Inner Pocket Publishing is "building a quiet corner for people who love thoughtful single-player games"

Inner Pocket Publishing has formed around a publisher-as-curator model, with a small veteran team drawn from Critical Reflex, Gaijin Entertainment, and Nozomu Games. The four co-founders are CEO Artem Oleinik, head of marketing Yaroslav Kadyshev, head of publishing Ivan Bushmin, and art director Eva Manuilovich. The label is self-funded and intentionally lean, with no plans to scale aggressively or sign a large number of projects at once.

For developers, the pitch is straightforward: Inner Pocket is looking for smaller games or projects close to completion, especially ones that need little or no additional development funding. The company says it can currently invest up to $75,000 per project and has already lined up work for the next six months. Its early slate includes Burn With Me, an occult deck-burner from Nozomu Games, plus Outcast Tales, Nonolith, and The Archives of Trevosa.

The bigger strategic bet is curation. Inner Pocket wants its name to stand for a specific kind of game rather than a broad catalog, arguing that generalist publishing is getting harder to sustain as Steam’s release volume keeps climbing. The team sees value in building repeatable marketing workflows, recognizable taste, and a direct relationship with players who want exploratory, mystery-driven single-player games.

Steam is central to that plan. Inner Pocket will use an official Curator page to surface both its own releases and outside recommendations, treating discovery as part of the publishing business rather than a separate activity. The label is betting that a clearly defined niche,...