It’s really incredible when you look at it that way.

“Working with artists or creators — whatever you want to call them — and being able to have an impact in their lives and help them bring their project to life. That’s a really special thing I get to do for a living.”

You should give the full article a read over at Playboy Gaming when you get a chance. Let me know what you think!

And of course, keep an eye out for updates on our upcoming book: GOING INDIE: Success Strategies for Creating and Launching Your Indie Game.

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