GETTING THE PRODUCT OUT THERE! by ThanEActiviStarSoft
- Mar 24, 2017
- 3 min read
This week at the University Of Bolton, students had the pleasure of guest lecturer Anthony Gowland the founder of Ant Workshop. Throughout the lecture Anthony gave a lot of insight into producing indie games from a perspective of someone who had not done this before. Moving onto his projects that bore from the initial game produce, even to the point of full release on PS4 and Steam. There was many aspects Anthony had to explore and come to grips with as an indie developer and one such aspect was publishing, or rather should he self-publish or try to find a publisher for the game.
https://www.emaze.com/@AZRFLWQO/Hoe-worden-video-games-gemaakt?
Looking firstly at self-publishing, it can be said that this approach offers a lot more freedom in all aspects of development. From content being chosen by the indie developer and no over head demands by a publisher to for example have multiplayer within the game. Another freedom is choosing the platform for development, some publishers can only work with certain platforms due to contracts and self-publishing eliminates that roadblock. Looking deeper, self-publishing also gives the developer complete control over the finances of the project, allowing all revenue to be compiled by the development company instead of a 3rd party taking a percentage (Morales, 2015). Finally a huge bonus is the fact the development company owns the intellectual property 100% with no hidden catches, unless of course the game is based on an already existing IP of course.
Self-publishing does eliminate a lot of demands that publishers make of the developer, however this comes at a price. Publishers have many advantages such as giving money to fund the development project, having extra studios in which they can help the development with such as engines or partnership deals with real brands (Watsham, 2013). Another advantage to having a publisher is that many publishers are respected and people buying from their brand usually know they can bank on getting a decent game/experience. An example of this would be the Bethesda fan-base, which knows when they buy a Bethesda published game such as Doom (Id Software, 2016) or The ElderScrolls (Bethesda Game Studios, 2016) series, they will get a polished product which has not been rushed out of the door.
Looking at companies that have successfully self-published their games is exemplified by CD Projekt Red, of whom at the initial release of the first Witcher (CD Projekt Red, 2007) game could be argued to be an indie developer. They have since grown to be a well respected studio with more than 300 staff when on full development. This number is also looking to increase to around 500 when full game development of Cyberpunk 2077 begins. The exponential growth of the company however has been vastly fueled by their successful Witcher series (CD Projekt Red, 2015), which is renown for its quality and story telling. CD Projekt Red also do not shy away from holding the development back a few months for polish, which if they had a publisher overhead might not have been possible. It could be argued that the Witcher series may have been more mainstream from the beginning with a publisher overhead, however its success with CD Projekt Red self-publishing has opened insights into the availability of success for development companies without publishers to still hit triple AAA quality games and success (Tassi, 2015).
(Above) CD Projekt Red Logo
References:
Bethesda Game Studios. (2016). The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. [PS4 Software]. Rockville, Maryland, United States: Bethesda Softworks.
CD Projekt Red. (2007). The Witcher. [PC Software]. Warsaw, Poland: CD Projekt.
CD Projekt Red. (2015). Witcher 3. [PC Software]. Warsaw, Poland: CD Projekt.
Id Software. (2016). Doom. [PS4 Software]. Rockville, Maryland, United States: Bethesda Softworks.
Morales, K. (2015, August 6th). Self-Publishing vs Using A Publisher: Which Is Better? Retrieved from Altitude-Games.com: http://www.altitude-games.com/self-publishing-vs-using-publisher/ [Accessed on 24/3/17]
Tassi, P. (2015, June 10th). 'The Witcher 3' Is The Standard To Which New AAA Releases Should Be Held. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/06/10/the-witcher-3-is-the-standard-to-which-new-aaa-releases-should-be-held/#73bd0b453053 [Accessed on 24/3/17]
Watsham, J. (2013, September 30th). Self-Publishing vs. Working with a (Traditional) Publisher. Retrieved from Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JoolsWatsham/20130930/201223/SelfPublishing_vs_Working_with_a_Traditional_Publisher.php [Accessed on 27/3/17]
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