DIY Game's Indie GOTY Awards

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Posted by CowboyNeal on Tuesday February 10, 2004 @04:21AM from the winners-and-losers dept.

Veryzon writes "DIY Games has posted their 2003 Game of the Year Awards in which they name the best independent games of 2003. In addition to the standard categories such as action GOTY, adventure GOTY, and so on they also have a few fairly unique awards going to leaders in such areas as 'Copyright Infringement,' 'Most Controversial,' and 'Most Overrated.' In the end they hand out 17 awards in various categories. Here's a quote on the most controversial category winner: '...Dada Stagnation In Blue. Technically, Dada is a brief freeware adventure game that will be over almost as soon as you finish it, but those 30 minutes in between are sure to stay with you for some time. True to its Dadaist theme, Dada can be very unsettling for those who might be unprepared to see suicide, domestic violence, and dead fetuses addressed in a game. And if that doesn't mess with your mind then the bizarre environments and disturbing Anne Sexton prose are sure to keep you up a little later at night.'"

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small games by GerritHoll · 2004-02-10 04:32 · Score: 2, Interesting

this day, games are much less fun than they used to be. Most are giant commercial projects, without the real art of creating a nice-looking game in 16 colours with 320x200 resolution. With small opensource games, it does return a bit, though... P.S. first post?
1. Re:small games by DrDoombender · 2004-02-10 04:53 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I dissagree, there are lots of games made today that are just as fun as older games. Just because lots of games that are mediocre come out, doesn't mean the level of fun games is less. Some games are just remakes, and some are improvements. I mean, I really enjoyed the RE remake more so than the original. I can see your point in the idea, that its harder to put out an original idea.
  I agree with you though, that most games are giant commercial projects now. However, that's the gamers fault I think. Most companies noticed the trend that consumers would buy the games that looked the coolest, rather than the game that was the most fun (am I wrong?).
  Open source games is a cool concept because it lets programmers get a feel for how games should be coded. Game programming is hard, and lots of "tutorials" don't tell you all the stuff you have to put into a games engine.
  This DIY games idea of awarding the best independent games seems almost equivalent to the cannes film festival. Really, there should be something like that for gamers. Not only would it show off new talent, but also what can be done with a tiny budget.
2. Re:small games by GerritHoll · 2004-02-10 05:01 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I like it very much when I can see a bit how a game is made, even if it's closed source: I like a game that is "reachable", that could be made in a typical "basement room" where a nerd would spend 12 hours a night programming it: sure, it looks great when the movement of the characters was modelled after real people by high-tech technology, and that is what most people like indeed. However, I'm not like most people :-)
  I think this DIY idea is good, though. It reminds me of The Home of the Underdags, a really nice website...
3. Re:small games by neglige · 2004-02-10 05:06 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  IMHO the difference is that today many more games are produced than in the 8bit era. Back then, only a few games from every publisher came out each month (maybe with the exception of the C64 and huge companies like EA), so each game had to be "good" and "outstanding". If it wasn't, it simply wouldn't sell. And you couldn't really rip off ideas, because it would hurt the image of the company or the programmer. Plus, from the business perspective, licensing an engine never happened AFAIK.
  
  Today, this is no longer an issue. Many companies license a 3D engine for example - thus producing "yet another 3D shooter" (hopefully with a different flavour).
  
  The market has also grown, and the PC is reaching new customers which would have never used a 8bit machine, much less played games on it. As a result, games appealing to the casual gamer are created, which are "mediocre" in the eye of the typical gamer.
  
