I mentioned a while back that Poncle has gotten into publishing games. And while I haven’t yet dug into Kill The Brickman, I have no doubt they made a great pick for their first game. Luca Galante, the creator of Vampire Survivors and big boss behind Poncle’s publishing arm, recently gave his thoughts on publishing and the impetus for getting into the game himself.
Vampire Survivors Creator Doesn’t Like Publishers
In a recent interview with GamesRadar, the Vampire Survivors creator revealed why he started publishing games himself—and wasn’t exactly complimentary of other publishers.
“I see a lot of publishers I don’t like, and I think that’s my way to define what a good publisher should be, probably,” Galante explained. “I see a lot of publishers that try to exploit the platforms just to make money, basically, because the video game industry is very obviously an industry that makes a lot of money.”
“There is a lot of money to make,” he continued. “I see that these publishers will try and just exploit platforms for money. Put out games that are incomplete or in early access that actually never get completed, games that are put out there and left to die, basically. Does not make money, left in a broken state, and so on.”
There’s definitely some of that out there. Galante is clearly very passionate about making games, not just making money, which is a huge key for people in positions of power.
Sadly, most don’t seem to have the self-awareness to recognize it. This is an art form that happens to make money. The craft should always be a priority.
“So my point of view for what a publisher should do is, first of all, make genuine games, genuine products, something that has some real value, and then understand that not everything can be a breakout hit,” Galante said.
“For me, it’s very important that we keep supporting games post-launch, regardless of how the game would go, just because once you put the game out there, you have an audience, and as big or small as it is, that audience deserves to be treated fairly. So post-launch support is definitely a big thing from my point of view that publishers should be able to offer.”
I mean, yeah. Perfection. It’s not a difficult concept to understand. Quality always wins. Even if you aren’t raking it in with it. Churning out crap for the sake of it just makes everything worse. But it’s almost like no one cares; no one wants to stop and do something different.
The industry is full of Tobias Funke-like people:
“Well did it work for those people?”
“No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but…But it might work for us.”
Maybe it’s time to change that. Hopefully, what Luca Galante and Poncle are doing is the first real step.
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