How The Rise of Indie Games Has Revitalized the Video Game Industry
The video game industry has enjoyed phenomenal growth over the last decade, with success set to continue. According to Digi-Capital, it’s on track to be worth $100 billion by 2017. This total will be aided significantly by new sales in China, after the entertainment format had its government imposed ban lifted in July 2015.
Success has brought with it a multitude of independent developers, much smaller studios than famous names such as Nintendo, Ubisoft, Capcom, and Bethesda. Their titles are created minus video game publisher support through relatively meagre budgets, yet have proven to be a surprise success in a market previously dominated by blockbuster franchises.
Over the last few years, indie games have taken the industry by storm. They've found commercial and critical acclaim across the world, and launched numerous small studios to international prominence, transforming the possibilities of video games along the way. This is an insight into how indies went from small beginnings to international success, and how anyone can join the market.
Indie games solve a creative dilemma
Although blockbuster titles like Grand Theft Auto (GTA) still reign supreme, record-breaking success for the industry has been tempered by an influx of derivative titles, with many developers eager to take advantage of video game genres that sell. This has led to the market being flooded with increasingly uninspired games, most notably with a peculiar obsession with violent first-person-shooters, along with an overreliance on graphical prowess over game quality.
The industry is still attempting to be taken seriously on a cultural level, with many of its critics dismissing games as childishly violent. Fans have attempted to defend their hobby, but results such as Netflix’s 2014 documentary Video Games: The Movie misguidedly attempt to dispel negativity. The result is an industry eager to be taken seriously as an art form, but being denied this status due to an endless array of ultra-violent releases.
There are, however, numerous major developers who cater to diverse audience interests. High quality, imaginative titles can be found from the likes of Nintendo, Square Enix, Naughty Dog, Ubisoft, and the erstwhile Capcom-funded Clover Studio. The latter produced much admired projects such as Okami (2006), acclaimed for its high artistic values, but its titles failed to sell and this led to the company’s closure.
While major developers struggle to popularize innovative titles, the emergence of indie developers has allowed the industry to showcase its true creative abilities. While major developers are often afraid to take creative risks, indies have been pushing the boundaries of video games, opening the door for a creative renaissance.
The rise of indie games
Indie games began to flourish from around 2008 onwards. Unrestricted by commercial demands and the expectations of fans, developers began to produce radical concepts. Easily distributed online at an affordable price, positive sales results and critical acclaim soon led to many small businesses forming to create games.
The arrival of the Internet era, and the remarkable rise of smartphones, considerably helped the movement. Along with now ubiquitous online capabilities for consoles and PC gaming, indie developers have a vast audience to target.
They have taken full advantage of the opportunity. The industry has been inundated with a new source of inspiration, with titles such as Teslagrad, SteamWorld Dig, Runner2, Year Walk, Ori and the Blind Forest, Never Alone, The Bridge, Alto’s Adventure, and Thomas Was Alone offering insights into philosophy, physics, history, and different cultures.
They have rapidly become a noteworthy antidote to the bizarre levels of violence, as displayed in blockbuster titles Call of Duty and GTA, which the industry had become far too dependent on. This has begun to noticeably affect the industry, and a number of big names are starting to pay attention.
More articles from AllBusiness.com:
- Ten Tips for Successful Off-Site Meetings
- App Discovery: Why Can’t Anyone Figure This Out Yet?
- Jaws’ 40th Anniversary Marks the Moment Cinema Became Big Business
- The Actual Cost of Hiring Inexpensive Web and SEO Developers
- Secrets to Winning the Sales Numbers Game
Making an impact
Some indie developers have struck gold, with notable cases like Finnish developers Rovio Entertainment (the makers of Angry Birds). Others have been swamped with international critical acclaim, such as California developers Yacht Club Games, whose Shovel Knight has achieved cult phenomenon status. Kickstarted in May 2013 and launched last year, Shovel Knight merges 1980s NES era graphics with modern sensibilities, and its success prompted its release on almost all formats.
The three-person team of U.S.-based Tomorrow Corporation has also enjoyed widespread appreciation for its remarkable games World of Goo, Little Inferno, and the newly-released Human Resource Machine. Other titles have reached a much broader audience. Markus “Notch” Persson’s Minecraft has, simply put, been an international sensation. Success stories like these have provided many in the industry with a wake-up call, and those outside it with the impetus to get up and do something.
It’s prompted major developers to consider different avenues, and Ubisoft is a notable example. Their big-selling franchise (Assassin’s Creed, which has spawned a Hollywood blockbuster starring Michael Fassbender) is renowned for numerous sequels and violence. However, the company’s sensitive smaller projects, such as Child of Light and Valiant Hearts, overtly display their talent for creating poignant, melancholic classics.
Indie startups: The basics
The great news is anyone with a passion for creativity can have a go at creating video games. Funding can come from services such as Kickstarter, but thousands of passionate indie developers often work on projects in their spare time and release titles for free. Success can lead to titles finding their way to digital distribution platforms like Steam, or they can be picked up for console or mobile publication.
One standout case was Dong Nguyen’s Flappy Bird. Released in May 2013, it had slow beginnings before, almost overnight, becoming a global sensation, eventually forcing its beleaguered creator to abandon the game and flee into solitude.
More commonly, success can be celebrated; Australian games studio MiniMega is an example. Created by Ben Huxter as a family venture, the company’s first game Bonza (for mobiles) has been a hit. Speaking to Mashable, he noted startups can make progress by doing something small and achievable, finding a gap in the market, looking beyond the gaming community, and choosing a revenue model carefully.
Huxter said, “When we first developed [Bonza], we were thinking, what would the best possible scenario for us? And we figured, the best possible scenario would be the kings of crosswords giving us recognition.” He added, “We hit marketing from two angles. We hit the games community and the crossword puzzle community. We hope that by breaking through to that many people, there's a chance they'll love it so much they'll either want to purchase more or get their families and friends involved.”
The 2012 documentary film Indie Game: The Movie documents what it takes to deliver a new title, and while there’s a consideration indie games may be a flash in the pan fad, their current success indicates they’re here to stay.
If you’d like to try some for yourself, there are a number of celebrated mobile indie games on my recommendations list at Lifehack.
RELATED: Coding vs. Programming vs. Web Development vs. Web Design—What’s the Difference?
