Agenda
Ask While the Answer Is Cheap: Why Publishing Needs to Start Earlier Than You Think
Cisco Maldonado (Chief Strategy Officer, Midwest Games)
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Track:
Business Strategy, Marketing
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: All
At month two, it's a question. At month eighteen, it's a problem
Studios often wait until there is a game to market before asking the publishing questions that determine whether the game can work commercially.
Cisco Maldonado shows how teams can surface commercial uncertainty earlier before creative, financial, and organizational decisions become expensive to change.
Using five practical questions addressing the market, the business, and the evidence, Cisco will teach teams how to critically examine who the game is really for, why players will choose it in a crowded marketplace, what must be true commercially about their project, what is facts are known versus assumed, and how a team can/should change if those assumptions are wrong.
The session reframes publishing as more than late-stage marketing. Whether the function is owned internally or supported by an external publishing partner, someone needs to own these questions alongside development.
Studios often wait until there is a game to market before asking the publishing questions that determine whether the game can work commercially.
Cisco Maldonado shows how teams can surface commercial uncertainty earlier before creative, financial, and organizational decisions become expensive to change.
Using five practical questions addressing the market, the business, and the evidence, Cisco will teach teams how to critically examine who the game is really for, why players will choose it in a crowded marketplace, what must be true commercially about their project, what is facts are known versus assumed, and how a team can/should change if those assumptions are wrong.
The session reframes publishing as more than late-stage marketing. Whether the function is owned internally or supported by an external publishing partner, someone needs to own these questions alongside development.
Takeaway
Attendees leave with five questions they can use to test audience, commercial assumptions, and risk while answers are still cheap enough to act on. They learn how to separate publishing from marketing, distinguish evidence from assumption, and decide who owns the publishing function alongside development.
Intended Audience
This session is for developers, founders, producers, studio leaders, and publishing professionals making commercial games, especially teams in concept, funding, or early development. It is designed for indies, new studios, and AAA veterans building outside larger organizations. No publishing background is required.