The IP stays with the BAR team and the code remains open source

Image credit: BAR

Beyond All Reason (BAR), the volunteer-led "epic scale RTS" game, has signed a publishing deal with Hooded Horse.

Addressing players on its website, BAR said that while the volunteer-only model had carried the project "to greatness," it needed a publisher to enable "the biggest things we aspire to bring for release."

The multiplayer content "stays free forever" and the IP remains with the BAR team. The code also remains GPL (open source), with "safety provisions built into the contract for the project to continue whatever happens."

"After almost seven years of development, BAR is going professional and teaming up with one of the most respected publishers in the strategy space to bring the game to a full Steam release," the company said in a statement.

"It is with enormous excitement, and a fair bit of disbelief that we are finally writing this post, that we can announce Beyond All Reason has officially signed a publishing partnership with Hooded Horse and is going professional.

"This is, without exaggeration, the single biggest step in BAR's history."

After seven years of volunteer development, the team admitted that a full Steam release requires "long, sustained, often unglamorous effort," as well as a "new client, a coherent campaign, scalable, reliable infrastructure, onboarding, QA, polish, [and] release coordination."

"That is the paradox," the team added. "BAR is alive and moving fast because volunteers keep creating amazing things. The Steam Roadmap still feels far away because many of its biggest items are exactly the kind of work the volunteer-only model struggles to finish."

Hooded Horse - which BAR describes as a specialist in strategy, simulation, and RPG games - was brought on as publisher "after spending many months in discussions with Tim and the wider Hooded Horse team."

The leadership team said it shared the proposal with the wider contributor network before "anything was signed." 68% of those polled were "for" the partnership.

As part of the publishing deal, the game will continue to be available for free through the website, but the Steam version will be available as the "BAR Premium Edition."

"The Steam release will be paid, and aside from the multiplayer experience, it will also feature additional singleplayer content. The multiplayer game will be the same on Steam, with full feature parity and cross-play. Same matchmaking, same servers, same community-built content," the BAR team explained.

Last month, venture capital firm Griffin Gaming Partners launched a new $100 million fund to support indie games. The fund is led by Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender, who is also a managing director at Griffin. He has served as an operating partner at the firm since October 2023.

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