Tales of the Rampant Coyote

Adventures in Indie Gaming!

Indie Day!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 4, 2013

So here in the U.S., it’s Independence Day – the day we celebrate the birth of our country, and the decisions and sacrifices of those who came before us over two hundred years ago. And, in spite of quite a number of well-documented challenges, I feel we’ve done pretty well. As a result, we’re a nation that has a cultural foundation of people doing their own thing, individualism, of being citizens rather than subjects, and a predisposition to “stick it to the man.” Our nation certainly doesn’t hold a monopoly on this – if anything, we are perhaps a product of a worldwide trend – but it’s a tradition that sticks with us today. I like to imagine that indie gaming – in it’s tiny, insignificant way – is a part of that same global, cultural legacy.

Yes, these are really grandiose thoughts for what really comes down to (generally) lower-budget interactive entertainment. It’s nothing in comparison. But it is something I feel passionate about. I am very grateful that I live in a place where this is something I have the luxury of spending time and effort focusing on something like this rather than daily survival. I wish everyone could have that kind of opportunity.

What the indie game movement has always been about is freedom. We get into all kinds of arguments about the definition of “indie,” and to a point I don’t think it’s a bad thing to argue over. But what it really boils down to is a comparison to what it’s not. It’s looking more and more like indie is becoming the rule rather than the exception, which is to me how things ought to be.

But to see what it’s not, you really don’t need to go too far back. While it was never 100%, for a couple of decades the video game market was dominated by a number of middlemen with money who acted as the gatekeepers to the market. They were called “publishers,” and for the most part their dominance was dictated by the existence of limited chokepoints dictated by technology. When it costs so much to set up a duplication run (especially for things like proprietary cartridges), when limitations are imposed by physical media size at a few brick-and-mortar locations, where the limited bandwidth of print media restricted coverage of games, it’s a natural breakdown of effort. If anything, it was a natural adaptation of the market to existing conditions. So you end up with a very hit-driven environment where there’s not much room for anything that’s not going to sell huge.

Being indie back then was a lot more subversive. The ‘shareware’ guys, the mail order guys – they had to fight to get noticed, had to take advantage of emerging technologies to compete, and really had to dodge around in the shadows of the big publishers.

Aside from that, for the most part, if you wanted to make your own game, you had to beg for the opportunity to make it from the publishing overlords. There was simply no other way to finance a game’s development, market it, manufacture it, and distribute it to the stores. This often meant being a good little soldier for the industry until you had enough savings and reputation (as a studio) to create a proof of concept to shop around for approval. Or for working your way up through an internal studio to the point where you might be entrusted with some amount of creative control over a project. And that was it.

Technology has changed a lot, and it no longer favors (IMO) the big gatekeeper middlemen as it once did.  The indie “revolution” was perhaps as natural and inevitable as the rise of the publishing giants in the 1980s and 1990s. What form things will eventually take in the future, I don’t know. What I do know is that I’m much happier making and playing games in a world where creative and talented individuals no longer need to beg for approval from a committee in order to start building their dreams. Yes, this has a downside – there’s a minimum bar of quality and originality that mainstream-published titles usually (but not always) cleared, and if anything the average indie game does not. This means a lot more effort across the board to separate the wheat from the chaff. But I think that’s a reasonably small price to pay for the gems that come out of this side of the industry. Or for the impact it’s had on the mainstream developers – I think our “AAA” games are better for having to compete with their tiny indie cousins.

So, in a nutshell… life is good. I’m having fun. I hope you are, too.


Filed Under: Biz, Geek Life - Comments: Read the First Comment



  • Felix said,

    How easily people forget about the times when you recorded your game on cassette tapes bought in bulk and peddled them to mom-and-pop computer stores in your city…

    But yes, I’m having a lot of fun when a game I made receives this kind of feedback. Then again, it’s easy when you’re not trying to make a living from it.

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