Category Archives: indie games

No More GDC Austin

By Rubes | Published: May 29, 2010

Well, not the usual GDC Austin, at least. It seems that GDC has decided to reformulate (and rename) the former GDC Austin as GDC Online, which is now geared towards “connected games including casual, MMOs, virtual worlds, and social networking games.” So instead of a smaller version of the more general GDC, it’s now focusing primarily on online games.

I’m disappointed, but I think I can understand the move. I really liked having a smaller, more accessible GDC than the big one in San Francisco. It probably makes more sense to have a meeting that focuses on a particular area of game development, rather than just another “mini” GDC, especially with the rise of other conferences and meetings like PAX and IndieCade, both of which are around the same time in the fall.

I have no particular interest in the topics of GDC Online, so that’s a conference [More...]

Also posted in miscellaneous | 2 Comments

IndieCade Submissions Open; Panic Ensues

By Rubes | Published: April 6, 2010

Another year, another indie game festival deadline.

IndieCade, the International Festival of Independent Games that takes place each year in the fall, is now open for submissions for the 2010 event. The deadline for submissions is June 1st, which means we have less than two months to whip Vespers into shape — or at least into enough shape that it doesn’t embarrass itself in the weight room.

I’ve never been to the event, but a number of notable games have been recognized the past couple of years during the festival. Last year’s finalists included Brenda Braithwaite’s Train, Tale of Tale’s The Path, Hemisphere Games’s Osmos, and even an IF game, Jim Munroe’s Everybody Dies. In 2008, Amanita Design’s beautiful Machinarium was the Aesthetics winner, while Jason Roher’s Gravitation took the Jury Award. So I think it’s safe to say that IndieCade has done a nice job in the recent past [More...]

Also posted in indie game competitions | 4 Comments

Anticipation III

By Rubes | Published: January 24, 2010

I don’t play as many games as I’d like to anymore, but I do try to sneak in as many as I can. For the most part, I don’t spend much time with the big ticket AAA games, in part because I don’t have a console, and in part because my desktop is getting a bit long in the tooth (is 7 years too old?). So while I figure out if I’m ever going to rectify that one way or the other, I keep my focus largely on the indie scene. And so, every now and then, I catch wind of a new indie game under development that stirs my interest, and I follow along in anticipation of its eventual release.

Such was the case back in October last year with Amanita Design’s Machinarium, and prior to that about a year ago with Tale of Tales’ The [More...]

Posted in indie games | Leave a comment

Indie, Part-Time

By Rubes | Published: October 9, 2009

As I was cruising around GDC Austin from one session to the next, I began to gain a greater appreciation of how much of the conference was geared toward the business side of game development. This isn’t surprising, of course, given that game development is an entertainment business, and GDC is all about how developers can do all parts of their jobs better. But whether it’s because of the tough economic times, or the rapid saturation of the iPhone game market, or the wide proliferation of MMOs and social games, or the plummeting price point for online and mobile games, it just seemed like there was a greater emphasis on economics than I experienced last year, unless I’m just forgetting.

There were many sessions at the conference on how to maximize things like productivity, exposure, earning potential, sales, and so on. How to pitch your game to publishers. How to [More...]

Also posted in game design, indie game business | 2 Comments

Anticipation II

By Rubes | Published: October 2, 2009

Back in February of this year, I wrote about an indie game that I was really looking forward to: The Path. The game has since been released, of course, and I would say it was well worth the wait. Not necessarily because it was a great game—as with their earlier piece, The Graveyard, it was less a game than an interactive narrative experience—but because it was a well-crafted work that encouraged and successfully produced a good deal of dialogue about its subject matter and about interactive narrative in general.

Another piece that has been on my radar for some time is Amanita Design’s Machinarium. They’ve been making the rounds for some time now with occasional blog pieces, early pre-order specials, and rare teaser trailers. They even provided those who pre-ordered the game with a special “pre-order pack” consisting of hi-res screenshots and soundtrack previews. So they’ve done a [More...]

