Aileen: 0:02
In this episode, we have Ranulf Goss, founder and CEO of StartRace Studios. StartRace Studios is a game development company composed of veteran devs in the industry, focusing on developing its own game intellectual properties for PC and mobile platforms. They're also a game dev incubator, working with indie studios to bring their original games in front of global game publishers. Some of their notable releases include Balete City, an RPG that features Philippine mythology, 3D fighting game Away Aguila, and Kampilan, a third- person adventure game. What does it take to pitch your game to publishers, and why do you need it? Ranulf sits down with us to talk about what it takes to make your game ready for publishers to invest in, let's jump in. So our, our topic today is how to pitch to publishers. Now that you have created your game and you want to get it out there, you have to start thinking about publishers and as someone who has done that before, I think, we're all excited to hear from you about the pros and cons. What, how do we do it exactly? So, but first let's go back, let's take a couple of steps back and try to define what does a publisher do and why is it beneficial for game developers?
Ranulf: 1:17
Okay. So basically, when you have a game, you have the game development studio, which creates the game and creates like the golden master version of the game. And the game publisher is the one that publishes and distributes it to the different territories. Of course, there are some new platforms like Steam or GOG that actually acts as a publisher as well. You can self-publish there. But, of course, a game publisher in the traditional form is the one that actually, gets the game, puts it in the media, like say DVD or like a cartridge, then they send it out to the retail shops. And they also provide marketing of the game.
Aileen: 2:10
If I compare it to self-publishing, a publisher would be having somebody do everything versus you going DIY. And
Ranulf: 2:19
Yes, that's correct.
Aileen: 2:20
Why is it beneficial to have a publisher do it instead of just going DIY?
Ranulf: 2:26
Well, first off, the, the publisher would have the funds to actually give to the game development studio to complete the game. So, we call it the developer advance or developer royalties. So, it's like the publisher will give this money and hopefully once the game is launched, they can recoup the majority of it. And the game development company gets a part of the, those royalties. So first, of course, the funding aspect, game development company would have the necessary funds to complete the game, so that's one. The second one, of course, is a game development company should really just focus on their game, creation of their game, but like publishing of course, it's a different marketing strategy for different territories. Most of the games now can be adapted to different international territories, right? And it's up to the publisher to say, this part of the game we need to subdue a bit, or we need to add it so that it fits into the marketing of the game in specific territories.
Aileen: 3:41
I love the part when you said the publishers can, are, can fund your game so that off the bat that says that you don't even have to have a complete game to have a publisher as opposed to going DIY wherein you have to finish the entire thing. And going off of that, what else are the other indicators that you're now ready to find a publisher for your game? Or is there a specific golden time for you to put your game out there to publishers?
Ranulf: 4:12
I think the best time would be when you have a prototype, or we call it a vertical slice, that you can present to the publishers. Then also, of course, a pitch deck and some indication of where the game, you know, the game design is headed moving forward, so of course when you have a vertical slice, it's like a playable demo already of the game Showing that the studio or the team can actually deliver the game, right? Then the next is like the game design documents which show like where the roadmap of the game like where it's going and, of course, you need to propose a budget to the game publishers since they're going to give the money in advance to the team or studio.
Aileen: 5:00
Sounds like we're getting to the exciting part with the vertical slide. So, you have done this a couple of times. What would you say are the best practices aside from having that vertical slide? What is it by the way, and how do you do it from pitching to from finding your publisher to doing the pitch and then doing the budgets like you mentioned?
