For this week’s Publisher Profile, we spoke with Kitfox Games‘ Tanya X Short about how they can use their years of marketing and promoting their own games to help your work.
Who are you?
Tanya X. Short, Kitfox Games: I’m Tanya X. Short, Captain of Kitfox Games.
Can you tell us a bit about your company?
We’re mostly a game developer ourselves, but we published The Shrouded Isle in 2017 and announced that we’re publishing Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind as well. I think we can handle publishing one game per year maximum right now. Currently, it’s basically just for friends I already personally know and who trust me to not screw them over and steal all their money.
What work do you do to help developers reach an audience? How do you make developers’ lives a little easier?
Well, over our five years of releasing and promoting games, Kitfox has learned a lot about the PC and console markets, and maybe most importantly, we’ve built an audience and community that keeps growing. Usually our games have been hybrid RPGs in some way, which means we have access to hundreds of thousands of gamers that might be interested if a new system-driven RPG were to come around. We have 13k Twitter followers (all real, all engaged), a very active Discord, and multiple successful Kickstarters, so… I think other than the obvious “Hey 1-person developer teams, you get more time to spend on the game and we’ll take care of the marketing & community,” we got into this because I wanted to help out some friends.
What is it that you’re on the lookout for (genres, content, etc.)?
Not currently on the lookout for anything! But I think it’s similar for us as for other publishers – we want games that our existing fanbase will get excited about. So…if it has an audience in common with, say, Moon Hunters or The Shrouded Isle or Boyfriend Dungeon, chances are that’s the kind of game we’re up for.
What do you look for in the games you choose to publish? In the developers you want to work with?
Well, since I’m mostly a game designer and we can only handle about one published game per year, I have to prioritize games that I know, without a shadow of doubt, will appeal to the Kitfox audience. I don’t want to take any chances on potentially disappointing the dev I’m trying to help!!! I usually don’t mind if we just break even (we only take 20% after recoup of costs), but I do want the developer to know we’re bringing them value and a unique opportunity they couldn’t have gotten on their own. Trust is essential.
Is there anything developers do to make themselves more appealing to publishers? Anything they do that makes them less appealing to publishers?
I think in an ideal world, publishers wouldn’t exist. In my fantasy, every developer accepts that marketing & community is part of the development process, and handles their own brand-building and social media and whatever. But realistically, when you’re a 1-2 person team, or have certain personality types, it’s just not feasible. Marketing is a hard, weird skill, and takes a lot of time investment.
So, I think the #1 thing you should do before approaching publishers is be honest with yourself (and them) about why you’re not doing it yourself. You’re probably not lazy, but you might be lacking expertise, be over-committed, and/or poorly positioned (physically or emotionally). Understanding your needs will help you have a stronger case for negotiation, because it should be clear what value they’re offering you. You’re the one with an amazing unique game – it should be their honor to get to potentially profit from your hard work. Worry less about appealing to them and worry more about understanding who your game’s audience is and which publisher might already be reaching that audience.
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