11-24-2010

Recently, independent game developers recommended a certain movement in the games industry. They wanted large publishers like Ubisoft, EA and Activision to bring small independent games development teams under their wing providing them with wages and a reputed name to affiliate with. These days the independent development community is the one with the freshest ideas: I always imagine random programmers' heads buzzing with the incessant urge to bring to life some wonderfully wacky idea and most of the time they don't disappoint. Whereas large publishers often urge the biggest developers into making what makes money (which means cloning Call of Duty or mimicking World of Warcraft) indie game developers have no one to tell them that this won't make millions of dollars or this idea won't capture the largely casual gamer market that the industry has turned out to be catering to. Notwithstanding adopting developers with excellent ideas cooped up in an overly-imaginative mind would be a magnificent move for publicity; thousands of ideas would circulate through the market every year, mere weeks of programming and art design and a new game would be ready for digital distribution. This extra fast release of games would help the publisher and the money that comes with having "Activision" pasted into introduction movies would boost the earnings of independent developers significantly: it would be a mutual production process and a phenomenal starting place for germinating companies.

To accentuate the intrinsic nature of introducing some level of intriguing originality to the video game industry independent developers are unparalleled. Their inhuman fearlessness towards trying something new is like a password to developing an industry. Being fully aware that your concept may fail catastrophically, falling into an abyss of anonymity and falling under siege from gamers' devastation that their wallets are now five quid shorter is an august pageantry. Just because they're inventive and quite happy to accept defeat that does not mean publishers should be taking them on-board.

Publishers still have to look at the financial benefits of bringing on a group of developers. In the climate of serious video game marketing and development there's absolutely no space for failures. The ideas have to be bang-on, meticulously thought out attractions that people will actually take out their credit card for. EA has taken some interest into mobile gaming developer, Rovio but these are a group of developers whose every idea has been a profitable success and a gigantic winner in the App Store for iPhone. For a whopping $20, 000, 000 Electronic Arts has to be pretty confident that Rovio's products will be an outstanding success. Meanwhile, Activision is taking interest in what people can make and not what people have made. This is quite important in the sense that Activision are no longer looking solely for who's been making money but instead who has the best ideas.

But as the quieter, more reclusive developers migrate the the energetic hub-bub of the mainstream industry, veterans may be moving out. Programmers feel their games that they put enthusiasm and time into, that they venerate with personal affection, are being recklessly rushed. Maybe it's for sales? Regardless, people are moving to working by themselves and with small groups on quirky ideas. They find the independent side of the fence a much more relaxed working environment where aren't restrained from going out there and doing whatever the Hell it is you want to do. As games align themselves into evident conformity indie game developers are thrusting incomprehensibly original ideas upon themselves and colleagues. Even if they're not conjuring the newest concepts indie games tend to apply undeniable charm be it in cosmetic effects or gameplay. Sending a globule flying over platforms in an attempt to stop its lubricated instability flying all around the place is nothing new but Piece of Pie Studio's upcoming release 'Swimming Under Clouds' visuals are unexplainably attractive and this is what puts indie ahead of the rest: it's always one step ahead in one way or another.

I've written this article with immeasurable bias, I feel that indie is the only way out of a constant repetition of ideas. It's hard to find a shooter without a modern setting and almost completely focussed on multiplayer competitiveness. It's difficult to find to find an RPG that isn't massively multiplayer and set in a fantasy environment. Whilst some games published by the biggest behemoths in the video game market step away from this it seems like an overwhelming many are not. And so I'll conclude to a question aimed at everybody who has taken the time to read this fairly grandiloquent post:

What do you think about indie game development? Do you think it's a good idea? Do you think mainstream games are trying to copy each other too much (if at all)? And, most importantly, what do you think about big developers buying up independent developers?

(Last updated 19:46:16, 11-24-2010)