Publisher Pitch

The game

It's late at night. You step into a small izakaya, a Japanese bar. The bartender says the only way out is to play his old pachinko machine.

Buy pegs and balls, build the board, pray for charms at the Inari shrine, then drop balls and watch them cascade. Trade the payout for prize tokens and claim the grand prize that clears the stage, just like a real pachinko parlour, where players never win money directly.

The bartender narrates the run, and he's hiding something. The izakaya itself changes as the player goes deeper: things appear, the layout shifts, and the room becomes more and more unnatural, and more disturbing.

Why it works

Numbers-go-up roguelikes are proven: Balatro sold over five million copies. Luck be a Landlord made the slot-machine roguelike in 2D; CloverPit took it into a 3D room with dread and mystery and sold a million copies in two months. Peg-drop is proven too, with Nubby's Number Factory close to half a million.

Starball Pachinko makes the same move for peg-drop: a spectacle people share, and a reason to keep playing.

It also looks different. Most numbers-go-up roguelikes are 2D; here the room, the machine and every ball are 3D, and many visitors at the Sweden Game Conference booth remarked on the visuals.

What we're looking for

A marketing strategy that fits the game, from a publisher that fits it:

• Similar titles: experience launching games like this one, and a catalogue it fits, for genre fit and bundles
• Asia: Japan, Korea and China could be strong markets for this game. A publisher confident and interested in taking that on, from VTubers and streamers to press
• Know-how where we're thin: reaching influencers and press, localisation, key art and trailers

Above all, a partner who shares the vision and wants to make the game as good and as successful as it can be.

The timeline is flexible. Runway covers well over a year of development, so launch and Next Fest can move to fit the marketing plan.