I'm about a year into making a game which, for the sake of argument, let's say is pretty marketable.

I've been compiling a checklist of things I need before I can pitch my game to publishers. There's a lot to do, but nothing particularly painful or mysterious. I feel that I could be ready to pitch in just a few months. Except for one thing: all sources say that publishers care just as much about WHO is making the game as they care about the game itself. In particular, they want to see past successes. Well, in my imaginary pitch to an imaginary developer, I've just shown them 100% of my experience. It's this game. And although I'll have a few people who I can point to as collaborators, I'm not a studio, nor does my cohort include all the people I'll need to complete the project.

Assuming that no publisher in their right mind would take someone in my scenairo (and no studio would hire me as an employee, either), it sounds like the only way to get into the industry, let alone hook a publisher on a personal project, is to self-publish, suffer, self-publish, suffer, and then try again once you're a grizzled veteran. Am I right, or is this overly cynical?

I'm asking because I'm pretty sure that my project can't come to fruition without a publisher's involvement. I'm trying to figure out whether it's time to drop it.

If your game is “pretty marketable” why do you think it won't be successful without a publishers involvement?

There has never been a better time to self publish and avoid having a publisher take a cut.

Of course you are going to have to market the game yourself, but that's going to be a lot easier than convincing someone else to market it for you.

TheBlackRattie said:

If your game is “pretty marketable” why do you think it won't be successful without a publishers involvement?

Because I need a lot of work from people with skills I don't have and probably can't get without years of work. My game is an online multiplayer strategy game. That's fine on its own for a demo (I think), but it would be terrible for a release not to have AI opponents and Steam integration. Right? I don't have either of those skills.

Maybe I have the wrong idea: can a publishers help fill the gaps in a development team, or is that all my job, as the “studio”?

AidanofVT said:
Maybe I have the wrong idea: can a publishers help fill the gaps in a development team, or is that all my job, as the “studio”?

Both. You're looking for funding to hire people to take your game to the next level. That funding could conceivably come from a publisher, or it could come from an investor (or investors). But both publishers and investors need to know that their risk is ameliorated by the fact that you are incredibly experienced, having worked on several games in the past, of which at least one was a financial and/or critical success. As you said:

AidanofVT said:
all sources say that publishers care just as much about WHO is making the game as they care about the game itself. In particular, they want to see past successes.

If you can't alleviate their risk discomfiture by means of experience (since you don't have it), maybe there are other ways you can make them feel more comfortable risking their money on you. But those other ways are just as difficult to achieve. Like find experienced partners, or win the lottery, or take time out to learn the skills needed…

Publishers / investors also want to see that you are taking a risk too (usually an investor would want to see that you're funding at least 25% of the project with your own funds, which are usually obtained through long employment in the game industry or from a past successful game).

AidanofVT said:
I'm trying to figure out whether it's time to drop it.

Don't give up. But you can put this concept aside while you build up experience in the industry, build creds, make contacts with talent and gain their trust (usually accomplished by working on professional projects as an employee) … I wrote an article about this.

Thank you, this is the straightest answer I've yet gotten. After reading your piece, it seems that there are only three ways to get into the games industry:

1. Be inserted into it by a fairly specific postgraduate degree program.
2. “Garage” develop and publish, just eating the failures, until your experience is undeniable.
3. (never to be left out) Nepotism.

Would you say this is accurate? Is there anything about your article which you would say is out of date after eleven years? On a somewhat different tack, someone told me that one way to “alleviate risk discomfiture” in publishers, even if you don't have any industry experience, is to present them with a very low-risk product. ie: a game that is already mostly finished. Does this ring true to you?

@Tom Sloper (I think I posted my reply with out @-ing you. This is that.)

AidanofVT said:
1. Be inserted into it by a fairly specific postgraduate degree program. 2. “Garage” develop and publish, just eating the failures, until your experience is undeniable. 3. (never to be left out) Nepotism. Would you say this is accurate?

1. If you're referring to the MBA degree, a business degree is not a guarantee that a publisher will jump to sign you up. But a business degree prepares you for the dog-eat-dog world of running a business.
2. Yes, your #2 is accurate.
3. Knowing someone inside the industry is always helpful. That's why networking is so vital.

AidanofVT said:
someone told me that one way to “alleviate risk discomfiture” in publishers, even if you don't have any industry experience, is to present them with a very low-risk product. ie: a game that is already mostly finished. Does this ring true to you?

Yes. I wrote about that, too. See FAQ 11 and FAQ 21.

If you see something in my articles that looks terribly out-of-date, let me know and I'll see if I can fix that.

Tom Sloper said:

1. If you're referring to the MBA degree, a business degree is not a guarantee that a publisher will jump to sign you up. But a business degree prepares you for the dog-eat-dog world of running a business.

I was talking about “programming, graphics, design, managing, marketing.” Things that give the graduate “a well-rounded program of education, involving numerous software tools that the college could afford but the non-grad couldn't.”

Tom Sloper said:

If you see something in my articles that looks terribly out-of-date, let me know and I'll see if I can fix that.

The one thing I wonder about is your advice to get a lawyer before you formaly present anything to anyone. Contemporary advice seems to be that this is a low priority because (a) mechanics can't be legally protected, (b) copywritable stuff you make is protected by default, as long as you have documentation of when you made it, and (c) attaining use-rights for commissioned work is pretty straightforward.