T w e n t y S i d e d
Jay and Corvus are onto the next round of questions in the XFire debate… thing.
The questions they tackle:
- Do you create a game for yourself or for your audience?
- Does becoming more “mainstream” to hit a wider audience defeat the purpose of being indie?
- Where do you get your ideas / inspiration?
Go there and read the answers for yourself.
In other indie news, I just might get to learn the answers to some of these questions first-hand. I’m currently talking with a small studio who have something going that has captured my interest. I can’t talk about it (NDA) in any detail, and nothing is final, but it’s something exciting to look forward to.
Please Help I Can’t Stop Playing Cities: Skylines
What makes this borderline indie title so much better than the AAA juggernauts that came before?
Bowlercoaster
Two minutes of fun at the expense of a badly-run theme park.
Civilization VI
I'm a very casual fan of the series, but I gave Civilization VI a look to see what was up with this nuclear war simulator.
Netscape 1997
What did web browsers look like 20 years ago, and what kind of crazy features did they have?
PC Gaming Golden Age
It's not a legend. It was real. There was a time before DLC. Before DRM. Before crappy ports. It was glorious.
That’s great news, Shamus!
Sweet, from what I know about you, something that intrigues you should intrigue me as well.
As for the questions… Well personally I don’t understand the elitism of “indie” stuff. Yeah, it’s great that you’re “sticking it to the man” by subverting pop culture, but what’s point? I’m all for indie companies making a big hit and rocketing to the top.
If a company has a good product, it shouldn’t matter if it’s indie or not; just enjoy the game.
Shamus: Woah, cool. Do tell when you have leave to do so. I’m excited to hear what role you’ll play in it!
Snook: I actually pretty much agree with you. And I think most of the more professional indies would, too. The “indie” keyword is – in my opinion – mainly handy marketing tool that helps people reset their expectations and look deeper than the production values and scope on the surface of the game. A problem way too many gamers – and journalists – have, because they’ve been programmed by the games industry that bigger, prettier, and more high-tech means higher quality.
When you say, “it’s indie,” many gamers (at least those who know what you are talking about) stop, recalibrate their brain, give it a second look, and look at values like – oh, say, “Fun,” and “entertainment,” and “provoking of thoughts,” and “engaging,” and “oh, crap, I can’t believe I’ve been playing this game for six hours straight!” Which is how all games ought to be evaluated, indie or mainstream.
And yeah – 95% of indie games are crappy, too. And I worry the “indie” term sometimes gets slung about to try and conceal that fact. Though often even the lamer indie games have some nuggets of gold hiding in ’em, and may be worth a closer look
Great news!
Is this something that came your way professionally (from your talent as a software engineer) or from your profile as a blogger on d20?
Just curious whether this blog thing is worth something in the free market, assuming that this isn’t too gauche a question to ask.
That’s great to hear…can’t wait to find out what it is. Good luck with it!
Ever wonder if the independant producers pirate the big company’s games?? .. you know.. to see how effective their protection is?? ..wink.. wink… nudge.. nudge..
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000535245
Is a good article on casual games as well.