Is There a Future for Indie Games?

An anonymous reader writes "If you've been following Greg Costikyan's recent rants (such as Death to The Games Industry), you would have seen mention of one developer's attempt at breaking the traditional games publisher funding model. Well, their game is now in the stores, and whats more it has been getting some pretty good reviews, but has anyone heard of it? Judging by some press, the marketing has been somewhat underwhelming. So the question is, is there still a viable space for good games developed outside the traditional corporate publisher model, or does E.A. already own the future of video games?" Moreover, when indie developers have to go up against the likes of EA and Steven Spielberg, what hope can they have for matching that kind of success? At least one company thinks they can do it by offering games for direct download. Is direct purchasing enough of an incentive for your average gamer to shell out money on something he's never heard of before?

Comments

website marketing

[Edgewize]

There's always hope, as long as you can get your product mentioned on Slashdot...

Re:website marketing

[Anonymous Coward]

You expect me to boredgamer.org believe that one little web boredgamer.org site is going to help boredgamer.org me? Give me a boredgamer.org.

Re:Does it suck or does it not suck is the questio

[kfg]

Books are too time wasting to consume.

Not to mention having little nutritional value. Taste like crap too.

That's why I just settle for reading 'em.

KFG

Re:Misconeception about Indie Anything

[Excelsior]

Year after year art and hard work are ignored for sex and cheap thrills.

Does the "sex and cheap thrills" have a Linux port?

Re:Misconeception about Indie Anything

[secolactico]

The saddest fact is that the average art just plain sucks. The quality of art is not inversely proportional to the number of elitist that can appreciate it

Most "movie elitist" are almost as bad as "blockbuster critics". Only they pretend to look down on mainstream works in favor of "indie" productions. But in the end, they mostly repeat what they hear everybody else in their clique saying.

Just like mainstream critics, they don't reflect the quality of a movie. The only movies where you can safely go knowing what to expect are Van Damme/Seagal kind of movies.

BTW, Lost in the Translation was very well received. So was Adaptation, Magnolia and a whole bunch of "artsy" movies. The general public does like quality once in a while. But if you make a movie that's *way* over the head of most people, reception will be lukewarm. And what the hell was that blue box in "Mulholland Drive" supposed to represent, anyway? I've seen that movie several times hoping to find a clue (hell of a marketing scheme). Not much on the internet, either.

Re:Misconeception about Indie Anything

[jZnat]

If you would have read the GPL, you would see that by using any software licensed by the GPL, you hereby give up your future sex life in exchange for Free software. Sorry pal.