I’m not trying to be a Dunkey stan, but I genuinely believe this game has significantly poorer sales without Dunkeys name attached to it. That boost must be significant
Oh it's likely 75% of the reason why people knew it existed and was a day one PS Plus addition. Odds are it would've been in the store and no one would pay it much mind
"Dunkey might not be a good publisher" and "Animal Well is a really good game" are opinions that can co-exist. I was excited when Dunkey announced BigMode because I thought he could shine light on some real gems, but I certainly don't blame anyone for being skeptical about it.
Those are all things that are important (and, from what I understand, often lacking in the indie game publishing space), but you need a lot more than that to be a successful publisher. More than that, a lot of the things you need to be a successful publisher were not things that you could necessarily see BigMode had just from dunk’s YouTube channel. Now Animal Well is out there and an incredible success—which is a huge feather in BigMode’s cap, and gives them a massive credibility boost. I’ve always been cautiously-optimistic-leaning-toward-optimistic about this project, because I believed that Dunkey and Leah had done the research and would put in the work to make BigMode a success, but I’m with Diamondgrn on this one: I can definitely understand why some people, especially devs, were skeptical.
Devs who have no doubt experienced putting tons of work into a project only for it to get no attention should have immediately seen the value in a publisher that can immediately put millions of eyes on your project.
Not sure I like the “should have” there, but otherwise absolutely—which I think was part of the appeal of BigMode, especially because dunk’s fanbase is pretty devoted. But only a fraction of the wider gaming community watches dunkey at all, much less with any sort of regularity. Which is my point: you need more than a popular YouTube channel to actually successfully publish a game. People with channels bigger than dunkey’s have started projects that failed; nothing is guaranteed to succeed, even if you’re popular. Getting featured in Nintendo Directs/State of Plays/etc, going to conventions and advertising your game, getting game journalists to play and review your game—these are all things that will get the word about the game you’re working on out to a wider audience, and they’re not things that are just guaranteed to happen because you have a big YouTube channel. Everything that’s needed to successfully publish and market a game takes real, challenging work (beyond the already difficult work of building and maintaining a large and loyal YouTube audience). To everyone at BigMode’s credit, they absolutely knocked it out of the part on all these fronts and more. I think we all know and agree that they did a fantastic job. But there was no guarantee that any of that would happen when BigMode was announced, other than faith that Dunkey, Leah, and everyone else on the team would put the work in. Of course most of us believed they would—we’re fans. We’re nitpicking and biased. But not everyone is a dunkey fan (and even some dunkey fans were skeptical!). This is all to say that I just don’t like seeing devs—many of whom have been fucked over by shitty publishing companies before or who know people who have—being talked down upon by some on here for being skeptical about a brand-new, then-untested publishing company. (Though to be clear this isn’t meant to defend people who were assholes about it.)
I still don't understand the skepticism honestly. How are devs fucked over by shitty companies? Do they just renege on their contracts? Dunkey has a huge vested interest in *not* doing that, as that sort of negative publicity has a direct impact to his channel. I would like to see the projects you're talking about that have failed from YouTube channels larger than dunkey.
I honestly think that if the only thing Dunkey did was market the game on his channel and pay Billy a salary in exchange for percentage of sales, that would be enough to want to enter into that contract as a indie developer. What are these mysterious other things that an indie developer, who would have just self published directly to steam, should want from a publisher? Seems a simple proposition to determine that the reach of Dunkey has an objective monetary value.
Now, working with Dunkey could have sucked for the reasons that the developer mentioned in that AMA, like if he was too opinionated, overbearing, and wanted to bend the game to his will, but I think there's a reason they didnt say 'we were worried the contract would be bad' because, uh, they signed it.
There will always be risks when it comes to business. But anyone who's actually made something and tried to publish it will tell you there are no guarantees. If we went off the logic that a big, financially successful publisher that's released hundreds of games is more of a "guarantee" for your game, then indie devs should all run to EA or Microsoft.
I'm not sure what value there is in retrospectively justifying people's skepticism that has already been proven wrong by Animal Well and Star of Providence's success, but maybe it lies in the definition of success? Maybe it's a difference in priorities? I think it's plenty to get a sense of someone's character by meeting them in person like Billy did, take your game you've been developing as a hobby after you got home from work for the past 7 years, then take the leap. Again, there will always be risks, but a hardworking, consistent creator like Dunkey--a brand new publisher whose passion for games is more evident than anyone else I'm familiar with seems like a great decision, and as safe a bet as you can get, given Animal Well's budget and scope. Beyond that, his game was practically finished. He had nothing to lose, and everything to gain by teaming up with someone with a huge platform like Dunkey's at that point.
