Interview: IndieBox
IndieBox is a brand-new startup that specializes in making elaborate boxed versions of digital indie games. They offer a subscription service wherein you can get a new boxed game every money for around $20 or so, and they had amassed nearly 1,100 subscribers as of February. We spoke with Liv Sagan, the company’s Marketing Overlord, about the service’s unique approach to game distribution and what we can expect from them going forward.
TSSZ: How would you describe IndieBox?
Liv: We make boxed collector’s editions of indie games! We are also a subscription company, so we make and ship out a box every month. We also make private boxes for indie developers.
TSSZ: Where did the idea for IndieBox first come from, and how long has the service actually been active?
Liv: We shipped our first box in May, and the company was founded this past March, so we’re not even a year old yet, but we are shipping out our tenth box this month. The idea came from the thought that physical editions of purely digital games was something that people really wanted, and the way that we could fulfill that was through a subscription service. From that pretty basic idea, it’s grown into a many-headed beast with an awesome community and a booming affiliate program. We’ve met somewhere around one hundred developers that want to do boxes with us just at this convention.
TSSZ: From the attention you’ve received here at PAX, it’s clear that the idea is resonating with people. Aside from satisfying that demand for physical versions of digital games, what other advantages does this specific business model provide?
Liv: One of the coolest things about our boxes, something that people really value, is the concept that when they buy it, they buy a finished game, and it comes DRM-free. So, when they buy a box, they actually buy the game. We include a Steam key, so if you want to use that, it’s up to you, but all of our DRM-free files come on this cool cartridge.
TSSZ: How do you decide which games you put into your box every month? What’s your process for that?
Liv: To begin with, there’s a series of hurdles a game has to pass. It has to have a score of 75 or better on Metacritic, or an 8.0 or better on the Indie Database. The developer has to contact us within six months of the game coming out, and the game has to be at version 1.0 or newer. So, even if it’s still just at Early Access, the core functionality of the game needs to be completely finished and ready to ship DRM-free. The game has to run on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and the game has to be awesome and not suck! So, once it hits all of those points, we play the game, we take a look at it, and we then decide whether or not it’s right to be a featured game.
A really good example of that decision is ClusterPuck 99. It is a freaking amazing game! PHL Collective really outdid themselves on it. It fit all of the criteria, but we knew it wasn’t going to be right to be a featured game. So, when we had a bunch of room left over on one of our cartridges, we contacted PHL and said: “Hey, we have this extra room, can we put your game on this cartridge, too?” They were totally on board. It’s a really great way to reach out to about one thousand people and get their game in lots of people’s hands.
TSSZ: I would imagine that the indie community has reacted really positively to this. Is that the case?
Liv: Absolutely. We have the best community in the whole world. A while back, they started calling themselves the IndieBox Family. That was a grassroots thing, that wasn’t a marketing plan that was imposed on them. Now, we have buttons we walk around with that say “IndieBox Family” on them. When we hire a new staff member or we have a volunteer or a fan or a community member, they’re welcomed into the IndieBox Family.
TSSZ: It must feel great to see your operation blossom and be embraced by so many people, right?
Liv: Absolutely. It’s been crazy with how swamped we are, pretty much constantly. Even when we think we’re prepared for it, it always exceeds our expectations.
TSSZ: You’re less than a year old, but you’re growing rapidly. Looking to the end of 2015 and beyond, what can we expect from IndieBox in the future?
Liv: We’re definitely trying to do different styles of boxes every month right now. This month’s box will be a plastic, Sega Genesis-style box. Last month’s was a larger, old-school PC game box, and before that, we started including things that went outside of the boxes. We’re trying to do much lesser-known games and introduce people to games that they’ve never heard of before, but also a good mix of really awesome ones as well. We’re definitely taking more interesting and different directions with the stuff we’re putting in the box, as well as the boxes themselves.
