Saving the Industry one Independent game at a time.

With titans in the AAA industry such as EA and Activision grabbing at every penny you have amoungst the floods of call of dutys and fifa's lie a small vessel braving the storms of consumerism is Indie games and the developers that are a passion to make a difference with love and care for their product and their customer base.

I will be transparent here I love Indie gaming and the developers who make them, for me personally they give hope that there is still passion for an industry that has been on the rise of mainstream attention in recent years with giant publishers pushing their employees to breaking point and selling games that are not even finished in order to make some money. Independent developers I find want a more refined and polished product where their consumers can enjoy the whole package.

“The life of an indie developer can be dramatic, as they often scrape by on little to no income. This has led to a rush of mainstream human interest coverage.” -Polygon 2018

The Average person might not know what an Indie game is. It is a game that is developed without the financial backing of a publisher such as EA, Activision etc. The Indie community Is important because it is the first legitimate alternative to the publishing system since the majority of game developers left their bedrooms for the offices and studios in the late 1980’s.

An example of Indie developers in the lime light is the Atlatic ran a profile on the Indie superstar Jon Blow and last year The New York Times Magazine told the story of Zach Auchane, the developer of Dwarf fortress a game which is played and funded by only a few thousand loyal fans.

Games as a medium should be regarded as an art form and is apparent in the Indie scene. In the article Finally video games for adults by CNN, “Video games exist as an amalgam of many forms of traditional art, where the player is no longer merely an observer -- as one would be in admiring a painting on a wall or a sculpture on a pedestal. Rather, the player is an active participant in the emergence of the form.” At large the critical elite of journalist etc are beginning to shift away from their opinions of negativity towards Video games, a lot are now viewing it as a legitimate medium, one that can be used for much more than entertainment. Indie games, which generally lack an over all blood lust of AAA games, are playing a much more important role in winning hearts and minds.

Indie games as well resonate with gamers because they are a passion project in on themselves, they are created by developers that have a great love and passion for the medium that they are helping shape. A game that is a perfect example of a passion project is the title cup head by StudioMDHR. StudioMDHR was founded by two brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhaur, that loved developing games so much that they sold their houses to fund their studio and develop their game. This was a huge gamble for the two developers but it paid off as Cuphead has sold millions gaining widespread press. Cuphead is a run and gun shooter in the style of Contra. The game impressively, is completely hand drawn and touched up in Illustrator, which took many years to develop.

Software for video game production can come in two forms dominantly, 2D and 3D. With the boom in Independent game development there has been more of a focus on 2D artwork in the form of High bit graphics, an example of this being the title Owlboy which took 9 years of development and was built in Microsoft XNA. In regards to 3D games, studios have been dominantly built games in Unreal for years but with the inclusion of Unity users and developers have been able to build both 2D and 3D games using the same engine. Unity has a huge community of developers which provide feedback as well as their own add ons to the engine which helps with development.