The two founders of East Asian-focused publisher Neon Doctrine, who left the firm after it was absorbed by Raw Fury last year, have announced a new “developer services” firm called Goldpact Goblins. Vladislav Tsopljak and Iain Garner founded the company in January and say that they have already struck development deals with six developers in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Korea. Gordon Van Dyke, who also left Raw Fury and recently resurrected Kingdom Two Crowns developer Stumpysquid, is serving a publishing advisor.
The company focuses on “helping small to midsized developers tackle their biggest challenges with clever, practical, and inventive strategies” and offers “bespoke, ‘community first’ solutions tailored for studios seeking support in community management, marketing, social media outreach, production, business development, focus testing, QA, branding, and strategy”. The same services are also in Simplified Chinese through a dedicated team in Mainland China..
The firm is explicitly not a publisher. “We aren’t taking revenue share or offering funding,” Garner tells GamesIndustry.biz. “Those are core parts of publishing, and they’re not what we want to focus on. In order to avoid misconceptions (and dealing with hundreds of pitches we cannot consider) we’ve decided to deliberately avoid using anything publisher related.”
The founders left Neon Doctrine after it was absorbed into Raw Fury last year. | Image credit: Neon Doctrine
“We are mainly targeting developers who already have some funding or resources, publishers who are setting up new pipelines or need short term support on specific titles, and funds that want to make sure their investments and projects are being handled well.”
“But honestly, we don’t want to limit ourselves and, if you have a game and need help planning an update, managing an event, or solving a particular issue, we want to be able to jump in with practical solutions and guidance.”
“One of the reasons we decided on a tailored solution is because the current revenue share and recoup models don’t work for all teams,” said Tsopljak. “We’ve seen it happen many times, especially in Southeast Asia, China and South America where a developer finds success but isn’t the next big thing. However, due to industry-standard revenue splits, aggressive recoup models, and passive investors the devs see income months later and are a sadly small slice of the pie, often that is enough to shut down a promising studio. We want to provide a sustainable model that helps the local industry grow and thrive and allows developers to keep their gold in their pockets after launch.”
The Chinese office follows the approach taken by Neon Doctrine, which was based in Taiwan and worked with a number of Taiwanese and Chinese developers, often navigating the increasingly difficult relationship between the two nations. The new firm is based in Singapore, and Garner describes it as “an international effort”.
“We naturally have a strong focus on China because that’s where we started and where we have deep roots,” he says. “We don’t see ourselves as tied to any single market, though. If someone comes to us looking specifically for help in a region we are not heavily focused on yet, like LatAm or Japan, we are more than happy to point them to people who specialize in those areas.”
“We chose the name Goblins because it feels connected to being hardworking, resourceful, and good at finding unusual ways to tackle problems. Vlad and I also love getting stuck into new projects directly and getting our hands dirty in the processes that make games great. That has always been our style and we want to keep leaning into it.”