The secret of Devolver Digital's success: "We're talented motherf**kers"

>Devolver Digital is nearing its tenth anniversary, having published somewhere in the ballpark of 100 games. It has a sizeable following for an independent publisher. It even has its own E3 press conference.

>It also only has 16 employees, all of whom work remotely. The company's official mailing address is a bird store owned by one of the company's founders. Kate Ludlow, who works in "SpecialOps" at Devolver, tells me she once had 2000 kazoos shipped there for a marketing campaign.

>"The reason we're able to do everything on such a big scale with so many people is that everybody we bring in is a multi-tool," she says. "Nobody does one thing. Anybody here, founding partners down, would take out the trash. Anybody would go on a Best Buy run and grab a cable. Every single person we bring in does more than one thing and does it well. We're talented motherfuckers."

>Nevertheless, 16 still feels small for what feels in scope to be such a large operation. But as co-founder Graeme Struthers puts it in a conversation with GamesIndustry.biz at GDC 2019, the company has technically tripled in size from its founding.

>"Devolver, for myself, Nigel [Lowrie], Mike [Wilson], Harry [Miller], and Rick [Stults] was essentially the realization that we couldn't get jobs anywhere else. So we figured the only thing to do is to make a job up, make a company up."

>Struthers and his fellow Devolver founders had known one another prior to Devolver's founding. Wilson, Miller, and Stults had founded Gathering of Developers in the late 90s, which later ended up as part of Take-Two. The group reformed for a company called Gamecock in 2007, which is where Struthers got involved, but after an acquisition by SouthPeak Games, its Austin office was shuttered and the founders were once more without work. But the men wanted to give publishing one more attempt.

gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-05-21-the-accidental-authenticity-of-devolver-digital

Attached: Devolver Digital.jpg (1120x600, 50K)

Other urls found in this thread:

store.steampowered.com/publisher/AdultSwimGames
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

>"The emphasis of Gathering of Developers and Gamecock was really developers making content without anyone getting involved in how they made the content, and also developers maintaining ownership of the IP and having creative freedom," Struthers says. "Devolver was the last roll of the dice. We had seen all the things that could go wrong, how developers were historically screwed over by the system, so we figured we'd take what we'd learned and apply it to a company."

>It is now far more common for developers to maintain ownership of IP in publishing deals than it was when Devolver started. But starting with IP retention as a premise led to the developer-first philosophy that it continues to maintain in a number of other ways into the present day. For head of production Andrew Parsons, that means being flexible with developer deadlines and allowing them to return to the drawing board without repercussions if they need to. For Ludlow, that means more of what she calls a "caring, nurturing" situation.

>"I can't make a video game," she says. "Being a part of this world is having a lot of respect for developers. Without them, I would not have a job. My role is freeing up a lot of the minutiae of what we're doing. Hotels, flights, sometimes I even order dinner for them. When you're not thinking about all of that, you can be creative. They're standing in a booth for eight hours a day, they're talking non-stop on our behalf, and they're making sure I get a paycheck at the end of the day."

>Parsons adds: "All this sounds very altruistic and beneficial, but when it comes down to it, we're a publishing label. A business. As Kate said, we'd be nothing without our developers. So we have to have that level of respect where we constantly have to remind ourselves that they're the talent, the only thing that matters in the whole equation. Creative people, if they're unhappy, they don't make good work.

>"It shouldn't come as any kind of surprise that lots of games we've signed have come from word of mouth from existing developers. If we behaved badly or treated people badly, you would never get that. And all of a sudden you get a game that was in the darkest depths of Reddit or a gif on Twitter that we never would have seen, but because we have this network, they get into our inboxes."

>Talking about games, I ask the group what is the hallmark of a Devolver game. Though Parsons half-jokes that a good indicator is a "high Metascore," everyone agrees that it is less any particular defining trait (such as pixel art, which Parsons says people have inaccurately used as a blanket way to label Devolver's publishing portfolio in the past) and more a "personality."

