It’s just run from one game to the next because they’re trapped in the cycle of these recoups. “If you look at all of our games, every single one


of them is releasing tons of post release support and expansion. That’s true of all five release games, and that’s part of why they’re successful. That’s what drives the sales. You can actually be better off taking less, because the whole pie gets bigger when you make sure developers are taken care of and have what they want.” Bender says there’s no ‘Hollywood accounting’ at


Hooded Horse. Standard terms are no recoup and the developer gets 65% of all revenues, with Hooded Horse’s share covering things like localisation and marketing. “Very, very occasionally, a developer might want


revenue that’s not tied to publishing costs. “There’s some objectively odd things about the way the publisher- development work relationship has grown up in indie publishing,” says Bender, citing the prevalence of recoup terms, where a publisher will insist on hoarding all the sales revenues until it’s recovered its investment. “I honestly have no idea why that has become the norm in indie publishing.” It doesn’t make sense, because, says Bender, a publisher will have some games that do well and others that don’t, but it’s spreading its bets to offset risk. “Developers on the other hand, have a very limited ability to absorb risk because they often have one game.” If a developer is hampered by unfavourable recoup terms, even a successful game might not save it from having to lay off staff or even shut down entirely. “Also in many cases it’s bad for consumers and even


the publishers, because where there should be support and expansion for the things that will cause that game to sell more in the long term, many games are abandoned by developers and players blame them, but they had no choice financially. The only choice they had was to move on because they needed to go to the next publishing deal.


something where we start out a little higher. If a developer really wants to drive that percentage down, we’ll do an alternative where we take 50% and then after a period we drop down to 30%. Very few developers take that, but a couple of them have been really wanting to drive that extra 5% long term. Most developers just want just no recoup and simple percentages.”


NEED FOR STEED If by doing away with recoup terms in publishing agreements allows for a developer to provide long-term and post launch support, fundamental to that would appear to be the idea of early access. Of its five published games, four are currently in early access development and the other, Old World, was signed as it was leaving. Is it safe to assume that a fair number of Hooded Horse games will be joining them? “Early access is a great model for developers who


want to hear community feedback, develop in response to it and plan for a lot of expansion after release. There’s early access done wrong, when you release a game that really shouldn’t be released and call it early access – that doesn’t go well. But if you release a good game that you want to add more to, then that is generally a very positive experience for everyone.” There is a danger of course that a game could outstay its


welcome in early access; that in the oven of development, so to speak, it might not rise as expected, or become a little burnt around the edges for being in the heat too long. Might that become an issue? Bender insists on going off the record to reveal which


games will be hitting v1.0 before Rui cuts in to point that each developer has its goals for early access and that it isn’t just encouraged to make realistic and meet, but provide a roadmap that at least points to a full release. “Clan Folk has a definite roadmap. It’s there with every update. You’ll start up the game, you have a screen that shows what’s been added, what’s left to do in the roadmap.


38 | MCV/DEVELOP March 2022


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