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Indie Games Con Gets Report, Awards
Thanks to DIYGames.com for their report on the 2003 Indie Games Conference, held by Garage Games in Eugene, Oregon from the 10th-12th October. The Con aimed to "...not only celebrate independent developers and their work, but to provide a comfortable environment for developers to learn about the different elements of game creation, and to show their games to peers", and the Player's Choice awards for the Con showcase some interesting upcoming indie titles, with Fuzzee Teevee getting 'Best Graphics', and the Oids-inspired Bit Shifter winning 'Best Single-Player'.
Are most of these games published under the GNU license?
CMDRTACO CHECK YOUR EMAIL!
I would pay for them. Even if they're not quite up to the graphical, sound, or dialogue snuff of some major releases (although, given the glut of rushed-to-market products [Hi Eidos!], some of these homebrewed games are better than games produced with a much larger budget), these people are making these games out of a real respect and love for the games. Those types of people are great for the industry and it would be better that they sold their own games really well and got noticed by a big company and snatched up as a developer than if they couldn't make any money and had to get a job completely unrelated to video games. People are best at doing what they are passionate about - these people are obviously passionate about video games and that is exactly what any commercial industry needs.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
Indie games ROCK!!! - well ok some do and most don't, my favourites are;
1. Starscape (www.moonpod.com)
2. Alien Shooter (www.sigma-team.net)
Too true, there's a sea of turds out there, with a few goodies trying to hold their head above water. Here's my tips for sorting indie games:
Ignore if:
looks like arkanoid
looks like tetris
looks like bubble bobble
runs in a browser
looks like mahjongg
Or just visit Diy Games they are about the only decent site I can think of for indie games.
Unluckly, I have to agree (keeping in mind I've produced 7 2D puzzle games over the years now). Lots of games just try to capitolize on 'Me too' gameplay style.
Almost none of the games at IGC were 'Me too' games. Everything was fairly fresh and new games. That's not to say they didn't have thier basis from other games at times - GravRally from 21-6 is really just another racing game, but, really innovates in it's execution (the GravMode - stick to any surface, no matter upside down or not! :-) and it's gameplay modes (the Chase mode was cool - basically, it's tag played at 200+ MPH!). Trajectory Zone (full disclosure - that's from my game company) finds it's gameplay core from Scorched Earth. Then cranks it up with realtime play, lots of new options, neat environments, etc. And of course, it's 3D, but much more easy to play than Scorched3D, and moves MUCH faster.
Only one game ran in a browser, and that was a special exception - ThinkTanks has a new version out (Windows only) that runs in the browser. Very scaled down, fits in 3 MB, that sortta thing - basically, it's a sales pitch for the game. Not a single game was arkanoid, tetris, etc - I found that to be just too cool. I don't have a problem with 'inspired by' games, but 'clone of' games just tend to blur together, and really suck because of a complete lack of innovation. (Adding one new block to Tetris is not an innovation ;-)
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
Ok, I gotta say it - one of my products had it's premier there at IGC '03. Trajectory Zone showed off for the first time to the public. That was a blast :-) (Keep in mind it's just it's first beta - beta 2 will be comming along here in the next two weeks or so.)
If you are an indie game developer lookin' for feedback, I highly recommend going to IGC next year with your game - there were 25 machine, and during any given ShowOFF session, you could get more face to face feedback about your game than you ever have had the chance to get before. Plus the organizers (GarageGames) did something smart - they also provide feedback forms for people to fill out. So no only do you get face to face feedback, you get 'annonymous' feedback where people don't have to worry quite so much about the effects of insulting the developer ;-) Plus, you get to WATCH them play the game - see what hangs the player up, what makes them laugh or curse, etc. It's unbelieveably great - testing across the Internet doesn't have nearly the power of doing it live.
Oh, and if you haven't looked at our game sneak peek yet... ;-)
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
ven if they're not quite up to the graphical, sound, or dialogue snuff of some major releases
That's the funny thing - many of them were up to snuff graphics and sound. (I didn't get to see FuzzeeeTeevee, so I can't speak about that one.) Not all of the games that appeared there were mentioned in the articles, nor were they in the competition, btw. Anyway - graphically, Dark Horizons: Lore, GravRally (which I can't find any links to at the moment!), and Trajectory Zone (our product) would set side by side with existing retail offerings. (However, don't expect something that looks like the Doom3 screenshots ;-) And sound? Well... pretty good actually :-) Unluckly, I can't show what they all sound like! :-)
Those types of people are great for the industry and it would be better that they sold their own games really well and got noticed by a big company and snatched up as a developer than if they couldn't make any money and had to get a job completely unrelated to video games.
I totally agree - this way, we get much cooler games (I was a huge fan of 21-6's Orbz - very different style of game that ROCKED!) and more innovation, instead of more sequils :-)
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
Check out the folks over at spiderweb software - Jeff Vogel and co. make the Avernum and Geneforge series of indie RPGs. The graphics and sound leave more than a bit to be desired, but the games have excellently balanced gameplay and very well-written, witty plots. Vogel himself is one of the more famous characters in the whole shareware scene - he's among the few that's actually made a solid living off of it.
--- Bwah?
Retro Power Pack (4 REALLY retro games) $4.95
;) $19.95
www.retropack.com
Spheres Of Chaos (awesome particles!!) $8.00
www.chaotics.u-net.com
Pontifex II (words defy me
www.chroniclogic.com
Nope. Most of 'em are distributed under normal copyright rules.
You might want to revise your thinking on GPL and copyright. There's nothing at all abnormal about copyright under a GPL. Copyright is held by the author, just like "normal". Licensing is another matter, and the GPL is one of many licenses that a game developer may adopt. Very important: If you publish something and copyright it, and then slap a GPL on its licensing terms, you -still- hold the copyright.
Do you even know what a 'con' is?
Nigerian money con
Indie Games Con
I attended this year's 'con, and it was a lot of fun. I had a hard time pulling myself away from Fuzzee Teevee and Lore. And while some games were derivative of the classics (such as Bugg Out!, which was a fresh version of the old "Traffic" title, or Trajectory Zone, which is like a 3D version of "Scorch") all the games presented were enjoyable.
I can only hope for next year that they have the breakout sessions in different rooms, as it was nearly impossible to hear the speakers many times, and forget about hearing the questions asked by the guy sitting right next to you.
Also, they really could've used a special "show off" room with games projected up on a screen with the developer walking people through it. As it was this year, you just sat at a PC, played until your eyes bled, and if you got lucky, bumped into the developer and got to talk with him/her for a bit.
Overall, it was a great way to meet indie developers and see that not all indie games are "bubble poppers" or variations on solitaire.