"The most important thing is being able to find coworkers that you enjoy working with unconditionally," Lee says. He calls game development an emotional ultramarathon. Lee has now worked at nearly every level of the video-game industry, from leading a multimillion-dollar AAA team to going fully indie and, finally, finding a publisher. We chose them because they're reputable, and I'm personally a huge Soulsborne fan." "But, from what I've read, there's hasn't been any negativity specifically directed toward Bandai Namco as a publisher. "It is, however, a bit of a straw man, since some community players are channeling their frustrations from having been burned by game publishers in the past," Lee says. Most Duelyst fans are happy with the publishing partnership, though a small faction of players has expressed discomfort with the move. Players get gifts for logging into the BNEA system, and a new currency, Diamonds, makes it easier for Counterplay and Bandai Namco to hold regular in-game sales.
Under the publishing deal, Duelyst players have to link their accounts to Bandai Namco's own system, and both studios are trying to make this process as painless as possible. "But, ultimately, final creative decisions rest with us." "Bandai Namco will often offer really good suggestions and insightful feedback since they play Duelyst frequently and they even run their own office tournament brackets," he says.
That's not the case with Bandai Namco, Lee says. What keeps some developers away from publishers is a fear of losing control over their creative vision. That's exactly how publishers can help, alongside financial support. Most developers would rather focus on actually creating, updating and growing their games rather than running Twitter accounts and writing mass emails. This is what makes partnering with a publisher so appealing to so many independent studios. "We now get to focus 100 percent on game development, including card design, card balance, play testing, pixel sprites, animation artwork, lore, new game modes and in-game features," Lee says. Now that Counterplay doesn't have to worry about these things, it can create more - and more diverse - content for Duelyst. This includes behind-the-scenes tasks like writing newsletters, staying active on social media, creating local content, organizing events and communicating with players across a multitude of channels. What has changed is the work itself - Bandai Namco is now handling all of the marketing, promotional campaigns and customer support for Duelyst. "We work like a military unit, with clear accountability and a set of escalating protocols," Lee says. The team still holds daily stand-ups, weekly production reviews and other consistent meetings that have been standard since Duelyst's inception. On a meta level, daily life at Counterplay hasn't changed since the Bandai Namco partnership. You can disable notifications at any time in your settings menu.
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