  --
  My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
4. Re:small games by johannesg · 2004-02-10 05:18 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  I'm not so sure about the actual number of games, but surely the number of types of games has diminished dramatically over the years. Sure, there are plenty of FPS'es and RTS'es, but where are things like The Sentinel, Marble Madness, Knightlore (wouldn't that look gorgeous with 24-bit hi-res graphics), Bubble Bobble, Space Harrier, R*Type, Xevious, or even Tetris? Where are the abstract games? The puzzle games? The 2D shooters? Platformers? etc...
5. Re:small games by GerritHoll · 2004-02-10 05:32 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  I agree here. Almost all games are a sequal to a previous game. It is forgivable that the number of new ideas decreases - they're running out - but a little more creativity would be welcome.
  Actually, the only game for the PC that was ever really new was Tetris. The rest was, more or less, something of a genre which already existed on consoles or gameboys etc. When we look into a little more detail there have of course been a lot of new ideas, also by larger companies (civilization, worms, ...), but nothing is as innovative as Tetris...
  Nothing beats Tetris ;-)
6. Re:small games by code-e255 · 2004-02-10 05:43 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  If you think more creativity and artistic skill was required for games "back in the days", then I'm forced to believe that you don't have a clue about modern computer and video games. The amount of excellent artwork in games like WarCraft III, Max Payne 2, Quake 3 Arena, Call of Duty or whatever still make me sit back in awe infront of my monitor every time I play those games, even though I've seen it all often before. If you think that pixel graphics are so elite and that modern 3D graphics are evil, maybe try out some of the cool GameBoy Advance games, like Advance Wars 2 - maybe that'll change your mind about modern games.
  
  Sure, computer and video games today are a serious business and involve muchos ca$h. So what? Do you seriously believe that the games made by some hobby coder in a couple of months are always superiour to the games developed by 30+ programmers, concept artists, level designers, sound guys etc.?
  
  99% of the games on the market are crap. Only very very very few are really great. Maybe that's the point you were trying to make, and I'd agree with that. Well, maybe this has become more extreme these days, but I'm sure "the good old days" had loads of crappy games as well. But, imho at least, the best-of-the-best games continuously improve.
7. Re:small games by *weasel · 2004-02-10 05:46 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Where are the small games? the puzzle games and simple shooters? Here they are.
  
  Popcap
  
  Wild Tangent
  
  The browser has become the defacto platform for 'small' games. Wild Tangent's web driver in particular is available for license as well. It's helping bring accessibility for designers back to where a couple guys in a garage could churn out something fun in less than 3 years.
  
  not a plug, just informational cuz everyone's asking.
  
  --
  // "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
8. Re:small games by rogabean · 2004-02-10 06:31 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  wildtangent's software is also detected as spyware.
  
  --
  "why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
9. Re:small games by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-10 06:54 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  The old version automatically checked for updates without notifying the user, and some OEMs have been shipping it without notifying their customers (hence its being labelled as spyware).
  
  It's less intrusive than Steam, and the latest version does have the capability to have the phone-home software turned off.
10. Re:small games by Lord_Dweomer · 2004-02-10 09:18 · Score: 1
  
  Uh.......last time I checked, didn't the Wild Tangent plugin show up in Adaware?
  
  --
  Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
11. Re:small games by robson · 2004-02-10 16:39 · Score: 1
  
  Where are the small games? the puzzle games and simple shooters? Here they are.
  
  Small Rockets is also a great mini-publisher:
  http://www.smallrockets.com/index_main.htm
  
  Star Monkey and Ultra Assault, while unfortunately named, are awesome old-school scrolling shooters.
12. Re:small games by prockcore · 2004-02-10 18:16 · Score: 1
  
  Sure, there are plenty of FPS'es and RTS'es, but where are things like The Sentinel, Marble Madness
  
  I can't speak for some of the other games you mentioned, but Marble Madness is alive and well. It's now known as Super Monkey Ball, and you can find it on the gamecube.
  
  I believe Space Harrier's reincarnation would be Panzer Dragoon Orta on the xbox.
13. Re:small games by prockcore · 2004-02-10 18:27 · Score: 1
  
  but nothing is as innovative as Tetris...
  
  Tetris isn't innovative. Addictive? Yes. Innovative? No. It's a simplification of Pentominoes. An old logic puzzle game.
14. Re:small games by DeadScreenSky · 2004-02-10 21:28 · Score: 1
  
  I believe Space Harrier's reincarnation would be Panzer Dragoon Orta on the xbox.
  
  Or more likely Rez on the Dreamcast and Playstation2. Both are classic, underrated games. Listening to the Rez soundtrack right this moment...
  
  --
  There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
15. Re:small games by neglige · 2004-02-10 22:10 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  I'd say that many of those games went from 'mainstream' to 'share-/freeware'. There are plenty Tetris games available for *nix, even multiplayer versions. And, as someone already mentioned, the web and Java are a popular platform for these games.
  
  IMHO, games today are more and more trying to tell a story, an element rarely found in older games (with famous exceptions, of course, Bards Tale e.g.) This is necessary to catch the average user who just wants to play for an hour every other evening.
  
