IP Rights – Why Are They Are Important to Indie Game Developers? Part 3

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 14, 2012

Okay, part three of my ramblings (I’m stressed out in a foreign country trying to post between 12-hour days, so forgive me) about IP. In this one I try to finally answer the question… “WTF?” Or, rather, “Why?” Let’s dispense with the lightning-in-a-bottle examples like Minecraft for a minute. Your average indie, making a game […]

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IP Rights – Why Are They Are Important to Indie Game Developers? Part 2

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 13, 2012

So yesterday I prefaced the whole “IP rights” thing with a story about a non-indie publisher. My feeling – echoed by most within the indie arena, but apparently not all – is that owning your own IP is a “necessary but not sufficient” aspect of your game being indie. But even within that, there’s a […]

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IP Rights – Why Are They Are Important to Indie Game Developers? Part 1

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 12, 2012

This is gonna be a multi-part article about a discussion we had last week (in comments) about Intellectual Property rights. Why are they such a big deal? Why should indies care (beyond the fact that, in the opinion of most, if you are working on someone else’s IP, you ain’t indie)? Let’s talk about a […]

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A Bundle Less Humble?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 7, 2012

Craig Stern (Telepath RPG, etc.) takes the recent Humble Indie Bundle to task for its inclusion of  the excellent (but not really indie) game Psychonauts in a blog post at Gamasutra: Humble? Sure. Indie? Not So Much. I wasn’t gonna make a big deal about this one either, but Craig makes some pretty convincing arguments. […]

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Dinner With Swords & Sorcery: Underworld Creator Charles Clerc

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 4, 2012

Friday night, my wife and I had dinner with Charles Clerc, of OlderBytes (formerly Classic Games Remade), creator of the upcoming Swords & Sorcery: Underworld Gold. He treated us to a great dinner at Le Fumoir, literally across the street from The Louvre in downtown Paris. Meeting fellow indies in other countries — that’s awesome. […]

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National Game Development Month

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 1, 2012

I think this should be “International Game Development Month.” But as it’s obviously riffing on “National Novel Writing Month” (or goofily abbreviated “NaNoWriMo”), I guess that’s the name that is (currently) sticking. Anyway – the idea is to make June the month that you make your game. Or games. To start and finish that idea […]

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Why “Because We May” & Indie Pricing Is Important

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 29, 2012

The Because We May sale is entering its last few days (so don’t forget to pick up a copy of Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon for all your friends while it’s still ultra-cheap! Sorry, that was Marketing Coyote talking… back to the other one!). During this event, I’ve seen a few comments on twitter […]

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Irony (Or: Same Industry, Different Worlds)

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 25, 2012

I feel a little morbid about this juxtaposition, but these happened on the same day: A major “mainstream” development house with a huge budget fails spectacularly, potentially dragging taxpayers (and, by reputation, the games industry) down with it. In spite of a recently launched game that’s reportedly exceeded publisher expectations and sold over a million […]

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Why Indie Matters

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 4, 2012

Indie. That label has been part of my life for about a decade now, since a little after it started replacing “shareware” as the term for those of us who made games without the benefit of publishers. Or, all too often, real budgets. But that isn’t to say it was a hobbyist movement. No, at […]

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: 16 Comments to Read

Indie Commercialization: Selling Out?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 30, 2012

At the A MAZE Indie Connect festival, Jonaten “Cactus” Soderstrom offered a keynote address commenting on the state of the industry – in particular, the ‘commercialization’ of the ‘indie game scene.’ It sounds like he dished out positives and negatives about how money has effected this side of the industry, particularly with its effect of […]

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One More Eulogy for the Arcades…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 27, 2012

Now, let’s say this up front: Life is better for gamers now than it was in the 1980s, by almost every conceivable measure. We have far more options, we can play or download games on the Internet without leaving the comfort of our chair (or toilet seat, if that’s your fancy…). The platforms are amazingly […]

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

New Voices of Indie Evangelism

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 23, 2012

I used to call myself an “indie evangelist,” back when nobody knew what “indie” was (or assumed that indie meant casual games).  For me, as a refugee from the mainstream game development industry, the promise of a market for games free from the domination by big publishers was irresistible.  You mean game developers could make […]

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Ludum Dare #23 Game Dev Competition Starts Off With a Bang!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 20, 2012

Ludum Dare has been going on for ten years. In a few hours, the latest game-in-48-hours competition will begin. The keynote for this competition – #23 – is exceptional. Chevy Ray doesn’t just give a ra-ra speech… he leads by example. Kind of. It’s just funny and cool. Chevy Ray’s LD#23 Keynote For another amusing […]

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Writing What You Game

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 16, 2012

I picked up Fez on Friday, and enjoyed about an hour or so enjoying the game.  It’s a nice twist on the 2D platformer genre. I don’t have enough experience in that genre to say if it’s unique, but it’s certainly new to me, and quite impressive how the game depends on warping a 3D […]

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Legend of Grimrock: Exactly What It Says on the Tin

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 12, 2012

The indie RPG Legend of Grimrock was released yesterday, and I pretty much took night off to play it. I don’t really do reviews here, but I do like to offer my “quick take,” especially when it has to do with indie adventure games and RPGs that I get a chance to play. And after […]

Filed Under: Game Announcements, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 12 Comments to Read

The Game Jam Survival Guide

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 9, 2012

I suck at game jams. Yes, I know, I even wrote an article about a game-in-a-week experience once upon a time, and I have found I need to review my own article and take my own advice. I think a lot of my failings in the game jam setting are the same failings I have […]

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