Indie Games - Doing gaming right

I really like Indie games. I don't know whats about them that draws me to them. I spent more time playing games like Aquaria, Dungeons of Dredmore, Recettear, Dungeon Defenders or World of Goo than any of the recent AAA titles minus a few. I had more fun playing a 5 to 15 dollar game than a 60 dollar AAA title. What is it about these games that make them so freaking fun? Maybe because they have a niche audience and can cater specifically to them? Maybe they're a little old school but manage to make it new? Maybe because they listen to their fans? Who knows really. All I know is more developers need to start paying more attention to their fans, because it pays off in the end.

With the recent increase of digital distribution, more and more indie games are popping up. Some of you may be asking what are these mysterious "indie games" that are getting more and more popular.

"There is no exact widely-accepted definition of what constitutes an "indie game". However, generally indie games share certain commonalities. Indie games are developed by individuals, small teams, or small independent companies. And, typically, indie games are smaller than mainstream titles. Indie game developers are not financially backed by publishers and usually have little to no budget available."

What this means is, they are in control of everything. They can change everything on a whim, granted that the whole team agrees, if they wish to. Instead of having to appeal to a broad audience and dumbing down games or mechanics they can make their games as unforgiving as they want. There is an audience for that. They're called roguelikes where the gameplay is so frustrating and unforgiving but just the right amount that make masochists crawl back to play over and over again.

The only problem is that there is almost no marketing for these games. Most travel from person to person on forums and gaming sites. I read around on a gaming forum quite a bit always on the lookout for new games and information. What I noticed is how many indie developers hang around there. They post about their games show a little and then constantly change or update things based on feedback. That is where I find most of my games. I've already talked about Carpe Fulgur and their successes and they are just one of many. A recent one caught my attention as I was reading about an upcoming old school dungeon crawler game called Legend of Grimrock.

What exactly happened was a fan asked why there weren't any clickable arrow icons for movement like many of the old school games. When asked why, he replied that he was disabled. The developers upon hearing that spent a couple hours and added optional clickable arrow icons into the game. Just for one person. When this happened, a random guy on the forums decided to send this story to reddit and various gaming sites and soon it exploded out of proportion. Their website went down from massive traffic overload and their email were flooded.

To quote one of the developers

"It's a bit sad to find out that even such a small gesture toward fans gets so much attention, because it says that there's a huge gap between the game creators and the audience in general, and people just aren't used to this kind of interaction,"

What he says is true. Its sad how many companies don't give a shit about their customers. Hell even some indie developers start drifting away from the community. Trendy Entertainment of Dungeon Defenders for one started going on a downhill slope. For one they decided that alienating their console players is a good idea. They stopped updating for consoles entirely. Next they started drifting away from their playerbase. They used to talk to their players often and update often. Now everyone is left in the dark then a patch comes out of nowhere with nerfs and bugs. People's characters get deleted, items are lost, and other things happen. When people sent emails for help it came back with a reply more than 3 weeks later saying they'll give them 10 million mana (not even worth 1 item) so they can start over. Really? Wait 3 weeks just for that?

I think what really attracts me to indie games is how approachable and human they are. I think thats what it comes down to. Love for their work, their fans, and their own game and it shows in the end product.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/27/indie-studio-almost-human-is-more-human-than-most/