Why Indie CRPGS?
My console (possibly) dying on me has probably helped my productivity a notch or two. But as an RPG addict, I find myself looking for something else to fill the need. I have a ton of unfinished (or in a couple of cases, practically unstarted) mainstream RPGs sitting around, but I'm finding what I am craving is to settle down for some nice indie RPG action in-between my own marathon development sessions.

Yes, the indie games are doing a better job of "scratching the RPG itch" than the mainstream games. This shouldn't be much of a surprise, coming from me. Don't get me wrong - I love my big-budget RPGs, too. But David frequently kicks Goliath's butt in the battle for my attention.

Let me explain.

Butt-Kicking for Indie RPG Goodness!

Lately, my drug of choice has been Blossomsoft's awesome Eternal Eden. It has a very different rhythm and feel to it. I'll stop short (this time) of calling it strictly unique - I'm sure you can dig around a bunch of old-school Japanese imports or whatnot to find the games that may or may not have helped inspire it. But it has a feel to it which stands in contrast to other games that use the same engine. It's almost like a puzzle game - not to the extent of DROD RPG: Tendry's Tale, but it definitely feels more structured. That might sound like a bad thing when you are talking about play, but it's not.

And is it weird that my anticipation is higher for Amaranth Games' upcoming Aveyond 3 than it is for the upcoming release of Final Fantasy XIII? I mean, okay, the last Final Fantasy installment didn't thrill me - so we could just blame it on my disappointment. But I had as much fun playing Aveyond and Aveyond 2: Ean's Quest as I have playing many a mainstream game. Mechanically, it's in a whole different country from Eternal Eden, in spite of having the same engine as a foundation. The storytelling is presented differently. These games have a different feel, a different flavor, and a unique, playful sense of humor.

And the list keeps getting larger. With even more cool stuff hopefully coming down the pipe. I have high expectations of Age of Decadence and The Broken Hourglass kicking copious amounts of butt when they finally arrive. (Ya hear me, Jason? I said 'when,' not 'if!'). Once upon a time, "indie RPG" was synonymous with "Spiderweb Software." But while Jeff Vogel & company continue to produce some quality indie titles at a blistering pace, the universe is expanding even faster.

I ain't complainin'.

Indie Evangelism

Now, I call myself an "indie evangelist," not really an "indie game reviewer" (unless I'm writing reviews for other sites). I don't really do reviews of indie games on this site for a couple of reasons.

First of all - there's the obvious conflict-of-interest issue. The purpose of reviews is to provide guidance for purchasing decisions. Ideally, you've got an unbiased, trusted source providing some kind of comparison and making a recommendation. Magazines and websites, which do have a vested interest in sales and / or advertising, get around that by paying said theoretically unbiased third-parties to provide said recommendations. While I'm happy to do guest posts here, that's not really the purpose of this site.

Secondly - and this is a biggie - I do have a bias, even if I have no vested interest in the sales of a particular game. There is so much to like in the indie scene - even going down to the specialized niche of RPGs and adventure games - that I really don't have time to bother ranting about all the crap that's out there. We all know (or should all know) that without external barriers to entry, pretty much ANYTHING can be released as an "indie game," and there's an awful lot of junk that gets put out there and foisted off in the name of "indie." Or something. Digging through it all is time consuming, and I'm not that good at it yet, either. I live on solicitations and recommendations by others, too. It's not a perfect system.

But the big ol' ultimate point to my rambling - assuming there really is one - is that there are a lot of really cool, awesome games that come through, too. Especially with RPGs. We're talking worlds born from the imaginations of people who might as well be your neighbors - the person down the street with a dream, a vision, and the gumption to take on the insanely difficult task (yes, even with a fully featured game engine as a foundation) to translate this world from their imagination to an interactive game.

That's what I like to talk about. That's what I like to share. In spite of imperfections, blemishes, and sometimes downright dull parts, there is a lot of gold to be panned from the indie river, and I want to crow about it. While I usually don't want to directly compare a mainstream game with a $20 million budget to an indie game with a budget of donated time and peanut butter sandwiches, but there are often aspects where the indie games would come out the winner. And I want to call attention to that fact.

Indie Also Means Individual

When I was in junior high, Dungeons & Dragons was all the rage. Non-geeky-types were even experimenting with it, because they'd heard all this scandalous, controversial rumors about it. You wouldn't have to do much to find yourself in a game run by a stranger. Different DMs (the people who ran the game) all held different ideas and approaches to the game. Some of them admittedly just plain sucked, and I still want a refund on those hours of my life I wasted. But many of them provided us with adventures that were just boatloads of fun. The worlds and adventures we shared are pretty much lost in another decade now; I don't know that their creators would accurately remember them now. But these amateur game designers / storytellers would run us through the paces in their imaginary landscapes made "real" by word and interaction, and we had a hell of a good time.

Indie computer RPGs capture this feeling for me. What they may lack in polish and production values, these games often more than make up for in enthusiasm and creativity. The rawness can be an asset, allowing them to explore areas that their more refined mainstream cousins just can't go. The personalities of their creators shine through, reflecting a level of individuality in imagination that often gets filtered out or only revealed in tiny pieces in larger games designed by committee and corporate decree.