  But I agree with you, genres like puzzle games, 2D shooter or point-and-click adventures have become rare.
  
  --
  My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
16. Re:small games by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-11 09:38 · Score: 0
  
  The main difference is that Space Harrier was actually somewhat challenging in its day, whereas a retarded monkey on drugs could beat Rez in about half an hour.
17. Re:small games by DeadScreenSky · 2004-02-13 00:20 · Score: 1
  
  I am not so sure about that. I know a lot of gamers who had problems with Rez, especially the bosses. It demands more of the finger button smashing than most modern games. And you do know that Rez has integreated difficulty settings based around your performance, right? Get to a high form and you are in for quite a challenge. So if Rez is too easy for you, you probably just aren't very good at it. :D
  
  This is all ignoring the fact that Rez isn't an arcade game designed to munch quarters, but an experience that is supposed to help you feel synaesthesia.
  
  --
  There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
Cost? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-10 04:49 · Score: 0

And just how much are they charging for a 30 min game? (Yeah, I should have RTFA)
1. Re:Cost? by Alkaiser · 2004-02-10 04:57 · Score: 1
  
  Especially a "brief freeware adventure game that will be over almost as soon as you finish it".
  
  I mean...why do I want to buy a game that's over BEFORE I finish it?
  
  --
  Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
2. Re:Cost? by damien_kane · 2004-02-10 05:12 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  It's free.
  Download it here: (~2mb) http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~hooks/Dada.zip
  (href not posted to save the host's diyserver)
Hard road to follow. by Godeke · 2004-02-10 04:49 · Score: 3, Interesting

I appreciate the effort and dedication that these people have put into these games. I have thought about producing an independent game title myself, but the amount of effort that goes into doing so is much higher than that going into custom applications. In a custom application for a client I have the database, middeware and UI to worry about. In a game you have the underlying engine, UI and real time programming coupled with music and graphics production (2d and 3d) without the committment of payment on delivery. For some reason my wife is reluctant to let me spend six months with a potential big fat zero return on that time. Pitty really: I would much prefer to work on something that brings enjoyment to people rather than "productivity enhancements" and "better cost control".

--
Sig under construction since 1998.
Over as soon as you finish it? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-10 04:57 · Score: 5, Funny

Yeah, they actually say this:
brief freeware adventure game that will be over almost as soon as you finish it
As opposed to what, those games that aren't over when you finish them?
1. Re:Over as soon as you finish it? by mwheeler01 · 2004-02-10 05:55 · Score: 1
  
  To get my money's worth, a game better be over when I finish it and no later. I'm sick of all those games that are over after I finish them.
  
  --
  Pretty widgets? What pretty widgets?
2. Re:Over as soon as you finish it? by ronfar · 2004-02-10 06:15 · Score: 1
  
  Shenmue II is like that... I finished it a long time ago and it still isn't over.
  
  --
  All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
3. Re:Over as soon as you finish it? by Lord_Dweomer · 2004-02-10 09:16 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I see you've never heard of "The Never Ending Story"
  
  --
  Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
the never ending march of technology by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-10 05:34 · Score: 4, Interesting

I would have thought Starscape would have done better, it's a nice little game that is trying to do some different things i.e. mixing up some genres. Is it just the lack of real time 3D because the game still looks great without it IMO and it actually works for me (unlike some of the others). It should get an award just for that! The main reason I started looking at indie stuff is because I can't get most mainstream game to work. I don't even bother looklng if they don't have a demo - too risky.

Finding a 3D game that looks good and actually runs ok on my PC is quite a challenge. Add to that getting it working on my laptop and you are really struggling. I want more 2D and 3D games that:

1.look good
2.work on my 2year old PC (Athlon1700, 32MB Radeon7000)
3.work on my 1year old laptop (Celeron1600, 16MB GeForce4MX)

I think a huge number of people have this kind of hardware and have just given up trying to play games. Maybe this is why PopCap make millions with their puzzle games i.e. people can actually get them to work properly :)
1. Re:the never ending march of technology by TwistedGreen · 2004-02-10 06:13 · Score: 1
  
  "can't get them to work properly"?
  
  uh, okay...
2. Re:the never ending march of technology by Quill_28 · 2004-02-10 06:40 · Score: 1
  
  ????
  
