Indie Gaming – It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 28, 2014

I’ve talked about it. Multiple times. For years. Jeff Vogel has talked about it. And not for the first time, either. Robert Fearon answered Vogel saying, “there is no bubble.” Megan Fox of Glass Bottom Games has weighed in. Gareth Fouche – ready to release his first commercial indie game System Crash – has laid bare his […]

Filed Under: Biz, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Indies, Evangelism, Tour Guides, and the Chatuchak Market

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 15, 2014

I was a cheerleader for the glut. Back when indie games – as a whole – needed the attention because the mainstream titles were hogging the spotlight, I called myself an “indie evangelist.” I was a cheerleader for the indie revolution, in my own small way. We, the indies, were going to break the shackles of […]

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Overwhelmed By Choice

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 21, 2014

This weekend wiped me out, and kept me going almost constantly. I have a couple of unfinished larger posts, but I didn’t want to leave you empty-handed on a Monday. So here are a couple of things continuing to make me think: “An Algorithm for Discovering Hidden Gems” by Lars Doucet talks about putting in […]

Filed Under: Geek Life, Indie Evangelism - Comments: Comments are off for this article

The Best-Kept Secrets

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 15, 2014

I once heard a veteran of the arcade-game industry talk about how the arcades were a great place for business Darwinism: Rapid turn-around, and the successes quickly rose to the top while the lesser games – and it was implied these were “not great” games though not necessarily bad games – quickly disappeared. According to […]

Filed Under: Biz, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Breaking the Chains – How the Game_Jam Fiasco Brought Out the Best of Indie Game Dev

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 1, 2014

I’m still not sure how to respond to the reports of the big “Game_Jam” fiasco. If you haven’t heard, here’s the original report by Jared Rosen at Indie Statik, and a follow-up by Polygon. If you don’t want to read it – here’s kind of my summary: A company wanted to make a big-budget game […]

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Dem Indie Game Dev Blues

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 24, 2014

When I was a kid, I thought making games for a living was a dream job. I mean, I loved games. And while I wasn’t good at it (except in my parent’s eyes, I guess), I taught myself to program well enough to make games. I loved doing that. I’d come home from the arcade […]

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

IGF Winners for 2014

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 21, 2014

I’m sad to say I haven’t played any of the IGF winners this year. I’ve definitely heard many of their names quite a bit – Risk of Rain, The Stanley Parable, and Papers, Please have kinda been everywhere over the last few months. I suddenly feel so out-of-touch. Or maybe I’m just channeling my inner […]

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Clogging the Crap-Filters

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 6, 2014

Long ago, I called myself an “indie evangelist.” I could see the awesome indie games coming out that nobody had ever heard of, and thought, “Wow! Look at what these indies are doing! If only people were to pay attention, and actually try these games and make them profitable, we could have more of these […]

Filed Under: General, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Indies: We Eat Cannibals

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 13, 2014

I really haven’t weighed in very much about the whole “Flappy Bird” flap. I never played it. My familiarity with the game came entirely from reading news about it over the last two weeks. Here’s what I learned, in the order that I’d obtained the kowledge, plus my thoughts, at the time, in parenthesis: 1. […]

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

“Just Another”

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 24, 2014

This last week, I bought “just another” indie RPG and “bullet hell” shooter. Why? Good question. I have a zillion games now, and don’t have time to play them all. So why pick up a couple of mediocre-sounding titles? Well, in the case of the indie RPG… I like to support the indie RPG community.  […]

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

The Trademark Bullies Strike Again

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 22, 2014

When I heard that the Candy Crush Saga creators actually hired gambling industry experts as consultants to help them extract the maximum amount of money from their players, I thought they were real scumbuckets. Apparently, that comparison was completely unfair to actual scumbuckets. Now they have gone and trademarks words commonly used by games. Like […]

Filed Under: Biz, Indie Evangelism, Politics - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

What Does “Release” Mean Anymore?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 2, 2014

I used to be able to keep up with what I thought was a sizable chunk of at least what I considered “major” indie RPG releases in a year. Major meaning … like, not something a kid wrote in a week of owning RPG Maker and “released” via link on some forum post somewhere. Now […]

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Jeff Vogel Reminds Indies That Reality Is Inevitable

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 6, 2013

It’s funny — I didn’t think of this article as depressing at all. I actually find it somewhat refreshing…. The Bottom Feeder: Marketing, Dumb Luck, and the Popping of the Indie Bubble At this point, I’d say, just read it. Come back here if you want to later, but really… read what Vogel has to […]

Filed Under: Biz, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

The Blackwell Give-Away – A Halloween Horror Movie

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 5, 2013

While it wasn’t a horror movie, it sounds like it could have been. An innocent, fun Halloween celebration goes terribly wrong for an indie game developer. If you haven’t heard the story already, here’s my break-down, re-told as a horror movie plot. Hollywood, take note! Like many a good horror movie, the establishing shot shows […]

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Biz, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Indie Games: Learning From Failure

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 1, 2013

Just a couple of links to articles today. As usual, when these articles call out the failures, I wince. I’ve done a lot of these myself. This first one comes with a great warning: The following list might be filled with things so stupid that you wouldn’t ever imagine doing them, and yet I did […]

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism, Production - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Jeff Atwood Revisits Masters of Doom

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 22, 2013

Somebody lost my original copy of Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture, so I was forced to buy another copy. Forced, because that’s a book I feel belongs in my permanent library. In fact, I think it is mandatory reading for any indie game developer (or aspiring indie). […]

Filed Under: Game Development, Indie Evangelism, Retro - Comments: Comments are off for this article



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