Videogamedunkey Creates New Indie Games Publisher Bigmode

Indie games have become increasingly popular in recent years, with smaller studios being given the limelight they deserve. Critical successes such as Hades, Death’s Door, Bear and Breakfast, Stray, and (yes) even the huge hits Fall Guys and Among Us have catapulted indie games into the mainstream. This has led to whole conferences being built around them- such as the Nindies spotlight and EGX. But with so many different indie projects in the works, how can we separate the gold from the shovelware? The answer to this is indie publishers. The entire purpose of these teams is to seek out indie titles that hold promise. They then feed them funding to increase their game's budget, scope, and (most of the time) quality. This is a great opportunity for indie developers and is usually a better deal too. Indie publishers take much less of a cut than bigger studios and can also act as a support network to spread ideas and opportunities to talent all over the smaller-scale gaming scene. 

So, then, it may surprise you that one of Youtube’s biggest independent gaming creators is making their very own indie publisher. videogamedunkey is the biggest game reviewer on Youtube by quite a wide margin. However, that wasn’t enough, and Jason Yevgeniy Gastrowa has now endeavored to be a part of the game creation engine. Announced in a video released yesterday, Bigmode is the Youtuber’s latest project and, unlike the hyped-up Super Donkey Kong Shake video, this one is actually real! Dunkey has always been an advocate for indie games getting more traction, which is why it’s great to see that he’s taking a step forward to allow even the smallest of teams to get the funding and support they need to bring their ideas to life. Like he said in his video:

Whether you’re at the pit stage or near completion, we’re interested… but just know this: at Bigmode, we only wanna work with the most passionate and the most creative people out there.

Anyone can apply to the site- with one caveat: passion. If Dunkey made one thing clear, he’s not looking for any bottom-of-the-barrel cash grabs- he’s looking for truly innovative ideas that can inspire the way games like Neon White, Slime Rancher, and Hollow Knight do. With such a big platform, the future of BIGMODE is already looking bright, despite existing for less than 24 hours at this point. The publishers have promised to provide funding, development support, PR, merchandising, and more. What makes this more unique is that they’re not only present for marketing and monetary reasons, but also want to be more involved in the actual creation of the games. This is what I believe will make the projects that come out of this publisher so special. We already know videogamedunkey’s passion for the industry- you can see it in each one of his videos (especially the Super Donkey Kong Shake video). So, I would find it very surprising to see anything that wasn’t fully believed in come out of here.

You can find a link to the website here, where you can find out more about the purpose of the site and what it aims to do for the smallest of game developers. It’s always great to see indie teams get more recognition, especially when so much passion and time is injected into their projects. It remains to be seen what could come out of Bigmode, but hopefully, it’s a force for great things in the indie scene. Just like videogamedunkey said:

I’m sick of all these weak games. I’m sick of all the spam. I only wanna work with those who are going ham