So here\u2019s a realization that I had about being an indie game developer, and it hit me when I was about to open up a project that I had no strong feelings for and wished I hadn\u2019t started.<\/p>\n
We indies get to make games that AAA developers don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Stuff about quirky indie games and why we get to do them follows the break!<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n Games like MineCraft<\/em>, They Bleed Pixels<\/em>, Offspring Fling<\/em>, and other quirky titles would be just plain unlikely from a AAA studio since they would\u00a0not<\/em> be guaranteed sellers. (Face it, MineCraft<\/em> sounds\u00a0awful<\/em> on paper from the perspective of a risk-avoiding publisher, even if it works very well\u00a0in practice.)<\/p>\n But\u2026<\/p>\n Those games are (at terms of cost vs. revenue) successful. Offspring Fling<\/em> has its fans, They Bleed Pixels<\/em> even has fan-art, and MineCraft<\/em> was a smash hit as far as indie games go.<\/p>\n Those examples are a bit narrow, but they kind of illustrate what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n An indie game doesn\u2019t have to sell\u00a0nearly<\/em> as many copies as a AAA game, even at the much lower prices indie games sell for. AAA games selling for $60 USD have to sell\u00a0hundreds of thousands<\/em> of copies to\u00a0break even<\/em>. (That is, to make as much money as was spent on making them.) Indie games, not so much. I don\u2019t have numbers for it since it varies so much between projects, but it\u2019s\u00a0nowhere near<\/em> as much as the multi-million dollar budgets common for big developers.<\/p>\n Some times we get caught up in trying to do things that AAA developers usuallly do. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s always the best option. In fact, it\u2019s almost\u00a0never<\/em> the right option.<\/p>\n We get to make weird stuff that big developers don\u2019t.<\/p>\n We get to make niche games (there\u2019s a Star Trek<\/em>-style starship bridge simulator that requires six players, six computers, and a freaking projector<\/em>, though I forget the title of it), extremely difficult games (Super Meat Boy<\/em>, anyone), games with unusual stories (Offspring Fling<\/em> is about a woodland creature gathering her scatted children after a run-in with a big dinosaur thing), and games that are unconventional in their mechanics (AirMech is a hybrid of RTS and\u00a0arena shooter<\/em>). We can make games that vary in other ways that I can\u2019t even think of.<\/p>\n And, well, we\u00a0have to<\/em>.<\/p>\n Trying to make a game that would take a team of dozens of people multiple years to make isn\u2019t going to work for a small team with little\/no budget, much less for us solo indies. We just can\u2019t do it like they can.<\/p>\n But we\u00a0<\/i>can do weirder, more unconventional, more\u00a0risky<\/em>\u00a0things that they can\u2019t. We can\u00a0afford<\/em> to.<\/p>\n These developers (as pointed out by another post from someone else) have\u00a0huge<\/em> costs to cover. Indies, for the most part, have little to no budget. We don\u2019t have the kind of expenses that Activision, Treyarch, or Ubisoft have.<\/p>\n I guess the point is this: We indies get to make games that are unusual, niche, or just plain silly because we don\u2019t have the same standard for a financial success as the major developers.<\/p>\n So\u2026<\/p>\n Keep in mind that indies get to do more \u201cout there\u201d kinds of games. To my indie brothers and sisters, indulge yourself in a fun, silly, or just unconventional project now and then. That\u2019s kind of one of the best parts of being indie.<\/p>\n Peace, love, and a little something nice,<\/p>\n \u2013 Henry<\/p>","time":"April 7th, 2013 9:02 pm","title":"Thoughts on Being Indie: We Get to do Weird Stuff","title_was_empty":false}