>"A lot of the time, the games we sign and our persona is a culmination of all our personalities," Parsons says. "All of the people involved in Devolver have a say, and when you look at our output, whether it's marketing or games, most of us have an opinion about that stuff. The unique thing about Devolver is its combination of personalities. We do approach quite a lot of what we do with an emotional bent. We try to feel strongly about things, be it the industry, other people's games, our games, because if you don't feel strongly you've got nothing to share. But it does point toward a more unique perspective."

>Thinking of Devolver in terms of a particular "personality" won't be much of a stretch for anyone familiar with the company's marketing, or outward-facing communications in general. Devolver has historically tended toward tongue-in-cheek humor, unsubtle mockery of industry trends, and outright snark (just take a look at the Twitter account of the company's so-called 'CFO' Fork Parker.).

>This has worked to Devolver's advantage over the years, with the company able to sell merchandise like a "Loot Box Coin" and put on a parody E3 press conference every year. Ludlow says that while the marketing efforts are obviously deliberate, much of the company's tone is less message-based and more the people who work there simply being themselves.

>"Some brands have, 'This is the message we're putting out,' but what we put out is just an extension of our personality," she says. "Even something like reading our Twitter sounds like a conversation you could have with one of us. It's not a message that we've been trying to force. I guess we're just authentic, but we're not doing it on purpose."

>CTO John Bartkiw adds: "A lot of the views surrounding the things we put out, like Loot Box Coin for example, are actually shared by a lot of people in the industry. At the end of the day E3 is something anyone can relate to; anyone who's sat through an E3 thing and just fallen asleep. The idea is that these are thoughts everyone in the industry shares, and at Devolver we can turn that into reality."

>That doesn't come without risk. The last year or more has seen no shortage of incidents where games companies took edginess or jokes too far, forcing the company either to backpedal hard or leave its audience feeling that certain darker corners of gaming fandom had been catered to. Devolver had similar incidents on a smaller scale in the past, but the team acknowledges that they want to always be able to look to their past and improve in the future. And for that to happen, audiences have to allow companies a chance to improve, too.

>"I think that trying to be edgy is where you're going to fuck up," Ludlow says. "Certain things that have happened recently like that, they were trying to be edgy. It wasn't in their heart. I think we're doing what we think is right in our heart. Sometimes that does put people off. And most of the time I feel like we get it right."

>"I hope we come across as playful and never nasty or anti-anything," Struthers adds. "Except to G2A, obviously."

>Continued growth and improvement is a given desire of any company, but when I ask the team about their hopes for Devolver Digital in another ten years, every one of them is content to continue doing what Devolver has already been doing for another decade -- just more of it.

>"For me, success at Devolver 20 is that Devolver 20 happens," Bartkiw says. "We live in an industry where surviving ten years is a lot; surviving 20 years is insane. Long-term trajectory is just long-term sustainability, and that's what I enjoy the most about Devolver is that they do things with the long-term in mind."

>Parsons adds: "The hope is that we continue to support independent developers. They're stronger now than they've been for a long time, but when we pick up games we have to think very carefully about where they sit in the commercial landscape. But more crucially, we always have to think about the long-term health of the developer and whether the game itself will survive. There are some games we've picked up which continue to do really well commercially, and the reason for that is that the quality of the game is really high.

>"I don't mind what new technical challenges come up... as long as we can still maintain our philosophy of allowing incredible games to be made by talented independent developers. And if everyone makes a buck while that happens, that's even better."

>For Struthers, the company lives in the future, with projects in development already for 2020 through 2022. He says he's excited about what the company's developer partners are up to, and especially interested in the incoming next generation. Devolver, he says, has its eye on what Apple, Google, Amazon, and Epic are doing next.

>As for Ludlow's vision of Devolver in ten more years: "18 employees? Maybe we'll eventually have an office at some point?

