Game Developer Was Surprised to Learn That Free Indie Festival Costs Over $7K to $65K
I wonder which indie team has such money.
OTK
It's hard to promote small games, especially if all you have are 2 developers in the team. Thankfully, there are festivals where indie studios can showcase their works, but it's not always as crystal clear and fair as one might believe.
Developers from Brinemedia made an unpleasant discovery: they submitted their game to the Winter OTK Games Expo, which said submissions were free. The form had a checkbox saying, "If not selected, contact me for paid placement options," and the team checked it.
However, after not being selected, they still received a follow-up email offering "guaranteed placement," but the prices are not what you expect from an indie fest: you'd have to pay $7K-$65K to get featured.
"No complaints about paid placement itself, but the prices were a bit surprising – especially for a festival that isn’t very popular and isn’t featured on Steam’s front page."
"For a small indie team, that’s completely out of reach – are Steam 'indie festivals' turning into paid ad platforms? Has anyone here paid for something like this and actually seen results?"
The Reddit discussion has some choice words to say about OTK (One True King), founded by content creators Asmongold, Mizkif, Esfand, Rich Campbell, and Tips Out. Let's just say not everyone is a fan, and many call the whole situation a scam.
Well, at least it's not as much as you'd pay to appear on the Summer Game Fest and the Game Awards, which are "really ****ing expensive." Gamescom is no exception: last year, you reportedly needed about $146,566 to show 30 seconds of your project and $486,811 for 180 seconds.
What do you think about the OTK Games Expo prices? Are they worth the visibility? Subscribe to our Newsletter, join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
