Blue Ocean Games, the early-stage venture fund backed by Krafton, announced a new partnership with Polden Publishing, an emerging indie game publisher taking a data-driven approach to validating and scaling new game concepts on Steam.
Under the partnership, Blue Ocean Games and Polden Publishing will co-invest in future indie game titles identified through Polden’s rapid market-validation methodology that tests audience demand and wishlist momentum before significant production investment is committed. (Game developers can apply here).
Polden’s recent publishing tests with Cartel Pilots Wanted generated more than 400,000 Steam wishlists and more than 450,000 Steam wishlists for Totally Secure Airport, using a marketing-validation process centered around gameplay-first trailers, vertical video campaigns, and creator-driven discovery. Across its marketing validation campaigns, Polden has now generated more than 1 million Steam wishlists prior to full production investment decisions, with more than 3 million total wishlists accumulated across its broader portfolio.
The companies say the partnership reflects a broader shift underway in the games industry
toward earlier audience validation, community-driven publishing strategies, and more efficient funding models for independent developers.
Damian Lee, Founder and Managing Partner of Blue Ocean Games: “What stood out to us about Polden was not just the results they were generating, but the philosophy behind their approach: testing ideas quickly, understanding audience demand early, and giving promising
developers a clearer path toward building successful games.”
Polden’s process focuses on defining a game’s positioning and audience, creating marketing-ready Steam assets and gameplay trailers, and then running coordinated creator campaigns across platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and Twitch to measure real-world wishlist demand. The publisher primarily focuses on co-op games, survival titles, simulators, and socially-driven multiplayer experiences designed to spread organically through creator communities and short-form video platforms. To date, Polden has released 10 games and sold more than 600,000 copies globally.
Kirill Oreshkin, CEO of Polden Publishing, said in a statement, “We believe the future of indie publishing is becoming more transparent, more measurable, and more collaborative with developers. For too long, developers have had to rely on opaque greenlight processes or spend years building games without meaningful market feedback. Our goal in working with Blue Ocean Games is to help studios validate demand earlier and make smarter decisions before full-scale production.”
The partnership will also create new opportunities for indie developers worldwide to submit concepts for evaluation and testing through the combined expertise and resources of Blue Ocean Games and Polden Publishing.
Developers can apply at www.blueoceangames.com/polden. Blue Ocean Games was founded by former Krafton investment head Damian Lee and is headquartered in Toronto. Based in Cyprus, Polden Publishing has gained attention for its transparent approach to indie game marketing and Steam wishlist validation. Polden has generated more than three million wishlists to date for game titles.