作者：Matthew Handrahan

当《凯茜雨》发布后成绩远远低于预期时，Raw Fury选择不再遵循“已建立且公认的准则”。在数字商店盛行且各种选择不断涌现出来的时代，独立发行商认为应该更多地去支持开发者们。

kathy rain（from gamesindustry）

《凯茜雨》是由Raw Fury的新客户Jeol Staaf Hasto所开发的。该发行商之前曾与名为Noio and Licorice的工作室合作过，他们的游戏《Kindgom》在短短24小时内便赚回了本。而不管是Joel Staaf Hasto还是Raw Fury都未曾期待过能够再次创造出如此巨大的成功，而尽管用户和评论家的评论与他们的期待相符，但是在发行两周后《凯茜雨》还是未能赚回成本。

该公司表示：“当我们与Joel Staaf Hasto，即名为Clifftop Games一人工作室展开合作时，我们并未期待着游戏一经发行便会赚取巨大收益。我们只是期待着他的游戏能够获得玩家的喜欢，就像我们喜欢它那样。我们也期待着游戏能够较长一段时间内赚取足够的利益。毕竟这是一款来自全新开发者的立基游戏，而这一切都需要我们投入足够的时间与耐心。”

“尽管销量的增长似乎有点缓慢，但我们知道最终这款游戏一定会获取不错的收益。从玩家的一致好评，出色的外观以及其它电子游戏中很少出现的有关禁忌的故事都可以看出，这款游戏能够维持长期的发展。”

这样的情况同样也适合许多独立游戏，但却很少有像Raw Fury这样“拥有足够耐心”的发行商。“很多时候开发者不能从这种情况下坚持下来是因为他们没有其它收入来源。坦白来说也就是他们注定完蛋了。特别是对于全新且小型开发者而言。”

Raw Fury的团队在之前便曾多次看过像《凯茜雨》这样的游戏发行所创造的影响；那些开发者们不得不选择去找工作，卖掉自己的IP，放弃大量收益，甚至最终选择离开这个产业。

“至始至终你那广受好评的游戏都是稳扎稳打地发展着并弥补着发行商所投入的成本，让他们至少能够收回成本并且在较长时间内还能够赚到一定的收益。”

而这一次Raw Fury选择采取一种不同的方法。该公司承诺将继续支持Clifftop Games下一个12个月，或者直至《凯茜雨》能够赚回成本，而Clifftop的收益共享能够继续推动该工作室的发展。基于这一方法，现有的交易并不会发生改变，Clifftop仍将维护着对于自己IP的所有权，他们在这12个月的期限内也能够自由地致力于其它项目中。

Raw Fury表示：“我们认为这也是对于自己的一种投资。我们的长期发展是体现于我们的声誉，方法和行为上。我们希望用行动说话。我们已经帮助创造并发行了两款非常出色的游戏，当提到典型的发行商与开发者间的多元化关系时，这里便存在能够创造更大变化的空间。”

“在这个充斥着骗子综合症，抑郁症，忧虑以及其它会影响创造性的情感问题的产业中，我们必须认真思考该如何真正去衡量成功与失败。”

“我们应该去思考如何看待并处理我们的失误而不只是去拥戴那些成功的内容。对于我们来说，如果《凯茜雨》获得成功。Clifftop Games也就获得了成功。”

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Raw Fury wants to close the gates on the “developer valley of death”

By Matthew Handrahan

When Kathy Rain launched well below expectations, Raw Fury chose not follow “the established and accepted norm” and cut its losses. In an age of digital storefronts and vast choice, the indie publisher reasoned that it now makes more sense to back the developer.

Kathy Rain was developed by Joel Staaf H?st?, a new client for Raw Fury. The publisher had previously worked with a studio called Noio and Licorice, whose game Kingdom recouped its investment within 24 hours. Neither Joel Staaf H?st? nor Raw Fury anticipated the same high degree of success, but despite its user and critic reviews falling in line with their expectations, Kathy Rain hasn’t come near to covering costs after two weeks on sale.

“When we partnered up with Joel Staaf H?st?, the one-man army we know as Clifftop Games, we didn’t do so expecting to become insta-rich when the game launched,” the company said in a blog post. “We expected his game to be loved though, as we loved it. And we expected it to do well financially over a longer period of time. It’s a niche game from a new developer in a very tough space within games, and these things take time and patience.

“Even though things have started off a bit slowly on the sales side, we know that eventually the game will turn a nice profit. It will grow a long tail because of its critical acclaim, timeless looks, and a story that tackles taboo stuff not typically discussed in video games.”

The same could be said for many indie titles, but while a publisher like Raw Fury can, “afford to be patient,” the same can’t be said for Clifftop Games. “Way too often the developer can’t survive this sort of scenario, usually because they don’t have other sources of income. They are – to put it frankly – fucked. This is especially true for newer and smaller developers.”

Raw Fury’s team have witnessed the repercussions of launches like Kathy Rain many times before; the developer forced into work-for-hire, to sell their IP, to give up even more of the eventual revenue, and in extreme cases to leave the industry altogether.

“All the while, your critically acclaimed game goes on to slowly but surely cover the investment made by your publisher, allowing them to at least recover their investment and perhaps even make a bit of a profit over time.”

This time, Raw Fury is taking a different approach. The company has pledged to support Clifftop Games for another 12 months, or until the point at which Kathy Rain has recovered its investment and Clifftop’s revenue share can keep the studio going. The terms of the existing deal will not be altered, Clifftop will retain ownership of its IP, and it will be free to work on other projects in that 12 month period.

“We consider this an investment in ourselves,” Raw Fury said. “Our long term growth is found in our reputation, approach, and behavior. We want our actions to speak loudly. We’ve helped create and publish two amazing games already and here is an opportunity to affect a broader change when it comes to the dynamics of a classic publisher/developer relationship.

“In an industry that is smack full of impostor syndrome, depression, anxiety, and other things that are sometimes associated with the emotional work that goes into creativity, it is also important to think about how we measure success and failure.

“We should all think about how we perceive and handle our misses instead of only embracing our hits. For us, Kathy Rain feels like a success. Clifftop Games is a success.”

The full blog post can be found on the Raw Fury website, where the publisher is keen to start a discussion about fostering, ” an indie ecosystem that thrives even when we don’t hit our targets right off the bat.”（source：gamesindustry）