Inner Pocket Publishing is "building a quiet corner for people who love thoughtful single-player games"

Inner Pocket Publishing, an indie label founded by a team of industry veterans, aims to cater to players who appreciate single-player games with thought-provoking experiences. The company consists of four co-founders: Artem Oleinik, Yaroslav Kadyshev, Ivan Bushmin, and Eva Manuilovich. Inner Pocket has partnered with Nozomu Games to launch Burn With Me, an occult deck-burner game for PC. Other titles under Inner Pocket's banner include Outcast Tales, Nonolith, and The Archives of Trevosa.

The company is currently working with early-stage developers on several projects, selecting smaller games or nearly completed projects that require minimal additional funding. Inner Pocket is self-funded by its founders and can invest up to $75,000 per project. The founders believe that the traditional generalist publisher model is unsustainable, so Inner Pocket adopts a hybrid publisher-as-curator approach.

Inner Pocket's founder, Yaroslav Kadyshev, draws inspiration from Pantaloon's transition from a newsletter recommending indie titles to a publisher. Kadyshev sees value in cross-publisher collaboration, such as Pantaloon's practice of reviewing games it doesn't publish and inviting other publishers into its newsletter. He emphasizes that Inner Pocket is not a direct competitor to Pantaloon but rather a complementary entity with a distinct niche.

Kadyshev envisions Inner Pocket as a curator that brings new, interesting games to an audience that enjoys exploring worlds, solving mysteries, and discovering stories through games. The company plans to launch a curated library on Steam through its official Curator page, aiming to build a community of like-minded players who appreciate the curated selection. Inner Pocket sees its own published games as icebreakers, clearing a path for the community they want to create.