Post #4365013

No idea how to raise funds myself. One thing is clear: "big publishers" are no longer a good choice. The price of a paycheck is too high. Too many IPs stayed with the publisher and went straight into the title graveyard. A while ago I called it the "ecological dead zone", a devastated mid-epidemic planet from Subnautica where only the plankton (solo devs) and the leviathans (megacorps) survived. Yet even the leviathans are not immune. They merely die much slower. With lots of titles dying in their bowels. Maybe sustainable small to medium lean teams without overhead are the way to go. Megaprojects and reiterating old franchises ad nauseam mean megalosses and franchise degradation. The institutional knowledge lies in people. What gives me hope is that some of such indie teams use the momentum from their success and push into publishing themselves, supporting the growth of other small groups. One example that springs to mind is Coffee Stain, which branched off (leviathan) Embracer Group once again. The publishing wing of CS stood behind Iron Gate (Valheim), DRG (Ghost Ship) and Jump Space (Keepsake — currently in Beta). Maybe a less centralized network of smaller autonomous studios cooperating with each other and benefiting from each others success (not unlike a certain social network >_>) is the next step from the "leviathans" of old. Time will tell if such a structure proves resilient. "When the last leviathan is gone, darkness will fall." #games #думкиВголос #gamedev