Love or Money?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 29, 2013

I was going to say that indie gaming has changed a lot in the years I’ve been involved. But after I thought about it a while, it really hasn’t. Ratios have changed, many of the players have changed, a few definitions have changed, but fundamentally it’s stayed the same. Here’s my gripe. I don’t really […]

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

The Era of Flash Comes to an End?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 25, 2013

When things end with a whimper, they aren’t exactly newsworthy.  I mean, when there’s an official sunset – some kind of milestone / gravestone where people can officially recognize its passing – by that point it has been practically dead and forgotten and only barely considered news. And bold proclamations of its upcoming demise when […]

Filed Under: Biz, Programming - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Let’s Not Eliminate the Game Publishers Just Yet…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 18, 2013

You’d think, as a guy who has been a self-proclaimed “indie evangelist” for years before indie games were cool (wait, we can’t be cool!), that I’d be an enthusiastic chorus for an article entitled, “Why Publishers Stand Between Us and Better Games.” Maybe a few years ago I would have been. And I generally don’t […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 11 Comments to Read

Turn Off “Always On” DRM

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 16, 2013

Last night, I was cleaning up some some things around the office, and I stumbled across my box for City of Heroes. City of Heroes was an awesome MMORPG I played for a couple of years. While I hadn’t played it in a while, I was sad to see the game shut down completely not […]

Filed Under: Biz, Geek Life - Comments: 14 Comments to Read

RIP LucasArts

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 4, 2013

My birthday is over, but the party continues!  Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon is on sale for 50% off right now via this site, and also Desura.  Even though I’ve been at the indie thing for a long time and know how it works, I’m still surprised at how many people I’d expect to […]

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Biz, Frayed Knights, Mainstream Games, Rampant Games, Retro - Comments: 16 Comments to Read

Do customers, developers, and press HAVE to be at each other’s throats?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 26, 2013

So are gamers, game developers, and the gaming press really becoming increasingly hostile towards each other? This article suggests as much:  Entitled Gamers, Corrupt Press, and Greedy Publishers My original comment when dozens of game developers and press-types began sharing this article was, “Thank goodness I’m an indie… I haven’t seen much of this.” And […]

Filed Under: Biz, Mainstream Games - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Concerning Garriott, Game Designers, and Corporate Overlords

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 21, 2013

Richard Garriott de Cayeaux offered a couple of controversial “zingers” (as he himself described them) in a recent interview with PC Gamer. The quote that caused the fuss was, “But other than a few exceptions, like Chris Roberts, I’ve met virtually no one in our industry who I think is close to as good a […]

Filed Under: Biz, Design, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 22 Comments to Read

The SimCity Deception

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 14, 2013

I’m a developer. I recognize the impact of software piracy all too well. Stating it as simply as possible: Software piracy remains a serious problem for game developers, which also makes it indirectly a serious problem for gamers, too. Now that is out of the way. But I want it noted that I sympathize with […]

Filed Under: Biz, Geek Life - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

I’m Too Young For Reboots and Remakes!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 5, 2013

When movies I loved as a kid started getting remade, I started feeling old. Remakes, in my mind, were for old black-and-white movies or foreign films. I could barely tolerate them when they were movies from my childhood that I barely remembered.  Although, admittedly, by “tolerate” I often mean “enjoyed, albeit with grumbling.” But reboots […]

Filed Under: Biz, Retro - Comments: 14 Comments to Read

So What Happens After Steam Opens the Floodgates?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 28, 2013

So Steam’s Greenlight was a failure. That may be a pretty harsh thing to say. For many developers and fans, Greenlight was pretty awesome. But as Valve founder Gabe Newell explained recently, “[Steam] should stop being a dictator and move towards much more participatory, peer-based methods of sanctioning player behavior. Greenlight is a bad example […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Guest Post: Craig Stern on graphics, imagination, and immersion

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 21, 2013

While Jay is out of town, some very talented folks have graciously offered to help out with the articles. Today’s article is brought to you by game author Craig Stern. And the letter G. Craig Stern is an indie developer currently working on the turn-based tactical RPG Telepath Tactics. He is the founder of IndieRPGs.com, […]

Filed Under: Biz, Guest Posts - Comments: 10 Comments to Read

An XBLIG Post-Mortem

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 7, 2013

XNA – Microsoft’s game library for XBOX, Windows, and Windows Phone – is riding off into the sunset. The “XBox Live Indie Game” marketplace is probably not far behind. And now one of the most successful developers in that space has a sobering analysis of its failures: What Went Wrong With XNA / XBLIG? All […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: Read the First Comment

Matt Chat with Chris Taylor – and the Undetermined Future of Gas-Powered Games

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 28, 2013

This is… sobering. And very frank. I wasn’t really a big fan of the Dungeon Siege series. But I have played WAY too much Supreme Commander 2, and Total Annihilation back in the day. I really enjoyed attending a talk by him many years ago at GDC. The interesting thing to me is the “vicious […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Shhhh! Don’t Give Them Any Hints!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 16, 2013

Steve Peterson (designer of the original Champions RPG, among other things) explains how the old models for game development (and game design) are now all but obsolete, and must change with the times: Trimming the Fat: How and Why Game Design Must Change   This is pretty much ancient history for most of the folks […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

The Cost of Development

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 14, 2013

When I hear gamers complain about the cost of video games – and arguing that indie games shouldn’t cost more than $X (X being an arbitrary number, almost always under 10, often less than 5), I wonder if they really understand the cost of making these games. I dream of one day turning “Rampant Games” […]

Filed Under: Biz, Game Development - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

The “Cheap Console” Market Heats Up!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 4, 2013

First there was the Ouya. It’s not vaporware – some local friends got their dev boxes last week, and have happily shared unboxing videos. One friend tells me that with a little bit of effort he’s gotten his game (written in Unity) working on it as well as on any other platform. So… it’s there. […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 8 Comments to Read



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