DAVID BRABEN
Developers launching publishing arms is very fashionable at the moment – where do you think this growth is coming from?
The democratisation of development has lowered the barrier to entry and fuelled an explosion in the number of games being made, but especially those nearing triple-A production values. Engines are becoming more powerful and intuitive, social media has created communities for anyone to instantly get answers to a problem – making a game has never been more accessible for aspiring developers. There were over 10,000 titles released on Steam in 2020, and that’s just one platform, so with such a huge supply, and with so many success stories over the years with huge returns for small teams, it’s understandable that these projects are attractive to larger, more traditional publishers.
While there’s certainly a financial incentive, Frontier’s decision to create Frontier Foundry was part of a natural evolution for the company. I would regularly get people approach me about help publishing a game. It is so easy for a game to disappear with only a few hundred sales; it takes experience and some funding to help make it stand out.
Presumably you need to ensure you stand out as a publisher, too. What sets Frontier Foundry apart?
The biggest thing that sets Frontier Foundry apart is that we’re perhaps the only developer-led publisher, so we really understand the process and challenges developers face as we’ve been there ourselves. As a developer I’ve personally worked with publishers since the early 1980s. The first 20 years of Frontier’s life was working with publishers too, and this extensive experience means we know firsthand what matters not only to the developer but also to the project itself, and are adept at spotting likely challenges. We care much more about how well a game plays than how it looks, and this is most important during those early deliveries, as it is possible to make a good game pretty later in development, but if a game is pretty but not fun to play, that is much harder [to address].
What type of games are you looking for? How important is it to build a portfolio of games with something in common? There isn’t one single genre or game type which defines Frontier Foundry as a label, other than they are games we think should be made. Frontier’s internal history is steeped in management and simulation titles, from Elite Dangerous to Planet Zoo, as well as our upcoming relationships with Formula 1 and Games Workshop, but working with third parties allows us to publish games in other areas too. We didn’t want to limit the label in terms of who we are willing to work with or genres we’d consider.
The thing that we ask ourselves when we look at a game, first and foremost, is ‘where’s the fun?’ Sales forecasts, market analysis, developer experience – those bits come later. At its core, we look for fun and engaging games that we’d want to play and then help people bring them to market.
How are you signing games right now? Are you actively seeking out indies, or are they approaching you?
It’s been a mixture of both. When Frontier Foundry was first starting out, we had what we call our ‘spearfishing’ targets – key development teams that we as fans wanted to work with; people we know are talented, passionate and reliable, with portfolios featuring critically and commercially successful titles that fans love and want to see more of. Haemimont [Games] is a great example of a studio we wanted to work with, and we think we have signed something very special.
Struggling, by Chasing Rats, was also one we met early on, while attending a Dragons Den-style pitch event where Frontier was on the panel of judges. We were impressed by their vision and passion so we reached out and signed with them, and it’s so different to the games Haemimont is known for that I think it really drives home how dedicated we are to supporting other people’s visions, however much they differ from what people typically think of when they hear ‘Frontier’.
Over time, we’ve become more active in attending industry networking events. In 2020, our team attended over a dozen major online publishing events, and that’s on top of the ongoing spearfishing targets, as well as referrals. We have a lot of partners, past and present, who send us recommendations for titles their friends are developing, or they’ve seen elsewhere and thought we’d love. The games industry is the biggest and fastest-growing entertainment form in the world, but at its heart it’s very small, and word of mouth is crucial to finding and signing talented teams.
How hands-on is Foundry in terms of creative input, and how does that compare with other publishers?
Frontier Foundry doesn’t dictate anything when it comes to the games we sign. We trust in the developers to deliver on their vision, and we will help them with their production needs. With Frontier being over 600-strong, we can offer teams support like creative services, comms, testing, localisation, even helping to connect with the right external services like AWS if needed.
We could write a game design document and pay a work-for-hire studio to realise that, and that’d be our vision, but when it comes to our Frontier Foundry partners we are very firm on helping deliver their vision without interference. One thing we’re very keen to avoid is chasing trends and forcing partners to shoehorn in new features that are outside the original scope and pitch, which is something we hear a lot of. “We’ve been told to be successful we need Roguelike elements” or “we need a publisher who won’t force us to add multiplayer” – we hear lots of these things from people pitching to us about their experience elsewhere. If you believe in your vision, and we can find the fun, then that’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
What’s the most valuable advice you’ve received as a developer over the years, and that you’d pass onto developers? Just because something is said with authority, it doesn’t mean it is true. Have the courage of your convictions. Make something you will be proud of now, but also in ten years’ time – because if [what you’re making] is successful, you will be working on it for a long time.