Through the eyes of a parasite: Seven years of independent publishing

Dieter SchoellerManaging Director

Headup Games GmbH & Co. KG

Who I am

• Dieter Schoeller, 39 years, with a diploma in law

• Started with Quake 3- and RtCW-modding in 2002

• Worked for Ubisoft, Deep Silver and RTL/Bertelsmann

• End of 2008 I founded my own games company

Company overview

Headup Games is an independent and owner-led games publisher/developer located near Cologne founded beginning of 2009.

Some milestones: Having reached over 45 million players #1 on iOS in over 60 countries Publisher of the year 2012 and 2013 Best German Action Game 2010 Best German Family Game 2013 Best German Game 2014 Ten nominations at the German Developer Awards 2015

Company overview

Headup Games is an independent and owner-led games publisher/developer located near Cologne founded beginning of 2009.

Some milestones: Having reached over 45 million players #1 on iOS in over 60 countries Publisher of the year 2012 and 2013 Best German Action Game 2010 Best German Family Game 2013 Best German Game 2014 Ten nominations at the German Developer Awards 2015

What we do

ApplicationPublishing

Retail Distributio

n

Development and porting

Digital Distributio

n

Size doesn‘t matter

That’s roughly 6.5 million user per team member

Where we publish

Games we love and worked on

Entering into a publishers mind…

So…You are a developer, with

the greatest idea ever for a game, maybe even a

running prototype, and the best of talent.What now?

*A very subjective view to follow*

Let‘s bake!

1) Traditional publishing: Give up your IP, get full funding, and maybe some crumbs of the cake later if the world loves your recipe.

2) Self-funding and -publishing: DYI, often lack of expertise, but if the world discovers and loves the taste, you will be your own bakery.

3) Joint venture: Get external help such as a publisher or an agency, keep control and IP, but share the cake.

4) Crowd-funding

5) Win the lottery

I will take door number 3!

So you decided:• I want to own my IP and keep creative control.• I can‘t afford to hire more staff, but I will fund my own game.• I know what I am able to do well, but have no clue about

MarketingPressDistributionA lot of other stuff (Legal, QA, Promotions, Support,…)

• I am willing to give up the gold pot at the end of the rainbow

Finally arriving at the talks topic

Cymothoa exigua, a.k.a. the tongue-eating louseThe parasite severs the blood vessels in the fish's tongue, causing the tongue to fall off. It then attaches itself to the stub of what was once its tongue and becomes the fish's new tongue.

…this is not how you should feel about your publisher.

The system is dead, long live the system!

The good ol‘ days:

LOCAL RETAIL GAVE DISTRIBUTORS A GURANTEE DISTRIBUTORS GAVE PUBLISHERS A GUARANTEE

PUBLISHERS COULD AFFORD UPFRONT TO DEVELOPERS

And now?Retail doesn‘t have a clue if ppl will buy digitally or in their stores = Distributors don‘t know if retail will take their game =Publishers can‘t tap into secure sources as digital doesn‘t advance =

And don‘t even get me started on mobile when it comes to predictability…

Failure is the route to success

“I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

- Michael Jordan

We got owned… often!

Mobile launches received great features but dropped revenue the second the promotion endedStorefronts are not a marketing tool

A high quality freemium game failed despite outstanding user ratings and great PR

Effective paid user acquisition was out of scope of an indie budget

Games with 95%+ positive Steam ratings failed commercially Outstanding games, but too special in positioning which the press didn‘t pick up on

Letdowns due to Q4 releases besides quality and correct pricing Oversaturated markets, development delays and not the balls to slip the games to better release slots

Retail editions selling less than a thousand copies despite being huge digital brands Transfer from digital hype to offline hype only worked on non-abstract games with good key characters

There is light at the end of the tunnel

Case study: A real indie approach

Pixel Heroes: A total niche indie game by a three people teamReleased to Steam, Retail, iOS, AndroidConsole to followSold 50k+ units so far

Why did it work?• Highly effective trailer out of the norm• Anticyclic release strategy• Well-timed price promotions• Small team, low costs

Case studies: A cash cow

Bridge ConstructorMe-too-game (but no copycat)Released on iOS, Android, PC, XBOX OneComing to further platformsBy now over 40 million players

Why did it work?• Established partnership through previous joint productions• Well polished and accessible for the mass market• Anticyclic release strategy• High brand maintenance

Some lessons learned

• Product quality doesn‘t mean success by itself• If your game is special, every(!) aspect needs to stand out• Ever changing market conditions – so create your own market• Public market data is often outdated• Pretend that there is no Q4• If you have a winner: Quickly diversify and take care of the brand• Even for a success, carefully plan the cash flow after release

Don‘t listen to Luke:Sometimes joining forces can be the right choice.

Time to abolish an old mindset, and create new ways of collaboration.