Manor Lords Publisher Says Indie Devs Should Publish Games Themselves
Tim Bender, CEO at indie publisher Hooded Horse, shared his thoughts on the approach that indie devs should follow.
Hooded Horse
Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender shares a piece of advice for indie developers, which is to opt for self-publishing rather than addressing indie publishers.
The head of the publishing company known for releasing games such as Manor Lords, Terra Invicta, Against the Storm, Endless Legend 2, and more, shared his thoughts about indie publishers' strategy in a recent talk with PC Gamer:
"People can hate me for this if they want," Bender says, "but most indie publishers are not people indie developers should work with. The vast majority of indie publishers, in their whole structure, are predatory and opportunistic."
Bender's comments reflect Hooded Horse's publishing approach, as the company is not focused on signing as many indie developers as possible.
The CEO continues, speaking about the alleged strategy of indie publishers and saying that they invest in the games that are otherwise successful, make them bigger, while ignoring and dropping the ones that aren't.
The CEO supposes that the developers themselves are the best candidates to ship their games, as they have the deepest understanding of their projects' features and are the most invested in their success:
"They will know their game, they'll structure it right, they'll actually care about it. The vast majority of indie developers should be self-publishing rather than working with indie publishers."
Bender recommends resources like Simon Carlos' GameDiscoverCo, Chris Zukowski's How to Market a Game, and Gamalytic. "You really have to research and be careful," he says. "And the truth is, if you're in doubt, self-publish. That's really what it comes down to, because it is very viable to self-publish these days."
Check out some of the stories of shipping indie projects and the advice for indie devs that we've featured before, such as tips on marketing indie games from Chris Zukowski from HowToMarketAGame.com and the story of developing and launching Supermoves: World of Parkour from Tomi Toikka, Makea Games:
Also, take a look at how the developers of a farming and coding sim, The Farmer Was Replaced, managed to reach a significant surge in revenue after the game's Steam launch:
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