Why There Are No Indie Video Games

**WILL** · 02-06-2006, 10:57 AM

A very interesting article about the Game Industry and the lack there of Indie video games out there.

Have a read and discuss your thoughts here!

'Why There Are No Indie Video Games' by Luke O'Brien @ Slate.com

**grudzio** · 02-06-2006, 01:56 PM

This article has been criticised quite severely on gamedev.net http://www.gamedev.net/community/for...opic_id=395121
The main objection is that author does not know what he is talking about. I cant tell if they are right because I know nothing about game industry

ops:

**Robert Kosek** · 02-06-2006, 02:38 PM

*ahem*

Yes, the guy knows very little about the game industry. He also needs to step down from his almighty soapbox and pound his head into a brick wall a time or two. Maybe that'll give him some sense. :roll:

Every single thing the guy said was broken down by several successful INDEPENDANT Indies. Not people who took money from EA to make their game, but the guys who did the project entirely out of pocket.

**EAST** · 12-07-2006, 03:55 PM

We started our own company, raised capital (friends and family), devoted years of our own time to it and released ENIGMA: RISING TIDE. We didn't sign a publisher on until AFTER the game was complete. INDIE all the way. To date Enigma has sold almost 250k copies.

Bad news is we only ever got paid for about 40k copies and Tesseraction (while still in existence) no longer is actively developing games. 5 years of work got moved onto a back burner.

True commercial scale indie development is very difficult and fiscally (and maritally) dangerous.

**tanffn** · 12-07-2006, 06:50 PM

Sorry to hear that EAST..

:? May I ask what happened with the remaining 210k copies?

Its been a long time dream of mine to setup a game development company, aimed exclusively of peg/puzzle games (children and adults alike). (the full includes a pub in brazil with dozen of Brazilians dancing around, but we‚Äôll leave it for a another time)

You have any insight to share?

**EAST** · 12-07-2006, 06:57 PM

Well, lets see...1 publisher didn't pay and licensed our title in countries they didn't have rights to, we sued, just recently won and now get to try and collect. Another went bankrupt with 250k of our cash. Accounting tricks from a 3rd publisher that we couldn't afford to go after...that pretty well did it.

There are 2 great foreign publishers and 1 domestic distributor I wish we had used:

Auran in Australia
Halcyon in Germany
Tri-Synergy in the USA

Best advice is only enter into agreements with people you really trust and who you know the background of. Contracts are only as good as your ability to enforce them...and you can never afford to enforce them.

Make your title before you ask for their money; a completed game is the best possible leverage you can have for negotiating.

That said, I'll do it again. Particularly with the above publishers/distributors. It's a great industry and a great feeling when people enjoy playing your game.

Best Luck.

**Robert Kosek** · 13-07-2006, 05:21 AM

Hey there EAST.

If you still have rights over your game you can try to republish it under Stardock/Totalgaming.net. They seem to be very fair and have their own online distribution methods. You may want to check them out.

Sorry to hear you got ripped off.

http://stardock.com
http://totalgaming.net

**savage** · 13-07-2006, 06:35 PM

Originally Posted by Robert Kosek

Sorry to hear you got ripped off.

Unfortunately it seems that it may be quite common. I'll repeat my tale of woe just to bore those who have already heard it

.

I am still owed nearly $4,000.00 US for some remote work I did on Hero X ( www.atari.com/us/games/herox/pc ). As I was not "on site", I think I was one of the first people they shafted when they started running out of cash. The thing was that I did 3 months work trying to hit their deadline. It was particularly hard on my family at the time as I was working during the day, coming home at 7pm and working through to 2-3am on the game.

After hearing that I was not going to be paid, I came within a millisecond of posting the whole game's source code on the internet. Actually I still have it. But my code was mainly to do with the UI so it would not have been fair on the other coders if I had reaped my revenge.

Having been burnt, I think that is why I shy away from working on extended collaborative projects. Now I try and work on small projects that are over and done with in a few weeks and I'm now trying to sell some software stuff online.

**WILL** · 13-07-2006, 09:32 PM

Sorry to hear that EAST... it's hard to believe how many people can be so crooked until you actually go out there and see for yourself.

You can't get Hero X in stores anymore can you?

So it was Atari that screwed you?

How far the once mighty have fallen huh? :?

**savage** · 13-07-2006, 09:39 PM

No it was not Atari, it was the game company "Amazing Games LTD" that folded. Atari did ok out of it, because the game is out there. No idea how it's selling if at all.