Over the years, I’ve had many an email exchange with various PR companies, developers and publishers. Recently, Pirate PR have become somewhat of a Twitter / X highlight for me, as the man behind the machine – Robby Bisschop – has been incredibly open with advice and tips for game developers, as well as dedicating his time to exposing scammers, sharing his experiences for all to learn from.
He is very active on his channel (@PR_Pirate) and I thought it would be fun to learn more about the man, the myth…the pirate.
So get comfortable, and pop open a rum as we set sail across the seas of gaming.
Firstly, a big thank you for taking the time for this interview! So the readers know who you are - and how you roll - can you give a little background on yourself, Pirate PR, and how it all came to be?
Sure! I'm Robby Bisschop from Belgium, lifetime gamer but pretty new to the games industry considering I'm already 37 years old and only started in 2017. I've always loved playing games, despite my parents' reluctance to give me any new consoles or games. I had to make do with a Game Boy from age 5 to 11, when I got my first PlayStation console and got lost in JRPGs mostly. I learned English from playing games, and Magic The Gathering so I have a lot to thank them for.
When I had to pick for a higher education, I was torn between Journalism (to write about games) and Development (to make them). I opted for the latter and studied 3 years in a school that wasn’t yet ready to really teach me about game development in 2005-2008, I did apply my newly acquired Flash/Actionscript coding skills for making minigames in Ketnet Kick 2, a game made by Larian Studios.
Then I worked 10 years for the European Commission, as a support provider for Sharepoint. I did learn a lot about patience there, which helped me later on.
In 2017 I started writing about games for ThisGenGaming, first some opinion pieces, then some reviews (this is when I changed my online nickname to "BloodyGoodReviews") and eventually interviews with mostly Belgian developers. All this time I was employed by Cronos, Belgium's biggest IT company and when they wanted to start Belgium's first publisher (Cronos Interactive) alongside a new gaming conference & Expo (1UP conference) I jumped at the opportunity, helping mostly with event management and social media.
In 2022 I branched off and started Pirate PR, hoping to help small indies make a big impact through my assistance with press releases and keys. It helped a lot to have first-hand experience as press and as a media-creator so I knew who I was talking to and what they wanted, and also to have worked so closely with various indies so I knew what they needed most.
There's a sense of openness that comes from your social media presence, has this always been your approach, or was it a more recent decision?
I think that's always been there, but I'm a positive person first and foremost and a lot of my posts that have had success were pretty much me complaining about the state of the industry. something I kept inside for the first year that we were running Pirate PR. I'm also not bound by an employer (even though I have a mother company, they don't really get involved anymore since the past year) and have no employees of my own, so any backlash I could have possibly gotten from my honest posts would have only had an impact on myself.
That's a kind of liberating freedom I'm now using for good 🙂
Staying on your social media presence, I was drawn to your channel due to your posts regarding scammers as well as advice and suggestions that you freely offer to game devs and other PR folk. Was this a natural progression, or did a certain event trigger this?
I've always given free advice, consultations and feedback my entire professional career. I don't see information as something that should be hoarded like a dragon on top of a mountain of gold and I feel we all benefit if people are more open.
On the topic of scammers, I hate how they are so active now and that's mostly because they are getting away with it. Time and time again when I work for a client and they forward me emails with "this is legit, right?" and where I have to burst their bubble that "no, this is also a scam", it confirms to me that hundreds of game codes are being sent to these lowlifes and they only get more greedy by the year.
It's not enough to keep a list of names, as they constantly change their names or create new ones, so it's better to try and train everyone to spot the fake requests and just block them from your inbox or report them to the key mailer sites.
What have been the major industry changes that you've witnessed since creating Pirate PR?
Developers' trust in publishers has been shattered with all the recent lay-offs and news of how a lot of them just do the bare minimum for their games, so we see more and more self-funded indie games or even publishers who now outsource their marketing & PR because it's cheaper than having someone on the payroll fulltime.
Publishers have also been more reluctant to invest in games, because there is such a HUGE overwhelming amount of them releasing every week now, that having a shot at success feels a lot like rolling a die or flipping a coin. With our help, we just try to add a few extra coinflips to their marketing plans.
