Independent? We named the DOG independent!
Alrighty, here’s one of the posts where I talk about my half-baked and reactionary thoughts of the moment, and then everyone gets their panties in a bundle, and then later I change my mind, and everyone calls me a hypocrite, and it haunts me for the rest of my life. With that caveat, I’d just like to say that Alien Hominid represents a major turning point in the development of “independent games”, and I don’t mean that in the good way everyone else does.
To me, “independent” means “DIY”; it means someone holding down a day-job, or being a full-time student, or (worst of all) living in their mom’s basement, while pursuing their passion, “begging, borrowing, and stealing”, and wearing all or most of the hats, because they can’t afford to hire anyone else. In the end, after they’ve poured their blood, sweat and tears into the project, they have something that’s truly their own, and literally “independent”, because they didn’t depend on anyone else to make it happen. To me, it means Robert Rodriguez making El Mariachi, which he funded by volunteering for medical experiments, or Pixel taking five years to make Cave Story, because he was holding down a full-time job and raising a family at the same time. Independent comics hold true to that ideal, as does most independent music. Independent movies, however, are rarely anything even approaching “independent”, and I’m worried that independent games are headed that same way.
The first “independent movie” I remember hearing about was Reservior Dogs, which cost $1.2 million and starred Harvey Keitel. Did Quentin Tarantino save up that $1.2 million while working as a video store clerk? Did he cut a deal with Keitel to waive his late fees if he’d star in his movie? It’s a great movie, and Tarantino’s a talented guy, but there’s really nothing “independent” about it. Call it “low budget”, but not “independent”. Likewise with Sundance and Cannes, the “independent” film festivals that primarily show multi-million-dollar “independent” films, and are closed to the general public.
So here’s the crux of the biscuit: as a literally “independent” game developer, who has a full-time job and has to save up his own money for any expenses incurred in making games, it made me angry that Alien Hominid was not only accepted into, but also won HALF of the awards at The 2005 Independent Games Festival. Just like Reservoir Dogs, I think Alien Hominid is an awesome game, and Dan Paladin and Tom Fulp are very talented guys. But also like Reservoir Dogs, the game cost $1.3 million to develop, which was financed by a production company that broke off from Capcom, and financed full-time jobs for Tom and Dan to work on the game. Gish, which won two of the other three awards, had a budget of $5,000. That’s one two-hundred-and-sixtieth of Alien Homind’s budget. The main draw of the IGF for many entrants is that the winners get A WHOLE THOUSAND DOLLARS, which means a lot when your game cost $5,000 of your own hard-earned money to make. When your game cost $1.3 million to make and was financed by an external company, that “IGF Winner” is just another logo to put on the cover of the game, just like the “Sundance Select” and “Palme d’Or” logos on DVD cases. It also sets a very nasty “whoever spends the most money wins” precedent that drives away potentially-great but low-budget games. If the IGF wants to become the Sundance of games, then I guess that’s their perrogative, but I was really hoping it would lean more towards Tromadance. Maybe that task will fall to one of the other members of the “indy games” community like TIGSource or GameTunnel. This year, in a fit of supreme optimism, I submitted my own $1,000-budget game to the IGF competition, in the hopes that Alien Hominid was just a fluke and this year the competition might be a little more… you know, “independent”. I know that I, just like the entrants last year, certainly couldn’t compete with a $1.3 million game, but I feel I have a fighting chance if the other competitors are in the same general budget-range as me.
At this point, one of the following things will happen:
- The Utopian Scenario: The indy gaming scene will realize that when their indy gaming friends make it big, they’re still their friends but they’re no longer indy. Dan Paladin and Tom Fulp both contributed a lot to the indy gaming scene before they made it big, just like Tarantino contributed a lot to the indy movie scene when he was working in a video store and teaching amateur filmmaking classes in his spare time. In fact, I think that in time Dan and Tom will be seen as “the Quentin Tarantinos” of indy gaming, especially if they use their newfound powers to continue to help their “still indy” friends (which New Grounds certainly does). The indy gaming scene will adjust, and indy games will return to their “independent” roots. When the next Alien Hominid shoots an indy developer into “the big time”, we’ll all see him off at the docks of Indy Gaming Island and wish him well now that he’s no longer “just indy”.
- The Dystopian Scenario: Things will continue toward the independent movie model, every major game company will start their own “independent” arm that makes games on “only $10 million each”, and everything under that will be “hobbyware” that players will expect to be completely free because, after all, you spent less to make it than even an “independent” game. When’s the last time you paid money to see a movie with a “less than independent” budget? That’s what I’m talking about.
- The *topian Scenario: It’s possible under both of the above scenarios that the term “independent game” will come to mean medium-budget, break-out games like Alien Hominid, and some other term will start being used to describe most of what is currently indy, like “garage” or “doujin”. At that point things will return to normal, and there will just be a new tier of game budgeting.
- The Killer Robots Scenario: I will receive the designs for an unstoppable robot army in a dream, think it’s actually just a really cool case mod, build it, and eradicate all human life completely by accident.
