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Indie developers cautiously optimistic about self-publishing on Xbox One
Microsoft's reversal of its publishing philosophy for the Xbox One has obvious and wide-reaching implications for the indie development community. While the original plan mandated that developers release games through a third-party publisher or broker a deal with Microsoft itself, indies will now be able to self-publish. Furthermore, retail Xbox One SKUs will function as development units, which historically are more expensive and more difficult to acquire than off-the-shelf models. "Ideally, this news could have been broadcast more proudly and loudly months ago, giving indies more time to prepare strategies for upcoming games," Minicore Studios founder and CEO John Warren told us, "but I suppose they don't owe anyone that courtesy. We know now, so now we can prepare for life with a Microsoft console, which is something I wouldn't have said yesterday." Warren and his team at Minicore are in the process of Kickstarting PC, Mac and Xbox 360 versions of their latest project, Laika Believes: The Sun at Night. "I think releasing on Xbox One without a publisher is a big step forward, of course, but the fact that (eventually) I'll be able to use my retail console as our dev kit is huge," he added. "My secondary (maybe flailing and futile) hope is that the fees for publishing won't be insane. It's one thing to only have to shell out $600 for a dev kit, but quite another if we have to spend another $10k on publishing fees. My hope is they'll be content with 30 percent of revenue and be done with it." Cautious optimism was a consistent theme among most of the indie developers we reached out to, though some had greater reservations over Microsoft's inner machinations than others.
Skullgirls dev wants $150,000 in crowdfunding for new character
Mike Zaimont and Peter Bartholow of Lab Zero Games recently unveiled plans during a Twitch.tv stream to crowdfund a new character for Skullgirls, Shoryuken reported. Zaimont and Bartholow's goal is to raise $150,000 starting February 25 to develop the "Squigly" character, her story and stage, in addition to stretch goals for two other characters."I know that $150k sounds like a ton of money, and it's only that cheap because we're taking huge paycuts to try and make it happen at all," Bartholow told Shoryuken. "A full cost breakdown will be provided so that people can see how their money will be spent."Once the Squigly character is completed, she will be available free for three months on all platforms, regardless if players have contributed to the developer's crowdfunding efforts.
