Hello! I'm currently in the process of starting an indie game company. I've been putting together a demo of our game for the past couple years with the help of several others, and am at the point at which we're ready to start showing publishers our demo. My question is, what's the best way to do this? It appears to be very difficult to find as much as an email address from several of these publishers. Plus, I have no idea if the email is even getting read or handled, or if it just disappears into a black hole of bureaucracy. Is there a better way to go about doing this? Having an agency contact publishers, for example? I'm pretty new to this area, and it's not like there's some sort of rule book for what indies are supposed to do - especially in this era. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! If anyone cares to see what we're working on, I have a YouTube video up of it

>here. [Edited by - Carnevil_ on January 27, 2010 6:19:40 PM]

Frequently Asked Question #21: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson21.htm
There's another FAQ on this at Obscure.co.uk

This is great stuff, as bleak as it makes this all sound! :) Thanks so much!

I just updated the FAQ -- please go back and look at it again. I included an image of the communication method you need to use.

Quote: Original post by Carnevil_
I am at the point at which we're ready to start showing publishers our demo.

My question is, what's the best way to do this? It appears to be very difficult to find as much as an email address from several of these publishers.

Read Preparing a pitch
and Product acquisition process

Quote: Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

You won't like it, but here goes....

I spent some years doing product acquisition for the largest publisher in Europe and I now work with developers helping them to pitch to publishers so I have a lot of experience in this area.

I am sorry to say that your demo is far from ready to show to publishers. The FPS genre is one of the most difficult to break into with a really high quality bar. The demo just doesn't show your technology as being able to compete with what is currently in the market. You need to be able to show cutting edge lighting effects, animation and sound effects. Unfortunately even if your engine/demo did show these features the chance that a publisher would give you the $20 million+ necessary to make a FPS that will compete in the current market place is zero; unless you have a proven track record making great FPS games (IE you worked at Infinity Ward or Splash Damage and shipped one or more commercial projects).

Without proven industry experience your only option is to finish the game before pitching it to publishers (which could take years without funding) or do a project that is more suitable to your team size/experience. If you really must try and break in doing an FPS you would be far better off using one of the many existing FPS engines (instead of reinventing the wheel) to do mods. It saves years on engine development and allows you to get on and show what you can do. That is how Splash Damage got started.

Note: I held back from saying that your demo looks like something from the 1990s but having read your web site I see that that is exactly what you want. While I respect your artistic integrity in creating a game that harks back to Doom II I think it is a commercial mistake. The FPS genre has moved on and I don't believe you will find a publisher interested in such a project.

I think you mean Quake II, although if the lighting isn't faked/prebaked then I think they're beyond that as well.

On the PC platform, this would be more of a budget title. Budget publishers might be interested, and there's always virtual store-front's like Steam -- If you have a game that looks like Quake II/III with great gameplay, interesting level design, and fun multi-player, I don't see any reason this wouldn't sell on steam with a budget-friendly pricetag -- say 9.99 - 14.99.

Now, if you had comparable technology running on the iPhone, then you're more or less on par with any of the big 3D engines there, save, perhaps, the recent UE3 port.

Or, get it running on the web with the new WebGL standard :)


You've got a long way to go to compete with the AAAs, but given the right audience/platform, a throwback concept like this could work at the right price.

Watching your demo video really made me want to go home and fire up Quake II [grin]

Ravyne: Yes, something in the $10-20 range (like Torchlight) is what I had in mind. This isn't some mega-budget "let's spend $10m on CGI cutscenes" type of game. It's a game that knows it's a game and that its primary job is to be fun. I'm all for finishing it up and releasing it through Steam, but having all of graphics/models/sounds/music done by volunteers is a pretty dismal proposition.

(And the lighting is done both statically and dynamically. There's some blinking lights in the video. Also, the lighting on the first lift updates as it rise.)

Anyway, it looks like I have a lot to think over. How could the engine be better from what you all have seen?

I think its just a matter more of the poor models/textures/no animation then anything really wrong with the engine. Fix that and it looks like it would be a pretty decent Quake II throwback game.

Given all even the budget type FPS stuff out there I think you are going to have a hard time getting a budget publisher to bite. To be honest I think you'll have to finish the game yourself and pitch that to have any kind of chance to go commerical with it other then selling it on your website.

Well, judging by the replies above (I didn't look at your demo), you've got a shot at getting a job in the industry. I think you should use your demo as a portfolio piece and get a job.

Quote: Original post by jtagge75
I think its just a matter more of the poor models/textures/no animation then anything really wrong with the engine. Fix that and it looks like it would be a pretty decent Quake II throwback game.

Given all even the budget type FPS stuff out there I think you are going to have a hard time getting a budget publisher to bite. To be honest I think you'll have to finish the game yourself and pitch that to have any kind of chance to go commerical with it other then selling it on your website.

But that's the problem - I can't model/texture/animate (the game isn't supposed to look like Quake - it just does because of the placeholder textures), and getting other people to actually make a commitment to this and finish it just isn't going to happen. I guess we're at a roadblock that can't be overcome.

It's typical, though: people don't want to lend money to something unproven, but once you've proven yourself and no longer need money, investors trip over themselves trying to give you money. It's certainly not unique to the game industry.

Anyway, thanks for the help guys. I'll still see if anyone is interested (though I doubt it), and then just pack it up after that. I guess dreams don't come true.