Demade, remade: What game demakes offer to publishers

11.03.2024 - 11:53 / gamesindustry.biz / Lilith Walther

Fan demakes are a popular genre on platforms like itch.io. They distil the essence of a beloved IP and marry it to the limitations of older platforms to create something entirely new.

Given that can only be done by someone with deep knowledge of both the IP and older consoles these demakes are love letters from fans or the official developers of the original title.

But some love letters are unwanted by their recipients. In late January 2024, Lilith Walther, the developer behind a Bloodborne PSX demake, announced the Bloodborne name was to be scrubbed from the team's follow-up following "contact" from IP owner Sony. It was a reminder that, even when demakes are meant as a tribute, the rights to the title remain with their original holders.

At the same time other IP holders – both developers and publishers – are taking a more lenient view. Some are even commissioning demakes of their own games, recognising that they offer something to the community of fans that can confer a benefit to the publisher in turn.

Game Bakers, the team behind Furi, recently commissioned a demake of the 2016 dual-stick action game from fan developer Sylph. While it is free on Steam, the team also implemented a pay-what-you-will model on other platforms, recognising that selling demakes can generate direct revenue from consumers.

However, the company's creative director Emeric Thoa explains that there are less direct benefits to creating a demake, including extending the lifespan of the original IP.

"The main reason for doing that is that we wanted to make something cool for Furi fans. To be honest I don't like free content, but here it was really a gift for fans and for making people talk again about Furi and why they love the original game. I should also note that making that game was such a fun time that it had positive effects on me – a bit like a small side project can be a breather from your main behemoth project."

In that sense demakes act as a form of brand marketing, in which publishers reinvest in increasing the visibility of an IP. That was similarly true in the case of the Devolver Bootleg, a pack of officially licensed demakes of some of the publisher's most popular titles announced during Devolver's presentation at E3 2019.

Cullen Dwyer is co-founder of Doinksoft, the developer that worked with Devolver on the pack. He says: "It was pitched mostly as a marketing stunt, announced as a bit during the Big Fancy Press Conference. We told Devolver how much money we would need to get it made and didn't really worry about whether we would make profits on sales or not.

"It was actually pretty liberating to approach a commercial game this way, being more concerned about having as much fun as possible while making it, coming up with