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Indie Games - Fast, Cheap and Everywhere
bios10h writes "MSNBC has an article about indie game developers and their businesses. 'INDEPENDENT COMPUTER GAMING: It's not always pretty, but ask any one in the biz and they'll say that it represents the purest form of game development. And sometimes the cheapest.' Interesting read about the indie games scene... maybe we have indie developers in the Slashdot crowd that would like to comment on this."
INDEPENDENT COMPUTER GAMING. It?s not always pretty, but ask any one in the biz and they?ll say that it represents the purest form of game development. And sometimes the cheapest. A check for ten bucks sent to a site called Cheap Ass Games buys you "Dr. Blob?s Organism." ... cutting edge ... a different audience ... are indie games the punk rock of computer gaming?
And because indie gaming lies outside of the publisher money train , and all the corporate pressures to follow trends , it often delivers some of the most creative PC games available to an audience far beyond your typical 19-year-old gamer.
Cheap
INNOVATION ON A BUDGET
Geoff Howland, a full time UNIX administrator, devotes his free time to his company Alitius. With Alitius?s employee population running at one , Howland, himself , the chances of creating a game with the big budget and killer graphics of a typical retail title are zilch. But Alitius?s garage-like business philosophy in an industry of manicured office parks is not a cause for complaint, but an incentive for creativity.
"In retail, there are about five or six different genres. No one is doing anything different," said Howland. "Whereas independents can and should concentrate on that difference."
His game, "BaseGolf," is a coffee-break friendly diversion that combines aspects of, yes, baseball and golf. But the "difference" cited by Howland extends beyond sports hybrids. In indie gaming, it can include new story-lines, audiences and game play.
"Teenage Lawnmower," from Robinson Technology, a Japan-based husband and wife team, plays like a Gen Y afterschool special, with an alcoholic mother, an abusive boyfriend and a lawnmower gig.
Battlefront.com recreates World War II-era armored battles for the serious military gamer, a niche market. Dexterity Software does the opposite; reaching a mass audience with puzzle games. Both of these indie developers target audiences that retail games can?t or won?t reach.
For game developer Egenesis the difference lies in turning the massively multiplayer online game on its head. "A Tale in the Desert" ignores dragons and orcs for game play geared toward constructing an almost utopian society. Players accumulate power not through combat, but through mentoring and acts of leadership.
Mentoring? Radical.
WHO ARE THE INDIES?
Games hatched beyond the pale of the corporate development is not new. On the contrary, it?s where game development was born. Yet while computer gaming goes Hollywood with all its giant E3 tradeshows and movie stars plugging console games, a steady stream of talented programmers is making independent games , traditionally an idea incubator of sorts , a continually fascinating subculture of computer gaming.
"These developers are really returning to the way PC game development was in the late 80?s and early ?90s before it became so corporate," said indie game evangelist James Hills. "Doing it because they love games and have a passion for creating the visions they have in their heads."
The approximately 1,500 teams and individuals involved with indie development are as diverse as the games themselves. Some are in the business to make it big by selling their title or talent to a major game publisher. Others, including an ever-increasing number of developers with experience in larger companies, cherish the freedom of doing what they please with Rob Malda's love sausage.
"I see a lot more people with really solid, big game development making the leap," said David Nixon, executive producer at RealOneArcade, an online game portal. "It?s why they got into game development in the first place."
Dexterity president Steve Pavlina once worked in commercial game development. "With game budgets larger and teams larger, developers can feel like a cog in the machine," he said. "They feel like there is no room for creativity. So yes, there?s a move to go back to the roots."
Go closed source.
Raise some capital.
And pay the devs.
Seriously.
There's plenty of free game engines out there, some are open source. An example is Genesis3D, an engine I've dabbled with. Lots of the 3D engines are in various stages of development, and some of the ones I've tried do not seem quite powerful or flexible enough for the game concepts I'm trying to implement, but depending on what you're looking for, there are plenty of resources avaiable.
Don't forget to check out useful websites like NeHe's OpenGL page (here) or GameDev.net. There are literally tons of resources out there for someone looking to get into indie game development.
the blood has stopped pumping, and he's left to decay
the me that you know is now made up of wires
Indie games are great. I love them because their communities are so small and tight-knit. One of my favorite Indie games would have to be Wulfram 2. The game is completely volenter driven. There are more than a few people who have stuck with the developer for as long as five years.
There are some problems with Indie games however, the biggest would have to be support. Alot of these games are struggling to stay alive, and to do so they need to either be pay to play, have a large number of donations, or just simply have a ton of advertisements.
Bugs are just features that have been fixed.
There's a couple to choose from, but for free engines, IMHO, your best best is Crystal Space 3D. PlaneyShift made use of it successfully - it's pretty good.
However, my tool of choice is Torque which isn't free - it's $100, and you get the source code for it. Damned flexible, and one hell of a community behind it. Go cruse the forums (same site, under Make Games) and check it out. And take a look at the screenshots. I'm currently using it on Trajectory Zone (Mm.... why bother with the link - still no dev pics up there at the moment, even though it's almost done!) and I'm really impressed with it's power - the best $100 I ever spent for game development.
