Do you NEED a Publisher for your Indie Game in 2025?

[@kylebanks]

Thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this video, the first 500 people to use my link skl.sh/kylebanks12241 will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare!

[@Arkenhammer]

Spot on here. We've looked at a few publisher deals and concluded that the recoup part of the contract actually increased our risk because the game would have to make significantly more money for us to be successful. It all looked great if our game is wildly successful but, when considering the more likely modest release, we'd be giving all the profit from the game to the publisher.

[@kylebanks]

It's always worth a look just to know what's out there, and you never know, but generally I'd say you're absolutely right

[@Skeffles]

Great dive into this topic. I've not seen many people discuss this. I've heard some people say signing with a publisher is where the money is in indie dev but then some horror stories too. I much preferred hearing your story.

[@ThomasStewartDev]

Great video! I'm thinking through the process of pitching my next game to publishers, and this is a fantastic and concise explanation of what to look out for.

[@kylebanks]

Exciting, good luck!

[@WhyKev]

I love how you made this video, sums up a lot of my thoughts around this! Thank you!

[@kylebanks]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@g23g]

Great video, publishers are something that I dont see people explaining enough

[@kylebanks]

Thanks, glad it was helpful!

[@cvhamilton5]

Super interesting video! I don't think I would ever need a publisher but that's an interesting way to think about it.

[@neilfosteronly]

I got an email from a publisher and have my game all about done. I feel like being on their steam page with 100k followers could help sales. But not all of their games have done well. I am looking for marketing and localization.

[@Zwolf11]

Unrelated to this video, but do you have the source files for the 100 devs project? I imagine there are a lot of people who would be interested in taking a look at the final project files if you're okay with releasing them.

[@kylebanks]

They're not really mine to release, you'd have to ask the Blackthornprod fellas

[@Aleksandrus12]

That's actually really helpful video cause I'd like to release my own boardgame at some point in the future and while I'm slowly working on it, I was thinking about various ralated topics, publishers included. So thanks a lot, you expanded my horizons and gave a lot more to think about

[@kylebanks]

Interesting! I have no idea what the boardgame market looks like, but I guess a publisher would be valuable there to get into physical retailers? Or is the boardgame market mostly online now?

[@Aleksandrus12]

@kylebanks If I decide for a publisher, it'll be due to not having enough funds for production and organizing the whole supply chain to make physical product without any experience in it terrifies me. So as you mentioned in the video, it is valuable for me to get a deal with a boardgames publisher to gain experience and learn from them

[@VyvyanTheGreat]

Thanks for the breakdown. I personally have zero interest in publisher deals, seems like so much added complexity to releasing a game, when there’s already so much already. And too many horror stories from other devs!

[@kylebanks]

There's certainly a lot that can go wrong