>"I think one of the best things about Devolver is that we don't have a roadmap. We don't have this ten-year plan where every year we have to hit milestones. It keeps us very adaptable. If in two years the Amazebox 9000 comes out, we're going to be ready for that and it's not going to put us off the roadmap."

END

Only 16 people? Damn.

At the risk of sounding like a shill I'll say Devolver if one of the few companies where if I see their name on something I'll check it out.

If they're so talented where's the HM2 level creator?

>Devolver, he says, has its eye on what Apple, Google, Amazon, and Epic are doing next.

rip in piece

>>Struthers and his fellow Devolver founders had known one another prior to Devolver's founding. Wilson, Miller, and Stults had founded Gathering of Developers in the late 90s
They discovered and published Serious Sam, right? Based.

Indeed. How can a company function without at least 70 community managers and 126 diversity and love council members in this day and age?
But seriously, game publishing seems like mostly office work, not a labor heavy business unless they vertically integrate.

Same. They seem to have a really good grip on what they publish. At the very least it'll be interesting.

Thoughts on Observation?

It's for the ebin e4 jokes

oh, so they have gud

It's not out yet? The leaked version for pre-release looked pretty much complete

I can't name a thing they published other than Hatoful Boyfriend

Observation and Katana ZERO are the recent notable ones.

They can actually run a business.
Big publishers should take notice.

>epic store exclusive
Into the trash it goes.

Really feels like something I've played before. The EGS exclusivity is a shame too but I wasn't interested in the first place.

HOTLINE MIAMI baybeeeee

They published Observation? One user predicted that they were gonna poke fun at EGS exclusivity at E3 since they always make fun of shit that people currently hate, but I seriously doubt that now.

Based, this is the attitude we need more of in the vidya industry

Didn't know they were entirely remote. Pretty neat.

great now hurry up with metal wolf chaos

Real talk, I couldn't name anything they made outside Hotline Miami, and had no idea they had any success. Literally who?

>Talented motherfuckers
>Make Katana Zero a Switch exclusive

Attached: madmenatwork.png (256x197, 8K)

It's also on PC.

It's on PC retarded cunt.

I guess you don't play good games.

What absolute chads

good on them, they put out a lot of trash. but if they struck gold, it's amazing. i put over 200+ hours in gungeon and strafe

Console exclusive obviously
Who gives a fuck about PC?

>Who gives a fuck about PC?
Anyone with functioning brains.

Has some neat ideas but gets shy and quickly stows them in its pocket in favor of bog standard narrative gameplay not sure if it gets them back out again later since I only watched the first 30 or so minutes on youtube on account of it being #1 epiclusive #2 narrative game number eighty-five thousands

Devolver are the adult swim of games, mediocrity that appeals to retarded teenagers who swoon at their first glimpse of something edgy and different when in reality it's just as safe and carefully picked as anything else out there.

Uh-hu. Keep telling that to yourself brainlet

This

I like Devolver, they feel like everything Nicalis should be but they're not and they have a good enough track record to guarantee I'll check whatever they publish

Then why was hotline mami 2 so shit?

The reason I picked up katana zero.

I was not fucking disappointed.

Attached: 1545468360312.jpg (489x766, 44K)

dennaton can't into sequels

Adult swim has a lot of good games published. Duck game, rain world, battle chef brigade, super dead house of ninjas, etc. I don't see how comparing digital devolver to them is an insult.
store.steampowered.com/publisher/AdultSwimGames

Enter the Gungeon

I think (see: it's obvious) he means the shows, not the games.

Honestly the level sizes. Some areas were so huge and you would just get blasted from off screen. Especially in the flashback jungle shit. It made a run that much longer and that much more obnoxious restarting it compared to the dense, quicker to navigate, more compact area designs of the first.

That alone ruined almost half the game.

Out since 2-3 years?

