Hi there, i’m about to release my game in december after a quick Kickstarter campaign to improve graphics and other details (the game is already 100% playable), i’d like to know if you have any recommendations, tips, maybe any publisher suggestion… i have a playable beta (which has been already tested by 20+ people), images, videos etc.
Thanks!
PD: my game is for PC (windows for now)
Steam? GoG? Humble Bundle? Others would take almost all the money for themselves.
Yes i plan GOG and Itch.io which doesn’t give much trouble, i’m already freelancer so it’s ok for the taxes, but i’m from Spain and Steam requires a company if you’re outside USA which is super expensive here for a small indie studio, that’s why most of us needs a publisher, there’s another good thing because publishers also do the marketing stuff.
You don’t mention what platform you are developing for in your original post, which is an important consideration. You do mention PC platforms later, but it isn’t clear if you are also doing console. Another major thing is genre as many publisher specialise in one area.
Which publishers have had success on your platform and genre, both at the mainstream and indie levels? Look at their websites to see if they are interested in publishing third parties. Many are. Then search their backgrounds. Does the company appear to be in order? Any stories of other devs they have worked with? What is their store presence like? Are any videos available of staff giving talks are conferences? Or just interviews from a website, etc. You can get a lot of information about a publisher to see if you want to work with them.
Because of Covid-19 a lot of conferences are happening online and are good places to meet publishers, and many have free options. I recently did the White Nights Summer conference and got good meetings with several publishers. I was looking for mobile, but there were more publishers for PC there.
Here is a list of some events coming up: Games Industry Events | GamesIndustry.biz
In that list is the GI Live Investment Summit which is for people like you to make contact with publishers and investors. A full ticket for developers is $10 + fee. I took part in a previous one and it was aimed more to PC and console than mobile, so could be worth a look for you.
The gamesindustry.biz website is good for finding out news on which publishers are looking for developers and how they are doing. mcvuk.com is another website to check for this kind of news.
I’m curious what is involved in creating a publishing company at least on paper in Spain. Creating a publishing company in the United States for example is basically just registering your business name and saying “I’m a publisher now” unless you’re going to form an LLC or corporation.
You can’t do that in spain, you can’t even be a freelancer to publish in Steam, Steam requires you to be a company, that means paying 300-400€ monthly plus taxes of the sales, that’s just impossible for a small indie studio like mine with it’s first game.
Thanks for the help, yes i edited the post, i’m aiming PC first, if the Kickstarter goes well i already have some plans for Nintendo Switch.
I don’t know any conferences i’m just sending all my game pitch to every single publisher i find but after 40+ still no luck…
You can register a company in another country, there are online services to do this sort of thing. Register a cheap company in Lithuania or some other country where it is cheap to do so.
Look for “company registration online” in google and see what comes up and which country works best for you.
I think that’s called “evasión de impuestos” which is illegal in Spain 
Anyway i prefer to work with a publisher for the marketing stuff 
Read Ryan Sumo’s What A Healthy Publisher/Developer Relationship Looks Like (With Real Contract Details!)
It has advice on finding a good publisher and not getting fleeced by a bad publisher.
Thanks i’ll give it an eye.