Hooded Horse, the publisher of Manor Lords, has been at the center of a recent discussion about the difficulties of Early Access with indie developers. Earlier in the week, Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender got into a debate with Hinterland CEO Raphael van Lierop, who called Manor Lords "a pretty interesting case study on the pitfalls of Early Access." That dispute has since been settled, but Bender continues to emphasize that both he and Hooded Horse support their registered developers.

"Sustainability is something we think about a lot," Bender said in an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun. 'But we usually think about it in relation to our developers.' Indeed, Hooded Horse is primarily owned by individuals, with Bender and his wife owning the majority of the stock.

In fact, before Manor Lords was released to early access, Bender told me in a previous LinkedIn post that he tried to help developer Greg "Slab Magic" Stichen prepare for harsh criticism." I told him that after its release he would hear from all kinds of comments about missed opportunities because it didn't grow as fast as he wanted it to.

Thus, because there is no pressure on developers to grow or perform, vendors say Hooded Horse "really doesn't have any lasting growth goals. There is no financial pressure, and we are fortunate to work with great developers and they make great games. Even before Manor Road, we were completely financially sustainable based on the great games those developers made."

"So as a result, I don't think we need to worry about sustainability," Bender said. But we are very focused on something more important: the sustainability of the developers." In a publishing agreement, the publisher gets all the revenue until it recoups its investment, and only then does the developer get a share. This is a common practice in this industry. From the beginning, we did not want such an agreement.

This approach means that Hooded Horse does not need every game to be a huge success like Manor Lords. But that is nothing new for a publisher with a diverse portfolio: "Sometimes one does a little worse, sometimes one does a little better.

But the same cannot be said for developers. Says the vendor, "If the game does a little worse and some money is spent on it, the publisher may get back everything they put in before the developer gets a dollar." That means developers won't get paid, and that means they won't have the money post-release to avoid layoffs, continue to develop and improve the game, and retain staff to recover from the stumbles that occurred at launch."

While there is no sole formula for supporting developers and their projects, in Bender's opinion, it is all about living up to "fulfilling the obligations of what you promised the developer when they trusted you with their game." Trust is the factor that vendors feel is more important than anything else when developers are choosing which publishers to deal with.