>w.w.who cares!

devolver fans aren't very intelligent

Most of the people who are into indies and the target audience of devolver you fucking retard

this

It wasn't. I have 150h in it, and an other 150 in HM1. Git gud

>git gud
It’s not that it was incredibly challenging it was just boring and all over again he place compared to 1.

anyone who likes video games and isn't poor

Katana Zero is better then Sekiro. Also Gris is very pretty.
t.Charmless bell demon run, ng+++

Attached: katanazero1-1.jpg (1000x563, 184K)

Would you believe me if I told you I was pretending to be retarded?

No, your performance is too convincing for you to not be a Devolver fan.

Ok genuine question here: did you try to S rank stuff? I found that both HM 1 & 2 really start to shine the moment you try to go fast, HM2 also gets pretty diverse, and you stop relying on sneak & peak and only shooting, Maybe I am just autistic, I 95x Dead Ahead on hard mode

I just want Serious Sam 4 I don't give a fuck about the rest.

Name some fan bases you consider intelligent for comparison purposes.

Attached: 12412312541.png (500x650, 475K)

Got to play it for free. It’s good, if you like story-driven puzzle games. It doesnt hold your hand tho, so theres that. I like when games just respect you to try and finish it the best you could. But honestly Stories Untold is better.

where the FUCK is Metal Wolf Chaos you nignogs?

Available right after their E3 show.

WHERE IS METAL WOLF CHAOS

...

>have success
>don't quintuple in size instantly
Others could stand to learn from this.

Broforce, the Messenger and Katana Zero are all fantastic games. I’ve yet to be disappointed

...

Adult Swim Games is the Adult Swim of games

>Gathering of Developers
I should have just fucking assumed. I can't believe I didn't figure it was them the whole damn time, everything makes sense now.

I have S rank on the majority of levels on 2 and all of them on 1. I didn’t bother getting the rest on 2 since I didn’t like it as much as the first one.

>independent
>publisher
these are mutually exclusive

Hotline Miami 2 is better than the first one. The first game is piss easy, you barely ever need guns and you can easily demolish most levels with just a knife. 2 has more varied gameplay and requires more strategic thinking than just melee-ing everything in your path.
Plus it's got a level editor and Workshop support. You're a damn moron if you think the first game is better.
t. 100%ed both games and S ranked every level.

I play tons of good games, but looking at their catalogue, it doesn't seem like they make many.

that just means you have shit taste

still no metal wolf chaos why has it taken over a year to port a ps1 game

You having autism doesn't make HM2 a good game, it just means you have autism and are willing to put in the time to make the game work for you.

Their whole thing is that they pick out cool indie shit and publish it, the worst you'll ever get from them is middling.

Ruiner was a joy.

ruiner sucked ass
nex machina was based

>it doesn't seem like they make many.
They don't make ANY, dipshit. They're a publisher.

>h-he disagrees with me? he has a different opinion than me??
>he must have autism! yeah!
Jesus, dude.

Devolver didn't publish Nex Machina. It would have been more successful if they did.

Here's that (You) you ordered, sir.
They're both great.

Man, Ruiner is pretty underrated. I really liked it, I hope they make a sequel.

It doesn’t really seem like my cup of tea, but it apparently has some “big twist” end and I kinda want to know what it is, but that’s about it

I will bet good money it’s coming out on the 4th of July. It’s the only date that makes sense

This

Bump

True. They never failed me. Their games were always worth my time and money.The E3 show is also kino. Also, as a hobby indie dev, they are the only publisher I will send my game to.

I hope you make it user!

I will try my best fren.

Revolver

I bet they are all white men

One of them is a girl (female) at least.

>We're talented motherfuckers
Not to downplay their success, because they genuinely are a great company with top quality stuff, but don't they just pay other people and teams to make their shit.

Which again, isn't a bad thing but I thought they were like the indie version of Valve where they're good at finding talent more then anything.

>we couldn't get jobs anywhere else. So we figured the only thing to do is to make a job up
These goys have read the code. Shut it all down.