Game journalists often wonder why there are so few "superstar" designers appearing today that we had in previous eras. Where are the new Richard Garriotts, Shigeru Miyamotos, Sid Meiers, Jon Van Caneghems, etc.? I suspect there are a lot of 'em out there, but we don't hear about them because they are buried in faceless design teams while their producer with an MBA handles the interviews. Or they are going to be found among the indies, producing consistently cool, interesting, and most importantly fun games that will more often than not be ignored by those very same journalists.

Partying in Places Angels Fear to Tread

I think we've come to realize that as budgets have increased on video games, so has risk aversion. While indies have smaller budgets, they still have to worry about gambling with the rent money when it comes to making games. Still, with fewer barriers to entry and nobody in the middle putting the breaks on ideas out of fear, indies do find themselves with more freedom to innovate and do something different than their mainstream counterparts. Many take advantage of this situation.

You may be sick of the praise I have heaped on Depths of Peril. But to me, this is a shining example of something else that makes indie games so freakin' cool. It boldly goes where no mainstream RPG would dare to go, and IMO kicked butt and took names. I don't believe this gutsy, risky, innovative design was rewarded with massive sales (unfortunately, this isn't unusual). But I love that Soldak Entertainment was able to leverage their low indie overhead into the ability to take these kinds of risks.

While not strictly an unheard of idea in the mainstream (if you consider Princess Maker anything remotely "mainstream"), I really loved how Hanako Games' Cute Knight also fused an old-school dungeon-crawling RPG concept with "sim"-like elements, and gave it a personality all of its own.

As a Matter of Fact, They Do Make 'Em Like They Used To....

And when someone says, "They don't make 'em like they used to," they obviously aren't thinking of indies like Basilisk Games, creators of the Eschalon series, or Spiderweb. Then again - while these games certainly resemble some of the classics we used to love in many ways, they also provide fresh takes on the possibilities there. This is something else the indies bring to the table. There are fields that have been left fallow too long, and mainstream publishers are loathe to come back and revisit them.

But I believe that there is not only a lot of life left in these older ideas, but that these can provide us with a jumping-off point for new evolutionary tracks in this area. We disgruntled old-school gamers aren't just complaining because we're stuck in 1992 (or 2000, for those new-school old-school types who were dazzled by the Baldur's Gate series and the like... ) But in my opinion, part of our grumbling stems from the glimpse we caught of what CRPGS could be back then. The industry made its march towards one horizon, and refused to look back. Bully for them, but now the indies are taking a step back, turning, and marching forward in new directions. Maybe not the most obviously profitable ones, but there is a lot of unexplored territory out there.

A Love Letter and a Plea

Indies have great things going for them. How can a mainstream games possibly compete with all this?

This is why I evangelize these games. There is a lot to love. RPGs, in particular, are considered to be among the most difficult kinds of games to create, and yet indies are jumping in with both feet and producing worlds for me to explore. They might not tell stories worthy of Shakespeare (or even Spielberg), and their worlds might not be as beautifully rendered as Fallout 3, but they provide solid entertainment, a great experience, and often push the envelope in different directions. They may not all rock. But my hat is off to them for doing what they do.

Now I'm going to close with a plea. As awesome as these games are, as much fun as they are, and as much as I evangelize their strengths, indie cRPGs could do better.

There is too often a tendency to stick too closely to the formula - to try and re-make old favorites from the SNES era or whatnot. Even within the bounds of the pretty plain-vanilla jRPG system found in stock RPG Maker, there is a lot of room not only for exploration of mechanics, or exploration of character, story, and theme. There have been several indie games that have done this, even within the confines of the RPG Maker engine, but just need to be teamed up with quality art, writing, and game design. Push the boundaries, experiment, and break out of the box a little more!

Designers, don't be afraid to put more of yourself in the game. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I'm not looking for something that resembles a big-studio production from yesteryear - I'm looking for something with a solid voice, a personality. That's what makes your game stand out. Don't hide it.

While I do advocate breaking away from the mainstream to chart your own course, don't ignore the lessons of game design learned by your cousins in the big business. They've collectively made more mistakes than you could make in a hundred lifetimes. You don't need to repeat them.

Finally - as a fan of indie games, I'm definitely very forgiving of lower production values, old-school technology, and cut corners. That's fine. But that's no excuse for a failure to polish and provide what level of professionalism you can put into your games. Get a group of friends together to help you find your spelling errors, your bugs, and all those weaker aspects of your game before you release it to the public. (Don't let the grammatical and spelling errors of this blog be your guide!) Even if it's a free release - put your best foot forward. If someone finds your game incomprehensible or unplayable in the first five minutes, they won't finish it.

When I first started playing computer games, the whole industry was, effectively, "indie." The games that inspired me and turned a niche hobby into a thriving industry were often created by tiny teams of developers - sometimes even a single person. While a lot of things have irrevocably changed - and much of it for the better - it's good to know that in some ways we're coming back full circle. And I'm thrilled to see my favorite genre - RPGs - getting so much attention and life poured into it from the indies.

For an RPG fan, times are looking good.

Now go have fun!

Labels: Indie Evangelism, Roleplaying Games

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