Question for Game Publishers!

[storm talon]

I have a question for my publisher friends out there. Do publishers ever help developers re-coop the money they invested into a vertical slice before the pitch? I am unsure about this and wanted to ask, thanks!

[feral garden]

From my experience, having participate in the production of pitch games and worked close with people in charge of pitching/defining the contract, they do not. However, I've seen opportunities where the publisher will select a number of studios which they will finance the pitch/demo.

That being said, if you ever get a contract that does not cover your previous expense plus the expense to create the vertical slice, then your contract is terrible and you are getting exploited.

Note that I have limited knowledge on the subject as I am not working directly on that.

[storm talon]

Thanks for the reply

I'm gearing up for pitching a vertical slice in March, so I've been doing a lot of studying about publishers

[echo comet]

It depends a lot on the publisher. In Canada, something like the CMF, absolutely does. Someone like Devolver, very likely not.

But you could wrap that cost into the full budget, or ensure that recovery amount is included in the deposit.