How to Find the Right Publisher

As a game developer, you’ll have invested hours and hours into the creation of your game concept. It only makes sense then that you’d want to find the right publisher who will treat your game with the same respect and passion when pushing it to market.

But with numerous game publishers emerging every day, it can be hard to spot those that are professional and transparent. In this guide, we’ll explore the three different stages of sourcing a publisher and identifying the main criteria you should use to lock down the right publisher for your game.

First Stage: How to find publishers

There a number of ways that you can source new publishers to work with – we’ve listed a few of these options below:

Search Online

The most obvious method would be searching online: simply googling mobile games publishers locally and internationally, you will be able to come across a number of different companies and create a shortlist of the ones matching your genre.

Look at the Charts

Diving further into research, you can look at the top performing apps over the past few months and take note of which studios are publishing the games that match your game’s genre best.

Attend Game Conferences

Look up what local game conferences are being held in your area to potentially attend. Not only will it allow you to meet potential publishers in the flesh, but it will allow you to feel out their authenticity face to face.

Once you think you’ve found a publisher you’d like to approach, reach out to them on their advertised contact method and request a consultation. A good publisher will be more than happy to set aside time for a call to discuss your game and answer any questions you may have.

Second Stage: How to prepare for first contact

It’s important when you confirm a consultation or call with a publisher, that you have a clear idea of the questions and subjects you’d like to explore with them.

During the first encounter, the publisher will most likely want to hear about your work as a developer, what you’re currently working on and what you’ve done in the past. Understand how to pitch correctly to a publisher here. Be prepared to answer these questions and be equipped with questions of your own.

Questions you may want to ask in this first meeting may include:

What genre of games does the publisher specialise in publishing?

What successful hits has the publisher had so far?

What is the overall process of receiving my game, then testing to publishing?

What are the benchmarks you require from a game to begin testing?

Pay attention to their answers – a professional publisher will answer these questions and also show interest and ask questions about your game, history and objectives.

Third Stage: Deciding on who to sign with

Congratulations! You’ve passed through a test phase with a publisher and they want to publish your game. In this stage you’ll need to confirm important details relating to the marketing strategy and evolution of your game should you publish.

Things you’ll need to establish are:

What’s the revenue split ?

Will they help you to improve your game ?

Will you learn something from the collaboration ?

What are your responsibilities and duties after your game is pushed live?

What factors will be in your control (in UA, Monetization, Game Design etc)?

What platforms will your game be pushed on?

What monetization will be put on the game?

What is the marketing strategy for your game?

What data will I have access to?

A lot of these details above will be established in the publishing contract, however it’s important to verbally communicate these so both you and the developer are in agreement. It’s also important to make sure the publisher your working with is passionate about games, transparent in their actions and offers guidance and support throughout the publishing journey.

Nowadays, having a great game concept simply isn’t enough. Without the publisher and marketing strategy, your game may struggle to take off which is why finding the right publisher is imperative. At Homa Games, we are passionate about games and want to help developers grow their games from scratch to millions of users. If you’d like to know more about us and whether or not we’d be a good match for your next game, reach out to us at contact@homgames.com.