Phasmophobia creator Daniel Knight is one of the lucky few who got to see their idea not only turn into a massive hit, but also help define a genre. His self-published ghost-hunting game, for which he was a solo developer, has sold more than 25 million copies since its release in 2020, and Blumhouse Films is now working on a Hollywood adaptation.
Now Knight's studio Kinetic Games following in the footsteps of Among Us creator Innerslot spreading the wealth to other indies. Newly opened Kinetic Publishing House hopes to provide the kind of support and advice that Knight himself wished he had received when he launched his first game in 2020. Knight is expanding the Kinetic team to support the new feature, hiring director of marketing and partnerships Asim Tanveer. He has 15 years of experience in community, marketing and social management at some of the world's largest publishers, including 2K, Konami and Zynga.
Kinetic Publishing's list is completely empty at the moment, but it is looking for unsigned games that are about 12-18 months away from release. Although the publisher is based in the UK, it is open to submissions from around the world across a wide range of genres – with the aim of supporting just two or three projects per year. “We want to give the teams we bring in the support and attention they deserve,” says Tanveer, “and build a healthy roster without compromising anything.”
Knight says GamesIndustry.biz that the idea of Kinetic Publishing has been in development for a long time. “I’ve always wanted to do this,” he says. “This has always been my ultimate goal, ever since I started hiring people, even when I was alone. It was always in the back of my mind. We've grown quite a lot lately, and now we have 40 people. We are going to grow next year too. That's why now is the perfect time.”
“We haven’t signed anything yet,” adds Tanveer. “We are looking for games in the indie space, be it solo development or small teams. We strive to support and encourage creativity in the indie space and help it grow, just as we do as a company. We want to celebrate and support indie developers and help them succeed.”
While Kinetic's own expertise lies in co-op horror, the team is open to anything: “Cozy games, RPGs, all that good stuff; we don’t try to categorize or limit ourselves,” says Tanveer. Having learned first-hand about the realities of outsourcing, quality control, localization, and onboarding new developers, Knight has a lot of experience to share with future developers.
Indie spirit
It is important to note that Kinetic Publishing is independent and has no shareholders or investors. The team itself controls the deadlines and gives the green light to its own decisions.
“We fully independent,” emphasizes Tanveer. “We love independent space, even similar names [to Phasmophobia]. We don't see it as competition – we see it as a genre. We want to champion the indie space, the developers in that space, and help them grow.
“To this day, we have no investors, financial backers, shareholders or anything like that. It's just us. We decide what we do and we want to support those teams. We don't want to change their vision. We want to support them to be their best and succeed. Indie gaming has been a shining light over the past few years and we feel we can help build on the success we've had and improve this space even further.”
Neither Knight nor Tanveer would give exact figures, but they did make it clear that Kinetic Publishing is “well-funded” thanks to the commercial success of Phasmophobia. Both also recognize that since each project is unique, so should the support each game receives, be it financial or otherwise. Ultimately, the team appears willing to fund anything from “several hundred thousand” pounds to £1 million, depending on the needs and scale of the project.
“We understand that funding needs will vary from project to project,” says Tanveer. “Some teams may need less, some more, to achieve this goal. We have a realistic vision of what that funding looks like. We want to respect what we do on our end and combine that with respect for the teams we bring in, as well as adjust funding based on need.
“And if a really, really good project came along and needed a little more, we wouldn't say no. We would take another look at the project, what the needs are, and then work with our team to figure out what financing looks like.”
Direct experience
In addition to truly independent funding, Knight's on-the-ground experience is a key factor in what Kinetic Publishing can offer. From being a solo developer to growing a team, scaling, publishing, and releasing the game first on PC and then on consoles, Knight has personally and successfully done it all.
“In terms of business, things like starting a company and how they'll end up paying taxes and dealing with legal issues, even small things like creating trademarks—those are all things that people just don't think about, but they're extremely important,” Knight says. “I've been through pretty much everything that any indie studio goes through. [firsthand] experience with everything anyone would ever need.
“Explaining to a small development team why they need to expand is probably one of the most important things I could help with from the beginning. I didn't want expand, but I absolutely need it. I wanted to remain a solo developer for as long as possible. But over time, this simply became impossible.”
Tanveer agrees, adding: “We have experience in All in these different areas – we can bring that experience to the table. We truly love the independent space and want to help it grow. It's about empowering that space rather than directing people by telling them, “No, don't do that.” We just want to give them creative freedom and be as successful as possible.”
It is through this first-hand experience that Kinetic Publishing begins to operate as a one-stop shop, combining financial support with development, business and marketing advice. The team has five senior members, each with their own disciplinary expertise, and plans to expand with additional staff in the near future.
“Our team will be responsible for the decisions that give the green light, and we will actively monitor what is happening in the space,” says Tanveer. “It's liberating. I hope this is familiar to people who come to us for support. We're committed to supporting games that do something amazing, do innovative, creative things. We want to champion and support these games and teams.”
“We don’t want to come in and take creative control of their projects.”
Daniel Knight
“And we’re game developers,” Knight adds. “We know these teams want creative freedom. We don't want to come in and take creative control of our projects. We know that these are the people who know what they are doing best. I think it will be very helpful for indie studios to communicate directly with other developers, and not just with people who come just to fund them. But we can give feedback on people's games and also help them get through the release.”
With no investors to satisfy, Kinetic won't set “hard caps” or chase unrealistic deadlines, but expects the games it's working on to be released within the next 12 to 18 months. Knight says the most important thing he's learned is to have the right people around him to advise, support and empower him, and that's what he aims to offer with Kinetic Publishing.
“We want to be a publisher that empowers developers, not guides them,” concludes Tanveer.