  I have a 800 P3 that runs every game that I played recently with no problems at all.(MOH, Warlords4, Call of Duty, ET, NWN, WarCraft 3)
  
  They all look and play good.
  
  How can you not get it to work?
  
  I'm confused.
3. Re:the never ending march of technology by mobby_6kl · 2004-02-10 07:34 · Score: 1
  
  Absolutely, my other pc is a PII 350, GF2 MX. And MOH, Warcraft 3 run without problems, I also played AvP2, Mafia, GTA3, Hitman 2, RTCW, SoF, Ground Control, Max Payne (the first one) and many others in 1024x768, mostly with medium details. Even UT2003 was playable on smaller maps (but slowed down on November).
4. Re:the never ending march of technology by 23_Elders · 2004-02-10 07:54 · Score: 1
  
  I allowed my friend to have an extended loan of my nVidia Ti4200 after I bought a Radeon 9800 Pro. This friend is interested in designing video games, is a programmer and computer literate. It was updating an old nVidia TNT.
  
  He came to me a few days later and said it wasn't working. Hmmm I thought, what could the problem be? So I went ahead and asked the obvious: did you download and install the right drivers? "No," he said, "I just plugged it in, shouldn't it work? The old card was an nVidia."
  
  Sigh.
Adventure GOTY, where to get... by Thornae · 2004-02-10 06:35 · Score: 3, Informative

Their Adventure Game of the Year is The Adventures of Fatman. Unfortunately, the link to the developer they provide doesn't tell you where to get it, only that it's been released as abandonware.
Naturally, HOTU has it, unfortunately minus the voices.

If someone managed to get the full (with voices) version, I'm sure HOTU would be grateful for a rip...

--
|>
Here be Dragons
1. Re:Adventure GOTY, where to get... by keyshawn632 · 2004-02-11 09:50 · Score: 1
  
  you can get the voice rips from the actual game website. http://socko-entertainment.com/downloads.htm [voice pack]
Broken Game? by Serious+Seth · 2004-02-10 06:46 · Score: 1

OK, ive been playing this game for an hour and a half now and i cant get past the 6th bloody screen let alone see anything disturbing!
Please slashdotters Where do i go? im not going to spoil anything but i found the diamonds to pay the boatman but cant get past the screen he takes me to. its also impossible to pass the sad woman in the screen to the left of the bridge. Its frustrating to see an intriguing game go so sour. does anyone know where to go from here?
1. Re:Broken Game? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-10 08:43 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  You take the water in the boatman scene and show it to the sad woman. :P
2. Re:Broken Game? by hiroshi912681 · 2004-02-10 08:57 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  forget it, the game is a mess... it's just plain awful.
  
  it's just overhyped by the person who posted the article. it's not really controversial, and it's not a decent adventure game by any standard. it's not even an interesting experience. the author of the game should have at least made SOME effort in selecting better images to steal.
  
  the game would have made a much better text adventure. even then, it'd still just be a really cheesy game done by some goth wannabe.
  
  maybe next year if they group together another bunch of bad games, and have a category named "most controversial"... maybe a pokemon game will win for being the most violent
  
  this game sucks, don't download it, don't touch it... it's not worth your "30 minutes"
3. Re:Broken Game? by sirGullible · 2004-02-10 10:14 · Score: 1
  
  heh...30 minutes...more like 5 the game definitely feels more like a collage than a game. i'm still trying to figure out if there was a point to it.
4. Re:Broken Game? by thegrue76 · 2004-02-11 02:43 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah. I gotta agree. I mean, I've read more controversial subject matter on the sides of cereal boxes...I mean, gee, have you SEEN what kind of ingredients those companies use? Wow!
5. Re:Broken Game? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-11 03:31 · Score: 0
  
  My game won an award. People who speak Czech like it (http://plnehry.idnes.cz/adventure/dada.html). It is awesome. If you don't think so, you suck the sweat off dead donkey balls.
  
  Love,
  DGMacphee (The awesome creator of Dada: Stagnation in Blue, which won an award!)
  
  P.S. I = WINNER!!!
6. Re:Broken Game? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-11 14:32 · Score: 0
  
  Czech people are fucking stupid. Also stupid: you, your game.
7. Re:Broken Game? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-11 18:23 · Score: 0
  
  Ho, ho, ho, well lets look at the facts, JACK!
  
