Finding a publisher

Hey there, not sure if this the correct place to post this type of question, but here goes.

You're not managing a project now - now you're venturing into business. So I'm moving this to Business.

Does anyone have advice on where to go / how to find and pitch this type of game to a publisher?

Yes. See http://sloperama.com/advice/lesson11.htm

Start doing research on publishers, and identify some likely ones to approach. Then find out about their submission criteria as per the article.

Isn't marketing a part of production?

Isn't marketing a part of production?

No. Producers are project managers, who are involved in creating the game. Marketing works more closely with sales, thus are involved in selling the product. If you want more clarity on this, please start a new thread instead of "hijacking" a thread unrelated to your question. Sharsnik didn't ask anything about marketing.

What services do you want out of a publisher?

In addition to the link Tom offered above, I think if your game is almost completed you may find his lesson #21 ("The game concept submission process") more directly relevant.

Dan Marchant also offers a couple of relevant articles:

• The video game acquisition process
• Preparing a product pitch
• Preparing a game demo

As Hodgman has suggested, you should first have a good idea of what you hope to gain from a publisher. With development nearly finished I'm assuming you probably aren't looking for development funding, so what is it you're hoping a publisher will provide? Once you have a clear idea of your expectations, you can start searching for potential publishers that may meet your needs, or depending on your specific needs you may realise a non-publisher could also help you out -- if you only really need some marketing support you could potentially work with a PR firm rather than a publisher for example.

Normally once you have a good idea of your needs I would recommend looking through Pixel Prospector's "Big List of Online Game Stores" and accompanying links (as well as considering self-publishing) as a starting point, but they're more suited to downloadable games and I'm not sure how relevant they would be for a browser-based MMO.

Hopefully some of that is useful, good luck!

In addition to the link Tom offered above, I think if your game is almost completed you may find his lesson #21 ("The game concept submission process") more directly relevant.

Right. I forgot which of my own articles was most apropos! Good catch.

Thanks for the advice!

Hopefully we get lucky and manage to find someone.

Hey there, not sure if this the correct place to post this type of question, but here goes.

My studio's first game is almost completed™, and we're now looking for a publisher.

Does anyone have advice on where to go / how to find and pitch this type of game to a publisher?

The game can be played at side-quest.com , it is a free to play browser MMORPG.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Can I make a suggestion,

1. Don't ask for my email,
2. don't have a password check,
3. don't ask for my name,
4. don't try and validate my email,
5. don't have a captcha,
6. You need two things, username & password, I punch those in, and need to be redirected to the game client straight away.

Each one of those things is a barrier to people playing the game, all of it can be collected later on,

It took me 3 attempts to sign up, so I decided not too play when it attempted to validate (my made up) email.

The people trying to signup have no affinity for your game yet. Don't try there patience!

Publishers

From a business perspective they publisher will be looking at one thing, your player count (as you have no IP to speak off, that has any value.)

When you have thousands of daily users, you would have a chance of "publishing** " the game, which is akin to selling it for this

browser style game.

You also have no clear monetization strategy (or do you?)

**strictly speaking, it's already "published", it's available on the internet. Really you need an investment of advertising and marketing.