Also posted in adventure games | 1 Comment

The One Thing He Forgot To Mention

By Rubes | Published: May 21, 2009

It’s blog post number 100, so time to catch my breath. Crazy string of weeks there from April through mid-May, trying to make deadlines, having those deadlines pushed back, trying to make the deadlines again, and so forth. Some successes, some failures, but you can’t argue with the fact that deadlines are great for getting shit done, even if you don’t get it all done.

It’s a little weird because my day job is filled with deadlines. Basically, it’s like a slow march from one deadline to the next, and every so often I get caught up in it and spend massive amounts of time working like crazy to finish under the wire. But that’s work. This was a deadline for a hobby. None of the panic, despair, and regret to deal with. It was a very different experience.

One of those deadlines was for the last Utah Indie Night, [More...]

Also posted in Vespers, game design | 3 Comments

Indie Gaming on NPR

By Rubes | Published: April 17, 2009

NPR’s On The Media is running a story this weekend on the independent computer gaming scene called, “DIY Gaming”. It’s free to listen to or download on NPR’s site, if you’re interested.

Pretty standard stuff, although it concentrates mostly on the console scene, with a particular discussion of Microsoft and XNA. There was a nice portion at the end on Chen’s “Flow” and “Flower”, but in general it was not a very deep discussion, and it really didn’t go into the PC indie scene at all — except for a mention of how designing games just for computers, rather than consoles, is too limiting and not “the big leagues”, based on the size of the user base. There was some mention of the creativity and experimentation in the indie world, and how this should eventually revitalize the mainstream industry, but all in all a relatively shallow discussion.

Still, it’s [More...]

Posted in indie games | Leave a comment

Anticipation 1

By Rubes | Published: February 26, 2009

A couple of indie games that have been in development for some time are nearing completion. I’m jealous. I’ve also really been looking forward to both, so I’m also very happy.

I’ll talk about one of them later, but one I’d like to mention now is The Path, a game by Tale of Tales. I’ve discussed this title briefly in the past, but I’ve been following it for quite a while. These are the folks that made The Graveyard, the art title about an old woman in a cemetery that generated a lot of discussion on the tubes about games as art, and challenged people’s assumptions about what technically constitutes a “game.”

From what I’ve seen so far it appears likely that The Path will again stimulate conversations about games as an artistic and storytelling medium. See for yourself.


The Path, Grandmother’s House teaser 1 – the hall from [More...]

Also posted in games as art | 1 Comment

(Indie) Business is Business

By Rubes | Published: February 24, 2009

Generally speaking, this is a good time to be an indie game developer. There are scores of inexpensive development tools and environments to choose from, many potential opportunities and channels for marketing and sales, and a number of great online communities for discussion and support. It’s tough to make it as a full-time job, though. A few individuals or groups have done consistently well over the years, and of course there are the recent stories like Braid making everyone drool over the possibility of big-time success even for small developer groups. But for the most part, it’s incredibly tough to find that sweet spot of just enough critical and financial success.

Take the story of Mousechief’s Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble, for instance.

Mousechief has been at it for some time, with a pretty nice track record — a finalist at the first IGF in 1999 (Flagship Champion), [More...]

Also posted in indie game business | 2 Comments

Making the Rounds: Machinarium

By Rubes | Published: February 5, 2009

This game has topped my list for Most Anticipated Seriously Beautiful Game for some time now. Amanita Design is a small group of indie game developers responsible for some very cool, short point-and-click Flash games in the past: Samorost1, Samorost2, and Questionaut, which was nominated for a British Academy Award. Hell, they’ve even made a short little adventure for a band I’ve enjoyed listening to in the past, The Polyphonic Spree, which includes some previously unreleased music. In each case, the recognizable artwork is beautiful, the gameplay is light and engaging, and the accompanying music and sound effects are charming.

For a while now they’ve been bringing this same style to a full-length adventure, Machinarium, which is an IGF finalist this year for Excellence in Visual Art. I’ve been following along from afar, and every small snippet I’ve caught has been raising my [More...]

Also posted in adventure games, games as art | 2 Comments