  Number of awards won by my games: 1
  
  Number of awards won by your games: 0 (unless you count that "Best Hobo That Sucks" award you got for your Being a Hobo game, which isn't actually a game but your real life).
  
  So, like I said ME = WINS!!!!
  
  P.S. You are a hobo. I am awesome cause I win awards.
8. Re:Broken Game? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-11 19:12 · Score: 0
  
  So, like I said ME = WINS!!!!
  You = fag
9. Re:Broken Game? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-12 03:00 · Score: 0
  
  That's the best you can come up with? "You = fag??"
  
  Wow, you must be the epitome of genius, kiddo! I bet it took your entire team of monkeys to work round the clock on that one. But the sooner you realise, the better: you are a hobo. You eat the crap I throw into trash cans. You piss in dumpsters. You suck donkey balls. Your anus is huge and very smelly. Your father is a prison rapist. Your mother is a dollar whore with a glass eye. You are their diseased offspring.
  
  I've won more awards than you, so I must be right!
10. Re:Broken Game? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-12 08:22 · Score: 0
  
  winning an award doesn't really mean anything. especially if you aren't competing with anyone else. it's kind of like those elections with only one choice. this game only won an award because it was the only controversial game entered in the contest.
  
  and it's also kind of like winning "best picture of the year"... assuming there were any good pictures that year, it only got an award due to it being slightly better than the other crap. but in your case, it won "Most controversial"... which doesn't mean anything. it doesn't mean that it's a good game or not. it's only controversial, nothing more.
  
  ergo, we don't even know if the czech people like the game... as we can't read their language.
11. Re:Broken Game? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-12 15:02 · Score: 0
  
  Okie doakie, I've had my fun screwing around with you guys, now it's times for explanations. (call it my "defense" for Dada).
  
  I wrote Dada mid-2003. During that first semester period, I went through a very depressing part of my life. I had the worst semester of my journalism degree and my girlfriend had gone to India to study. Coupled with the fact that I had been reading a lot of philosophy (always a dangerous thing) where I came to the conclusion that my existance didn't mean anything. And when you seriously think about that (i.e. death and reality being over just like that) it feels very lonely.
  
  I'll also just mention that before this period, I used to be the kind of guy who'd just like a bit of a laugh. I always though when things got too serious, have a bit of a laugh. Play my other games and you'll see me in my pre-Dada prime (pimping the website: http://www.sylpher.com/DGMacphee/). However, feeling alone is a very hard thing to joke about (The hardest part is that there's no one to laugh at your jokes). I began to give up on other creative projects, like my was-to-be game Dark Hero.
  
  When my girlfriend got back from India, she became a different person. She became someone with great stories to tell. Meanwhile, I was stuck in my humdrum existence with nothing really great to talk about. I haven't travelled a great deal, so seeing my girlfriend come home a more learned person kinda isolates you even more.
  
  Anyway, it got to the point where I'd just want to stay indoors all day and not want to go anywhere or spend time with any of my friends. I became a little suicidal, like I'd ask the Jimmy Stewart question ("What would the world be like if I never existed?").
  
  Artists paint. Writers write. Filmmakers make movies. All creative expression. One thing I saw with a lot of computer games was that there weren't many that were personal quests. I mean, you can't really say Doom is John Romero wrestling with his inner-demons. Even if he tried to convince us of that, we'd just laugh our arses off at him.
  
  Enter Dada. I'd used Chris Jones' AGS (Adventure game Studio) to create games before. I'd seen other expressive and esoteric games like Nove Mestro, Los Jovenes De La Guerra, and Richard Long and the Box That Ate Time. I thought, why nt make an adventure game based upon how I felt at the time. And I shit you not: it's true what the Sex Pistols say, that anger is an energy. You can create things faster when you're pissed-off with something.
  
  I never made the game for other people. I say this because it's not something that you can communicate to others very easily. But after I finished it, I decided to release it on the AGS Forum anyway, just to see what kind of reaction the game would get. I expected people to hate it (I mean, how could anyone like a game that's about helping someone commit suicide).
  
  Some people liked it. Some really hated it. Some people were confused by it, asking for an explanation of it's meaning. To be honest, I didn't intend a meaning. It's just a collection of stuff that's based upon how I felt at the time.
  
