I’ve been wondering over the past few weeks the following question, does anyone actually give a damn about indie games or do we just like to pretend? I’m not talking about Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo but rather us, the consumers who these games are targeted at in the first place.
It seems that Indie games have become the hot new trend in gaming as of late with anyone not doing their part in helping indie developers such as Microsoft, feeling the wrath of very vocal gamers. I can understand the idea behind helping upstart developers turn their game concepts into a reality but have Indie games become a victim to the stupid “console war” argument between Sony and Microsoft.
From the second they were announced, the PlayStation 4 vs. Xbox One arguments have really been pathetic. Apparently the key to “winning” is to have more RAM than your competition and announce that your system will play used games, just like every single other system before it. When you put it into context, you idiots online are fighting over the stupidest things. Even worse is that the games are taking a back-seat to the hardware and as Nintendo found out the hard way, shiny glossy hardware is nothing without the right software backing it.
Something that everyone likes to get behind is the “look at how nice we are to Indie developers” statement, Sony even went so far as to dedicate a fair amount of it’s E3 press conference to highlight Indie developers which I felt was a nice touch. Here are two questions I have regarding that.
- How many of those Indie games at the Sony conference can you name off the top of your head?
- How many of you are actually going to buy some of those games instead of blowing all your money on Killzone Shadow Fall?
EVERYONE likes Indie games these days according to the internet but do the sales even reflect that? I’m sure you all loved games like Journey and Minecraft but you do have to ask yourself the magic question. At what point do Indie games stop being Indie games?
Much of the time it seems that XBLA and PSN games are generally considered “Indie” games but if you do a little research, you’ll find that some of the more popular games on those services are backed by Microsoft or Sony to an extent. Microsoft will give your game the exposure so long as you’re willing to sign some kind of exclusivity deal with them so they can boast about it later on.
The general perception is that anything on XBLA or PSN is an Indie game, if it’s not a boxed retail “triple A” title then it must be an Indie game. We’ve reached a point where even the big names in the industry like to dabble on smaller download titles, it’s no longer an exclusive Indie hot spot. If you’re making a download title then rest assured you’ll be competing with big names in the industry for the exposure.
We all have different takes on what makes an Indie developer, personally I picture a small group of “garage” developers. They’re not on XBLA signing Microsoft’s exclusivity contract but instead they’re on iOS, the same place that those “vocal gamers” praising Indie developers are constantly shitting on. That’s fair enough to an extent, there IS a lot of crap on iOS and Android devices but that’s basically what Indie development is all about. Indie development will always at it’s heart the “car boot sale” of gaming, you may find something cool but prepare to dig through a lot of crap.
There’s A LOT of games out there and only so many hours per day to enjoy them. I personally don’t have the time to play every good game that gets released, hell I barely have enough time to play all the great games. I fully admit that I don’t support Indie developers as much as I should but at least I’m not online raving about Indie developers when I have no intention in buying their games once they’re released.
In closing I ask you once again, do you even know what an Indie game is and do you care?
Please calm down, guys. (Can't gamers just discuss without insultimng each other? Please!)
So, in my opinion indies are very important to the whole industry, since they often have completely new ideas and new approaches how games could look like. Additionally, nearly every AAA developer uses elements that were 'invented' by indies. Small things that make games better or more accessible.Some AAA games just can't exist without the ideas of indies before. An extreme example to me is Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time: WIthout indie game BRAID, that implemented the aspect of time travel, multiple dimensions (at a time) and time reversing, the whole R&C; game didn't have that gameplay- and puzzle concept. Additionally the developers massively borrowed from PixelJunk Shooter and Super Stardust HD.
Without theses games before I'm sure R&C;:ACIT had become a WAY other game. That's just ONE example, there are many other ones, too. (Perhaps someone wants to share some others...) ;-)
And yes, I like to play indie games; they often have their very own atmosphere and show us players (and devs), how great small and easy games can be. I mustn't alway be AAA dimensions.
So indies are the creative veins of our industry - if that will stay that way in coming years will be seen, but for now we need and should support them.
Greetz from Germany,Gregor
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LikeIndie stands for independant game. It's quite obvious that anyone caring about gaming should care about independant devs. Financial independance means creativity freedom, and indies games helps the industry to be taken off the stagnation of overused genres.
Probably your post is intended to people who are not fed up with BattleOfDuty13. But frankly I am.
So yeah, you're picturing it wrong, and as such, your question is not right. You're asking if we care or not for people who do not want to please the mass. As said, you're probably not asking the right question to the right person for the right reasons.
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Likelol are you kidding?
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LikeSahfriendly Care to elaborate? Also be careful with how you choose to respond, anyone who replies with "lol" in their message is usually full of shit but I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt.
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LikeXav Perez Anyone who replies "lol" in their message is usually full of shit? Is this an actual thing? Isn't it obvious enough to any person who understands this industry or their fellow gamers that more than just "anyone" cares about Indie games. I can't tell you the countless hours I've spent playing FTL, Hotline Miami, The Swapper, Bastion and Cube World this year alone. Not to mention several of the XBLA titles over the last couple, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Castle Crashers, Mark of The Ninja and The Cave to name a few. I know I'm not alone because my friends play these games too, they're also critically adored and sell reasonably well, What about the entire economy of Steam Greenlight and the success it's brewing? Thousands of gamers voting with their money what they want to play and guess what they're all independently developed, so I don't know, what do you think, does anyone "really" care about indie games?
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LikeXav Perez Sahfriendly
Let's be honest Xav, you haven't been elaborating too much in your paper either. Should I deduce from it that you're a superficial non-interesting person?
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