Where to start with Publishers?

Hello folks,

Been a while since I've been here so here goes:

I used to work for a games company, we had a publisher, so basically we made games in house, passed them onto the publisher and the publisher just sorted distribution on steam/mobile/whatever.

What i'm getting at is: i've got 5 published titles under my belt but i've never even been in the same room as a publisher.

Jump forward to today:

I've been out of the games industry for about 2.5 years now and work in Sales instead since the pay is better and more stable.

Essentially i've got a prototype and 2/3 of a game with 'mostly' final art that I want to put out there and earn something on the side.

The Question:

At what point do I approach a publisher?

I've been looking at going through Team 17 (a uk Indie publisher) but should I approach them with a finished product or start looking for a meeting now?

It' seems much easier to self publish now with steam greenlight etc however it seems expected that you'll offer aftersales support etc and be involved in the community if you go that route and well, i've no intention of leaving my day job so there's no realistic way i'd manage that (hence looking for a publisher instead).

Any advice appreciated.

cheers,

Matt

If you were going to go with a publisher I would start looking for a meeting now. If you would go the steam greenlight way it would be an upfront payment of $100 and there is no guarantee that your game would even make it on steam. The choice is really up to you and either way would work out in the end if you had a good game once it was finished.

Hope this helped but if not im sorry