Last month, Twin Sails Interactive spun off from the Asmodee Group as part of a “strategic management buyout”.
Retaining its team as an independent studio, Twin Sails CEO Nicolas Godement spoke to GamesIndustry.biz about how it intends to build a sustainable platform for indie developers, and the ways it will adapt AAA strategies to nurture indie games for long-term growth.
“We see an opportunity to do things differently,” says Godement. “The problem is when a studio’s sustainability depends too much on finding the next hit. And on the off chance a game does take off, why move right away? Why not build on that momentum to establish a brand and an audience by producing more content for many years?”
Godement emphasises that if a studio spends years developing a game for it to be an instant hit, moving on immediately to recapture that success is a mistake.
Instead, developers should invest time in analysing what made that hit work, and cultivate it into something even better.
“If we can nurture and grow a line-up of beloved brands, we will likely have a much more stable, robust business. And, in turn, we’ll be a better partner for developers.”
With this in mind, Godement explains that Twin Sails wants to acquire new games and existing IP with “untapped potential”.
“We won’t ask to own IP as part of our agreement, but we may set separate terms and conditions to acquire it for a price, if the studio is open to it,” he notes. “We’re also interested in securing rights to released games where the studio has moved on but we still see potential.”
Godement highlights the importance of “re-igniting” communities and fans of stagnant IP, and providing these games with new content and updates or follow-up titles.
“In both cases, we take the long view,” he says. “Does the game have legs beyond the initial experience? Does it not feel too gimmicky? Can we see ourselves – and the community – supporting it for years to come? If so, we’re willing to invest in that future.”
The overall goal for Twin Sails is to have four to six titles in its portfolio a year, Godement says, adding that it hopes a “good share of those will grow into long-term operations.
To achieve this, Twin Sails is looking towards how AAA publishers build brands out of its portfolio, and how these institutions sustain franchises for decades without players losing interest.
“For all their issues right now, we look up to how intentional the best AAA companies are at building game brands,” Godement explains. “It’s part of their structure – roles, processes, and documentation aimed at sustaining franchises.”
He says Twin Sails wants to work closely with the studios it signs to figure out what it is about a developer’s game that makes it stand out and will entice players to return for decades.
“In a crowded space, you need to stand for something”
“Few indies games deliver on such a clear and strong [premise] as epic battles for Total War or being an agile and deadly assassin in rich historical settings like Assassin’s Creed.”
Godement says the publisher wants to help its studios build “a solid creative foundation” with resources such as lore books, visual art bibles, as well as a long-term roadmap for what a game’s content will look like a decade after release.
“The first port of call will generally be live operations: updates, DLC, new features, and so on,” he clarifies. “We’ve been running a game like Ember Knights for three years with new content platforms, or Terraforming Mars for seven years. But in some cases, new content might be better fit for a follow-up game instead.
“It goes beyond pre-production or launch. It’s how we’ll factor player and critical reception in adjusting the multi-year roadmap, how the game and the brand need to evolve.”
This system is what Godement says will set Twin Sails apart from other mid-sized publishers.
“It’s building brands that players come back to,” he says. “For others, it may be specialising and excelling within a given genre, or having a unique tone of voice and a captive, actionable audience.
“In a crowded space, you need to stand for something.”
