Over 20 years in the making, an indie developer has been refused to publish their ambitious throwback RPG, Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar, on the one digital distributor that would be perfect for the game – GOG.

The developer, Golden Era Games, is mostly one veteran game developer – Cleveland Mark Blakemore (previously worked on the Wizadry series). Blakemore noted they had four different GOG representatives turn his game down, saying the game is “too niche.” That’s a first for us too.

Blakemore took his business elsewhere, as Grimoire is now available via Steam, Itch.io, and Gamejolt, for $9.99. Blakemore noted that former staff at GOG had been “begging” him to publish the game, however now that the game is complete, the new staff are seemingly unwilling to host the game.

The indie developer noted a “private email” he received from someone at the company, claiming management had “changed dramatically” and that “political viewpoints” are a “prime driver” in decision making now. The former staff he worked with had only cared about publishing good games.

Here’s the last message from a GOG rep, a self-described Dr. Cat:

Hello,

I’m sorry for late reply.

Thanks a lot for your submission and your interest in GOG.

We’ve taken a look at Grimoire, it looks like a rich RPG game, with complex combat, deep lore, fun mechanics and simple, yet eye-catching retro graphics.

Unfortunately, however, we feel that the game would not be a good fit for GOG, as we think that it appears to be too niche and a bit too small in scale in terms of production value for our users, which means that we aren’t confident in its release potential on our site.

For these reasons I’m afraid we will have to pass on Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar.

If you have any other games in the future that might be a better fit for GOG, please let us know, and hopefully we’ll be able to work together.

Regards,
Dr Cat

We’ve reached out to both GOG and Blakemore for a followup. We’ll keep you guys posted.