The future of indy gaming is in your hands!!! (cue rock music)
Wow, that was a lot longer than I thought it would be.
Update: A while after I wrote this article, I found this article by Ian Bogost, in which he clarifies that The Behemoth crew actually did finance that $1.3 million themselves by selling one of their houses, and mortgaging another (and probably dipping into New Grounds’ profits). This certainly defuses a lot of the arguments in this article, and puts them well within the traditional definition of “independent”, but I thought I should leave this article up anyway, since it still illuminates the HUGE disparity among the “indie gaming scene”.
December 7th, 2005 at 9:24 pm
The key to success with low/no budget games is surely micropayments. As large companies start to use this model (i.e. Xbox360) and it becomes more commonly accepted, I believe (and hope) that true independent games will have viable revenue models. Distribution costs are now virtually zero, distribution range nearly unlimited; the missing ingredient is public acceptance of the idea of paying a few dollars for a game.
Of course, audiences have to learn to expect different things from independent games as compared to the latest stylish blockbuster, with menus that cost more than many full games (and use more rendering power!). But i believe that this market is out there, and as micropayments become a standard thing, independent games will flourish.
December 7th, 2005 at 9:48 pm
Comiket in Tokyo is filled with games, music, manga, and the like made by people in their spare time. TypeMoon used to be a lowly doujin circle, now look at them! Fate is slated to be one of the best anime coming out in 06. If you want to see a productive working fanbase go to Comiket…just be careful not to walk into the Yayoi section, it’s scary.
December 8th, 2005 at 1:35 am
With 1.3 million dollars I could spend all day on a sandy beach while anime chicks took pictures of MY crotch!
December 8th, 2005 at 3:38 am
“IGF competition, in the hopes that Alien Hominid was just a fluke and this year the competition might be a little more…”
Hmm a few years ago the game Savage did a similar thing, Alien Hominid is not a unique game in that respect.
December 8th, 2005 at 6:04 am
What the f***?
//To me, “independent� means “DIY�; it means someone holding down a day-job, or being a full-time student, or (worst of all) living in their mom’s basement, while pursuing their passion//
Independant is anything released independantly of a major publisher/label i.e. major being those who have the vast majority of market sales through themselfs or a subsiduary company.
Look at music, you have Franz Fredinand and U2. Both are big charting bands, but ones on an independant label and one isn’t. So f***ing what?
You should be glad when inde games get that sort of cash for development, because it gives the rest of us some vague sense of hope we may be able to break past the major players/developers intop public view.
//the game cost $1.3 million to develop, which was financed by a production company that broke off from Capcom//
So it was financed by an indie company with a lot of money. And?
Valve are independant, and they’ve done bloody well for themselfs are you going to rant about them? Are you going to claim steam is going to rip off true “indie” developers.
The word that “means “DIYâ€?; it means someone holding down a day-job, or being a full-time student, or (worst of all) living in their mom’s basement, while pursuing their passion” is underground, not indie. Learn the terms meanings before you start using them.
December 8th, 2005 at 9:03 am
Full disclosure: I work for an independent game company.
Independence has nothing to do with budget. Independence means outside-the-”establishment” (such as it is). That’s why the IGF requires only that your game not yet have a publishing contract at the time of submission. That means you’re not funded by publisher advance money. It means that you didn’t have to get your idea past their filters, before you took that crazy leap into the unknown. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a million dollars, or nothing but sweat equity and food stamps. The whole point is that you’re not making the umpteen hundredth roster update for Madden NFL. You’re not part of that machine, and you don’t want to be.
Consider eGenesis. eGenesis is a real company. They pay their employees. Would you dare, for even a moment, suggest to me that “A Tale in the Desert” is not an independent game? How do you think a publisher would react, if you came to them saying that you wanted to make a non-combat MMO, where people cultivate flax? That game is as indy as it gets, man.
I think that you’re lashing out at the wrong problem, here. This isn’t really about the use of the word “independent.” What it’s really about is the lack of a level playing field in the IGF. I think that’s an entirely valid concern. It has definitely made me feel uneasy, as well.
The festival is currently split into “Open” and “Web/Downloadable” categories. As I recall, the original motivation behind the Web/Downloadable category was that downloadable games were smaller, and thus, it wasn’t fair for them to have to compete with the larger games. The trouble is, the Web/Downloadable category has come to represent everything from the most primitive portal games on up to full blown, boutique MMOs. I think that the category has become largely obsolete, now that broadband has wider deployment. I would consider replacing these two categories with two or more budget-oriented categories.
December 8th, 2005 at 9:32 am
Thanks for all the replies! I feel better about the industry already. Keep ‘em comin’!
X
December 8th, 2005 at 10:04 am
Pixel made Cave Story over _5_ years if I recall :3
December 8th, 2005 at 10:16 am
Fixed! Thanks!
