RiME had an interesting development process to say the least. Developer Tequila Softworks showed off a trailer back in 2013 then fell into complete silence in 2014 for almost two years. Then in 2016, the developer switched publishers from Sony to Greybox which caused some very mixed reactions.
In an interview with Gamasutra, Tequila Softworks CEO and Creative Director Raúl Rubio talked about the reasons behind their 2016 decision to switch publishers and what changed after they teamed up with Greybox.
For RiME, the developers eventually wanted to bring it to more players which meant releasing the game on more platforms, something that they couldn’t do with Sony hence the decision to buy back the rights to RiME and look for another publisher.
We bought back the indie rights for Rime and the explanation is very simple. With Sony, we were first party, a PlayStation exclusive. But as we grew up as an indie developer, we realized that we wanted Rime to reach as many players as possible. That meant going multi-platform.
It also looked like the switch to a new publisher was a creative decision as well as the developers found more creative freedom with Greybox than they did with Sony.
In terms of freedom, for example, I can tell you that Greybox didn’t get involved in any creative decision with Rime. For example, the narrative for Rime is very deep. There are many layers. They were super supportive. In general, they have been supporting us in everything and, again, I think that Greybox helped us get back our confidence.
As an indie developer you should try to find your right match [in a publisher]. So again, when you are starting in games and you feel insecure, the biggest, most powerful partner is not really the solution. You need to find the right match for you.
Tequila Softworks may have found their right match with Greybox as RiME was released less than a year after the companies joined forces and was met with pretty solid reviews (read ours here).
[Source: Gamasutra]
