Game Dev

Devs should avoid publishers, says publisher

There are several paths to game dev success, you can either self-publish or enlist the help of a publisher. They can help out tremendously, especially if you want to focus just on making the game and don't want to worry about marketing, or if you need funding. But of course all the help a publisher gives you isn't free, there's a cost to it and whether that cost is worth it or not depends on case by case basis both depending on the developer and the publisher. Some publishers are great and some are predatory.

One of the most successful publishers of recent times is Hooded Horse, they've been killing it in the Strategy game space, publishing hits like Manor Lords, 9 Kings, Xenonauts 2, Clanfolk and many more.

Recently the CEO of Hooded Horse spoke to PCGamer where he said how indie devs should avoid most indie publishers because "the vast majority of indie publishers are predatory and opportunistic". How there are some publishers that sign a ton of games, but then proceed to only invest in the ones that are likely to find success, and do the bare minimum on all the others. While at the same time having a clause to help them recoup their investment before the developer sees one cent.

He believes how most devs are perfectly capable of self-publishing and finding success by learning from excellent resources like GameDiscoverCo and How To Market A Game, and doing research on Gamalytic.

On Reddit he commented further, talking how you shouldn't take any publisher (even them) at face value and you should study carefully who you're getting into business with.

If you are interested in learning more about the world of game publishers and what to avoid then I recommend you read the entire article and the Reddit post. If you do want to go with a publisher you should be very careful and know exactly what you're getting yourself into.

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Game Dev

Sad news, BWDev passed away

If you're a regular in the YouTube Game Dev space you might be familiar with the channel BWDev, he was working on a really awesome management game titled Lumbermill for the past 7 years.

I've been watching those devlogs since the beginning, it is definitely my kind of game and I was really looking forward to the release. His last post 6 months ago showed how he was making a lot of progress on the game despite being quite ill.

Sadly last week his mom posted how Ben has passed away after fighting cancer for 11 years. She has set up a donation page according to his wishes and in his memory to The Rainforest Trust. If you have enjoyed his devlogs and were looking forward to his game considering sending a small donation their way, I've done that myself.

Tech

Steam Frame delayed?

The world of RAM prices has been going insane lately! I'm thankful that my PC is pretty great and I'm not in the market for an upgrade anytime soon, if I was then things would be quite tricky. Some RAM prices have increased literally 4x in one year!

However I have been looking forward to the Steam Frame, I've held off on buying the Valve Index for years because I was told a new version was just around the corner, and now it finally is, but due to RAM prices it might end up delayed.

They explained in a Blog Post how they were meant to have released launch date and pricing by now, however due to memory and storage shortages they have to revisit their shipping schedule and pricing. The goal is still supposedly the first half of 2026, but the AI industry isn't stopping (the hyperscalers recently announced 2026 CAPEX of $610B!) so I wonder what will they do. Will they prioritize launching in H1 2026 even if it's extremely expensive? Or wait until prices go down to launch even though that might take 1 year or more?

Also AMD CEO Lisa Su has mentioned that the Steam Machine (which has an AMD processor) is out in early 2026 and sort of leaked a new Xbox console in 2027.

Gaming

AWESOME typing game!

The creativity of developers is something that always amazes me, how sometimes they combine two things that look complete opposites and make them work.

Recently on Reddit I saw this fascinating gif on a thread titled "I feel like Goku when I Type so I'm making a game to showcase that feeling." and yup it's exactly that! Typing games are usually somewhat boring, but here we have a typing game that makes you feel SUPER AWESOME!

And just the other day I was talking on my Private Livestream how it's impressive how Steam is currently having a Typing Festival! I did not know there were enough games to make a festival in such a niche genre.