Indie game development

Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large companies can create independent games, they are typically designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the project. These games may take years to be constructed from the ground up or can be completed in a matter of days or even hours depending on complexity, participants, and design goal.

Driven by digital distribution, the concept of independent video game development has spawned an "indie" movement. These games often focus on innovation, and have occasionally become extremely successful.

History

The origins of indie video games may be traced back to the seventies, when there was virtually no established computer gaming industry. As video game companies developed they drew talent from this pool of programmers, though at no point actually eradicating it. The two have continued to co-exist. During the '90s, indie games were most commonly distributed as shareware or shared from friend to friend and therefore known as "shareware games".

Before the mid-1990s, commercial game distribution was controlled by big publishers and retailers, and developers of indie games were forced to either build their own publishing company, find one willing to distribute their game, or distribute it in some form of shareware (eg. through BBSs). With the rise of online shopping, it has become possible to sell indie games to a worldwide market with little or no initial investment by using services such as eBay and PayPal.

By the mid 2000s, many indie (computer) game developers have also taken the opportunity to make their games open source, thus rendering the group of possible participants much larger depending on the interest a project generates. This approach enables games to become much more complex as well as to succeed where a closed source version would be restricted due to limited resources (risking the possibility of vaporware). Several on-line communities have formed around independent game development, like TIGSource, Ludum Dare, and the indiegames.com blog.

Future

Recently several new independent games have been released for big budget consoles like the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. Many games that are being released for these consoles are ports of popular flash games and/or just plainly developed independent games that have received notice. Often indie games are completely programmer driven, due to lack of publisher funding for artwork. SYNTH is a example of such an indie game, receiving international acclaim for its procedural artwork.

Developer Jonathan Blow released "Braid", an indie platformer for the Xbox Live Arcade in August 2008, and the game has received a great deal of critical acclaim. It purportedly cost Blow $180,000 to fund the project.

On November 19, 2008, Microsoft launched Xbox Community Games, later renamed as Xbox Live Indie Games, which allowed independent developers to create games for the Xbox 360 using XNA development tools and sell them on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

At the moment an independent video game developer, 2D Boy, is one of the nine partners of the upcoming gaming on demand service, OnLive.

• Check out the free to use Video Game Design Hub

Motivation

As the development of a video game can be a very time consuming process, and independent games are often distributed for free, the question arises why someone would engage in such an endeavor when they could apply their software engineering skills to something which would give a reliable financial return on their investment, such as employment in the video game industry. The reasons vary per individual, but here are a few:

Personal Gratification

Creating a video game is a challenge, much like playing a video game, and can be very rewarding to complete.

Building a Portfolio

Having a portfolio of video game works can be beneficial to someone applying for a job.

Developing Engineering Skills

Solving problems in the development of video games will help in solving other problems in engineering.

Community

Involvement in independent video game communities will generally entail the development of video games.

Prototyping

Creating a small independent video game can help a developer explore a space where an innovative idea might be further developed into a commercial game. Publishing these games to the community can give valuable feedback.

Licensing fees

Personal computer platforms (such as Linux, Mac OS, and Windows) are traditionally financially more accessible to independent game developers than video game consoles. Aside from basic development costs, console game developers are required to pay fees to license the required Software Development Kits (SDKs) from the console manufacturer. Manufacturers often impose a strict approval process and take a percentage of the game's net profit in addition to yearly developer fees. As of this writing, to develop for Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, or Playstation 3 requires an SDK license fee of between $2,000 and $10,000 USD, in addition to yearly developer fees and profit cuts, although development for Xbox Live Indie Games only requires a US$99/year Creators Club membership and Microsoft takes only 30% of sales.[1][2][3][4][5].

See also

• List of indie game developers
• Game development
• Indiecade and Indiecade festival
• Independent Games Festival (IGF)
• Free software
• Open source
• Doujin soft

External links

• Madmonkey.net The oldest independent game showcase site
• The Independent Gaming Source - Independent gaming news, a similar group blog, with forums with an emphasis on the creative aspects of independent game development.
• IndieGamer Development Forum Focuses on business aspects
• Indie Games: The Weblog Another Independent gaming blog.