More than ever, indie developers have risen to such heights in the modern gaming space that the industry is seeing an increasing number of some of the most ambitious and creative projects. Free from the limitations that often come with traditional publishing pipelines, these developers can experiment with unconventional gameplay mechanics, much deeper, thought-provoking narratives, and extreme themes that an external publisher might wince at. This is largely the story behind the development of Vertpaint’s upcoming horror game Ritual Tides, which has allowed it to take bold risks it might not have been able to otherwise.
Game Rant recently interviewed Vertpaint CEO and creative director James Macleod about Ritual Tides‘ development, design, story, and gameplay. While Macleod was thrilled to divulge a wealth of information about Ritual Tides during the interview, he was perhaps most excited to delve into why Vertpaint chose independence over a publisher for its upcoming horror game.
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Why Ritual Tides Benefits From Having an Independent Developer
Ritual Tides’ Story Is Exceedingly Dark
For many indie game developers, whether to partner with a publisher or remain independent is a massive fork in the road where each path ultimately comes down to the developer’s vision. For Vertpaint, the decision to stay independent wasn’t driven by hubris or stubbornness. Instead, it was about protecting the story it wanted to tell with Ritual Tides. When asked to elaborate on how not going with an external publisher has benefited Vertpaint’s creative process, Macleod replied,
“It’s very much in the narrative context. I wouldn’t know how to pitch this to a publisher. I know how I would pitch it from a macro lens. I know I could say, “Here are the games we love, here are the games that have inspired this, and here’s what we’re looking to bring that’s new to this formula,” and we could talk about things very mechanically. However, when you get down to the story, we’re almost nervous about it. But the fact that we’re nervous about this is probably good.”
It feels rather unique for a developer to be nervous about a story it wants to tell, but that nervousness, it turns out, is rooted in the weight of the subject matter. While many popular horror games lean on atmosphere and jump scares, Ritual Tides aims to explore something else entirely, with a narrative that is so dark and unsettling that, as Macleod said, “the fact that we’re nervous about this is probably good.” Vertpaint made a deliberate choice to lean into that discomfort, which might have been watered down under the microscope of a more commercially cautious eye. Macleod continued,
“There are themes within the story that are exceedingly dark, and they’re exceedingly dark, not for gratuity’s sake — they’re exceedingly dark because they paint a picture of how dark this bad side of this, I want to say, “entity.” There are some really mean people in the game, and we could have danced around that and not shown that, but we decided to go the other way and to really dive into it because that is a big, big component as to why the game’s scary.”
A Publisher Would Have Limited Vertpaint’s Creative Freedom
Much of Vertpaint’s nervousness could be more accurately described as an educated caution. Composed of former senior developers from Rockstar Games, the team has enough experience that it has a pretty accurate notion of what would survive on the other side of a publisher. Finishing out his thoughts on the matter, Macleod concluded,
“Going to a publisher, these things wouldn’t have been allowed. So, having worked for several companies, we’ve been to the cutting room floor, and we know what can get through and what cannot. We know that lots of this content wouldn’t have been allowed. Because these things are in service of this narrative, we feel that it would kind of be weird not to include them. So, there are some themes explored in this game that are just very, very dark, and that’s what excites us because this is what we want to make.”
Ritual Tides may not be an easy game to market, and it may not be a game that fits into an external publisher’s portfolio, but that’s precisely the point. Vertpaint’s decision to remain independent is a statement to the idea that stories worth telling are sometimes the ones that make players the most uncomfortable, and those stories don’t deserve to be stripped of their lacquer due to a publisher succumbing to its nervousness. Instead of going that route, Vertpaint is embracing its caution to tell a raw and compelling narrative rather than simply selling a video game.
- Released
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2025
- Developer(s)
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Vertpaint Games
- Publisher(s)
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Vertpaint Games