How to find a publisher for your indie game and pitch them

To find a publisher for your indie game, list 10 to 20 comparable Steam games, note who published them, check what those publishers signed recently, and pitch the 15 to 30 that fit your genre, budget and platforms. Send a playable build, a short deck with comparables and traction numbers, and a clear budget and ask. Before signing, model recoupment, term, IP and platform rights with a games lawyer.

What does an indie game publisher actually do?

A publisher takes on some of the cost and work of getting a game to market in exchange for a share of its revenue. Depending on the deal, that can mean an advance to fund development, marketing and PR, trailers, festival and event slots, platform relationships, QA, localisation and console ports. Some publishers fund; others offer only services. Read every offer as a list of specific services and money, not as a single label.

It helps to know what normal looks like before you start talking to anyone. Law firm Voyer Law analysed more than 100 developer-publisher agreements signed between 2017 and 2025, as summarised by GameDev Reports:

The same dataset puts the median advance at $300,000 (the average was $674,861, pulled up by a few large deals), and found developers kept their IP in 96.4% of deals with an advance. In other words: a publisher funding your game usually means a smaller share of revenue and a longer contract, but rarely losing your IP.

Do you need a publisher at all?

Not always. A publisher is worth its share when it fills a gap you cannot fill yourself. It tends to make sense when:

• You need money to finish the game and have no other funding.
• Nobody on the team wants to, or can, run marketing, press, influencer outreach and events.
• You want console versions, localisation or physical editions you cannot manage alone.
• The publisher has a track record and an audience in your exact genre.

Self-publishing tends to make more sense when the game is already funded, you have an audience (a wishlist count, a community, a successful demo), or the scope is small enough that a 30 to 50% revenue share would cost more than the services are worth.

How do you find publishers that sign games like yours?

Generic lists of "top indie publishers" waste time, because most publishers sign a narrow band of genres, budgets and art styles. Work backwards from games your players already buy.

1. List 10 to 20 comparable games. Pick games released in the last three years that share your genre, price band and scope. Steam's "More like this" row and your most specific tags are good starting points, or run a rival game through ReviewPulse competitor analysis to get up to ten matched rivals.
2. Write down who published each one. The publisher is listed on every Steam store page. A few well-known pairings: Manor Lords (Hooded Horse), Balatro (Playstack), Cult of the Lamb (Devolver Digital), Dome Keeper (Raw Fury), Citizen Sleeper (Fellow Traveller), Pacific Drive (Kepler Interactive) and Tunic (Finji).
3. Check what each publisher signed recently and how it did. A publisher's last two years matter more than its most famous hit. Look at release cadence, review scores and estimated sales of its recent games. The ReviewPulse publishers directory lists 100+ publishers, labels and funds with live Steam stats, the genres they sign and links to their pitch pages.
4. Filter for fit. Cross off anyone who does not publish your genre, does not fund if you need funding, does not do console if you need console, or whose typical game is far bigger or smaller than yours.
5. Find the right route in. Most publishers have a pitch form or a submissions address on their website, and many prefer it to cold LinkedIn messages. Trade events with meeting systems (GDC, Gamescom and regional shows) are the other main route.
6. Talk to their developers. Message one or two studios the publisher has worked with and ask how marketing, payments and communication went. This is the single most useful piece of due diligence you can do.

Aim for a shortlist of 15 to 30 publishers. Response rates are low and most will pass, so a list of five is not enough.

What should a publisher pitch include?

Publishers differ, but Raw Fury publishes one of the clearest descriptions of what it wants on its How to pitch to Raw Fury page: a playable PC build, a development budget, a pitch deck and optional supporting material. Its deck should answer six questions: what you are doing, why you are doing it, who you are, where you want to go, what you need to get there and when you will be there. Its budget guidance is simple: development cost in USD for one PC build, roughly months remaining multiplied by monthly burn. Raw Fury also shares a free pitch deck template, financial spreadsheet and its publishing agreement on its developer resources page.

A deck that works for most publishers runs 10 to 15 slides:

1. The hook: one sentence and one image or GIF that shows the game.
2. Core loop: what the player does minute to minute.
3. Comparable games: three to five Steam titles your players already own, with their price, review count and score.
4. Why now: market evidence that the genre is selling, not just that it exists.
5. What makes yours different, in one line per point.
6. Traction: wishlists, follower growth, demo players, Next Fest results, community size.
7. Team: who you are and what you have shipped.
8. Scope and roadmap: milestones to launch, platforms, languages.
9. Budget and the ask: how much money and which services you want.
10. Price and launch plan: target price and window.

The comparable-games and traction slides are where most indie decks are weakest. Publishers want evidence, so replace adjectives with numbers. ReviewPulse can build a pitch deck from Steam data (comparables, sales ranges, genre momentum) and suggest a publisher match based on who signs similar games.

On the build: Raw Fury notes that it can't promise to play any build more than once, so send the version you are most proud of, make cutscenes skippable, and add checkpoints so a busy scout can see the good parts in 15 minutes.

How do you write the first email?

Keep it short enough to read on a phone. Use the publisher's own form if it has one; otherwise a short email with links works.

Subject: [Game name]: co-op roguelike, 18k wishlists, seeking funding and console

Hi [name], I'm [name] from [studio]. We're making [game], a [genre] for fans of [comp 1] and [comp 2]. It has 18,000 Steam wishlists, and 6,000 people played the demo during Next Fest. We're looking for $[amount] to finish the game in [months] and a partner for Switch and PlayStation. Deck, build key and trailer: [links]. I noticed you published [their game], which shares our audience. Happy to send anything else.

Personalise the last line for each publisher. Follow up once after two weeks, then move on.

What terms should you check before you sign?

An offer is where the real work starts. Simon Carless of GameDiscoverCo walked through Raw Fury's 2020 public contract in What makes for a good game publishing deal?: the advance plus a 15% markup was recouped at a 100% rate before a 50/50 split, which on a $500,000 deal meant the game needed roughly $1.28 million in sales before royalties started. Model your own offer the same way. Check:

• Recoupment: what is recouped (advance, marketing, porting, a markup?), at what rate, and whether you get any revenue before it is paid back.
• Gross versus net: how the contract defines each. Definitions vary between publishers.
• Term and territory: how long the publisher holds the rights, and whether the contract renews automatically. Voyer Law found 49.2% of fixed-term agreements had an auto-renewal clause.
• IP and sequels: who owns the IP, and whether the publisher gets first refusal on sequels. Sequel rights appeared in 63.49% of Voyer Law's deals with an advance.
• Platforms: whether console and mobile rights are included even if the publisher has no plan to port.
• Marketing commitment: a minimum marketing spend or plan in writing, not a promise.
• Audit and termination rights: your right to check the numbers and to leave if milestones or payments are missed.

Have a lawyer who works on games contracts review the agreement before you sign.

What mistakes get indie pitches rejected?

• Pitching a genre the publisher never signs.
• A build that takes 20 minutes to reach the fun part.
• No numbers: no wishlists, no comparables, no budget.
• Comparing your game to the biggest hit in the genre instead of realistic peers.
• Asking for "whatever you think" instead of a specific amount and list of services.