No More Robots‘ Mike Rose spoke to us about the varied games their publisher works with, and how games with a bold, unique concept can grab their attention.
Who are you?
Mike Rose, No More Robots: I’m Mike Rose! I was previously a games critic and journalist for the beter part of a decade before jumping the fence into game publishing. I started at tinyBuild, and now I run No More Robots, my own publishing label with games like Descenders, Not Tonight, Hypnospace Outlaw, and Family Man.
What work do you do to help developers reach an audience? How do you make developers’ lives a little easier?
Making games and selling games are two very different skill sets, and a lot of developers either can’t, or don’t want to, do the latter. That’s where I come in – I’m pretty good at the selling part. I use a combination of social media, contacts, community building, and general know-how about how games actually sell to help the developers I work with find an audience and sell their game.
What is it that you’re on the lookout for (genres, content, etc.)?
I work with developers who are making games that are just that little bit different from everything else, and maybe a little bit weird to boot. Every game I sign can be described very quickly, and can’t really be any other game out there – “that mountain biking game”, “that Brexit game”, “that ’90s internet simulator”, etc. I want to work with people making crazy, cool projects, not just being who are trying to follow trends and make “the next big battle royale” or whatever is the dish of the day at the time.
What do you look for in the games you choose to publish? In the developers you want to work with?
The games and the developers that stand out to me the most are the ones that just get straight into it. Your game should sell itself to me – if you need a 500 word email, several links to various pieces of concept art, all that jazz, then that probably means your game either takes a lot of explaining to find interesting, or you haven’t completely honed the game / how to talk about it yet.
Most people I have ended up working with started off by sending me a 2 line email with a link to an unlisted YouTube trailer and/or some crazy gifs. If I can get hooked on your game from just that, imagine what I can do for your game!
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