Speaking at Gamelab last year, Jumpship founder Dino Patti said that "Xbox Game Pass is the first time subscription is fair for developers." For Gooden, who is the sole developer on the project, it went beyond fair -- it was a game changer.
"Until that point I'd been bootstrapping," he said. "The game was funded out of pocket, through videography gigs and other one-off hustles. I was also doing publisher negotiations at the time, too, and the Game Pass deal allowed me to fund the rest of the game, make it profitable, and still do everything I wanted to do with a publisher, without having to get a publisher."