Games | Indie Game Development
Everything you need to know about Indie game development
What are indie games, a brief history of indie game development, development process, dynamic nature of indie community and impact.
Introduction
Individuals or smaller development teams that make games without the financial and technical support of a large publisher are called indie games¹. It is due to the virtue of their independence and freedom to develop, such games have a heavy focus on innovation, experimental gameplay, and taking risks which are not usually afforded in AAA games, and may explore the medium to produce unique experiences.
Unlike the big-budget titles made by the top developers, indie games are made by people working on their own dime. Most indie games tend to be sold through digital distribution channels rather than at retail due to lack of publisher support. It would not be an error to draw a parallel with independent music or independent films in their respective mediums.
Just before we head towards the major part, Is there any alternative to indie games?
Well then you come right back to the mainstream, which is to work at a video game studio where you are likely to work with a large team and receive an annual salary. This is the most common² route taken by aspiring game developers because it means you’re actually getting paid for your work.
Definition : Overdrive
- It is important to understand that there is no exact, widely accepted definition of what constitutes an “indie game” besides falling well outside the bounds of triple-A video game development by large publishers and development studios.
2. Indie games generally share certain common characteristics. One method to define an indie game is the nature of independence, which can either be:
- Financial independence: The developers have paid for the development and publication of the game themselves or from other funding mechanisms, specifically without financial support of a large publisher.
- Independence of thought: The developers crafted their game without any oversight or directional influence by a third party.
3. Another way to evaluate a game as indie is to examine its development team, with indie games being developed by individuals, small teams, or small independent companies that are often specifically formed for the development of one specific game.
4. However, there have been numerous cases of games where development is not independent of a major publisher but still considered indie. Some notable instances of games include:
- Journey was created by thatgamecompany, but had financial backing of Sony as well as publishing support.
- Bastion was developed by Supergiant Games, but with publishing by Warner Bros.
- No Man’s Sky was developed by Hello Games, though with publishing but non-financial support from Sony; the game on release had a price equal to a typical AAA title.
5. It could not be ignored that being “indie” does not imply that the game focuses on innovation. In fact, many games with the “indie” label can be of poor quality and may not be made for profit. Jesper Juul, an associate professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts is of the view that there are three ways in which the games can be called indie.
a. The ones that are financially independent of large publishers,
b. The ones that are aesthetically independent and significantly different from the mainstream art and visual styles used in AAA games.
c. Last but not the least, those that present cultural ideas that are independent from mainstream games.
Juul however, wrote that ultimately the labeling of a game as “indie” still can be highly subjective and no single rule helps delineate indie games from non-indie ones.
Indie Game Development: Origins³
- It bore out from the same concepts of amateur and hobbyist programming that grew with the introduction of the personal computer and the simple BASIC computer language in the 1970s and 1980s, the so-called bedroom coders made their own games and used mail order to distribute their products, later shifting to other software distribution methods with the onset of the Internet in the 1990s such as shareware and other file sharing distribution methods.
- Since indie games offered a non-traditional gameplay from mainstream games in addition with numerous factors like technical, economic, and social concepts that made indie games less expensive to make and distribute, contributed in making them much more visible to larger audiences.
A bit of a history lesson is sure to aid you in better analyzing the present day patterns in the game development industry, especially indie game development.
The onset of indie game development is difficult to track due to the broadness of what defines an indie game.
1. The bedroom coders phase (1970s–1980s)
There is some debate as to whether indie development started before PCs with games developed for mainframe computers at universities and other large institutions.
When the first personal computers were released in 1977, they each included a pre-installed version of the BASIC computer language along with example programs, including games, to show what users could do with these systems. While the manufacturers also had released commercial games that could be purchased for computers, the availability of the language led to people trying to make their own programs.
The ZX Spectrum was popular among British hobbyist programmers and helped to kick off its video game industry in the 1980s.
2. Shareware and Consoles (1990s)
The recognition of the personal computer as a viable gaming option, and advances in technology that led to 3D gaming, created many commercial opportunities for video games. The visibility of games from these single or small team studios waned, since a small team could not readily compete in costs, speed and distribution as a commercial entity could. The industry had started to coalesce around video game publishers that could pay larger developers to make games and handle all the marketing and publication costs as well as opportunities to franchise game series. The market also became fractured due to the prevalence of video game consoles, which required expensive or difficult-to-acquire game development kits typically reserved for larger developers and publishers.
Shareware games became a popular means to distribute demos or partially complete games in the 1980s and into the 1990s, where players could purchase the full game from the vendor after trying it. At the time, shareware was generally associated with hobbyist programmers, but with releases of Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 and Doom in 1993 showed that shareware proved itself to be a viable platform for titles from mainstream developers.
3. Indie games and digital distribution (2000−2005)
Availability of online distribution over the Internet, allowing game developers to sell directly to players, bypassed limitations of retail distribution and the need for a publisher. The new interest in indie games led to middleware and game engine developers to offer their products at low or no cost for indie development, in addition to open source libraries and engines. The commercial possibilities for indie games at this point helped to distinguish these games from any prior amateur game.
Many of the games to be indie games of this period were considered to be the antithesis of mainstream games, while many of them took a retro-style approach to their design, art, or other factors in development, such as Cave Story in 2004, which proved popular with players.
