It's February 2023, we've just finished our incubation program for GameJam+. We have worked on The Chef's Shift, for about 2 months by then. And we thought "Damn, this game is pretty good than expected, I wonder if there's publisher that want to publish it".
To be newbie in this line of work, we send borderline spam email to publishers that might have an inch interest to our game. We knocked the doors and said "Hello, we make game, and it's pretty good! We need money!" or so.
Toge Game Fund Initiative
And then we remembered that Toge Productions has a funding program called TGFI (Toge Game Fund Initiative). They basically gives 10k USD freely for funding your game until the vertical slice of your game. Pretty neat, huh? So you might think, what's the catch?
Well... you guess it right, there's a catch, but it's not really big deal for us. The catch is "Toge will have the Right of First Refusal to publish the fully developed game".
What does that even mean? It means, when the game is in the program, you can't approach any other publisher, then after the program completes, you must pitch your game to Toge first to be your potential publisher. If deal is not reached, only by then you could approach other publishers.
And we as a team thought that is pretty nice deal for 10k USD funding.
So yeah we submitted to TGFI.
The Waiting Game
Then... two months past... It's April 2023 now. We got some publishers that replied to us, and some... well simply don't. Maybe our email is buried in mountain of incoming emails, or maybe they simply forgot to reply.
And we got rejected by many publishers... It's expected though... and I kinda like to be rejected, because at least I know they read our email and takes time to reply it.
And for the others that have not replied us... we use the most useful technique in emailing business, "Follow Up Email".
We just say "Hello, it's us again. In case you haven't seen our previous email, here is the same information that I've included in previous email. We really appreciate if you could reply us" or so.
And we do it for the TGFI too... and magically it works.
We had interview with Toge in May 2023, they seemed interested to fund this game. And in June, we got it! We are in the program! Woo hoo... :3
Looking back, it's kinda mind boggling that we need 4 months to secure funding.
Finishing The Program
We complete the last milestone for the program in November 2023, so it takes 6 months to complete it. Funny story that we were confident to complete it only in 3 months. Yeah, I've heard that we should really multiply the time by two to get the realistic estimate, and I'm glad I learned it in spans of months not years.
December 2023, we got the final pitch to Toge to ask them to be our publishers, then the timer starts, if after two months, Toge doesn't reply the decision, it means they could not be our publisher.
The Result
And now, in January 2024, just this day, we have gotten the answer from Toge and we are excited to share with the readers!
This is the meat of the story... so here we go...
We don't get the publishing deal from Toge Productions
Yeah, you read it right, we got rejected. And I'm glad I feel fine, maybe a little bit disappointed, but it's not the first rejection that we had. We are trained to get rejected. And the wonderful thing about being rejected, is that you could try it again. And here we are trying again.
What's Next
The embargo of The Right of First Refusal has been expired, it means that we could actively approach many publishers at once.
And with that, we could say now...
Hello Publishers! We Need Money!
Or maybe more professionally
Dear Publishers, We are reaching out to you in pursuit of financial support to ensure the completion of our game, The Chef's Shift. Your contribution plays a pivotal role in enabling us to achieve our objectives and uphold the excellence of our work. For further inquiries and potential collaborations, please feel free to contact us via email at [email protected]. We appreciate your thoughtful consideration and look forward to the prospect of working together. Sincerely, Ali Jaya Meilio Panitia GameDev
Our Thought About TGFI
Simply it's a great program! I'm not sure why Toge gives free money, or at least that feels that way for us. But last time I check, it's still there, they still active to seek potential game to fund.
So if you have a game, or even only an idea, or really early prototype, it doesn't hurt to submit your game to the program, here is the link https://www.togeproductions.com/tgfi/
Maybe you just want to test your luck to send your pitch, but you won't know that maybe four months later you will get funding for your vertical slice :D
Now let's talk about "The Right of First Refusal", is it a bad thing?
There's some instance in our experience that we are kinda restricted with this term, especially when we are attending B2B events like IGDX. In here, usually you seek for potential collaborator in the industry, namely the publisher. But because we have this restriction, we feel that we can't leverage this event to it's maximum potential.
And if there's some publisher that interested in our game and approaches us, you kinda need to maneuver the conversation and explain your situation, like "We are in TGFI, Toge has The Right of First Refusal, etc".
But looking back, the funding outweight the small inconvenience, so yeah, I really recommend it!
Press Kit
It's not new, but I feels many don't know that we have press kit. So you could use our press kit here.
And if you haven't wishlisted our game, please wishlist our game, it will help with our success!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2390230/