Variety Friday: An Indie Game PSA

“Indie Games” means a different thing to everyone.  To some it means those crappy wanna be games, others, those small games which aren’t much more than 2D Platform and zombie games.  Then there are those that actually understand that Indie Games are games generally created on a low budget and created by a small studio/group of people.  There isn’t really a set line between Indie and full on Commercial games, but they are usually easy to spot because they weren’t created by a big studio or a large known publisher. 

What people usually don’t understand is that Indie Games play a very large part in the larger picture of gaming.  Usually the best place to find innovation in the gaming industry is indie games, and innovation is one of the major factors that moves the industry forward.  I’m not saying innovation can’t come from publishers (one example being Portal) but that you can generally find a lot more innovation from indie titles.  One of the biggest pluses for indie developers is that they usually aren’t under the pressure of deadlines or budgets, so they can work at their pace and make good games and not have to worry about the profits as much.

Also, simply, a lot of good indie games come out which can bring hours of enjoyment.  There are a few main factors for why this is; one of which being their relatively low price.  Indie games generally range from Free to $20 max.  So whether you’re gaming on a budget or are just looking for some cheap fun, indie games really are the perfect fix.  This may sound contradictory, but in some ways indie games are more polished/complete than AAA titles.  Yes the commercial titles have the large amount of testing under their belt, but Indies don’t work on strict time tables.  So while they may be slightly more buggy, they usually don’t suffer from what most games do, which is feeling like the game was rushed and isn’t finished.  The other plus is that indie devs can focus more on the gameplay aspects and if something doesn’t work, change it.

Another thing about indie development is that they can be on nearly any platform.  Such as flash, as just about all flash games are technically small indie games.  Others include the 360 (with their Indie Games Marketplace) iPhone, Android, and PC with the numerous engines available even for free (such as Unity and Source SDK) along with the multiple development platforms that accept indie games from Steam to even OnLive, just to name a few.

Right, well since it hasn’t been apparent yet, the point of this Variety Friday is to inform you that you should support indie games.  Even if you’re a COD fanboy, the magic about indie games is that there are games that can appeal to almost anyone.  From the puzzle lovers, to the story based game lovers, to the shooter/zombie lovers there is something for you on many platforms.  Though, why specifically you should support them, is for the reasons I listed above.  They really do bring great innovation to the industry and are probably going to end up playing an even larger role in the industries future.

How do you support indie games you ask?  Well it is actually quite simple.  Go checkout Steam, the Xbox marketplace, the app store, or whatever your preferred form of distribution is, and just look at some indie games, and find a few that seem like they’ll interest you and play them.  Next, try to keep track of the indie trends and watch for some new releases and just try to be a little involved, it would make the industry better for everyone.

Now, some of my favorite indie games.

PC

• AaaAaaaAAaa: A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
• Trine
• Braid

Flash

• One Chance
• Today I Die
• Loved

Xbox Live Indies

• Solar
• Kaleidoscope
• Abadddon
• Breeze

Xbox Live Arcade

• Monday Night Combat
• Super Meat Boy

Enjoy!