"...having Team17's resources, expertise and help is a huge boon for our little studio"
We’ve got some huge news - we’re partnering with Team17 to help us launch Before We Leave on Steam!
The last few weeks have been a total whirlwind. We were already busy with our Steam launch and our team trip to Wellington for Play by Play, but the added pressure of considering the studio's future and negotiating contracts has been full on to say the least. Sam and Anna have done magnificent work - as their colleague and friend I’ve seen the immense amount of work they’ve put into this partnership and I’m really proud of them! Team17 have also been equal parts kind and excellent to deal with, so that always helps too.
Many thanks to Tim Ponting at CODE Dunedin as well for advising us on how to navigate this deal. Tim recently won the Industry Pillar award at the NZGF Pavs 2021 for serving the community, and, well, needless to say it’s very much deserved - the work that he does for everyone in the NZ games scene is immense! In fact, the whole NZ Games Community has been a massive help too. Thanks everyone.
We know that you might have questions, so there’s a few avenues for you to get them answered:
- I hosted an Ask Us Anything with Sam over on our Twitch channel - you can find the VOD for that stream here.
- We set up a dedicated Discord channel for questions relating to our partnership with Team17 - join it here.
- And lastly, the team and I put together some FAQ’s in case you have any questions you’d like answered; read on!
What does this mean for Before We Leave?
Short term, it means a much larger marketing engine behind the game, which should lead to much more success in the release on Steam! It's too early to share much about longer term plans, but partnering with Team17 totally allows us to dream much larger.
But doesn't it mean you have to give up creative control?!
Absolutely not! We're still the owners and creators of Before We Leave. Team17 will certainly give us the benefit of their experience, but ultimately the game is still controlled and made by us.
What about the community? Will our community hubs become run by evil corporate marketing overlords?
Definitely not! We've been very clear that our community is very close to our hearts, and we're keeping our spaces as ours. You’ll occasionally see posts from the Team17 folks but it is highly unlikely they’ll ever run our community spaces.
What does this mean for the future of the studio?
We'll have more time, more resources, and more help! We've noticed the strain of only having a very small number of people working at the studio so having Team17 working with us is a huge boon.
Why now? Isn't it a bit close to release?
It sure is close, but sometimes you've got to live with things happening in a short timeframe! As mentioned in the above paragraph, we've noticed the strain of only having a very small number of people working at the studio so having Team17's resources, expertise and help is a huge boon for our little studio. It's been a very stressful time but ultimately this is more about the long term for us, so it made sense to build this partnership even with such a short time before release.
I hope that answers any questions you might have! Please feel free to ask us any that aren't covered here - we're always happy to help.
Thanks for reading!
Emily <3
