No one doubts that for small developers, it is the best of times; it is the worst of times.

There's so much potential and so much competition, a developer could go mad just thinking about it.

Indeed, a developer could go mad just thinking about all the tools and services available for them to make their games.

Maybe that's where Gamebrain will find its hook.

New tricks

It's a San Francisco-backed start-up that's a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK publisher Connect2Media that's looking to square the circle of development, deployment, distribution and publishing - albeit with the lightest of touches.

According to CEO Eduardo Cervantes, Gamebrain's goal is to "even out the playing field" for developers ranging from individuals to double-figure teams.

"We're offering a one-stop-shop for development, distribution and monetisation," he explains.

The approach sees Gamebrain offering some bespoke parts - notably operational UI, a lightweight social network, and cloud-based collaborative development services including an asset store for audio and art files.

This will be backed up with best-in-class third-party services from the usual engine, art, animation, testing and analytics suspects (who are to be announced).

Doing it better

"When we talk about our work flow, it's about enabling developers to build a game in a structured manner," Cervantes says.

"Too many developers make games that aren't optimised in terms of their user experience, let alone monetisation."

Bringing together this set of tools, not to mention a framework for collaboration within a community, Gamebrain will also offer active publishing through Connect2Media and other partners.

Choose your options

As with all other aspects of the initiative, developers will have the ability to choose some or none of these options, however, as long as they pay the required service subscription (also to be announced).

"There are no technology tie-ins. You don't have to publish through us," Cervantes says, although the vision clearly will be lacking the more developers who take the 'none' rather than the 'some' option.

In terms of Gamebrain's business model, Cervantes says there are enough developers that it can survive on the volume of subscription it expects to get.

Still, funded by Foresight Group and Enterprise Ventures, it will be looking to get hit games into its publishing funnel to provide the upside.

Interested parties can sign up now for the closed beta, which will start in Q4 2013, although the first commercially-live games are expected to be launched before the end of the year.