I work with Canopy Games, and we've recently run into this situation with our new game, I Was an Atomic Mutant.
Yes, we have a publisher (ValuSoft), but some of the large retailers rejected our game early on, dismissing it as "not mainstream enough". If it's not tied to an already successful book, movie, or TV show, why would anyone want it?
Game development is not like books, or even movies. Books, all you need is yourself and some paper and pen. Movies, are very expensive but there are hundreds of festivals, and venues to get noticed. Games cost a lot to make and there are not many festivals...and unlike the movies, with say, Sundance, major studios aren't snatching up games from the festivals....
So it's expensive to take a risk, and the major chains could give a rat's patootie about the innovative thing. Internet distribution has a few kinks yet, notably, bandwidth, pay model, and most importantly, marketing.
In our case, we anted up for all our own marketing, paying for our website and all the subsequent promotion. We hope it's working. If we didn't do it, Mutant would be dead on the vine, there's so much static in pop culture today.
It's a catch-22. The big retailers say, "if it sells, we'll carry it". But if they don't carry it, how can it sell? wee-hooo, what a ride....
This is a problem. It is true that the next big thing probably isn't going to come from a giant studio. What's frustrating is that the next big thing may already exist and be in the process of being roundly ignored by anyone who can get it out there. In the meantime, we get sequels and movie tie-ins.
Someone mentioned Serious Sam as a model for indie game development. That's unrealistic. That game was made in Eastern Europe. Cost of living, and standard of living, make it almost impossible to compete with developers over there.
Just like there are no Nike shoe factories in America now....(a bit extreme, but you get the picture). Sam is an "A" list style game that could be marketed at budget prices because the initial cost was low, due to the geographic location of the developer.
That's just a little blast from the small developer world. I've outlined some facts and some problems, without necessarily coming up with solutions, I know....let's keep up the discussion, and see what happens.
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I work with Canopy Games, and we've recently run into this situation with our new game, I Was an Atomic Mutant. Yes, we have a publisher (ValuSoft), but some of the large retailers rejected our game early on, dismissing it as "not mainstream enough". If it's not tied to an already successful book, movie, or TV show, why would anyone want it? Game development is not like books, or even movies. Books, all you need is yourself and some paper and pen. Movies, are very expensive but there are hundreds of festivals, and venues to get noticed. Games cost a lot to make and there are not many festivals...and unlike the movies, with say, Sundance, major studios aren't snatching up games from the festivals.... So it's expensive to take a risk, and the major chains could give a rat's patootie about the innovative thing. Internet distribution has a few kinks yet, notably, bandwidth, pay model, and most importantly, marketing. In our case, we anted up for all our own marketing, paying for our website and all the subsequent promotion. We hope it's working. If we didn't do it, Mutant would be dead on the vine, there's so much static in pop culture today. It's a catch-22. The big retailers say, "if it sells, we'll carry it". But if they don't carry it, how can it sell? wee-hooo, what a ride.... This is a problem. It is true that the next big thing probably isn't going to come from a giant studio. What's frustrating is that the next big thing may already exist and be in the process of being roundly ignored by anyone who can get it out there. In the meantime, we get sequels and movie tie-ins. Someone mentioned Serious Sam as a model for indie game development. That's unrealistic. That game was made in Eastern Europe. Cost of living, and standard of living, make it almost impossible to compete with developers over there. Just like there are no Nike shoe factories in America now....(a bit extreme, but you get the picture). Sam is an "A" list style game that could be marketed at budget prices because the initial cost was low, due to the geographic location of the developer. That's just a little blast from the small developer world. I've outlined some facts and some problems, without necessarily coming up with solutions, I know....let's keep up the discussion, and see what happens.