#big mode

I want to say that up front, I think Dunkey is usually pretty entertaining. He's got a sharp wit and generally knows how to be funny. But I tend to agree that he's about to learn some very hard lessons.

Dunkey spins himself in his pitch as if he's the smartest guy on earth. That he "knows how to pick them," so to speak. I think, to some degree, that speaks to a guy who is a little drunk on his own fame. He's got 7 million subscribers and has been listening to a deafening echo chamber for years.

Now, there's no shame for having confidence in yourself. I've struggled with a lot in my life, and one thing I've learned is that often the key ingredient to success is just doing something confidently. Even if you're wrong, if you do it with enough confidence, people tend to get behind you. Entire careers have been built and maintained exclusively on the idea of confidence.

But Dunkey's video makes it sound like he expects the next Celeste to just magically fall in to his lap just because he left the door open. He has absolutely no experience in this arena outside of just "I've played a lot of games." If I wanted to guarantee my game to be a success, would I go with him, or say, Devolver Digital, who have had a decade of success?

Chances are, you're going to go for Devolver first, and if they reject you... well, then there's Raw Fury. After that... well, there's Thunderful. And Paradox. And Curve. And Team17. And Microids. And Humble. And tinyBuild.

And then way, way, way down at the bottom of the list is Big Mode, Dunkey's new publishing label.

Dunkey's talk about "knowing how to pick them" isn't going to matter when he'll be lucky to take whatever filters down his drain. He's never run a marketing campaign. He's never contacted the press before. Does he plan to? That's what a publisher does. Or is that part of his "I won't be controlling" promise? That he's just going to give the developer money when they ask for it, and stay out of their way otherwise? Because the whole point of a publisher for indies is handling hard stuff for them, like booth space at conventions and talking to people the developer doesn't have the time or energy to deal with, and maybe even something like health insurance.

But Dunkey also wants to do this along side Youtube. How many Youtubers work at all the places I just listed? Devolver puts on a good show once a year, but they hire a talent studio for that. Because the people at Devolver are publishers first.

I am absolutely positive Dunkey has the best intentions here but he makes this sound like sunshine and rainbows when to me it just sounds like either nothing will ever come of it (because the golden goose never walks through his door) or it'll become a huge money pit when he tries to keep his hands off and indie developers do the thing that they do... which is take ten years to release anything.

Best of luck to the guy. And if he thinks he has the world eating out of the palm of his hand, maybe a dose of reality will be a good thing for him.

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