Indie Game Developers See Big Opportunity

An anonymous reader writes "BusinessWeek Online is running a story on the new opportunities indie game developers are finding in the casual games space. They also have a Q&A with one of Microsoft's gaming gurus." From the article: "Until recently, the market for electronic games was mainly young, male, and diehard. These days, a bigger, more age-diverse group that increasingly includes and women is joining in the fun, spending anywhere from a few minutes a day to long stretches on online poker or games such as Bejewelled, Tetris, and The Sims. As more people sign up for high-speed Internet access (almost 60% of the U.S. population now has access to broadband), the gaming experience -- both for games playable online, such as Bejewelled, and CD- or DVD-ROM titles with an online component, like The Sims -- has become more appealing. Casual gamers now make up about 1% of the $20.5 billion game-software market."

Comments

Negative Effects?

[matr0x_x]

I am not convinced that games going mainstream is necessarily a good thing! As more and more average Americans start playing video games in their spare time, the lucrative market video game creators will target will also change. Pretty soon games like Halo will be on the back burner to "every day games" free of killing and other evils. Could this mean a world full of The Sims knockoffs?

Re:So nothing's changed then?

[garcia]

Boys are still the big buyers and mom sometimes likes Tertis-like games. Making more Tertis-like games may bring in more money, but I don't think it'll be as big as they think. (But I've been wrong before, and as an indie type my self, I'd love to be!)

I enjoy puzzle games like Tetris and specifically "Bejeweled" (or any of the 1000 other names it goes by depending on variation) but that's because they are "free". I can go to Yahoo Games and fire up a game of Gin, Literati, Bejeweled, etc, all for nothing. I don't need a game to sit on my HD taking up space, I don't need the latest and greatest system to run it, I don't need to pay an arm and a leg, and I don't get bored with the game after I "finish" it.

My problem with most modern games is that the long term playability just isn't there. Yeah, most FPS shooters with online play break that mold but there are plenty of others that don't. You need to invest too much in hardware, software, and time and then you're bored with it in a month/year.

I have a Ms. Pacman machine (currently in disrepair unfortunately). It's been out since 1982 and it's just as much fun today as it was then.

I'll take a puzzle game over some multi-million dollar interactive movie anyday.

Voice-recognition RPG

[G4from128k]

Some cellphone service provider is going to make a killing on a voice-activated old-school RPG. The player speaks their commands ("move forward" "pick up crystal") and a pleasant synth or sampled voice tells the player what they see ("You are in a dark forest and the sun is setting. In front of you lies a shining sword and a bulging bag. A trail leads forward toward a crumbling castle").

Just think of the minutes burned as the "caller" explores some world/dungeon for hours.

Sortasoft

[TheSifters]

I've recently entered into the casual games industry myself. There is definitely a market out there and I love working for myself and creating whatever I feel like creating. I have also found that the developer community is very helpful and willing to share their knowledge. If anyone wants to know more about just ask I'd love to share what i've learned.

My first casual game Funky Farm has been doing better than I could ever have imagined, and I'm close to finishing my 2nd casual game. If you want to check out my site.... www.sortasoft.com

Wildlife Tycoon

[ajschatz]

Hi guys, this is Andy Schatz, the guy in the first sentence of the article. Just wanted to post here in the off chance that someone would be interested in my work or my perspective on indie games... The risk averse publishers in the big console-driven world are leaving many niches open for us indie types. Look at Wildlife Tycoon (www.wildlifetycoon.com). It's been a long time since someone came out with a compelling Tycoon game (unless you count Outpost Kaloki, which was great). I was able to design, engineer, and do the business for a game that will compete in a large market niche for minimal cost. The game was developed in 10 months (with 4 contract artists, 1 contract sound designer, and 1 contract writer, all part time) for 6000 dollars. This is partly because large corporations haven't upped the ante in this niche by innovating because they are scared to be spending big money on studios when they don't know the designs are going to be good. The DOWNLOADABLE tycoon market is almost entirely devoid of competition. My research has showed that the market buying retail Tycoon games is a very similar market to those buying casual downloadable games, but this area of the market hasn't been tapped yet. Oh, and the game is FREAKING COOL. Josiah Pisciotta, creater of Gish, has been hooked on it for the past 3 days, not getting his work done. That's my strategy, of course, to make games cool enough to make my competition stop working. Hey, it worked for World of Warcraft...