🕹️ How I got a publisher for my indie game
Did you hear the news? I signed my indie game Pixel Washer with Acclaim!
In my last article I covered the who/what/why, so this time I thought I'd tell the story of how it happened.
Let's do it!
🐷 Humble beginnings
Pixel Washer began as a weekend game jam.
To distract myself from my main project Witchmore, I thought it would be fun to prototype an idea I had in the shower.
The concept was: a chill game about washing pixels. What if it was just that? Pretty much nothing else, just washin' pixels? Is that enough to make a game out of?
So I spent 3 days hacking in LÖVE (the engine that indie darling Balatro was made in) with the goal of making a screenshot, a GIF, and a pitch deck (and hey a video why not). I wanted to test the concept more than anything else.
Then I just kept going! I showed what I had to friends and they liked it more than my main project. I posted about it online and it was better received too.
I was kind of sputtering out on my main project anyway, so I kept working on Pixel Washer. Eventually I had a demo and even got some publisher interest.
All these positive signs gave me momentum. So far I just started making a game and, importantly, posted about it online.
🥓 Enter Bacon and Games
In early 2024, I met Sean McKenzie.
You might know Sean from his YouTube channel Bacon and Games which covers Godot for game development. Or maybe from one of the two podcasts we recorded:
We met online by happenstance because we're both into game development and YouTube. One day on a call, we realized that we lived about a 20 minute drive apart. What are the odds?!
Naturally we started getting together for coffee or whatever and advised each other on our various projects. Sean's got significant publishing experience, having worked with indie game legend Armor Games for almost a decade.
Old pitch deck slide (left) and improved one (right). The whole deck's better!
Being such a nice and helpful guy, Sean offered to help improve the pitch deck for Pixel Washer. He took it from honestly a pretty mid pitch deck to one that, well, landed a publisher! What a great guy. Kind to himself and kind to others.
Sean McKenzie
🏴☠️ A wild pirate appearrrrs!
Speaking of awesome friends, later that year I met Robby Bisschop of Pirate PR.
Again we're both Very Online and Into Gaming so we "bumped" into each other and started talking. Robby agrees with me that not enough indie game developers make their developer/publisher/curator landing pages, so we worked together to republish my article on his sweet treasure trove:
Robby Bisschop
How to Create An Official Developer Steam Page? And Why You Should!
Eventually we decided to record a podcast (like ya do). Robby is extremely knowledgeable and easy to talk to. We chatted for hours. He's a fountain of knowledge and beyond the episode I've got a ton of extra footage I need to edit together someday.
5 Ways to Get Wishlists For Your Steam Game with Robby Bisschop
Robby often sends me opportunities for games, like upcoming events and festivals. One day he asked me if I was still looking for a publisher, and honestly? I kind of wasn't anymore (lol). After spending a few months talking with publishers, I was focused on finishing the game.
But Robby knew and liked several members of a mysterious new team so I met with them. I had some great talks with their CEO Alex Josef who was friendly, grounded, and understood the simplicity of Pixel Washer. We even live pretty close so we were able to meet up to get some coffee.
(I really love getting coffee with game developers, if you can't tell.)
When Alex showed me that their new publishing label was Acclaim, well, that was definitely a selling point for me, I'm not gonna lie. Pixel Washer doesn't have name brand recognition, but Acclaim sure does, and I'm not immune to that. I was giddy at the idea of rebooting a classic from my childhood.
Things were going well and after a while we were all signed up and ready to go. The process was pretty straightforward and things kind of just clicked together. Cheers to Robby for the connection.
Matt Hackett
🌈 Working with Acclaim
It's been cool. I've now got the support of a team who cares about helping me make a great game and finding the players who will (hopefully) love it.
Knowing that others are helping out with marketing so I can focus on development has been so liberating. I've been able to get so much more done and I no longer feel like I'm dropping the marketing ball.
Obviously I can't say much more. Some things need to stay behind the curtain, so I'll just say: so far so good. Things are going well and I'm really excited about the future.
I'd also like to say that some of you that have been with me for a long time reached out to congratulate me and that means a lot to me. Thanks for sticking with me over the years. I hope this is only the beginning of a new slate of games and fun.
Also, this is amazing:
Acclaim is also publishing a game called Tossdown. Fer, the solo developer, posted about being inspired by my book How to Make a Video Game All By Yourself.
How cool is that?! It feels like kismet. 📙
📝 Pixel Washer posts so far
Here are the other articles I've written and videos I've made about Pixel Washer.
(Check out the dates. Some of the jumps in time are wild!)
- June 2023: 🫧 Weekend game jam: Pixel Washer
- August 2023: ⚔️ Does the Kickstarter + Steam combo still work?
- September 2023: 🔍 Finding the Lost Pixels in Pixel Washer
- October 2023: 🐷 Pixel Washer devlog: introduction
- August 2024: 🐷 Pixel Washer: Devlog 2
- September 2024: 🔥 Steam Game Promo Art - Photography and Fire
- September 2025: 🔥 Acclaim is publishing my game Pixel Washer
Especially that last leap from, "I made some promo art for my game" in 2024 to a solid year later, "I signed with a publisher." What was I doing for a whole-ass year??
So ...
The simple story here is that I just got to work on a solid idea that I thought had promise. I kept at it and, a couple years later, signed with a publisher. If it can work out for me then it can work out for you (if that's your goal).
That's it for now. I have thoughts on what I did right to land a publisher, and things that might help you, so look for that soon. If there's anything specific you'd like to know, feel free to ask in the Valadria Discord. See you there!?