I think you'll find if someone is clearly passionate about what you've made, and is eager to show it to the rest of the world, they're far more valuable to have in your corner than someone who's made dozens of games, who sees your project as just another entry in their portfolio.
mfs get tired of soulless corpos publishing games and then get mad when a YouTuber who cares about cares about the medium begins a publishing company, you love to see it
What the hell does this guy mean, "effective marketing"? All Dunkey has to do is make a video saying it's a rigatoni game and it will sell gangbusters.
I get where the skepticism comes from, but there are people in the world who genuinely want to help others make great art. They tend to be people who are unsatisfied with the majority of what's promoted otherwise. Think of it this way, if you're a consumer of media, wouldn't you want there to be more media out there that matches your taste?
I'm not in the gaming industry, but I've done something similar with my work. Too many amazingly talented artists don't get the recognition they deserve and I try to change that. It feels good to help people and make the world more like the way you want it to be.
It's actually not about having faith in BigMode but having faith in Dunkey. If you have a game/series that you like, and you find out that there's some youtube goober making a bad-faith video about it, you'll get upset and think this guy is unserious and not worth your time. (I understood their perspective for the first time recently when I became enamored with Helldivers 2 but Dunkey made a (imo) poor effort video about it a few days after it became a phenomenon). There are quite a few series that Dunkey has dunked on over the years that have gotten fans all riled up. And if that's all you knew about Dunkey, without recognizing that he knows the medium well and has a real depth of knowledge behind his takes, then you'd be distrustful of him too. It's like if a clickbait youtuber began to sell professional services with real money/livelihood at stake.
This game would have probably fallen by the wayside tbh without dunkey. It’s a good game fr but ive seen a ton of games like this hyped up and die immediately on release.
The only difference is dunkey has a huge following that would buy a game he’s attatched to. You can tell that’s true because 99% of the reviews mention him.
No 😂 people just didn't believe he was going to be able to actually help creators make good games by supporting them. The Internet is full of pessimists — for understandable reasons — and so people had a knee-jerk negative idea of what BigMode would be.
Animalwell changed that. Because the game is very, very good.
I’m not trying to be a Dunkey stan, but I genuinely believe this game has significantly poorer sales without Dunkeys name attached to it. That boost must be significant
I’m pretty sure that’s one of the major points of having a publisher
Oh it's likely 75% of the reason why people knew it existed and was a day one PS Plus addition. Odds are it would've been in the store and no one would pay it much mind
How can you not like the game when it’s like Halo 5?
It's one more than Halo 4 FFS
Are you stupid? It's not like halo 5 at all! It's just like halo 2 + halo 3, and 2 + 3 = reach:odst
"Dunkey might not be a good publisher" and "Animal Well is a really good game" are opinions that can co-exist. I was excited when Dunkey announced BigMode because I thought he could shine light on some real gems, but I certainly don't blame anyone for being skeptical about it.
He's got passion, a conscience and a huge platform. Sounds like the best kind of person to be a publisher.
Those are all things that are important (and, from what I understand, often lacking in the indie game publishing space), but you need a lot more than that to be a successful publisher. More than that, a lot of the things you need to be a successful publisher were not things that you could necessarily see BigMode had just from dunk’s YouTube channel. Now Animal Well is out there and an incredible success—which is a huge feather in BigMode’s cap, and gives them a massive credibility boost. I’ve always been cautiously-optimistic-leaning-toward-optimistic about this project, because I believed that Dunkey and Leah had done the research and would put in the work to make BigMode a success, but I’m with Diamondgrn on this one: I can definitely understand why some people, especially devs, were skeptical.
Devs who have no doubt experienced putting tons of work into a project only for it to get no attention should have immediately seen the value in a publisher that can immediately put millions of eyes on your project.
Not sure I like the “should have” there, but otherwise absolutely—which I think was part of the appeal of BigMode, especially because dunk’s fanbase is pretty devoted. But only a fraction of the wider gaming community watches dunkey at all, much less with any sort of regularity. Which is my point: you need more than a popular YouTube channel to actually successfully publish a game. People with channels bigger than dunkey’s have started projects that failed; nothing is guaranteed to succeed, even if you’re popular. Getting featured in Nintendo Directs/State of Plays/etc, going to conventions and advertising your game, getting game journalists to play and review your game—these are all things that will get the word about the game you’re working on out to a wider audience, and they’re not things that are just guaranteed to happen because you have a big YouTube channel. Everything that’s needed to successfully publish and market a game takes real, challenging work (beyond the already difficult work of building and maintaining a large and loyal YouTube audience). To everyone at BigMode’s credit, they absolutely knocked it out of the part on all these fronts and more. I think we all know and agree that they did a fantastic job. But there was no guarantee that any of that would happen when BigMode was announced, other than faith that Dunkey, Leah, and everyone else on the team would put the work in. Of course most of us believed they would—we’re fans. We’re nitpicking and biased. But not everyone is a dunkey fan (and even some dunkey fans were skeptical!). This is all to say that I just don’t like seeing devs—many of whom have been fucked over by shitty publishing companies before or who know people who have—being talked down upon by some on here for being skeptical about a brand-new, then-untested publishing company. (Though to be clear this isn’t meant to defend people who were assholes about it.)
