Paradox Interactive has launched the Unbound initiative aimed at letting indie developers create their own games based on the Vampire: The Masquerade franchise. They will also receive a major portion of revenues.
Prodigal
This initiative comes under World of Darkness, a global brand of several tabletop IPs owned by White Wolf Publishing and acquired by Paradox Interactive in 2015.
According to the announcement (spotted by GamesIndustry.biz), Unbound games must be set in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition.
Indie developers of successfully chosen titles will publish them on itch.io and retain up to 67% of revenues, deciding how much they want to pay to the platform.
Devs will also be able to monetize all the assets of their projects that don’t directly use elements of the World of Darkness IP to sell their own artbooks, soundtracks, and asset store packages.
Paradox has already presented the first Unbound games already available on itch.io. The list includes point-and-click adventure Prodigal, survival horror Descent, first-person shooter The Autumn People, and card game The Game of Elders.
Vampire: The Masquerade is best known among gamers for Troika Games-developed ARPG Bloodlines. Its sequel has been in the making for years, currently stuck in what is usually called the “development hell.” However, Paradox CFO Alexander Bricca said last year that the company is happy with Bloodlines 2 progress, although the company is still not ready to reveal a studio behind it.