  The game isn't a very enjoyable game. I'd prefer someone tell me they enjoyed Ultimerr or Stickmen than they did Dada. True, it's not really Dadaist as such, but the feel of the game was inspired by Dadaist collages. In this sense, I hope people don't take the title as a literal explanation of the game. It's not really a cohesive game, nor is it innovative. I never intended to do such things. All I set out to do was put my feelings onto paper. Sure, it may seem very over-emotional, but I figure I might as well do something rather than nothing.
  
  So, that's the story "Stagnation in Blue". Naturally, I'm stoked about the "Most Controversial" award. I didn't find out until a day or two later. I was also interested to read what others had written here when someone posted a link to this article. I accapt all criticism very easily and eagerly. My previous comments in this thread were just an attempt to shitstir. Naturally, I don't
12. Re:Broken Game? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-13 05:15 · Score: 0
  
  hah, ok, that explains a lot
  I was judging it based on the fact it was this award winning "great game" meant for everyone to play and like
  
  it's just an experiment, a vent you did for yourself during a bad part of your life, not really intending it for the public... entirely understandable...
  
  I still think it'd make a much better text adventure if you were to actually intend it for public consumption. Check out this easy to use DIY interactive fiction maker: http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/downloadoftheda y/story/0,24330,3335842,00.html
  
  seriously
  
  anyways, good luck on your trek to Japan
  ganbatte kudasai
  
  -hiroshi912681
Independent? Not of Microsoft . . . by droleary · 2004-02-10 17:25 · Score: 1

Given that the vast majority of the games listed require Windows, how "independent" should any of them be considered? I saw one that had Linux support, which I consider odd because they didn't bother with Mac OS X support (i.e., the secondary commercial/desktop market vs. the primary free/server market). They also didn't give any hardware/software requirements, so I have to do a massive hunt for each one to find out if I can even play it before I start a 300+ demo download. Not cool.
On the subject of shooters..... by Black+Hitler · 2004-02-10 19:30 · Score: 1

C'mon, people. Let's show Kenta Cho some well-deserved love.
"Dada" by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-10 19:40 · Score: 1, Informative

True to its Dadaist theme, Dada can be very unsettling for those who might be unprepared to see suicide, domestic violence, and dead fetuses addressed in a game.
Except none of that is really particularly "Dada," particularly in the context of a wannabe-edgy horror adventure game. Silent Hill has about as much claim to "Dada" as this game.
CRAP by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-10 22:53 · Score: 0

I played and beat it in 8 mins

its crap, not disturbing at all

not even innovative whatso ever

I could whip this up after 4 days without sleep while I took a crap.
My game won an award! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-11 03:46 · Score: 0

Yes, but now it is award-winning crap!

- DGMacphee (The stud whose game, Dada: Stagnation in Blue, won an award! Wow, isn't that awesome!)

P.S. My game won an award! Sweet! I am so awesome!

P.P.S. Don't forget to play my other games "Ultimerr" and "Stickmen" at DGMacphee Designs: http://www.sylpher.com/DGMacphee/games.htm
Inside viewpoint by jaishaw · 2004-02-11 18:26 · Score: 1

I would further this point by saying that the main affliction of the indy game scene may be the how easy it is to actually make games in this day and age.
There are whole programing languages that come with their own game engines like Dark Basic.
When you put game programing into the reach of every kid who wants to make another "cool" game you end up with such a huge plathora of junk that it is hard to find anything half decent.
What ends up happening is you get people like me who actually put the huge amount of effort required into the game they are selling then have to put equally as much into looking totally profesional and spending a whole bunch of money on marketing to get your game to stick out of the see of lesser half baked clones.
I think the idea of having any DIY awards and showcases/reviews is excellent.
IMO one of the best new sites to have come to the Indy scene lately would have to be game tunnel -
www.gametunnel.com
an excellent game review site for us small time developers.
Please Note - my game isn't actually on that site yet but I am planning to get it reviewed shortly.

--
-------
Shareware Games Developer
www.jaishaw.com
1. Re:Inside viewpoint by neglige · 2004-02-11 22:12 · Score: 1
  
  I would further this point by saying that the main affliction of the indy game scene may be the how easy it is to actually make games in this day and age.
  
  Good point. Plus, it has become a lot easier to distribute software over the internet. In "the old days", when the internet was virtually unknown and BBS ruled the world, making software known and distribute it without a publisher was much harder. Not impossible, but harder.
  
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  My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.