Welcome to our interview of the one and only Meghan Bridges, who works for the amazing company known as Playism.
・As always, our first question for our guests is to introduce themselves, so please tell us all about yourselves!
Hi, nice to meet you, I’m Meghan. I work at the Japan-based indie game publisher, Playism. We help indie games reach an international market. We launched on May 5th, 2011 as an indie game platform to help Japanese indies reach the world, and for indie games from around the globe to reach the Japanese market. Over time, we grew, and eventually became a publisher for indie games worldwide. We help developers with every stage of their game development right through to post-release, as they need it, helping with everything from porting, localization, marketing and console publishing. Now, after 7 years, we have supported over 300 games on all platforms, and are continuing to grow.
・Second question, as many of our readers might not know what exactly your part in the industry is, could you shed a light on what publishing really is?
Publishing as an industry continues to evolve. What we work on right now is supporting indie games to release in markets that they may not have been able to do alone. Often indie devs can find themselves wanting to release in a market or on a platform, but they have an issue with either getting approval, or the language barrier is preventing them from truly reaching their audience etc. This is usually where we step in.
But this isn’t the only work we do. As needed, we support a lot of developers with porting, localization, platform negotiations, marketing, PR and so much more. A lot of what we do is just handling the behind-the-scenes work that most game-fans would never see.
・Third question, as you recently released Kero Blaster from Studio Pixel, what is it like to work on games for the Nintendo Switch?
The release for the Nintendo Switch caught a lot of indie developers’ attentions. Not only do we find gamers constantly asking us if we are releasing a game on the Switch, but we find a lot of developers are very eager to pick up their games and get in on the platform.
The Nintendo Switch was a game changer for the market, and I feel that it was a very positive change. With Nintendo being more open to indies, a lot more people are discovering the gems that are out there that may have been previously overshadowed by the usual triple-A game releases.
Most of our team have their own Switchs as well, so whenever we get to bring a game we are passionate about to a new platform, we are very excited to share it with the world.
・Fourth, I am sure you already got to experience the fanatic Nintendo Switch fans asking about physical releases on social media, is this something we can look forward to? Is this something you have considered?
This is something we have definitely considered and is something we are looking into. At Tokyo Game Show this year, we announced our first Physical Switch Game; La-Mulana 2. We are really excited to be working on it, and we hope that everyone loves it as much as we do already.
We have quite a few digital Switch releases coming this year, but other than that, I’m afraid I can’t say anything more. You’ll just have to wait for our future announcements.
・Fifth, as a publisher, your library is incredible really, if you could recommend a handful of games to our readers, which would be your personal picks?
We really do have a broad library, don’t we? It’s hard to recommend only one or two games to people as everyone’s taste is so different.
I would say to check out La-Mulana 2 (Out on PC, coming next year to PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch). It’s a 2D metroidvania-like game with ruins to explore, mysteries to discover and massive bosses to defeat. It’s the perfect sort of game for someone who is looking for an Indiana Jones meets Castlevania style game.
Personally, I am a huge fan of Croixleur Sigma (Out on PS4 and PSVita, coming soon to Nintendo Switch). It’s an arena-based brawler with cute girls, multiple weapons and a really silly storyline. It’s a great pick up and play game which you can easily spend 5 minutes or 5 hours on.
If you like shooting games, check out Astebreed. If you prefer story over action, dive into LiEat or Angels of Death. Want an action platformer? Pick up Kero Blaster. I could just keep going on and on to be honest, there’s a lot of games that we have published that I love. You could ask me for any genre, and I could recommend a different game to you.
・Sixth and last quest, which game is currently in your favorite console and how far into it are you?
I play way too many games at once to be honest and my favorites keep changing. I’m currently playing Kero Blaster again, but for the first time on my Switch (I’m around 80% done). I’m also playing A Case of Distrust on the Switch, I’m only around 10% through as I just started it, as well as, around 60% through The Gardens Between on PC.
We would like to thank Meghan for taking out time in her busy schedule to help us out and we look forward to many more games from Playism!
