Comments on: 2009: The Year of The Indie Developer? http://gamesfromwithin.com/2009-the-year-of-the-indie-developer Living the indie life Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:36:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Joe http://gamesfromwithin.com/2009-the-year-of-the-indie-developer/comment-page-1#comment-772 Joe Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:01:57 +0000 http://gamesfromwithin.com/?p=215#comment-772 I too believe that Indie developers have been given a few amazing avenues. The Apple App Store is definitely a great avenue. Another, you did not mention, is Xbox Community Games; it is in a similar in vein to the Apple App Store (though approval comes from the XNA community and not Microsoft). Games like CarneyVale (nominated for IGF'09 Seumas McNally Grand Prize), Blow, Weapon of Choice are a few great examples of innovative and fun Xbox Community Games. I too believe that Indie developers have been given a few amazing avenues. The Apple App Store is definitely a great avenue. Another, you did not mention, is Xbox Community Games; it is in a similar in vein to the Apple App Store (though approval comes from the XNA community and not Microsoft).

Games like CarneyVale (nominated for IGF’09 Seumas McNally Grand Prize), Blow, Weapon of Choice are a few great examples of innovative and fun Xbox Community Games.

]]> By: Top Gamer Blog » Archive » GameSetLinks: Requiem For A Dream http://gamesfromwithin.com/2009-the-year-of-the-indie-developer/comment-page-1#comment-768 Top Gamer Blog » Archive » GameSetLinks: Requiem For A Dream Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:27:15 +0000 http://gamesfromwithin.com/?p=215#comment-768 [...] Games From Within: 2009: The Year of The Indie Developer? Noel Llopis on indie hopes - to which I say that I think the indie is winning, but at much lower personal income levels than most regular game industry folks are used to. Doesn’t stop the scene being awesome, though. [...] [...] Games From Within: 2009: The Year of The Indie Developer? Noel Llopis on indie hopes – to which I say that I think the indie is winning, but at much lower personal income levels than most regular game industry folks are used to. Doesn’t stop the scene being awesome, though. [...]

]]> By: Noel http://gamesfromwithin.com/2009-the-year-of-the-indie-developer/comment-page-1#comment-733 Noel Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:56:07 +0000 http://gamesfromwithin.com/?p=215#comment-733 Muhammad, You're right of course. Not every indie developer wants/needs to try new ideas and ground-breaking designs. A lot of them simply do indie development for the joy of it, the freedom, and begin able to do things exactly the way they want. But a healthy indie community allows for all that experimentation as well, which eventually ends up affecting the mainstream community. Even if you're trying to make a living, it's much easier to make an experiment out of a 2-month project by yourself than a 3-year project with 200 people. And sometimes, those experiments end up being revolutionary and you hit the jackpot. And yes, Jeff, I can't wait to see this years IGF. It's always a great experience, but this year is going to be great! Muhammad, You’re right of course. Not every indie developer wants/needs to try new ideas and ground-breaking designs. A lot of them simply do indie development for the joy of it, the freedom, and begin able to do things exactly the way they want.

But a healthy indie community allows for all that experimentation as well, which eventually ends up affecting the mainstream community. Even if you’re trying to make a living, it’s much easier to make an experiment out of a 2-month project by yourself than a 3-year project with 200 people. And sometimes, those experiments end up being revolutionary and you hit the jackpot.

And yes, Jeff, I can’t wait to see this years IGF. It’s always a great experience, but this year is going to be great!

]]> By: Muhammad Ishaq http://gamesfromwithin.com/2009-the-year-of-the-indie-developer/comment-page-1#comment-729 Muhammad Ishaq Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:54:43 +0000 http://gamesfromwithin.com/?p=215#comment-729 "Where else are people going to try weird ideas, experimental development techniques, an commercially unproven designs?" this statement may be true for most indie game developers, I do believe however, that it doesn't really apply to everyone, specifically the weird ideas and experimental development bit (that's only my opinion though, may be wrong). There may be two classes of indie developers, 1. those who have money for experimentation OR have a lot of knowledge and experience (they know the "game"). 2. Aspiring game developers who can't/don't follow the traditional path to game development (http://lostgarden.com/2008/12/fishing-girl-prototype-results.html). They don't really have room for experimentation if they want to make a living, Instead we see that these folks like to play safe, you can find a lot of hidden-objects, fishing, snow ball, tetris, labyrinth genre games (and most of these clones are coming from unknown people (myself included)) on AppStore. -- MI P.S: If what I said above is wrong, I didn't say any of it ;-) “Where else are people going to try weird ideas, experimental development techniques, an commercially unproven designs?”

this statement may be true for most indie game developers, I do believe however, that it doesn’t really apply to everyone, specifically the weird ideas and experimental development bit (that’s only my opinion though, may be wrong).

There may be two classes of indie developers, 1. those who have money for experimentation OR have a lot of knowledge and experience (they know the “game”). 2. Aspiring game developers who can’t/don’t follow the traditional path to game development (http://lostgarden.com/2008/12/fishing-girl-prototype-results.html). They don’t really have room for experimentation if they want to make a living, Instead we see that these folks like to play safe, you can find a lot of hidden-objects, fishing, snow ball, tetris, labyrinth genre games (and most of these clones are coming from unknown people (myself included)) on AppStore.

–
MI

P.S: If what I said above is wrong, I didn’t say any of it ;-)

]]> By: Jeffrey Rosen http://gamesfromwithin.com/2009-the-year-of-the-indie-developer/comment-page-1#comment-723 Jeffrey Rosen Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:57:52 +0000 http://gamesfromwithin.com/?p=215#comment-723 Totally Agree! World of Goo in particular was a massive success. Both my parents independently sent me newspaper articles about Ron and Kyle. The word is getting out that it is possible not only to be a viable indie, but to outsell even the big boys. It will be interesting to see what effect this has in 2009. I do know that this year's IGF is going to be the most competitive ever. ;) Totally Agree! World of Goo in particular was a massive success. Both my parents independently sent me newspaper articles about Ron and Kyle. The word is getting out that it is possible not only to be a viable indie, but to outsell even the big boys. It will be interesting to see what effect this has in 2009. I do know that this year’s IGF is going to be the most competitive ever. ;)

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