I love video games, and if you’re reading my website, it’s probably safe to say you love video games too. If you’re anything like me, you might want to know how things work in the industry, and a little bit more about the people behind the start button. I’ve lined up a few interviews so we can take a deep dive into the gaming industry and learn more about everyone involved in the process of putting video games into your hands.
Today, I’ve been very fortunate to have a chat with Robby Bisschop from Pirate PR, an Indie Game PR Specialist who actively helps the community by offering some amazing advice, specialised guidance, and lending his experience. We spoke about all things Indie, the future of Switch, and even colouring books…
Let’s start off with the big question, what does an indie game PR agency do?
That varies from company to company. I’m just a single person so there I had to make some choices, I can’t handle the full A-Z marketing package for my clients unless I outsource some stuff to other people (these days usually Social Media & Paid ads). Personally, I focus on sending out Press Releases, getting our games/trailer covered by the biggest outlets out there, and also sending out codes to press & creators of all sizes.
I also give a TON of free advice to my clients and help them wherever I can by sharing tips, best practices and generally being an extra sounding board for ideas.
You’ve been open on socials with sharing hints and tips to help small devs get ahead on product launches, how does this help the business (both yours and the industry) in the long run?
Being open about what we do and how we do it only helps everyone in the long run. I see too many games launch with close to zero marketing. With my tips and insights, I hope to make it less scary to think about marketing. If developers decide from my tips “I can do this myself” all the better, and hopefully, they also approve fewer code requests from scammers because of my shared knowledge.
I’m also incredibly open about our pricing because I think most devs think it’s not something they can afford, but that’s only because they only contacted the bigger PR agencies before and get blown away with 20.000€ press releases and campaigns. I hope by sharing our prices so publically, it makes it harder for the biggest agencies out there to charge too much and that indie devs realize there are alternatives.
I’m currently too busy with projects until Q2 2025, so I even forward interesting clients to friendly PR like PR Hound and The IndieExp, who share similar pricing to ours.
I really love the idea of the Indie Game Colouring Book Showcase. How did that idea come about and has it been a successful tool?
My wife had brought an adult colouring book for the kids to a restaurant and I ended up colouring it in as I waited for food. My daughter said “That bird looks like a character from a game you were playing” (she referenced 30Birds and the demo she saw me play) and then I had the idea of making a colouring book entirely out of indie games. It’s open for everyone to submit to and only requires a single A4-sized black & white line art to colour in (+ a logo for the game)
If any devs are interested, they can submit it here, or contact me via Twitter (@pr_pirate)
https://piratepr.com/indie-colouring-book/
The really cool thing is we miiiiight have a physical print run at some point and it’ll have QR codes for each game to visit the store page.
What’s the biggest mistake you see Devs making when trying to launch a product?
No marketing, no analyzing the market, releasing the game in the middle of a very busy release period, and not putting their USP out there enough… There are so many smaller mistakes that add up together and usually, it can be solved by slowing down, thinking about the release plans, and how to make the most of it. Oh and think about your Title early on, I’ve had to suggest too many times that a game shouldn’t be called a single english noun like “cauldron” or “mystery”: It’s way too hard to stand out and a nightmare to find the coverage for it. And the pricing of a game is equally important, don’t charge too much or it won’t sell. Don’t charge too low or people will be suspicious of the quality, or you won’t be able to do decent discounts.
As we are nearing the end of the Nintendo Switch lifecycle, are there things developers need to keep in mind when planning to launch on the platform?
The Switch was an AMAZING platform to launch on or release close to the console’s launch, but it’s VERY much a mess right now. There is close to zero visibility for new games unless Nintendo knows about your game and is actively promoting it themselves. The Switch 2 will launch soon, with a 1st-3rd party backing unlike anything we’ve ever seen for a console and it’ll make it even harder to stand out, especially because it brings the entire Switch 1 library with it. Try to get into Nintendo’s good graces ASAP. Talk to your local rep and make sure you are seen by them, it’s going to be more important than ever.
The Belgian Game Awards 2024 has just passed and it looked to be a big one, how important is it to you to support your local Development scene?
