Tales of the Rampant Coyote

Adventures in Indie Gaming!

Why Game Industry Talent is Going Indie

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 24, 2011

Yet another article about the migration of veteran mainstream game developers going indie:

Feral Developers: Why Game Industry Talent is Going Indie

I remember the first IGF. I was a mainstream game developer with three hit games under my belt. These poor IGF guys were standing next to their creations as we walked by. I took a look, briefly, but my arrogant assumption at the time was that these guys were here at GDC with their creations in hopes of finding employment with a major studio.

Later, even after I was “going indie” myself, it seemed that I was moving backwards. While many indies were content to remain indies (especially when casual games were starting to make their run-up to success), many developers saw indie game development as a launchpad for a career in bigger-budget, mainstream games.

I don’t know if I could say that trend has reversed, but it definitely goes both ways now. Being indie is a very tough row to hoe. But for developers who really crave freedom, creativity, entrepreneurship, and just plain love games, it may be the best way to go.

Hat tip to Gareth Fouche for the link.


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



  • jzoeller said,

    Good Article,I am happy right where I am 🙂

  • Xian said,

    The article rings true with me. Twenty years ago the company I had been working with since the late 70s shut down and I was out of a job. I had been writing small programs for the Atari ST and to a lesser extent on the Amiga, and enjoyed the mental challenge of programming. I thought that I might make a career change at that point in my life and thought I might try programming for a living. I wasn’t specifically going down the game development path, but more along the lines of graphics and more general purpose. After a couple interviews and showing my small portfolio, I quickly realized that the type of programming that I enjoyed doing on my own was NOT what I was going to be doing working for someone else. I still ended up switching careers, but went to into networking instead of programming. I can easily see what the article refers to is what would have happened to me, losing your freedom having to work on other people’s projects instead of following your own interests and schedule.

  • Why Mainstream Developers are Going Indie, Redux said,

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