Not sure why, but I have been posting only audio and video the last week or so.
Anyway, this year’s Game Developers Conference had a still growing contingent of independent game developers to the extent that it was becoming something of a scene (in a positive sense – see you at the Cellar next year).
But what is Indie anyway? This video from the Independent Games Festival frames that question:
I think that’s the first time Mega 64 has made me smile since the last time they had a Dan Paladin cameo. In the last one I don’t think he was even wearing shoes. He’s like a hobbit!
Also, I’d never seen this video or it’s title before. Yet on seeing my blogroll read “If You’re not Indie…” I kind of intuitively knew exactly what followed.
I’m just glad the indie scene has a sense of humor!
Does the casual scene have a sense of humor? I don’t personally know enough people who make them. I feel like it’d be vital. The idea of somebody saying “Girls like unicorns, right?” while making Peggle makes me really sad.
The casual people I know are pretty funny – but I guess the whole setup is a little different: indie games are supposed to be about self-expression, casual games are more of a craft.
That video actually made me think … “indie” game culture, with the opening of new distribution channels (community games, etc) and low cost development tools (XNA, Farseer, Ogre, etc) really does have a parallel to indie music culture, which is known for having a really passionate following.
It’d be interesting to see if, through the continued support of independent gaming, it can reach where indie music has gone. Game developers getting picked up through MySpace? College kids exclusively playing sub-par homebrew games because “they’re more real”? We can only hope …
I do think that we can see a kind of indie game culture emerging (though no one knows exactly what it means), and it does seem that there is an emerging audience as well.
@ Alan:
The “sub-par” thing is a bit biased on your part, no? If by “sub-par” you mean “not hip hop, country, oldies, or 90s rock,” then sure. In any case, one thing that’s surprising is that indie games are getting absorbed into gamer culture much faster than indie music did (probably because it was around well 20 years before most people had access to the Internet).
The downside of the analogy is that many indie bands, when they end up getting signed, end up making their music conform to the standards of agreeable listening for a radio audience. Most recent examples would be TV on the Radio, Animal Collective, then going back a few years Spoon and Modest Mouse. I wouldn’t want to see this happen to indie games. Luckily, games already have a tradition of independent release over the Internet. The problem is how to get money into the indie developers’ hands without watering down the artifact.
I love that one. Saw it a couple of days ago. Best part is the “made possible by Microsoft & Sony” line at the end. The Mega64 guys hat a lot of fun, eh?
The “I’m independent” video is also very nice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE9TcY_bcEg
@Alan Jack: Can you explain what you mean by “sub-par”?
@ Krystian:
The Indie Gods Must Have Blood.