Posted April 26, 2022
The 10th anniversary of Plug In Digital, a dynamic company from Montpellier in France, is a great occasion to play some of its most renowned titles. Before playing great games like Guild of Ascension and Mana Spark, spare a minute or two to read our interview with Guillaume Jamet, Head of Publishing at Plug In Digital.
GOG.COM: 10 years in a very dynamic industry is no small achievement. How does Plug in Digital manage to keep up with the constantly changing video game market? What are the requirements that a specific title must meet to be considered for publishing by your company?
Guillaume Jamet: Plug In Digital has two publishing labels: Dear Villagers and PID Games. Both have slightly different editorial lines but also some common requirements.
The first common requirement is friendliness. More than we pick games, we choose teams. Publishing a game is a multiple-year partnership between the studio and us. We will have important choices to make together, we may encounter issues together, we will have to be strong in communicating together, and so on. So, the first thing we are looking at, along with the prototype quality is how we well fit with the people making the game and how much we trust that they can achieve their goals.
The second common requirement is that the game has both PC and Console potential, for both labels we want to have multiplatform games. We even do mobile with PID Games.
And finally, the third requirement would be that your game has a twist in some way. There are so many games out there, we are pitched around 40 games every week, your game needs to stand out with something that is unusual or particularly good to our eyes gameplay-wise, and high-quality visuals.
Looking back on these 10 years, which of one the titles published by one of your labels do you think was your biggest, groundbreaking success?
The Forgotten City released last year by Dear Villagers is a very important success for our brand. The game is absolutely great, it won multiple awards and is selling very well. I would say it’s currently the most “famous” one, but we also had very nice sales with Edge of Eternity and The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk. They are to date the three flagships in our line-up but I’m pretty confident our upcoming Souldiers will soon challenge our top sellers!
On the PID Games side, we are very proud of our partnership with ustwo games for Alba: A Wildlife Adventure. Not only it’s one of our top sellers but it’s also a game with a strong and positive message that we’ve been very proud to support.
On the other hand, which game present on GOG do you consider your personal favorite and would recommend to our users?
As Head of Publishing, I’m not supposed to have a favorite! I already mentioned our key titles so I will use that question to mention Recompile, the very unusual platformer metroidvania we released last year with PhiGames. I love the art, I love the universe, I love the feeling I have when controlling the main character. It has a few flaws for sure, but I consider that is also what makes it special. I really feel this is one of our underrated games.
What are the plans of Plug In Digital for the near future? Are there any titles we should wait for on the edge of our seats?
Both our labels have great titles upcoming, but you were not expecting me to say otherwise! Let’s just have a look then.
Freshly baked by Dear Villagers, we have Revita and Souldiers, two games we are sincerely very proud of.
Revita is a fast-paced twin-stick roguelite platformer, led by a single indie developer, BenStar. It’s been fine-tuned for months now, and BenStar put all the energy and care he got to provide players with a wonderful, meaningful, and enthralling adventure with limitless gameplay options, filled to the brim with mysteries. You’ll be surprised by the deep story behind this adorable pixel world!
Regarding Souldiers, I would invite you to have a look at it. I don’t even need to comment! In my eyes, it’s an incredible action-platformer providing a challenging metroidvania adventure in a state-of-the-art pixel art world. There again we have worked closely with the studio over the last months to fine-tune the best possible experience. I will dare the more hardcore players to face the challenge of the hardest mode, you’d better be skilled! And I’m happy that we also made it possible for less skilled players, such as… me, to enjoy less challenging mode and hours of enthralling action platforming.
On the PID Games side, we have several very nice games coming very soon. While I’m personally very into the dark adventures offered by Hellslave, I can’t miss highlighting Skabma - Snowfall which I expect to be our next hit for the label. There again, we are not only offering a beautiful adventure game experience but it’s also a meaningful game that highlights a discrete and endangered northern culture, the Sámi, in a game created with and by Sámi people.
