Choosing a game publisher, or not, for a hypercasual game

Hello All,

After months of toil I finally have the beta version of my first hypercasual game on Play Store - App Store to come soon. The game in question is a fast paced puzzle with a near infinite number of levels, leader boards, the ability to trade in points for perks, some video reward ads (but placed so as not to annoy) and in-app purchases (yet to be activated)

I am in essence a one-man team (though I often use help from freelancers) and I want to move on to creating my next game. I am toying with the idea of handing over the promotion and marketing of my first game to one of the leading games publishers. However, I am still a newbie when it comes to this. Clearly, publishers will be able to get my efforts the kind of exposure that I could otherwise only dream off (I am assuming). However, at what price does this come. Am I likely to find that I earn a pittance for all my efforts with them keeping most of the profits?

I'd be most grateful for thoughts and tips here from others who have been there before

 

This list (with reviews) of hyper-casual games publishers might be of use:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/9ouse5/hyper_casual_game_publishers_a_complete_list/

The key thing to note, is most deals are heavily biased towards the publishers; on the other hand the high quality publishers probably wont want your game unless its really good.

That said without a publisher or large advertising budget your game will probably be nothing more than a blip on the radar. Unless its really really good of course.

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Anyway it certainly can't hurt to pitch your game to a bunch of publishers, you don't have to accept their terms. At the very least you can learn from their feedback:

* if everyone, even the big guys, seem interested then you probably have a good game on your hands
* if you only get back positive replies from those publishers known to have horrible deals then your game is probably not likely to succeed regardless of what you do
* if you get overwhelmingly negative responses, your game probably sucks

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Finally less well known publishers may just take your game and do nothing with it other than take half the profits that it organically generates. This article is pretty handy:

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...oid-getting-screwed-in-a-game-publishing-deal

At the very least I'd be looking for some kind of minimum ad spend (or at least a clear social strategy including a captive audience), some QA commitments, and a rep who is actively engaged (i.e. doesn't take two weeks to get an email reply).

 

Thank you for that link. The discussion there is very useful. I am probably not going to rush into the arms of a publisher hastily - at least not until I have got some initial feedback on the beta and have some metrics to report.

It does not surprise me to learn that most deals are heavily biased in favor of the publisher. Many years ago, in another career, I published a textbook (in Chemistry). I was offered 12% and found it too low so I just made the book available for free instead (I was an academic at the time). So given the heavy bias am I likely to find that they can drive a huge volume of installs and I still see pennies for my efforts?

 

It is pretty much the wild west out there, so nothing is really typical. There are some good discussions here, on gamasutra, and other game dev forums.

That said the publisher will generally get a large portion of revenue until they recoup costs (up to 100%), after that it should be a lot better than 12% for you. As you have built the game already I would aim for at least 50-60%.

But so much depends on what they provide. Better to have 40% of $250,000 than 60% of $25,000.

 

Thanks for the tips. Much appreciated.