Ranulf: 5:22
So the vertical slice, it's more of having a prototype that has a complete set of features, though, for example, you can in the game, you can walk, but also you can jump, you can say triple jump, then you can have upgrades of your weapons or your life of your character, then all of these features should be included in the vertical slice. So even though it's like maybe just a 30 minute or one, one hour duration of gameplay, it shows all these features. That, you know, showcases that this is what the game would feel so you can show how fun the game is to the publisher, right? So, every type of spells or potions that the character can do, it should be there already in the vertical slice. And then from there, we, of course, there's a pitch deck. It's like, okay, so we have this one hour prototype. Now it's like, how do we scale it forward? How start figuring out like how long the gameplay should be. So of course, like you have RPGs like 40 to 50 hours, maybe. Some games are shorter, of course, casual games, you know, there's more game design, but it's, it's faster to, to develop a level, right? So, it really depends on the game, but the key here is like showcasing to the publisher that we can create the game. Here's the, here's the game prototype with the features and here's our plan for it. Then of course, budget, it depends on the per country basis, right? So, of course some countries have their own salary standards that we can use to determine like, if we're going to make this game, we need X amount of additional developers given this time frame, you know, we need to have this budget.
Aileen: 7:22
Okay. Now that you have the exciting stuff, how do you find a publisher that would fit with your needs? Or do you just find, do you just send it to everyone? How's that?
Ranulf: 7:31
So, first thing we did is to look at the publishers that we can meet in an event like say Game Connection Europe right there. Then the next is. Looking at the games they have done, that they have either developed or published already. And of course you can look at the internet, like, how long did it take, how long is the duration of the game, how much copies were sold of the game. Is the game the right genre or the same genre that your game is? Because if they're a publisher that has done RPGs, for example, then it's the right fit if you're on if your game that you're going to pitch is RPG.
Aileen: 8:15
So you have to really do the research as well. Okay. That's a good one. You mentioned Game Connection in Paris, and I remember you were there in the previous, early this November, right?
Ranulf: 8:27
Yes, that's right.
Aileen: 8:29
Can you, can you share your experience, what it was like to pitch to publishers? Is it different from what you're used to? Are there any golden nuggets of advice that you could give us or to anybody out there who wants to find publishers for their game?
Ranulf: 8:44
Well first is of course setting up the meeting that's important and in the meeting request I mentioned already that we have an RPG game right up front so from there, they can say, hey, we're interested, or we're not interested. Of course, then the next is making sure that you have a deck ready at same time, the prototype ready. So after we had two laptops, so at least they can start saying like, hey this studio actually has a working prototype already, right? Then of course there's going to be like discussions regarding game design. Like, for example, what's the motivation of the character. Why is he doing all these activities? What's the skill tree, for example, you know, what other creatures are there? What differentiates your game from other games they already have published or in the market right now? So, there's a lot of questions on that one. And of course there'll be upfront, like, we're open to it. We have a certain budget. So, you know, when we can discuss further after, after the event. So of course, our meetings are live. 30 minutes meeting, but it's very important to get to talk to them and see like, what's the potential arrangements. So, there are some arrangements there, like co-development is one, of course, the straight publishing arrangement is the other one. And even there's a company there that would help you look for the right publishers. So it's more of a publishing as a service, but there's another one. So. There, you know, you start to identify the different available methods of how to interact with all these game publishers.
Aileen: 10:40
Okay, that's good. Thank you for sharing that. It sounds like events are a good place to dip your toes into the publishing world to see what everybody has to offer. Okay, have you do you have any do you think it's easier to do it on events than just going to companies or is that really is there really no difference?
Ranulf: 10:58
Well, it depends on a lot of factors, right? If you're a veteran of the industry and you have all these connections, then you can, you know, ask a colleague to watch for you, then you can submit straight, right? But of course, nothing beats meeting people and like having a handshake and discussing face to face especially if you're going to invest in A lot of time and money to you, to your studio.
Aileen: 11:32
Okay. That's good. It's it's an interesting thing. So to get your digital game off the ground, you need to do it IRL. That's a really nice way to look at it. Okay. Well, thank you so much for sharing with us your wisdom and your experience. Can you tell people how they will find StarTrace, how they can contact you?
Ranulf: 11:50
We have our website startracestudios. com. And yeah, you can email me there, ranulf@startracestudios.com.
Aileen: 11:59
Alright, well, thank you for your time today, Ranulf! Thanks for tuning in! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our series on game development experts on the Arise Plus Philippines YouTube channel.