4. Transition and increased visibility (2005−2014)
Indie games saw a large boost in visibility, a key driver was the transition into new digital distribution methods with storefronts like Steam that offered indie games alongside traditional AAA titles, as well as specialized storefronts for indie games. Direct online distribution helped indie games to reach players, these storefronts allowed developers to publish, update, and advertise their games directly, and players to download the games anywhere, with the storefront otherwise handling the distribution and sales factors.
Moreover, introduction of inexpensive development tools and low barrier storefronts like App Store and Google Play, greatly contributed to make indie games popular.
Various key concepts of video game development for mainstream titles also apply to indie game development which we discussed in our last article in detail, the key differences lie in how the development of the game is connected with the publisher or lack thereof.
- Development Team
Since there is no definitive size on how big an independent game development studio might be, there are several successful indie games that were all developed by a single person, though often with support of artists and musicians for those assets, although it is entirely possible for development teams to be larger, there becomes a higher cost overhead of running the studio, which may be risky if the game does not perform well.
2. Development tools
Development of personal computer games typically rely on existing game engines, middleware and game development kits to build their titles, citing lack of resources to build custom engines. Common game engines include Unreal Engine and Unity, but there are numerous others as well. Indie developers may also use open source software and homebrew libraries, which are freely available but may lack technically-advanced features compared to equivalent commercial engines.
3. Publishers
Most indie games lack a publisher with the developer serving in that role, some publishers known as boutique publishers, have stepped in to support indie games. Some of them are: Raw Fury, Devolver Digital, Annapurna Interactive and Adult Swim Games. These boutique publishers, having experience in making indie games themselves, typically will provide necessary financial support and marketing but have little to no creative control on developer’s product as to maintain the “indie” nature of the game.
4. Funding
The lack of a publisher requires an indie developer to find means to fund the game themselves.
- Crowd-funding campaigns, a more recent phenomenon both reward-based and equity-based, have been used to obtain the funds from interested consumers before development begins in earnest, its practice has significantly waned as consumers became wary of campaigns that failed to deliver on promised goods. A successful crowd-funded campaign typically requires significant development work and costs associated with before the campaign is launched to demonstrate that the game will likely be completed in a timely manner to draw in funds.
- Digital distribution which is another mechanism is the early access model, in which interested players can buy playable beta versions of the game to provide software testing and gameplay feedback. Those consumers become entitled to the full game for free on release, while others may have to pay a higher price for the final. This can provide funding midway through development, but like with crowd-funding, consumers expect a game that is near completion, so significant development and costs will have had to be invented already.
5. Distribution
Steam remains the largest digital storefront for personal computer distribution, a number of other storefronts have opened like Itch.io, established in 2013, more focused on serving indie games over mainstream ones, providing the developer with store pages and other tools to help with marketing.
On consoles, the distribution of an indie game is handled by the console’s game store, once the developer has been approved by the console manufacturer. Similarly for mobile, the distribution of the game is handled by the app store provider once the developer has been approved to release apps on that type of device. In either case, all aspects of payment, redemption and distribution are handled at the manufacturer/app store provider level.
In nearly all cases with digital distribution, the distribution platform takes a revenue cut of each sale with the rest of the sale going to the developer, as a means to pay for the costs of maintaining the digital storefront.
Dynamic Community and Impact
Indie developers due to the nature of their development have to be highly collaborative, for sharing knowledge with each other to provide testing, technical support and feedback. They tend to open up to their target player community, engaging users regularly through storefront pages and communication channels such as Discord. Indie games have been recognized for helping to generate or revitalize video game genres, bringing new ideas to either stagnant gameplay concepts or creating whole new experiences.
Conclusion⁴
So after going through this article in all likelihood, maybe later if not now, a question might pop up in your mind, Which one is better: Indie game development or working in a studio ?
Neither is necessarily better than the other; it all depends on the individual. Independent game development is for those who want total creative freedom, even if it means no guaranteed paycheck and extra-long hours working during their free time.
This is a bonus section about some basic terminologies in the games industry which you may choose to skip, your choice!
III, AAA, AA, open source games ? Let’s clear them out.
What are triple-I games?
Games that are not as large as most triple-A games, but are developed by larger independent studios with or without publisher backing and that can apply triple-A design principles and polish due to the experience of the team, have sometimes been called “triple-I” games. Ninja Theory’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is considered a prime example of a triple-I game.
What are AA games?
AA games tend to be much bigger both in scope and budget than indie development but smaller than AAA games on the same parameters previously mentioned. They also tend to retain creative control from a publisher.
Time to address the elephant in the room, AAA games….
In simple words, AAA video games are to the gaming world what blockbusters are for the film industry, or at least what they are expected to be and just like blockbusters, they usually involve huge teams working for months to years to make a finished product, employed by a major studio. This is normally followed by a big marketing campaign with ads that show up everywhere, as well as a long preorder so people can get the game as soon as it comes out. These games are then distributed by large well-known publishers, such as Nintendo, Sony, Activision, or Electronic Arts.
How are indie games distinct from open source games?
The latter are games which are developed with the intent to release the source code and other assets under an open source license, while many of the same principles used to develop open source games are the same as for indie games, open source games are not developed for commercial gain and instead as a hobbyist pursuit.
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Please refer to the references below, for further reading:
References
1. indie games | Indie game development Wikipedia
2. common | Is Indie Game Development A Good Career Choice? We Weigh the Pros & Cons. You Decide. by Dustin Tyler
3. Origins | 6 Steps to Getting Started in Indie Game Development by Joe Bustamante
4. Conclusion | What are AAA (Triple-A) Video Games? by vann vicente