Imagine Sony isn't at E3 because they got so butthurt over Devolver's E3 and took it as a personal insult.

In reality it's because Sony has nothing to show.

If theyre so taalented why cant they fucking make hotline miami 3

WHERE'S METAL WOLF CHAOS, YOU FUCKHEADS?!

Attached: Devolver and Biscuit.png (622x1132, 262K)

One thing I have to respect them for is that they're completely blunt and honest about it compared to all the other "we are doing it for teh consumer!" faggots.

From their Discord Q&A:
>@Karito Why are you Publishing Observation exclusively on Epic Games Store (for PC). Doesn't this go against what you have previously stood for?
>A: Because they drove up to the front of my house with a dumptruck full of money. I'm not made of stone!

>posting pictures of yourself

I was massively disappointed in Katana Zero.
It's extremely short. Shorter than I even imagined it to be. And your choices barely matter aside from like one secret. Event he weapon unlocks are separate from everything else.
So it's like an extremely short game, with choices everywhere, except that none of them really matter and the game is super linear anyway. Then it's just over.

I still like Devolver though. But I quickly regretted Katana Zero.

WHERE'S MY METAL WOLF CHAOS DEVOLVER

Attached: 1492493868926.gif (226x224, 182K)

Attached: Hotline Miami 3.png (580x420, 369K)

Because the creators said they didn't want to milk the series and Devolver is respecting their decision.

>Katana Zero
Looks cool. Does it play better on PC or console?

PC with a controller.

NINA

Attached: 00FA68F5-D494-4F8E-B2E2-29870EC0F1CF.jpg (735x750, 47K)

Hyped.

Not only that, but what the fuck else can you do? The entire fucking city is nuked to hell and back and everyone dies, how the fuck do you make a sequel to that?

There's two ways you can go about it
>Have the third game be about post apocalypse Miami, which was actually a planned fan game that the creators themselves allowed before said people gave up on it
>Have it be an anthology series that has the same basic formula of Jacket being a deranged extremist in Miami but now in different settings and the characters changed to fit said setting, essentially like Legend of Zelda. Jacket could be a white supremacist fighting terrorists in an early 2000's setting or a Blacksploitation game set in the 70's with Jacket as a black guy killing crackers

The apocalypse isn't confirmed to happen, though. All we know is Miami and Florida are nuked.

And Mafia 1

Either way a war torn Florida is definitely possible.
But I honestly prefer my latter idea of it being an anthology series.

Knowing how to delegate and giving the proper work to the proper people is also a talent.

Revolvaaa

Hawaii was bombed.

dejitaaaaaaaaa

they are liter󠛡ally reddit

No U.

They're hit or miss. Sometimes really cringy, but they so take risks on Indies and I like that.

>shitting on other events
>shitting on nostalgiafgas
>shitting on coinfags
I'm thinking you're trying to fit in.

People take out the trash and can go buy cables at best buy! We're talented. Lol what?

Inability to detect humor is a sign of autism user.

I'm waiting on My Friend Pedro and Metal Wolf Chaos myself

Attached: 1557241057513.jpg (766x602, 67K)

I'd say they have a 80% hit rate. Not a guarantee of a good game but having them around is like a good luck charm

This

Aren't these guys working with Tobyfox?

Who?

man you are slow as fuck

No, maybe

If they're so based why did they sell out to Epic?

Devolver is good, but I get really annoyed with their whole "NO HOLDING BACK" edginess shtick.
I can only imagine a bunch of 30 year olds wearing zoomer clothing, trying to be hip.

...

Do they help out their devs in any way? Like find them good artists or consult game design.
Cause otherwise they'd have to be pretty lucky to keep this solid standard while relying on devs themselves

Because that was NoCode's idea.
Devolver just followed their decision and even talked with Steam about the situation.

Bump

Do you have any proof about this?

Bump!

metal wolf chaos release date when?