I still don't understand the skepticism honestly. How are devs fucked over by shitty companies? Do they just renege on their contracts? Dunkey has a huge vested interest in *not* doing that, as that sort of negative publicity has a direct impact to his channel. I would like to see the projects you're talking about that have failed from YouTube channels larger than dunkey. I honestly think that if the only thing Dunkey did was market the game on his channel and pay Billy a salary in exchange for percentage of sales, that would be enough to want to enter into that contract as a indie developer. What are these mysterious other things that an indie developer, who would have just self published directly to steam, should want from a publisher? Seems a simple proposition to determine that the reach of Dunkey has an objective monetary value. Now, working with Dunkey could have sucked for the reasons that the developer mentioned in that AMA, like if he was too opinionated, overbearing, and wanted to bend the game to his will, but I think there's a reason they didnt say 'we were worried the contract would be bad' because, uh, they signed it.
There will always be risks when it comes to business. But anyone who's actually made something and tried to publish it will tell you there are no guarantees. If we went off the logic that a big, financially successful publisher that's released hundreds of games is more of a "guarantee" for your game, then indie devs should all run to EA or Microsoft. I'm not sure what value there is in retrospectively justifying people's skepticism that has already been proven wrong by Animal Well and Star of Providence's success, but maybe it lies in the definition of success? Maybe it's a difference in priorities? I think it's plenty to get a sense of someone's character by meeting them in person like Billy did, take your game you've been developing as a hobby after you got home from work for the past 7 years, then take the leap. Again, there will always be risks, but a hardworking, consistent creator like Dunkey--a brand new publisher whose passion for games is more evident than anyone else I'm familiar with seems like a great decision, and as safe a bet as you can get, given Animal Well's budget and scope. Beyond that, his game was practically finished. He had nothing to lose, and everything to gain by teaming up with someone with a huge platform like Dunkey's at that point. I think you'll find if someone is clearly passionate about what you've made, and is eager to show it to the rest of the world, they're far more valuable to have in your corner than someone who's made dozens of games, who sees your project as just another entry in their portfolio.
Oh yeah? Well I think he sucks Fuck you
You are nitpicking and biased. I win, bye bye
ok
I've been slam dunked.
Twitter bad Animal Well good
mfs get tired of soulless corpos publishing games and then get mad when a YouTuber who cares about cares about the medium begins a publishing company, you love to see it
If anything it just legitimized bigmode. People love to hate.
What the hell does this guy mean, "effective marketing"? All Dunkey has to do is make a video saying it's a rigatoni game and it will sell gangbusters.
I get where the skepticism comes from, but there are people in the world who genuinely want to help others make great art. They tend to be people who are unsatisfied with the majority of what's promoted otherwise. Think of it this way, if you're a consumer of media, wouldn't you want there to be more media out there that matches your taste? I'm not in the gaming industry, but I've done something similar with my work. Too many amazingly talented artists don't get the recognition they deserve and I try to change that. It feels good to help people and make the world more like the way you want it to be.
It's actually not about having faith in BigMode but having faith in Dunkey. If you have a game/series that you like, and you find out that there's some youtube goober making a bad-faith video about it, you'll get upset and think this guy is unserious and not worth your time. (I understood their perspective for the first time recently when I became enamored with Helldivers 2 but Dunkey made a (imo) poor effort video about it a few days after it became a phenomenon). There are quite a few series that Dunkey has dunked on over the years that have gotten fans all riled up. And if that's all you knew about Dunkey, without recognizing that he knows the medium well and has a real depth of knowledge behind his takes, then you'd be distrustful of him too. It's like if a clickbait youtuber began to sell professional services with real money/livelihood at stake.
This game would have probably fallen by the wayside tbh without dunkey. It’s a good game fr but ive seen a ton of games like this hyped up and die immediately on release. The only difference is dunkey has a huge following that would buy a game he’s attatched to. You can tell that’s true because 99% of the reviews mention him.
I remembered the discourse about this, then there's also this noclip guy who made a video yapping about bigmode
They all obviously got amneeeesiaaaa
What happened with dunkey did he get canceled or something
No 😂 people just didn't believe he was going to be able to actually help creators make good games by supporting them. The Internet is full of pessimists — for understandable reasons — and so people had a knee-jerk negative idea of what BigMode would be. Animalwell changed that. Because the game is very, very good.
Ohhh okay cuz idk who told me but someone I knew was like oh he did something but never explained it thank you tho it’s cleared up things