Horizons
42 NEWSWEEK.COM
A G&KXFNOHɿVKSXWVWDOHQWRYHUWUHQGVE\on the WEDFNLQJWKHJDPHVLWORYHVuppy Takes hales
downloading digital gama boon for the consumOn Steam, the world’s largest online mday. Wtitles appear at a rate of nearly 20 per video gamarketplace for purchasing and according to data tracking firm Statista, more than 9,000 hile this deluge of options is es were released in 2018. er, choosing es, new
daunting task for the game publishma staff of thousands. For ers. How do they decide? For indus-try titans like Activision Blizzard and EA, those selections are based on which titles to distribute becomes a efforts and executed by Chucklefish, a 20-person illion-dollar market research -
publisher relationship is akin to that game publisher based in vision; they focus on turning a cregame developer.the U.K., the answer is simbetween movie directors and studios. Developers represent the artistic The developer- ple: Think like a -
lishers provide the financial backing, a developer with a small team work-business expertise and distribution network to help finished games find their audience. Chucklefish started as ative idea into a tangible product. Pub-ing on a popular space-exploration adventure title called it turned into a publisher after spend-Starbound. But
ing time counseling others about
Katkus tells Katkus says. Mside of the business was our desire opers, known as “indies,” are one- or the process, Product Mpredatory deals in indie publishing,” to help developers. There are a lot of two-person teams with no business “What really started the publishing Newsweekost small-game devel. anager Tom -
“Wnothing, 40 percent of whatever they of publishers act in bad faith and sign developers to lopsided contracts without their best interests in mind. acumhen you’re making 100 percent of en. Katkus explains that a lot can get you seems like a good deal,” he says.Friends and fellow
forays into publishing was for a title Chucklefish CEO Finn Brice. A retro- called style farmStardew Valleying simof the comhad for Chucklefish for advice indies kept approaching on signing deals as it ulator, , hand-picked by Starboundpany’s first Stardew. One
ValleyBrice promised Barone that Chuckle-fish would promote the game across one person, Eric Barone, who spent 70 hours a week developing the game. its various forums and social media accounts and provide some rudimen-tary business support. The partner-ship paid off exponentially. was the passion project of just
Stardew Valley became a massivequickly moved to PlayStation, Xbox success. It debuted on PC in 2016 but and Nintendo Switch consoles the following year. It has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide and was the mpixel art aesthetic and deep, addictive an October release. Fans flocked to the tendo Switch for all of 2017—ost downloaded title on Nindespite -
gamcrops, ming in love. Katkus says the secret to Chucklefish’s success with eplay that had themilking cows and even fall growing Stardew -MO MOZUCH @momozuchBY
NEWSGEEK
28857 (^6 <^2 )&+&&./(),^6 +ʔ&^21 &(
51 ('$^3 (
JUNE 07, 2019