Thread by @DarennKeller

Signing with a Publisher in 2024: Lessons learned from my year-long negotiation process as a solo indie game developer ⬇️🧵 #gamedev #indiedev

This is my personal experience, and I want to emphasize that some of what I say may be very different from what others have experienced or what you might encounter in the future. 👐

Why would you want a publisher? 🤔

Because you need money or you don't want to handle everything. With enough money you can basically do everything a publisher would do. But it's still a lot of work, so having someone else doing it for you can help!

How to get publishers attention?
1. Make a vertical slice of your game. A demo that contains a tiny part of your game but with the "final" quality. It's easier for publishers to bet on something playable and that looks like a real game than gray boxes or ideas on paper.

2. Create interesting things to share about your game on the social networks. I have a preference for reddit and X because that's where I think most game devs and publishers are. You're really not trying to get to players here. You want publishers to find your game.

3. Participate in as many events as you can to gain even more visibility. You can get a notification anytime there's a new event on the How To Market A Game discord server. discord.gg/adDdkfZ66f

4. Create a pitch deck and send it to publishers. Contacting publishers directly did not work for me, but it's still worth a try and you'll need the pitch deck anyway for the publishers who directly contacted you. Here's a tutorial: gamesindustry.biz/the-perfect-pu…

You can also check out my pitch deck in this free patreon post. patreon.com/posts/pitchdec…

So now you have one or maybe several publishers who got in touch with you. What's next? At this stage, you might be only talking with a Scout, whose job is to find good games for the publisher. The scout will have to present the game and convince their team.

The first step will be an Introduction Call/Mail. They will present themselves, talk about your game and ask you to talk about you, your studio, your game etc... That's also when they will ask about your pitch deck, budget is, planning, playtime etc... patreon.com/posts/question…

How to establish your budget if you're a solo developer? 💸 I don't know, but that's what I did: I took my last salary at Ubisoft, multiply it by 2 (heavy french taxes) and then multiply it by the number of months I thought I need to complete the game.

After the introduction call, they contacted you to let you know that they are still interested in publishing you game. That's when you'll receive an offer, also called "heads of terms". It's a short doc, focusing on the key points of the contract to make the negotiations easier.

Here are the things you want to look for in the first offer ⬇️
1. Terms (or the duration of the contract): is usually gonna be between 5 to 10 years and automatically renewed.
2. Publishing territories and platforms: Usually worldwide and on every platforms (existing or not).

3. The Revenue Share: How much money from the sales each of you get (it changes over time) It's always defined relative to the "recoup cost" or ROI, the amount of money the publisher puts into the game.

Basically what every publisher is gonna do, is take the biggest share of the revenues until they recouped (until they get their money back) and then take the smaller share. They all have a different rev share but it will mainly be dependent on the funding.

Let's talk about the money the publisher invests in your project.
🔶Development Fee: to make the game
🔶Localization Fee: to translate the game
🔶Marketing Fee: Content creators, ads, events, trailers key art, etc...
🔶QA Fee: to pay for testing and certifications

How to negotiate the offer? I really can't fit that into the thread. 😅 The most important thing is you to create a healthy dynamic where both parties are balanced, and neither side is overly dependent on the other.

Let's say you both agreed on the heads of terms. Now it's time to negotiate the details of the contract. This is usually at this point that the publisher is gonna ask you to sign an NDA to make sure you don't share their strategy.

And there's one thing you absolutely need: a lawyer.
I know, lawyers are expensive and scary, but it's definitely worth it. You need that ally on your side to make sure it's legal and that you're protected (you'll sleep better at night).

1. Make sure you really are the sole owner of the IP: Even if the contract states it's yours, it does not mean the publisher can't abuse it. (to make sequels/prequels, etc...).
2. Check the exit clauses: They basically define what happens when one of the party exit the contract.

3. Check out the plaftorms: Publisher will want to have all publishing rights on all current and future platforms. You can negotiate this! Ask your lawyer about "first right of refusal".

4. You don't get the whole funding money after signing of the contract. You and the publisher must make a planning composed of milestones. For each milestone you promise things that will be done in the game, and they promise to give you part of the funding.

Who is my publisher? I am working with Astra Logical! They're still quite new to publishing games but they do have experience funding games. They have a strong vision about the games they wanna publish and are exceptionally indie friendly.

There’s much more to share, for the full details, take a look at the devlog!

I hope you enjoyed the read! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the replies—I’ll do my best to answer them throughout the week. If you found this valuable, please share this thread with your gamedev friends! 🙏