Publishing — Aggro Crab

We’re bankrolling games now!

Aggro Crab has some spare cash lying around and we wanna use it to publish some indie games that we think are absolute GAS.

We’ve been self-publishing our games for a while now. Thanks to our strong community, platforms, partners and some hit games like PEAK, we’re in the unique position to help support other developers - So let’s see what you’ve got!

What does Aggro Crab publishing look like?

It looks a lot like the Aggro Crab releases you’ve already seen! If you’ve been following us for a while, you know the kind of energy we bring to each of our projects, and how successfully we’ve been able to communicate that excitement to our players and get them engaged. And now we wanna do that for more games!

While we don’t have any specific genres we’re locked into, we’re generally looking for titles that fit the attitude of the existing Aggro Crab catalog, and that we think will resonate well with our community. We plan to take full advantage of our social media reach and existing audience to show off games we publish, so we’ll be signing the projects that we think can succeed there. And NO generative AI slop.

Not only that, Aggro Crab publishing isn’t a separate team. The same people responsible for developing our games are also playtesting, vibe-checking, and supporting the games we choose to sign with. We want game devs who work with us to know that the same care and attention is going into promoting their game as any title Aggro Crab develops.

We also want to publish games that we, the developers at Aggro Crab, are personally passionate about! We believe that enthusiasm for a project shines through on all levels, and so when we sign a game, it’s because we wanna be those devs’ biggest fans.

Why publishing and not just funding games?

Since we’re planning to select games that fit the energy of Aggro Crab, we’re looking to be hands-on with the projects we work with. Because of our background as indie developers and our experience in self-publishing, we can provide some unique perspectives and feedback to games. Our reputation and reach has also been growing over the years, so we wanna try to help open some doors that indie devs don’t always have access to.

That said, we’re not trying to step on any toes or assert any creative control where it’s unwanted. If we’re signing with you, it’s because we think you have a sick ass vision and we can trust you to execute on it completely.

As devs ourselves, we also have some experience working with some great publishers, evil publishers, and some that just weren’t what we needed! We’ve been around the block enough to know the difference, and want to be an example of how good publishing can actually work.

If you’re less interested in active collaboration and looking to just get straight funding for your game - maybe hit up our friends at Outersloth!

What are we doing differently?

Adjustable agreements - each project is unique, and while we have some base terms as a starting point, every game and team has different needs and we’re comfortable negotiating to find a deal that’s good for both us and you, the developer.
Flexible milestones - we want developers to have a solid understanding of their game’s scope and timeline before we sign, but we also understand that sometimes things just need to change (we’ve been there, believe me…) If we need to adjust deliverables, split up payments, add or push a milestone, within reason, we can likely make it work. We believe firmly that trust in a publishing partnership should be a two-way street.
No 100% recoup - even these days, we see a lot of publishers that insist on making their money back before the developers start seeing a cent, and that just doesn’t make sense to us. Revenue needs to be flowing back towards the developers so they can continue to support themselves and the games after launch. We also don’t hold the final payment for the game’s release date milestone - devs need that money to finish the game!
Sustainability - we don’t take on more projects than we can handle. If we sign with you, it’s because we want to give your game our full attention. We want to put our full weight behind every title we support.
Collaborative marketing support - whether it’s trailers, key art or brand advice, we like the idea of being able to fill those gaps where a team needs it. Community and Marketing is one of our strong suits at Aggro Crab, so we’re down to handle everything, combine forces, or something in-between in this area!

Other important things:

We’re still a game studio. This means we’ll still be working on our own projects at the same time! To make sure our publishing partners and our own titles get the attention they deserve, we’re taking things slow, and only looking to sign about 1-2 games per year right now.
We don’t have, like, infinite money. We’re in an unbelievably privileged place to be able to fund other projects ourselves, but we still need to be careful not to bite off more than we can chew so our studio remains sustainable. Right now, we’re almost exclusively looking for projects from small teams that need $500k USD or less to make it to the finish line, and likely need two years or less before release.

How do I know if my game is a good fit?

If you know Aggro Crab, you know our brand is a little out-of-pocket. Our tone as a studio is pretty unique! We’ve always been upfront with our values, and certainly talk to our community with a lot more uh, well, aggro. So while we don’t have any specific genre we’re looking for, we wanna find teams who are excited to be represented by that kind of attitude.

So to sum it up:

Budgets of ~$500k USD maximum.
Timeline of ~2 years or less.
Prioritizing intense, stylized games with an attitude.
Dev teams who we can trust to get their game to the finish line, with proper support, and who are down to share ideas back and forth.
No GenAI assets. I’m serious. We’ll get your ass.

READY TO SUBMIT?

If you’ve got a game for us, submit it here.
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We’re bankrolling games now!

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