Pirate PR was founded as a PR agency FOR the Belgian Games Industry. So the local community is extremely important to me. I was one of the people breathing new life into the Belgian Game Awards in 2019, after a small test round in 2016 I had nothing to do with. Now I’ve helped with every edition since and even though I get some kind of funding to work on it, I always end up spending over twice the amount of budgeted time. But It’s a project very dear to me. I’m extremely proud that we managed to set up a sale page for it that even got featured on the homepage of Steam for 2 days!! You can still check out the sale page here + it’ll return every year with more nominees & winners added.
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44989459/sale/BelgianGameAwards
There’s no denying that the games industry is experiencing a rough patch, how has the Belgian game scene held up?
The Belgian games industry didn’t take such a big blow from the current downfall as most others did, but the main reason for that is the government support. Local devs can get funding via VAF or Wallimage and even the Belgian Tax shelter is helping out. A lot of studios would have already closed if it weren’t for them.
Our studios are also small and flexible. They take on client work and help international devs with various tasks, even though they remain unsung heroes in the credits, it keeps the lights on long enough to fund their own unique IPs.
We’re also a very tight-knit community. Belgian devs help each other, talk to each other, and are very openly sharing information with each other.
Do you think the current state of the industry is moving to benefit smaller dev and indie devs, or is AAA still leading the way?
Hard to say. I feel like the chance of failing is currently massive, no matter the size of the company. Smaller teams can break even with smaller unit sales, but at the same time, they will struggle more to break through. You’ll still see outliers like Vampire Survivors or Balatro get massive success and for such small teams, that means a single game is enough to set them for life. Whereas a million sales or more can still be “failed to meet expectations” for bigger companies like Square Enix and Ubisoft.
The biggest issue right now is that there are too many games releasing every single day, and we need a better form of curation. Steam Events with hundreds of participating titles: that ain’t it. The best-performing games just get even more views out of it and some great games that failed to reach their audience sink to the bottom. It breaks my heart.
What advice do you have for someone who is trying to launch their game, but doesn’t really know where to start?
Think about your marketing the entire way through. Make a game that has the potential to go viral or one that has NO issues making it clear what their USP is. Think about how you’ll stand out. Focus on parts of your game that are easily shareable and put them out there as fast as you can to check if people really like it as much as you think it will be liked. Get demos or betas out there asap and start collecting feedback as soon as you can.
And for the love of all that is holy: keep some money aside for your marketing efforts, even if that’s in the form of paying yourself and focusing on it for a while, even if it’s at the cost of the development speed. You can make THE BEST game that ever existed, but it’ll be the last game you make if no one buys it.
Ok, time for a less serious question, what are you playing right now, and what’s on your wishlist?
I’m playing a few games! I’m totally hooked on Aaero2 (I was the biggest fan of the original and the sequel is even better!) and I’m also playing Neva (love it more than GRIS) and just started Slay the Princess – The Pristine Cut. I also try to play all my clients’ games before they release so I can better write about them (and also so I can spot major issues with them before codes get sent out). I should also really get back to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, It’s crazy that I didn’t complete a Final Fantasy game as soon as it was released, but I just lost track of time and fell off.
As for my wishlist, I’m looking forward to a few games like Ruffy and the Riverside, an open-world collectathon type of game where you can copy/paste textures in the world, it also has a really cool paper aesthetic, which I never get tired of. We’ll help them with the PR stuff soon, but I still have to play the complete game. I’m also excited to work on Wall Town Wonders, as I’ve been a fan of the game since I played the demo at Gamescom 2024. It’s a mining town builder, but played on your own living room wall and that is just so cool to me (it’s in Mixed Reality). Also in the same category is Laser Dance, a game we’re not working on, but it’s soooo brilliant to turn every room in your own house into the scene from Resident Evil with the laser-room. Some other Belgian games that will surely steal the show soon are Koira and 30 Birds, each with a very unique aesthetic, make sure to look them up!
And then there is one game I can’t talk about yet that will blow people’s minds in February/March next year, but I can’t share anything yet!!