What are the main challenges that you face as a PR firm?
In our first year, this was mostly finding clients. Everyone asked us about our portfolio, but there was none yet. (I keep using us and our, because while I'm sailing solo now, the company was started as a two-man ship, but that was not financially sustainable with Belgium's tax laws and high cost on payroll employees). I did hand out a ton of our cool Pirate PR coins at gamescom 2023 and writing some useful articles for our Treasure Trove and that started paying off this year.
Ever since end of last year, I've had our clients reaching out to me instead of the other way around, and that takes a huge burden off my shoulders.
The other problem is the shrinking contacts list, press wise. while I add more and more creators every day and we went from 2K contacts to now close to 9K on our list, I'm deeply saddened every time I have to remove people. this year we saw Game Informer shutting down, PLAY Magazine, people getting fired from Dexerto, IGN and more. it's a challenge to keep up-to-date with everyone's contact info if their emails just get wiped out from one day to the next.
I can imagine that you've worked with dozens, possibly hundreds of releases over the years, are there any titles or moments that stand out as personal highlights for you?
I have the current luxury of having a lot of possible games to work on and getting to hand-pick them. That also means that when we're working on a full review pack, it's a game I enjoy as a player which makes it harder to write about.
My excitement can rub off on other press & creators. the biggest highlight this year for me was SCHiM, we had well over 300 written reviews and a ton of video content. there was so much happening for that game, and the developers were also on top of their social media game, that it was a joy to work on.
Is there a specific game that you feel has been overlooked and deserves more attention?
Where to start. so many of them. I'll go with Trifox however, as I worked on that title as social media manager before even starting Pirate PR. And even though we got it a ton of coverage, it just didn't take off commercially. I really like the game and I've beaten it 100% on every possible platform and wish other people also appreciated what a polished game it is. I had so much fun making social media content for it too, really some gems out there that I'm still proud of, like this one.
A question we always ask, what are your top games of all time?
I LOVE rhythm games even though I'm terrible at them, Aaero, Avicii Invector and Final Fantasy Theathrythm are my favourite ones.
Other than this, mascot platformers or collection games (which explains my love for Trifox) like Spyro, Lucky's Tale, Tinykin are always a good match for me.
Can you let us know of any games being handled by Pirate PR that are already available or soon to be unleashed?
I'll go with 3 released and 3 upcoming games to briefly promote them!
RELEASED:
Necro Story is a fun, light-hearted creature collection RPG with Mario RPG-style humour. You play as an evil (but not really) necromancer that can collect the souls of defeated enemies and make them fight for him. It's pretty short for an RPG, and I can appreciate that as someone with not a lot of free time.
SCHiM is a shadow-hopping platformer where you play as a lost shadow making his way back to his owner, it's really fun and visually unlike anything you've ever seen before!
Aaero2 - did I mention I'm a fan of rhythm games? getting to work with this game as PR is a dream come true, even if your assistance is minimal (just press releases and some xbox codes)
UPCOMING GAMES:
Ruffy and the Riverside - I said I was a fan of collection/platformers right? This is just that but adds a cool copy/paste materials gimmick on top if it.
Spilled! - I've been following Lente's posts before I was active in PR and seeing the cozy game evolve so beautifully is empowering. just casually cleaning up oil spills in your boat is so relaxing and empowering.
Ascending Inferno - It's Foddian soccer game where you have to kick your ball-shaped brother's soul out of hell but if you drop him, you have to restart a large part of your climb. It's maddening and I might not be cut out to even beat the game myself. Out October 28th!
there was one upcoming title I'd really like to share, but I can't just yet! you'll have to wait and see...
Finally, what's the best way for people keep up with Pirate PR?
The easiest way is to follow @PR_pirate on Twitter, I'm the most active there and hope the platform remains a good place for indies to hang out, despite the new shitty ownership…
No comments:
Post a Comment
Like what you see in the Games Freezer?
Why not tell us what you think with a few well-chosen comments? :)
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.