After selling over 15,000 physical copies of its independent games, Broke Studio is moving up a gear. The Auvergne-based studio, founded by Antoine Gohin and Julien ‘Fei’ Boisseau, is unveiling Homebrew Factory, a platform designed to support independent developers wishing to create, finance and publish their video games on cartridges.

Game Boy, NES, Mega Drive... Homebrew Factory targets retro console enthusiasts by facilitating the production of homebrew games, independent creations designed for older consoles. While development tools are now accessible, physical publishing remains a real challenge, with its costs, logistics and visibility. In fact, many homebrew projects remain in dematerialised form, due to production costs and logistics that are difficult for a small team to manage.

There are platforms such as Kickstarter to fund projects in cartridge form, but it is still difficult to find a place on these participatory funding platforms, which contain thousands of projects. This makes the homebrew scene even more of a niche with limited visibility.

The Homebrew Factory platform therefore sees itself as a bridge between creators and gamers, with a clear objective: to simplify the transition from prototype to physical cartridge. Developers can choose their materials, manage the number of units to be produced according to their budget, and launch production in just a few clicks. It's a solution tailored to suit all profiles, from creators just starting out to more ambitious projects.

With the support of over 30 developers over the past 8 years, Broke Studio has demonstrated the viability of the concept, as demonstrated by the success of Inspector Waffles Early Days on Game Boy Color. With Homebrew Factory, a whole section of the retro indie scene could find a new lease of life.