PEPPER GRINDER
A platformer that won’t put you through the mill
Developer Ahr Ech Publisher Devolver Digital Format Origin PC, Switch US Release Q1 2024
Here’s a tip for indie developers seeking a publishing deal. Put an unconventional weapon in your game, one that also serves as a method of traversal, and there’s a fair chance Devolver Digital will be interested.
To the likes of Olija, Boomerang X and Gunbrella we can add Riv Hester’s platformer, in which prospector Pepper uses her drill Grinder to get around and defeat the enemies guarding her stolen treasure. Which isn’t to say that it was a conscious consideration on Hester’s part. “That might have had something to do with why they were so excited about signing me on,” he smiles. “But I don’t think I’m that smart about strategising.”
It helps, too, if you share a residence with someone developing a game for the same company, whose director of publishing happens to be visiting when you’ve just parted ways with your previous publisher. “One of my housemates was in the middle of making Gato Roboto,” Hester recalls. “I went out on the back porch and told everyone, ‘Well, I split from my publisher’. JR from Devolver was there, and was like, ‘All right, pitch us up’.”