In the realm of video game creation, a common perception is that developers are the ‘good guys’ and publishers are the ‘bad guys’. Ideally, creators would have complete freedom to realize their visions. However, the reality involves financial considerations and difficult decisions to keep projects viable. Publishers often bear the brunt of criticism for making necessary choices driven by financial imperatives.
This brings us to the news that Landfall Games, the creators of Peak, have founded their own publishing company, humorously dubbed Evil Landfall. In a social media post, the reasoning behind this name was explained: “We named it evil because spreadsheets and contracts are evil and some evil people have to do it!”
It’s been clarified that Evil Landfall will not influence the creative direction of future Landfall Games projects. Instead, Evil Landfall will focus on publishing the developer’s titles and will also provide funding for other games from various independent studios.
The team behind Evil Landfall is led by CEO Kirsten-Lee Naidoo, with a broader group dedicated to fostering the growth and expansion of this new publishing venture.
This isn’t the first time a highly successful independent studio has established its own publishing arm. Notable recent examples include Poncle (creator of Vampire Survivors) and InnerSloth (creator of Among Us).