Two former staff from publisher Modern Wolf – George Willard and Sophie Atkin – have founded a new "visibility agency" called Secret Sauce. 

This outfit is designed to help promote indie developers, offering services such as branding and marketing, PR, self-publishing support and biz dev. Secret Sauce is already working with Fireshine, Goose Byte and Wallride, in addition to some other unannounced projects. 

Willard previously spent two years at Modern Wolf working in brand management, before being promoted to head of brand at the start of 2024. Before that, he worked for two years and nine months at Total War maker Creative Assembly. 

Atkin, meanwhile, is a veteran of Steel Media (hey, I know those guys), working for over two years in event production and business development. She left the outfit in 2023 to join Modern Wolf, working in comms and PR positions. 

“The idea for Secret Sauce came from wanting to make a difference in the games space after hearing the same issues over and over from devs and publishers alike; but it became a reality after a ten minute company-wide call, where we were told we may all be about to lose our jobs,” Willard said. 

Atkin added: “We aren’t going to be an agency who over-promises and ‘thinks outside the box’. We are here for transparent and straightforward discussions, whether that’s around pricing or being able to identify our client’s needs. Part of our goal is to leave people feeling like they’ve been handed games industry duct tape and WD-40."