Even if a small studio has a number of titles under their belt, it doesn't always mean it's doing well financially. At the cusp of bankruptcy, it was time to look at alternative ways of producing games. "Money is always available from somewhere," notes former Failbetter Games staffer Alexis Kennedy. 

In this GDC 2016 session, Kennedy goes over how the company used open publishing techniques to steer themselves away from bankruptcy and toward being financially stable with their game, Sunless Sea. 

The talk discusses how Kennedy incorporated a "bundle of techniques" (which he dubbed as "open production") used by other successful indie studios during the development of Sunless Sea, going over topics like Kickstarter and interacting early with the community to establish a collaborative relationship. 

Developers curious to see if open production is applicable to their projects can now watch the talk completely free via the official GDC YouTube channel!

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

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