One topic Graham Leggat's Game Engine column in Filmmaker regularly returns to is the rise of "independent gaming" in the videogame world. Just as independent filmmakers reacted against studio monoliths in the '80s to start a new wave of indie production, there is now a slowly emerging groundswell of developers doing something similar in the world of videogaming.

From the Guardian's gaming weblog comes this beginning-of-the-year piece, "Nine Foolish Videogame Predictions for 2005." One of these predictions is "The Rise of the Indie Scene":

"The dominance of EA doesn't necessarily mean the death of smallscale videogame production. Far from it. independent developers who distribute their wares via download sites will find that the combination of exploding broadband use and consumer alienation with asinine sequels, licenses and entrenched genres, will provide them with a growing audience. Check out sites like DIYgames and MadMonkey for more info. This year may well see the first genuine breakthrough indie hit, perhaps something like Zap from GarageGames, a vector-based multiplayer shooter melding iconic eighties visuals with modern gameplay depth. All that's required is a little canny word of mouth marketing. And an astonishing game, of course."

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/08/2005 01:02:00 PM

Comments (1)

 
Indie game dev is still getting a sense of itself, but the community is growing, and indie game designers are beginning to break new ground. We're still a long ways matching indie film in cultural recognition and affecting our industry, but we'll get there.

The indie game dev scene even has its first book:
"The Indie Game Development Survival Guide"And, yes, I wrote it. =)

My inspiration for the book came after I read Rick Schmidt's "Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices". I finished the book and thought, "Indie game dev needs a book like this."

Here's hoping that books about independent game development will eventually number even half of the texts on independent film, and that independent games might someday have even half the impact. :)

-David
JoeIndie.com
# posted by  David @ 1/21/2005 1:28 AM  

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