Budget: The cash cost of the game was ~$45k USD, which covered our part-time contributors, spot contributors, some of our own marketing efforts, and our ongoing operational overhead.
Our core of full-time contributors worked without compensation due to savings from contract work and we estimate that as another ~$150k in unpaid labor.
About: The Haunting of Joni Evers is a dark supernatural mystery about a broken family from small-town Oklahoma. Haunted by a specter that's hunted her family for generations, Joni must uncover the mysteries of the Cunningham House, dig through lost memories, and face the past to break the curse.
The ask: Asked only for publishing support (marketing, QA, localisation, etc.) due to state of funding across the industry (even at the time), our lack of track record, and our savings from contract work.
Approaches made: Over 50, with a single partnership offer.
Notes from the developer: "Our key consideration was a desire to portray the deeply emotional and personal story we wanted to tell with the game, and how we expected that to be able to resonate with players based on games that took a similar approach. We also felt it important to highlight that we were only seeking publishing support and the relatively short timeline before release (~6-9 months at the time) to indicate it could be taken on as a smaller bet in a portfolio, but this backfired as we had a number of responses telling us their portfolio was already full for the year."
Chris is an award-winning reporter with over a decade of experience covering the video game industry. He was formerly news editor at Game Developer and is currently the founder and editor of this resplendent website.
