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[moi]

Man, I sure hope they aren't going to try and pull a Platypus one on pixel.

[PoV]

Ouch.  If I didn't know better, that'd almost sound dirty.  Well, messy more than dirty.

[cwboyer]

But anyway, I like the idea of a company putting out the best of the indie world onto real machine if it means the authors are rewarded for their efforts and John Q Public realises the wealth of excellent titles around rather than just seeing a few high-profile ones who's faces might fit, but which possibly don't play well.

There, now you've got it. =)

Quality games need the biggest audience they can get. I don't think anyone would want to fight about that.

[PoV]

I'm rather surprised so few "indies" take matters in to their own hands.  Instead, relying on more adventurous business types to make the first move.

[Derek]

Well, I'm really hoping this forum will make indies more adventurous in the long run!  So far we seem to be on track.

[Bezzy]

Anyone know/have any dealings with GameCock? I'm sorta praying that their business practices don't match their PR.

[DrDerekDoctors]

Anyone know/have any dealings with GameCock? I'm sorta praying that their business practices don't match their PR.

Yeah, they've come out with a series of really shitty trailers of late, ain't they? Utterly pish looking. And glad to see you joined us, Aubrey!

[Bezzy]

Anyone know/have any dealings with GameCock? I'm sorta praying that their business practices don't match their PR.

Yeah, they've come out with a series of really shitty trailers of late, ain't they? Utterly pish looking. And glad to see you joined us, Aubrey!

Haven't seen the game trailers, so I can't comment. Just seen this:





Doesn't appeal to me, personally. Seems pretty crass. But then I am an out-and-out wank-hat wearing ponce. I'd have to be with a name like "Aubrey".

[DrDerekDoctors]

Anyone know/have any dealings with GameCock? I'm sorta praying that their business practices don't match their PR.

Yeah, they've come out with a series of really shitty trailers of late, ain't they? Utterly pish looking. And glad to see you joined us, Aubrey!

Haven't seen the game trailers, so I can't comment. Just seen this:





Doesn't appeal to me, personally. Seems pretty crass. But then I am an out-and-out wank-hat wearing ponce. I'd have to be with a name like "Aubrey".

Oh, I think you just need a basic c*nt-detector to loathe any company which produces a video like that...

[TeeGee]

Sorry to bring this topic up, but as it was on publishers and distributors...

I was wondering if anybody had any experiences with Merscom? They are a retail distributor and they seem pretty reasonable, but I guess that some extra research won't hurt. Any horror stories?

[torncanvas]

This is a great thread.  Thanks guys.

I haven't had any "real" experience with publishers.  My only experience with them is when an Atari VP stopped dead in his tracks, crapped his pants, and immediately called his boss when he saw TFW at the IGF.  Apparently they'd had the same idea with the same name for 5 years or something.  After a good month and a half of phone calling, they turned us down since the game "wouldn't fit their portfolio."  Bwahahaha....they could have just told us we sucked in the first week and saved some time.  We were naive enough that if something would have happened, I'm sure we would have gotten screwed.

[Guert]

 So far, my experience with publishers have been "so-so". The game I developped was supposed to be published on the GBA console but we got cancelled... twice!

 There are many factors around our cancelation but one thing was the same for both publishers: they made us wait at least 6 months after they said "yes, we'll do business with you" before sending us a nice little 2 lines email saying "sorry, we are dropping the business deal. If you have other games, tell us. Have a nice day."

 What this tells me is that you should always make sure you have constant conversation with your publisher and make sure you know what their goal is and if their compatible with yours before dealing with them. It doesn,t matter if you're game is good or not, finished or not: you have to know exactly what's going on with your business partner at all time. If possible, meet the person you are dealing with and bring someone with you. One of your team deals and the other observes the person in front of you. You can tell alot from the non-verbal and when you're busy dealing, it's harder to focus on details. Make sure that the person with you knows what you're talking about tho. You don't want to look like a bunch of fools

 Anyway, publishers are not your enemy, you just have to search the right one. As my old saying goes, it takes every kind of person to make this world: the problem is, that includes all the bastards...

 Take care! 
Guert
PS: I'm not naming the publishers I've dealt with simply because we released our game publicaly on the internet and we don't want people harrassing them for no reasons. We had a bad experience but we're not in bad terms with them

[TeeGee]

So... anybody heard anything about Merscom?

[jack_norton]

I signed a contract for one of my games with them, then they said that the publisher (they were acting as middlemen) changed their mind and heard nothing anymore. Wasted time, they could have told me before ??

[sega]

To be fair, developers can be almost as terrible as publishers (only without so much power).  Over the years, I've had to deal directly with most people involved in this industry, from the producer, down to programmers/designers/artists, down to the customers themselves.  I've seen several publishers screwed by developers.  Granted, the publishers generally have all the power, and can choose to break the contract at any point, but developers can get dreamy eyed over the publishing deal, and design/promise more than they can deliver.  They may meet a few milestones, and put up a good act about the state of the game, but are unable to ultimately deliver.  The publisher is stuck with this unsellable mess of a game with terrible net code, and large amounts of money already paid.  The only chance of release would be to start over, or get some other poor developer to deal with spaghetti code belonging to some stranger, which could take forever, get a LOT more expensive, and involve lots of hair pulling.  And if it's a licensed property, the publisher just screwed their relationship with the licenser by missing the release date by a wide margin.

I guess what I'm saying overall is, publishers can get screwed too, and sometimes decide to end things soon if they feel things are off.  They should really start a dialog first, and there are TONS of assholes in publishing, but it helps to see where they're coming from.  Also, you as a developer have to make sure you don't over-promise on what you feel is your big break.  Simple design isn't sexy, I know, but it might help to explain that a simpler design can capture a larger market.  True, it's possible you might lose the contract if you can't tell the publisher what he wants to hear, but trust me, reputations get around between producers.  You don't want to under-deliver.

[Guert]

It's true... There are some rotten apples in both camps...
It's kinda sad when yout hink about it. Publishers fear developpers because of some that can't act pro and dev fear publishers because they want security.

On top of that, there are those who only wanna screw the other party. Business is business, even in the game industry...

Good post Sega!

[Alec]

There are also some very unprofessional publishers out there.

[cliffski]

I've worked with loads:

Crystal Interactive / Xing Interactive:
Nope, never again

egames
Nice people, they do major bundling, so your percentage is very low, but they always pay on time, which is nice.

real
They pay on time, but its a bit big and bureaucratic. they are heavily into promoting their own gamepass thing, and love to discount games. but they seem honest enough if you like their deal terms.

merscom
Done some deals with them. no complaints. they paid me as I recall.

akella
Taking forever to get my latest payment. In the past they paid well, and on time, but recently its all fallen apart. watch this space etc.

take 2
Not fun. they pay eventually, but their deal terms were evil, and I've had to threaten legal action to get paid in the past. also they tried to sue me for calling my game Kudos : Rock Star, even though we actually had a publishing deal for another game. Litigious bureaucratic and crafty.

arcadetown
Nice guys, pay on time, easy to deal with

zero-G
Seem to be nice guys and very organised. very easy to deal with, pay on time with good sales stats.

I'm sure I've done other deals, but can't think of them right now.

[ravuya]

Is Crystal Interactive still around? When I was making it through high school they pitched an offer at me for my game, which at that time was nothing more than a hacked up copy of Genesis3D GTest.

[cliffski]

I think they basically renamed to Xing.