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GDC Europe: Do You Need A Publisher For Your iPhone Game?
by Simon Carless [PC, Console/PC]
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August 19, 2009
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In a panel on iPhone game publishing at GDC Europe in Cologne, panelists discussed the success of the App Store and whether you genuinely need a publisher for your iPhone game.
The panel was made up of a mix of developers and publishers, including Joe Wee of iPhone publisher Chillingo (iDracula, Zen Bound), Michael Schade of mobile phone developer Fishlabs, Sergei Gourski of Fieldrunners developer Subatomic Studios, and Alan Yu of Rolando publisher Ngmoco.
Starting out, Gourski discussed how Fieldrunners -- now also coming to the PSP Go -- ended up being a hit in the iPhone App store. He suggested that, although the game's quality alone was one of the reasons it rose to the top: "One of the hurdles we had to overcome early on was that we knew how to make a game... [but] we needed help marketing and writing press releases."
The need for marketing and messaging is definitely important, and both Ngmoco's Yu and Chillingo's Wee explained that there were varied reasons that developers might want to partner with them.
Firstly, there's access to funding, if you need it. But also important is access to marketing, both via Apple and externally through relationships with press and company-related PR. Wee claimed that for iPhone game publishers to serve their developers, "buzz creation is key".
Ngmoco's Yu commented that "in the console space, money is really a defining factor", but not so in iPhone. It's more about "what kind of access and reach you have to an audience."
Sure, you can 'self-distribute' on the iPhone, but Yu thinks that it's "patently false that [anyone] can self-publish." In other words, all developers need to try to get the word out somehow -- though as Gourski pointed out, it may be possible to do it yourself.
There are other reasons for linking with publishers, of course. For one, there's creative feedback. Yu noted that "there's something to be said for not working in an echo chamber". He cited creative collaborations between Ngmoco's experienced staff and external developers on titles like Rolando.
But it's the upcoming linked iPhone game networks, such as Ngmoco's Plus+ network and Chillingo's Crystal Network, which really seem to offer promise and a reason for publishing and partnering.
Companies like Chillingo and Ngmoco recognize that closely working with developers on individual titles isn't going to scale massively. If there are shared high scores, achievements, or recommendations across multiple games, this is a much larger reason for developers to use these iPhone game networks.
Now that there's a large amount of game creators and publishers starting a trend of trying to aggregate audience across all their titles, Yu concluded that "whoever gets to that critical mass of audience first is going to win".
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I think that the process of getting the word out about your game is a very important one that takes a lot of time and effort, but that doesn't mean that you can't do it yourself, or that being attached to a publisher is the only method of doing that.
I would support your comment more strongly, its EXTREMELY important to get the word out about your game. Any process that does that, even if you have to give up some % of the income, is worth it. I must disclaim that I am involved with the iPhone publishing initiative at AddictingGames.com. When the AddictingGames site gets millions of hits a month, it greatly enhances the likelihood of your game getting noticed.
Mac
P.S. Since I'm sure I'll be asked, go to the AddictingGames.com site, click on "submit a game" and then "iPhone" to submit a game.
Of course it's true that self-publishing is a viable strategy and there are successful examples of that. There are many routes to market.
It's not my intention to scare anyone, my apologies for not clearly conveying my point .
Thanks for your clarifying response - all said and done, I like the idea of a service that takes care of promoting my game with a fairly small % taken, and when we get closer to release we'll probably be looking at Ngmoco as a potential partner in that.