December 8th, 2005 at 12:19 pm
[…] There’s a lot of indie releases recently for the upcoming holidays but we choose not to write about them, because the editors around here know better than to highlight a game that does not deserve your attention (for fear of your wrath).That said, here’s a very interesting article by one of this year’s IGF competition entrants. You can read about his thoughts and opinions about the current state of indie gaming. Or choose not to. It’s just like a CYOA.My thoughts? The IGF is a strange beast. Every year we see a list of entries with wide-ranging budget figures, and every year we hope that the underdogs would trump the rest of the big spending entries in all categories. It’s a rare occurence, but it does happen.I did some research a while back on this year’s indie games budget and came up with a list that you could browse here.While you’re there, do click on over to Ocular Ink’s website. I believe they updated the game. Check out the MMORPG called "School" as well. Quote […]
December 8th, 2005 at 2:30 pm
You raise some good points. I agree that the current IGF situation does not present a level playing field. I think a 2 category split based on budget would be a good idea. That way the best of the current ‘independent’ games would continue to be recognized, and some bare bones indie games would be as well.
Of course, the situation isn’t totally bad as it is now. The no-budget freeware game N won the audience award last year, up against some much higher funded titles. It was a f&^%ing awesome game, and the voters rightly recognized that.
December 8th, 2005 at 7:09 pm
hi,
Thanks so much for this article; i agree entirely with the ideas you bring up, and it’s just great to hear that.. about a year ago it seemed hopeless since everyone was blathering on about how great AH is.
As far as i’m concerned, what makes someone independent is (as malkyne said) not cooperating with the industry, or in fact actively opposing ir or undermining it by providing gamers with an alternative that’s both more fun and cheaper. “Independent console game” is an oxymoron: to legally release a game on a console you need to be approved by the hardware company, your game needs to pass through their QA, and they get a cut of your sales. How independent are you when you give a cut of your sales to sony?
The fact that from the start all that the behemoth wanted to do was find a publisher is sad. Their whole story is the typical “hey guys, lets make it big and get rich!!”.. they could have bought blitzbasic for less than $100, spent 8 months making the _exact_ same game, and self-published it for mac/pc.
But instead they went where all the money is: consoles. It’s great that they sacrificed so much, mortgaged everything, worked so hard, blahblabblah, but the fact is that they didn’t HAVE to do that to make their game, they were only forced to do that because they were fixated on making a lot of money in the lucrative console market!
What really sucks is that this sets the precedent for other indies to get in huge debt trying to compete with the mainstream, when the reason mainstream games suck is BECAUSE so much money is involved.. when you’re financially obligated to investors, you’re forced to care about what they want. Caring about anything other than the game itself is why mainstream games suck. Keeping budgets low is necessary for crazy, inventive games, because having no obligations provides the developer with total freedom to selfishly keep their game true to what they want it to be.
As much as i might respect dan and tom in terms of talent, it’s hard to really like them or want to support them.. how would you feel about a heavyweight boxer who beats up scrawny children?
What really did it for me was how at the IGF ceremony, the behemoth had their own company table (alongside nintendo, ea, blizzard, etc.) instead of sitting at the IGF finalist tables. How much clearer does it need to be that they’re just another mainstream developer?!
Then again, this happens every year, and at least gish got what it deserved — the grand prize. The thing that’s most disturbing this time is the fact that previous big-budget IGF entries have been viewed with a bit of suspicion, whereas the behemoth intentionally positioned themselves as self-appointed spokespeople for indie developers. Maybe it’s cool that the mainstream has acknowledged the indie audience to the point where they try to spin being “indie” into their image, but that doesn’t make it any less exploitative and frustrating.
As far as i’m concerned Doom3 should have been allowed into this year’s IGF, since they self-financed (which is apparently what the behemoth thinks makes them indie). At what point did id go from indie to commercial? I guess it’s hard to tell, but i don’t think doom has a +$1M development budget.
okay.. enough ranting
p.s - dustin’s idea is great: having a budget-based criterion would definitely lead to a more even contest.. much like weight divisions in boxing.
December 9th, 2005 at 9:28 am
That rant was great! Thanks!
December 11th, 2005 at 2:05 pm
Hey, Simon here - just ran across this thread, and I hope people are still reading it. I’m the Chairman of the IGF, and I just wanted to make a couple of comments on the issues raised in it. I feel like Alien Hominid absolutely _is_ an indie game, personally, because it was entirely self-financed by its creators.
But I agree, it’s difficult sometimes for larger games to compete with smaller ones. That’s why we got a better cross-section of judges for this year (including former IGF winners and indie game editors), and that’s why we’ve changed things around this year to have specifically nominated games in each category. The finalists are actually going to be announced later today, and I think everyone who posted in this thread will be pleasantly surprised about the good cross-section of budgets, styles, and entries. We’ll see
December 12th, 2005 at 11:04 am
Thanks for commenting, Simon!
January 18th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
I still support “independent” games being made on a small budget like these. Perhaps we need to make a further distinction between “independent” and “starving independent” games.
I could still live for a few years off of $1.3M US though. Produce one hell of a game.