Amongst the outpouring of epithets and personal attacks resulting from yesterday's post arguing for price hikes, Alex F asks a curious question about the potential of indie games rising out of the rubble, in a thoughtful comparison with the rise of indie films. Certainly, the sequelitis which the industry is currently suffering from is a symptom of the fear many developers and publishers have about the cost of software failure. In fact here in the UK the industry is feeling the crunch: games companies are dropping or are being consolidated into North American giants. However, there are a few bastions of hope which do suggest that the games industry recognises and welcomes independent thought, particularly because indie games developers cut through the proverbial crap (because it costs too much), delivering what many of the bigwigs remember from their distant pasts as boy coders in their bedrooms: pure, unadulterated gameplay.
Loads of people responded with indie games festivals as a result of this post.
We covered independent games as avenues for agendas here.
You can play many independent games, including some UK offerings, via this post.
And Keith covers some indie games sites in his foolish predictions for 2005.
Another possible future is, again parallel with Hollywood, that these indies will be incorporated by the major players to act as "creative arms". While that still has some limitations, at least we'll get more for our buck than FIFA 2943.
