Humble Games' Former Bosses Buy the Studio's Back Catalog (engadget.com) 15
Former Humble Games executives have reacquired the publisher's catalog of more than 50 indie titles from Ziff Davis and relaunched their company as Balor Games. "For the developers we have worked with over the years, this moment is a reunion," Balor Games CEO Alan Patmore wrote in a statement. "[It has] the same leadership and the same commitment to thoughtful publishing remain in place. What changes is our scale and our focus. Balor Games is built for inventors and backed by believers. To that end, it exists to be a seal of quality for independent games." Engadget reports: The Humble Games lineup includes (among others) Slay the Spire, A Hat in Time, SIGNALIS, Forager, Coral Island, Monaco and Wizard of Legend. Separate from the Humble transaction, Balor also bought the complete catalog of Firestoke Games (which shut down last August) and publishing rights to Fights in Tight Spaces. In total, the young studio now owns the publishing rights to over 60 indie titles. Humble Games is separate from the Humble Bundle storefront. The latter is still owned by Ziff Davis.
The pair view the newly anointed Balor as a developer-friendly publishing house. As for its name, Balor is a supernatural being in Irish mythology. It's sometimes depicted as having three eyes. Triple-eye, triple-I... Clever devils! The triple-I moniker is a more recent addition to the gaming lexicon. It typically means something defined by indie creativity and passion -- with a budget far less than AAA but more than a tiny two-person passion project. (Balor says it's about "high-quality, impactful games.") You wouldn't be blamed for wondering how that's different from AA. But the slant here is to define the genre less by budget and more by "indie" intangibles. You can learn more about the company's vision in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz.
The pair view the newly anointed Balor as a developer-friendly publishing house. As for its name, Balor is a supernatural being in Irish mythology. It's sometimes depicted as having three eyes. Triple-eye, triple-I... Clever devils! The triple-I moniker is a more recent addition to the gaming lexicon. It typically means something defined by indie creativity and passion -- with a budget far less than AAA but more than a tiny two-person passion project. (Balor says it's about "high-quality, impactful games.") You wouldn't be blamed for wondering how that's different from AA. But the slant here is to define the genre less by budget and more by "indie" intangibles. You can learn more about the company's vision in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz.
Skylar & Plux (Score:3)
Dear Balor, please buy the rights to the original Skylar & Plux: Adventure on Clover Island from GRIP DIGITAL. The game was only on sale for a few years, and then was delisted from every storefront because Grip decided to get out of the games business. Relisting S&P on Xbox, PSN, Steam and GOG should be straightforward!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Taking a job is not being taken advantage, you coward. It's called trading your industry in exchange for money that you can do what you want with. If you don't like a particular company, don't work there. You are not forced. Heck, California has the homeless rolls to prove work is optional.
Re: (Score:2)
Nope, I just live here and see how ineffective our homeless policies are. It's not even all Newsom's fault. A decent amount of our counties are not utilizing some of the more recent resources the state has made available. Newsom's even threatened to pull funding from some of these counties (SF and LA, go figure) over this very issue.
So no, it's not a dog whistle to say we have homeless problems. I literally see it every day where I work. Until we truly force people to accept the help or otherwise criminaliz
Doesn't seem sustainable (Score:1)
"Balor Games is built for inventors and [...] exists to be a seal of quality for independent games."
Not clear how this can be sustainable, unless they are bringing something truly unique to a saturated market. Quality costs FAR more money to develop and maintain than traditional games in this space. Investors want growth, growth requires profit, profit requires either increased revenue with steady cost, or steady revenue with decreased cost. That's big hill to climb year-on-year, as it's unclear how much va
Re: (Score:3)
It's all about fun. Your game doesn't need top notch graphics if you come up with something entertaining. Of course, I don't know how you do that but I'm not trying to develop games in what you mention is a saturated market. There are so many games from developed over the past 40 years, that new stuff often times is worse then old stuff with the exception of graphics.
Fortunately for game devs, kids will eat shit because they literally don't have an perspective to go on. They use to release a full game. Now,
For whom (Score:1)
A (Score:2)
The difference between AA and AAA is that AAA is the American Automobile Association.
Either that or it is Canadian if you consider the third A to have been added to the right
Modern Contradiction (Score:2)
"...Balor Games is built for inventors and backed by believers. To that end, it exists to be a seal of quality for independent games."
From what I have seen, in a post-Covid world enshitification is the new game plan for everything backed by investors. They simply see companies as a means to make money as soon as possible, and don't care about the long-term health of the business or its misson statements.
Request for missing info: (Score:1)
Is there a full list of the games posted somewhere? Missing from both articles and the best Google seems to be able to come up with is a "partial, curated" list.