Technology Arms Race: Indie vs Retail

Indie games have been an area of interest for me since last summer when I was involved in developing an iphone app from scratch. It was during that job I discovered just how feasible it was for me (and most aspiring designers) to develop their very own concept, free from publishing bigwigs.

As some prep-work to year I’ve been doing some research into indie gaming, I’ve been recently reading ‘The Indie Game Development Survival Guide’ a book targeted at novice game designers with the dream of seeing their concepts realised. The book gives some good advice and information of the advantages and disadvantages of both types of gaming. Retail games have grown at an alarming rate. It’s strange to think how the video game industry has erupted into a billion dollar industry in just a couple of decades. The retail industry has become bloated and so expensive developers have become terrified of taking risks or experimenting with new ideas any more. After all, a single title could destroy a development company. After highly negative reviews of the 2008 PS3 exclusive Haze, the developers Free Radical Design (developers of the popular Timesplitters franchise) went into administration.

Haze was poorly received from reviewers and gamers alike and ended up being the last game developed by UK based Free Radical Design.

The retail gaming market has become ‘a technology arms race’ between developers. Publishers are more concerned with standing out and bettering the competition with their technology and fancy game engines. The games we see so much of, the cover based 3rd person shooters and military FPS are proven year in and year out to sell like hotcakes. Why would a publisher move from such a comfort zone? Especially with such large financial risks involved. So instead, the competition is fought with developers showing off their newest titles with better framerate, higher poly counts and photorealistic graphics. It’s become less about the game design and more about showing the newest fanciest technology on the market.

It makes clear sense. Nobody likes the idea of gambling their money, especially when they’re already producing products that are selling so successfully. As an individual, I don’t like that mentality. I’m a realist, I know video games are a commercial industry and money is needed to create more products for the gamers. There’s just something that bugs me whenever a form of entertainment whether it film, music or game becomes’ just’ a business. Games are supposed to be fun and exciting but there are always people who will jump on fun things and squeeze every penny they can from them.

But! From this a new and exciting potential is born. With retail games developing and growing at such a fast rate, new technology is discovered every year leaving the old and now inexpensive equipment for indie developers to scavenge. Unlike retail games, for indie developers the game design is EVERYTHING. Retail games stand out on their technology, indie games stand out on their concept/gameplay. With iTunes, PSN and Xbox Arcade it’s now a better time than ever for indie developers to get their games played by as many people as possible. Indie developers can take risks; they can experiment with little to no consequences.

Popular Indie games; Limbo from Playdead Studios, Flower from thatgamecompany and Angry Birds from Rovio.

This brings me back to the discussion in my last blog, the relationship between mechanics and the game design. That relationship between the two is important in all games, including retail games but for a large portion of the best selling games mechanics work the same. Press trigger to shoot, A to jump, X to reload etc. In fact I can’t remember the last time I had to look at an introduction manual, most games I get my hands on these days I already know from other games how they will handle. It’s only few and far between that a retail game will take me by surprise.

Since my M.A. is a rare opportunity for me to design retail games, I’d like to come up with some fun, unique, crazy concepts. I’d like to take risks in the same way indie developers can with their titles.