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
For those looking for more cross platorm options, there are these:
I don't really have a favorite of these, they all have some really attractive features.
It still seems picking up an opengl book and doing it yourself is the best way to go in the long run. Other options are taking older games with released source (Doom, Marathon, Quake 1 and 2) and using that engine. Again, learning curve will be high though.
Go get Crystal Space in source forge. That is what I am using. It has a large user base and the people that work on it I can only assume work like dogs. I have had great success so far in bringing my game to where it is with it.
You're obviously not looking in the right places. Or not looking for the right thing. Try going to www.pompom.org.uk or garagegames.com before blindly condemning Indie gaming. Not everybody has the time or inclination to play fifty hour waste-of-time-fests. Occasionally, family life and reality intervenes to the extent that only a quick five minute blast inbetween obligations is possible. The "mass market" doesn't seem to cater to that too well. Indie games, such as Space Tripper, Mutant Storm and Crimsonland fill that game nicely. Oh. You can probably find them online to steal too, so no worries there. (dumb*ss)
The ZX Spectrum Book 1982-199x
There is one great exception, of course. Nethack has to be the king of the indie games....
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
It's not just computer gaming that people are developing on their own. I was part of a small board gaming group that informally meets at RIT.
While we primarily focus on playing euro-based board games, we've test played quite a few games that individuals have come up with. We play, think about what happened, then come up with suggestions on how the game can be better.
True, sometimes the games are knock-offs of others with little twists (We had a game called Feregi that was based on the German bidding game Kohle, Kie$ & Knete), but more often, the games were true originals.
It takes some thought to make a game. it takes a lot of thought to make a good game.
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
The Irony of Indy Games
;) Than again, there are a few companies that are going from commerical projects to more of an indy style. Once you see the amount that publishers take... you start to see the value in online distro's!
;) Enjoy the world of game development for zero cash!
Outside of the handheld ( PalmOS, PocketPC ) markets, or cell phones... many indy games are either crap... or sales pitches to publishers! Im not saying all... there are probrably dozens of exceptions, but on the whole this remains true. Its funny though, when you look at "past" indy games...
HomeWorld
Doom
FlashPoint
Really... by definition, an indy game is self financed, without a publisher in site. Its funny that that moment you have success in the indy market, you tend to get picked up by a publisher... then your no longer indy!
For anyone really interested in learning more, check out:
Garage Games Misc resources, plus a licensable engine
FlipCode Great gaming related site
Gamedev.net Like flipcode, but less mature ( you'll see! )
Gamasutra The site for game developers! Must see
CrystalSpace LGPL 3d Engine. Very impressive
WildTangent Cheap game engine (web based), plus online publishing
Auran Jet Affordable 3d engine, flexible licensing
OpenGl The site for OpenGL info. Lots of useful links
From the above list, you should easily be able to find anything else your looking for!
PyGame is a fun python library to play around with if you want to try and create your own simple games. I am not sure if anyone is building anything graphically intense with it, but I prefer PySol over Quake any day of the week so it doesn't much matter to me.
IanShootclub Webmaster
Shootclub Wrestling RPG
It apparently runs on just about anything: Mac >=10.1, Windows >=98, and a bunch of x86 Linux distros.
No kidding - I love Marble Blast Gold (however, I got it for free - but had already planned on buying it after playing the demo.)
One of the trends with the games offered at GarageGames is they are CROSS PLATFORM!!! That may not sound real exciting, but, I own Orbz 2.0 and Marble Blast Gold. I own a PC and a Mac (I love my PowerBook. Er... my WIFE'S PowerBook.) If I ever switch over to Mac completely, I don't have to re-buy the game, or give up the game - just download the Mac version. It's hard to get publishers interested in a cross platform game these days - Indies WANT crossplatform, since the Mac market may be smaller, but less cluttered (and same for Linux).
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
The thing about developing your own game is, you have the power to really try and make it perfect. You have real creative control, you know? You can take the high road if you want, or lean towards a humorous kind of bent, or just go completely deranged and do something freaky. It's cool. And, you don't have any creeps in suits leaning on you to make your character's tits bigger, or dumb down the dialog.
One bummer is, being only one guy, I won't be able to get anything to market in less than a year or two, and I can't afford too fast a computer, so my graphics will be targeted at lower-end machines, like, say, a 500Mhz Celeron. So, my game will *look* like an older game in a sense, and won't be as flash as the crop of games it would normally be competing against. But I don't think that's a bad thing. Let the big shops have the high end. I think there's room at the lower end for guys like me. Not everyone has a P-IV, right?
