tinyBuild - The Publisher, The Developer, The Legend

tinyBuild the Publisher

tinyBuild has become a tiny giant in the gaming industry. In 2011 Alex Nichipochik grew from a flash developer and joined forces with Luke Burtis and Tom Brien to create what is now tinyBuild. Like many startups, the journey wasn't simple and it had some minor obstacles. However, there was one thing that came across as simple for this publisher. They knew they would have no problem with relationship development. According to this sponsored 2017 Venture Beat article.

"Empathy is a big part of tinyBuild’s philosophy as a publisher. They know how hard development can be, and how new developers can get taken advantage of, or not know what their game is worth, or how much money will be needed to make it a reality." ~Alex Nichipochik

Having been an indie developer, Alex Nichipochik understood the trials and tribulations which in turn gave him an edge as a publisher. He takes pride in putting himself in the developer's shoes. As mentioned in the same article by Venture Beat, it gives him a more personalized connection to the games, including the developers they promote. However, it wasn't until publishing on Steam Greenlight that tinyBuild really became known as a video game publisher.

Nichipochik gives Steam Greenlight credit for helping to get in front of thousands of avid gamers. Greenlight would give gamers a casted vote to either positively or negatively promote games. Lucky for tinyBuild the Greenlight audience became an instant hit. They eventually found their core audience via Dynamic pixels, Hello Neighbor through the now cancelled Greenlight giving celebrity-like notoriety to the publisher.

The Hello Neighbor series rapidly picked up fanfare leading to merchandise and more. Also, the game can now be found on multiple platforms including Nintendo, Xbox, and of course PC and Mac. The rapid growth caught the eye of other developers soon after, allowing tinyBuild a chance to hand pick their next-gen developers to publish.

Stream to the future, Dynamic Pixel and tinyBuild have released "Hide and Seek" the latest addition to Hello Neighbor series. Released earlier this month it has already hit record downloads. The prequel gives fans a look at what happened prior to the original game. They successfully give players a first-person perspective of the history behind moustached neighbor.

tinyBuild the Developer

Alex and the team are now casting their shadow on what he calls AA games. Their plan is to build games that land somewhere between indie games and AAA games. AAA being high-end console games like Assassins Creed or Final Fantasy. AA being short simple yet robust games that have a slightly higher quality than indie games you would find on Itch or GameJolt.

Their first game "No time to Explain" is simple yet undeniably tinyBuild. The clean graphics represent the detail and witty but loaded with mind boggling gameplay. Quintessentially, the core of what we can expect from tinyBuild.

Later, the team joined forces with Double Dutch as co-developers with "Speed Runners". The game since its release has sold over 600,000 copies making it the their highest grossing at the time. With this ingenuity and creativity we are sure to see more in development from tinyBuild.

The Legend

The tinyBuild success story is one that is refreshing and one that will continue. It's impressive for a start up developer to grow so rapidly from a simple flash game developer to industry leading publisher. Not to mention they are a leading example of hard work and savvy smarts making them a legend. They are definitely a core example of how others can build a name for themselves within the video game market.