Indy computer games on the rise again
INDEPENDENT COMPUTER GAMING. It\ufffds not always pretty, but ask any one in the biz and they\ufffdll say that it represents the purest form of game development. And sometimes the cheapest. A check for ten bucks sent to a site called Cheap Ass Games buys you \ufffdDr. Blob\ufffds Organism.\ufffd
And because indie gaming lies outside of the publisher money train \ufffd and all the corporate pressures to follow trends \ufffd it often delivers some of the most creative PC games available to an audience far beyond your typical 19-year-old gamer.
Cheap ... cutting edge ... a different audience ... are indie games the punk rock of computer gaming?
This is the new version of the old shareware gaming scene. The big game companies have gotten too big, too many huge, expensive and dull sequels. This creates a space for companies that can make money on $10 to $30 dollar games.
It has been a fairly regular cycle in the computer industry, a bunch of small companies produce inovative and/or inexpensive games. One or two really successful ones make into the big time and a bunch of the rest are bought. This depletes the small end market for a while, and it fades away until the big companies get too slow.
The first time I saw this was the crpg games back on the Apple II which spawned Origin back when Ultima was the best crpg in the world.
Jay