As far as my game goes, it'll be a third-person shooter with first person controls and modest but smooth graphics. I don't want to give away too much, but I think it'll really appeal to this crowd. It's very high-tech oriented. I figure, maybe, 2005 sometime. My business model is: I'm going to release the game engine itself, with development tools, open source for Linux, Windows, and FreeBSD so that anyone who is into this stuff can create their own game using the tools. I'm looking at using Crystal Space or Ogre as a base, and building my system as a game-engine layer on top of their graphics engine. So, if you want to play the game, you download a bundle with the game engine and a compatible build of one of the graphics engines, for free. But, then, you pay for the actual levels and mods. Every couple of months, I come out with a new set of levels and mods, which you can pick up for like, twenty bucks. You can't steal my *story*, because it's like a novel, right? But you can write your *own* story using my tools, and jump into the market right alongside me. Isn't that a neat idea? I figure, the more people create cool, weird little games, the more there are for me to play. That's GOT to be a Good Thing, right?
And, since I just posted it, and it's now in the public domain, it can't be patented (this post is a prior-art description of the concept, 8/1/2003 5:29PM).
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
*YOU* choose your platform. THink about it. :: sniff ::)
;) ) Same rules apply. I play the music I want to play, no one can tell me otherwise.)
Are you tired of seeing the best games only come out for Win32? Maybe you're a Linux user and have to dual-boot, just so you can play the greatest/latest game. Maybe you're a Mac user and you're just SOL (for the most part). The fact is, most commercial companies only want money, and lots of it, and money can be made on Win32. Even with a shitty game, if it can sell to just 1% of the market, can still pull a profit (unless it's one of those billion dollar all-graphics-no-game jobs). With Indie developers, there's no shareholders to satisfy. There's no board of directors mandating you use DirectX or whatever. You can target minority platforms if you choose, and with a reduced overhead (and pent up demand for a good game), can actually find a market. I don't know if A Tale in the Desert is making a profit, but you know, the marketing (almost non-existing, word-of-mouth kinda thing), the packaging (download only? I've not seen a box) and the fact that it runs on Linux without WINE is truly revolutionary in many ways. While the game doesn't appear to be my cup of tea, I give them mad props for doing it and doing it on their terms. AFAICT, they didn't have to rush it out of the door to meet some projected sales targets. AFAIK the rollout was very smooth. It's nice to be able to produce quality. (Of course, someone's probably going to come along and say they're not an Indie company and were bankrolled by EA or something and completely crush my dreams..
Anyway, if I were under the pressure to produce mounds and mounds of money, you can bet I'd be a Win32 developer. However, I'm just a hobbyist/indie/wannabe, so guess what? I'm trying to do everything I can on Linux, because I can. No one is there to say I can't. YOu know what? I'm even using Java! Take that! (see www.lwjgl.org). See, I'm not stuck in a shop that says I have to use 3DStudio Max (I can't afford $6k, can you?). I use TheGimp because it works for what I do (although Photoshop + some KPT filters is better for a few things (the KPT Procedural Texture plugin is just.. nifty.. For the kind of stuff I require, that is). I can use Eclipse + Java + LWJGL, all on Linux, targetting Linux (of course, get the benefits of cross-platform, but that's secondary, eh?). What I'm getting at is, as an indie developer, you can call the shots! And I can even GPL the game, if I so desire! That's what's rewarding, to me, the ability to have control.
(Also note: I'm an independent musician (lack of talent?
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
http://www.darkunicornproductions.com
:-)
A lot of cool games here. Some are 100% Free too!
Yes, I'm a little biased as I wrote one of the games (FrostByte Freddie), however, since it doesn't cost you anything to try them, you have nothing to lose
Check it out!
Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
"Quit looking on the Internet, no good artist will post his/her work there just so it could be taken by hundred's of people to be claimed as their own."
Bull shit.
"Derp de derp."
Has anyone made money from getting donations, or by charging a small $5-10 fee for the homemade game?
From donations? Dunno about that. But charging small fees for games, well, I do pretty decently with that (when my website isn't carved up, like it is now ;-). I only sell puzzle games at the moment (however, I've got a massive 3D project that's getting close to completion) and I've made enough money that I've made my mortgage payments on it a few times. Not big money, but, it's more money in my pockey. Slowly but surely I'm moving towards projects that allow me to do it full time. Typically my game prices range from $12.50 to $15.00 (it would be cheaper, but, there's overhead for each sale, so I include that in the price.) Online sales is great - while I can't keep 100% of the sales price, I get A LOT closer than when you go through the conventional publishing route!
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
www.indieGamer.com - Monthy Ezine dedicated to indie gaming.
www.DIYGames.com - Best spot indie gaming news.
www.GameTunnel.com - Lots of indie game reviews.
It's not all doom and gloom - don't count us indies out so quickly.
;) . I challenge you to find a game quite like Orbz out there - it is definitely not a knock-off.
There is a very interesting game I personally enjoy by Chronic Logic called Triptych that is quite innovative in my opinion. Kind of like bubble-popping Tetris, but with physics thrown in. They also have a popular bridge-building game called Pontifex II that you might find interesting. Definitely different than most indie games.
And of course there are the games at GarageGames, including our title Orbz - oh yeah, plugging away