Do you have any favorite titles from Dear Villagers and PID Games? Or maybe you would like to simply get to know them? Check our special Publisher Sale on GOG for more great games published under these labels.
GOG.COM: 10 years in a very dynamic industry is no small achievement. How does Plug in Digital manage to keep up with the constantly changing video game market? What are the requirements that a specific title must meet to be considered for publishing by your company?
Guillaume Jamet: Plug In Digital has two publishing labels: Dear Villagers and PID Games. Both have slightly different editorial lines but also some common requirements.
The first common requirement is friendliness. More than we pick games, we choose teams. Publishing a game is a multiple-year partnership between the studio and us. We will have important choices to make together, we may encounter issues together, we will have to be strong in communicating together, and so on. So, the first thing we are looking at, along with the prototype quality is how we well fit with the people making the game and how much we trust that they can achieve their goals.
The second common requirement is that the game has both PC and Console potential, for both labels we want to have multiplatform games. We even do mobile with PID Games.
And finally, the third requirement would be that your game has a twist in some way. There are so many games out there, we are pitched around 40 games every week, your game needs to stand out with something that is unusual or particularly good to our eyes gameplay-wise, and high-quality visuals.
Looking back on these 10 years, which of one the titles published by one of your labels do you think was your biggest, groundbreaking success?
The Forgotten City released last year by Dear Villagers is a very important success for our brand. The game is absolutely great, it won multiple awards and is selling very well. I would say it’s currently the most “famous” one, but we also had very nice sales with Edge of Eternity and The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk. They are to date the three flagships in our line-up but I’m pretty confident our upcoming Souldiers will soon challenge our top sellers!
On the PID Games side, we are very proud of our partnership with ustwo games for Alba: A Wildlife Adventure. Not only it’s one of our top sellers but it’s also a game with a strong and positive message that we’ve been very proud to support.
On the other hand, which game present on GOG do you consider your personal favorite and would recommend to our users?
As Head of Publishing, I’m not supposed to have a favorite! I already mentioned our key titles so I will use that question to mention Recompile, the very unusual platformer metroidvania we released last year with PhiGames. I love the art, I love the universe, I love the feeling I have when controlling the main character. It has a few flaws for sure, but I consider that is also what makes it special. I really feel this is one of our underrated games.
What are the plans of Plug In Digital for the near future? Are there any titles we should wait for on the edge of our seats?
Both our labels have great titles upcoming, but you were not expecting me to say otherwise! Let’s just have a look then.
Freshly baked by Dear Villagers, we have Revita and Souldiers, two games we are sincerely very proud of.
Revita is a fast-paced twin-stick roguelite platformer, led by a single indie developer, BenStar. It’s been fine-tuned for months now, and BenStar put all the energy and care he got to provide players with a wonderful, meaningful, and enthralling adventure with limitless gameplay options, filled to the brim with mysteries. You’ll be surprised by the deep story behind this adorable pixel world!
Regarding Souldiers, I would invite you to have a look at it. I don’t even need to comment! In my eyes, it’s an incredible action-platformer providing a challenging metroidvania adventure in a state-of-the-art pixel art world. There again we have worked closely with the studio over the last months to fine-tune the best possible experience. I will dare the more hardcore players to face the challenge of the hardest mode, you’d better be skilled! And I’m happy that we also made it possible for less skilled players, such as… me, to enjoy less challenging mode and hours of enthralling action platforming.
On the PID Games side, we have several very nice games coming very soon. While I’m personally very into the dark adventures offered by Hellslave, I can’t miss highlighting Skabma - Snowfall which I expect to be our next hit for the label. There again, we are not only offering a beautiful adventure game experience but it’s also a meaningful game that highlights a discrete and endangered northern culture, the Sámi, in a game created with and by Sámi people.
Do you have any favorite titles from Dear Villagers and PID Games? Or maybe you would like to simply get to know them? Check our special Publisher Sale on GOG for more great games published under these labels.
