More than a Bundle: Sportsfriends and Compendium as a Business Strategy

In a world increasingly full of new releases, sales, and bundles, it's more difficult than ever to get attention for your game and stand out against the crowd. However, despite that language of competition, solo developers and small studios stand to gain considerably from exploring new modes of collaboration. In this talk, Die Gute Fabrik's Douglas Wilson tells the story of 'Sportsfriends;, a local multiplayer compendium released on PlayStation 3&4 and home computers in 2014. He'll share some of the legal and business arrangements behind the project, and discuss how the team designed the product to make it feel like a coherent whole. Riffing off these lessons, Doug will explain how compendiums and other collective strategies help developers create something larger than just themselves: a narrative, a purpose, a zeitgeist.