Delivered at Casual Connect Europe 2016 This talk will briefly summarize the lessons learned over the last seven years when it comes to publishing independent games, collaborating with young studios and successfully bringing their games to market. Having built up all pillars of distribution, from dinosaur retail business to Steam to mobile to digital console, we will share an insight into best practices and the biggest failures encountered along this path through concrete case studies and subjective insights.

1. Through the eyes of a parasite:
Seven years of independent publishing
Dieter Schoeller
Managing Director
Headup Games GmbH & Co. KG

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. What we do
Application
Publishing
Retail
Distribution
Development
and porting
Digital
Distribution

6. Size doesn‘t matter
That’s roughly 6.5 million user per team member

7. Where we publish

8. Games we love and worked on

9. 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*

10. 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

11. 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
Marketing
Press
Distribution
A lot of other stuff (Legal, QA, Promotions, Support,…)
• I am willing to give up the gold pot at the end of the rainbow

12. Finally arriving at the talks topic
Cymothoa exigua, a.k.a.
the tongue-eating louse
The 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.

13. 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…

14. 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

15. We got owned… often!
Mobile launches received great features but dropped revenue the second the promotion ended
Storefronts 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

16. There is light at the end of the tunnel

17. Case study: A real indie approach
Pixel Heroes:
A total niche indie game by a three people team
Released to Steam, Retail, iOS, Android
Console to follow
Sold 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

18. Case studies: A cash cow
Bridge Constructor
Me-too-game (but no copycat)
Released on iOS, Android, PC, XBOX One
Coming to further platforms
By 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

19. 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

20. 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.