Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Indie Gaming Evolves: So-Long, Dexterity!
Dexterity.com is no more, according to Steve Pavlina. The site has been shut down, and traffic is being redirected to an announcement at his self-help site. (Tip o' the hat to GBGames for catching the news first... well, first for me, at least).
Many indie / shareware game developers who got their start prior to 2005 were aided by Steve's articles, and his developer forums. Since his forums shut down, indiegamer.com has become the spiritual successor, and is probably more popular than the Dexterity forums ever were. With all the attendant reduction in signal-to-noise ratio that implies. (Even so, anyone serious about developing indie games would be well served to spend some time lurking and reading over the archives there. It's invaluable).
Steve's articles were full of nuggest of great information. Hopefully they will re-appear outside of Internet archives. Though many people have pointed out that they had become pretty outdated. The fact that they were addressing "shareware" game development attested to that.
The concept of shareware came about before the Internet became as pervasive as it is. Prior to the late 1990's, very few people had Internet access, and "shareware" was a distribution method that literally relied upon people sharing the software with each other - via floppy disc, or on bulletin board systems. While the theory hasn't changed, and the old practice still exists, things have evolved and changed.
A lot.
Examples: An ever-increasing penetration of the Internet into the home. Increasing penetration of broadband (the ol' 4-6 megabyte limit is becoming less and less critical). The role of portals. Affiliate deals. Downloadable games for the XBox LiveArcade (and, potentially, other consoles). The Internet becoming increasingly crowded and harder to stand out in. And so forth.
What worked for Dexterity.com and other indies in 1999 is highly unlikely to work today. But lest we forget, what they had to do in 1999 was very different from what successful shareware companies did in 1992. The details change - sometimes drastically. But the basic principles remain the same.
I think Steve's articles contained plenty of solid principles, and remain worth reading (check them out HERE).
The key thing I pulled out of these articles was to follow a deliberate methodology, based on planning, executing, measuring, identifying problem areas, revising the plan, and continuing to iterate.
I also learned that while finishing a commercial-quality game is of course a major accomplishment, it's only the beginning. The true magnitude and scope of the rest of it is... well, I'm still learning. But it was awfully nice to have Dexterity.com's articles and forums to at least give me the heads-up.
But I think Steve Pavlina is right - the time had come. He's moved on, and so has indie gaming.
Labels: Indie Evangelism
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:07 AM (Permalink)
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Wow, this is sad. The articles on Dexterity.com really inspired me, and I think they were better-written (or at least more grounded in reality) than Steve's more recent stuff. It's nice that you can still read them through archive.org.
I wonder if he's going to sell the domain.
I wonder if he's going to sell the domain.
Hah! I scooped ya'!
According to Steve's latest blog post, he is keeping the domain and redirecting it to his new site, unless someone wants to pay on the high end of five digits for it. Too rich for my blood. B-)
According to Steve's latest blog post, he is keeping the domain and redirecting it to his new site, unless someone wants to pay on the high end of five digits for it. Too rich for my blood. B-)
Viridian: I agree 100%. They were influential on me (though it's one thing to read and understand the principles, and another to implement them). His newer stuff - well, it's an interesting way of looking at the universe, and it works for him.
As far as the dexterity.com site name & I.P.: I think he quit supporting it at the right time. The market was changing, and dexterity.com needed to change with it to remain a viable concern. I think at THAT point it was worth a good deal of money, as it already had solid traffic, customer base, and reputation. But it needed a lot more to compete with, say, the casual portals that were then becoming a major influence in the casual games industry. Production quality (and expense) was rising, and direct competition was steaming ahead with plenty of investment capital.
I'm sure if his heart was still in it, Steve could have made the effort necessary to keep the site alive and thriving, evolving with the market. But I expect he saw it was going to be a rough battle ahead, and he really wanted to go a different direction in his life.
So I think after two years of languishing in an extremely dynamic marketplace, there wasn't much value left in dexterity.com for a game developer.
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As far as the dexterity.com site name & I.P.: I think he quit supporting it at the right time. The market was changing, and dexterity.com needed to change with it to remain a viable concern. I think at THAT point it was worth a good deal of money, as it already had solid traffic, customer base, and reputation. But it needed a lot more to compete with, say, the casual portals that were then becoming a major influence in the casual games industry. Production quality (and expense) was rising, and direct competition was steaming ahead with plenty of investment capital.
I'm sure if his heart was still in it, Steve could have made the effort necessary to keep the site alive and thriving, evolving with the market. But I expect he saw it was going to be a rough battle ahead, and he really wanted to go a different direction in his life.
So I think after two years of languishing in an extremely dynamic marketplace, there wasn't much value left in dexterity.com for a game developer.
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