Among Us developer Innersloth, still riding quite high on the global virality of its breakout social deduction game, has formed its own indie fund to help more games get made. It's called Outersloth, which is just perfect, and it's already backed a boatload of games.
Revealed during today's Summer Game Fest Live show, Outersloth is pitched as a "no investors/acquisitions" fund about "sharing our success, supporting indies, and contributing to a better industry."
Announcing our indie game fund: OUTERSLOTH! 🚀 We're so lucky to be where we are - thanks to you! You made us independent: no investors/acquisitions.Sharing our success, supporting indies, and contributing to a better industry is extremely important to us. It's sloth time. 🦥 pic.twitter.com/XumYNdvfWFJune 7, 2024
The exact arrangement between Outersloth and each indie client - if client is even the right word here - is a little unclear, but the whole thing has been billed as relatively freeform. One Outersloth game, Mars First Logistics, now has Outersloth listed as a co-publisher on Steam. The creator of another, One BTN Bosses, writes in a press release that "the game is supported by the Outersloth fund created by Innersloth, the team behind Among Us."
"Basically: We want to fund your game," the fund's website reads. "We don’t want to publish your game. We don’t want your IP. We just want to see fun, original, and clever games get made. And we want to make that as friendly as possible."
"We made Among Us," the Outersloth reveal video says. "You made our indie game successful. We want to use that success to fund other indies!" Or to put it differently: "Killing crewmates helped make games."
A whole bunch of games, it turns out. The list already includes:
- Mars First Logistics, a physically simulated cargo transport sim from Shape Shop
- Battle Suit Aces, a card battler RPG from Tinket Studios
- Mossfield Archives, "a game about building and exploring connections" from Studio Any Percent
- One BTN Bosses, a boss-rush game with one button from Midnight Munchies
- Rogue Eclipse, a spaceship action roguelike from Huskrafts
- Project Dosa, an early-in-development, mech-powered, cooking-fueled adventure from Thirsty Suitors creator Outerloop games