Digital Bandidos, a new publishing studio with a focus on indie games, revealed itself today. The studio was founded by former employees of Versus Evil, founder and general manager Steve Escalante (who’s now Digital Bandidos CEO) and head of production Lance James. The studio focuses on the efforts of smaller indie developers, and offers full-service publishing options including both traditional and alternative funding.
According to its founders, Digital Bandidos’ focus is on PC and console games with a developmental budget up to $3 million. It also specializes in the role-playing, strategy and action genres. In addition to more conventional publishing options for indie devs starting out, the studio offers other, flexible funding options. It offers a “sliding scale” of investment funds, from small investments to meet certain goals including finishing funds, to full-service funding. It also offers buyout options for developers with existing, established games who wish to step away from their titles or need funding for other projects.
CEO Escalante spoke with GamesBeat about Digital Bandidos’ mission, saying, “In addition to the funding, the big currency we offer game developers is time — time to focus on the game so they can be the creative people that they are.” Regarding the alternative funding options, he said, “We’ve had interesting conversations with game developers, who have either been working on a game for a long time or want to shift gears a little bit. They’ll say, ‘My team and I really want to make something else, but we just don’t want this to kind of just fall aside, because it is still our baby.’ We give them an alternative funding model that doesn’t exist elsewhere.”
Alongside its launch, the studio announced its first publishing partnerships: The Town of Salem series from BlankMediaGames and Soulstone Survivors from Game Smithing Limited. With Town of Salem, Digital Bandidos plans to add new content and bring the titles to other platforms, beginning with a launch of Town of Salem 2 on mobile. For Soulstone, the studio plans to bring the roguelite to other platforms and distribution channels.
Lil Snack & GamesBeat
GamesBeat is excited to partner with Lil Snack to have customized games just for our audience! We know as gamers ourselves, this is an exciting way to engage through play with the GamesBeat content you have already come to love. Start playing games now!
Escalante added that Digital Bandidos’ mission is to support developers, even in the face of the 2024’s challenging economic climate. “I think the indie game creators are the ones that are driving the most innovation and creativity and game design. They are bold, creative people that do things that are either artsy, or they have good social messaging, or they’re just pushing an ‘unproven’ genre. So I feel like in they drive innovation period and end of story better than a lot of other people … I’m truly excited about doing this. I’m truly excited about helping people again. I’m truly excited about getting back to the indie space and moving forward. There are some amazing people to work with, and some amazing products out there.”
Source link
