Flashbang Studios is basically the commercial continuation of hobbyist development among our group of friends. We had all worked together previously on noncommercial game development projects, including several college projects. I had researched and decided we definitely had the skills, resources, and experience to form a casual games company. It was very much planned, since we formed the company with a very specific market and development focus in mind.

Two of our artists have worked in the mainstream game industry previous to working with Flashbang. Based on discussions with them, I’d say the difference between working in the industry and outside of the industry isn’t too significant. The traits typically associated with working for independent developers-more creative freedom, sometimes-unstable income, etc-are more a product of being a small startup studio than they are an independent studio.

The one significant difference is the influence a publisher has on a project. The strain imposed when this relationship is under pressure is felt studio-wide, regardless of any direct contact with a publisher. If your producer is stressing because of a slipped milestone, your lead will be stressed, which makes you stressed, and on down the line.

As cliché as it sounds, our goal is to eventually create and sell the kind of games we enjoy making. Some emphasis should be put on “sell”, as one of our goals is to go professional; that is, work full-time and pay the bills with our company revenue. Our plan isn’t to jump right into creating experimental work, though. The first few titles we’re releasing to market are “safe” projects-puzzle-y 2D games inside the boundaries of established genres.

Once we have a baseline revenue stream from our first games, we plan to move into creating riskier experimental titles. In five years, we plan to have made a name for ourselves as the company that successfully introduced fresh concepts to the casual market; concepts previously thought too “hardcore” to appeal to a wider market. I see the mass-market distribution channels-like Yahoo! Games, Real Arcade, etc-as eager to break out of the swap-to-make-three style games they forged their success around. There will be huge potential in the next few years for companies to modify typical “hardcore” game styles and technology to fit the mentality of the casual gamer.

I found the greatest difficulty in finishing the game was managing multiple roles with very different scopes. I acted as both the programmer and producer on the game; I had to both be able to see both the whole forest and the individual trees. Managing task-level scope and project-level scope became very strenuous in the last 10% of the project. It’s easy to get caught in an analysis mode where task work is put off in favor of endlessly figuring out what exactly to do in the first place.

To get around this, I had to discipline myself to behave less autonomously as a programmer. What I would do is take a step back from the project every few days, and create a massive list of features/fixes that needed work. Then I’d pick two related tasks to work on next, and force myself to focus on them. Thinking about other aspects of the project was strictly forbidden. The goal in taking this approach was to remove autonomy when I’m programming-I’d just have to trust that tasks were already prioritized.

It may sound silly, but it really helped me out when it came to both managing and programming the same project.

We’re always interested in expanding our game distribution possibilities. Our first game, Beesly’s Buzzwords, is available on a number of distribution channels. We’re talking with some retail people too, but approaching things very cautiously. We aren’t looking for a publisher in the traditional retail sense of the word-where they would fund a game’s development with money loaned against future sales-we’re very focused on keeping all of our development self-funded.

IGF exposure has been great, but it’s a little early to tell just how many contacts it’s unearthed. We’re very much looking forward to meetings and informal discussions at the GDC. Just being a finalist and having booth space on the show floor is reward enough-we printed a lot of business cards…

Before I get on to answering the question, I’d like to point out a distinction I make between “indie game” and “casual game” developers. I consider “indie” developers to be someone creating a title for the market currently served by the retail game industry. Typically they’re making the game they’d like to play with the limited resources they have available.

In regards to indie game development, I think it has a very similar relationship to the retail game industry as mainstream/underground relationships in other mediums: music, film, etc. The mainstream industry tends to play it safe, while the indie scene tends to focus on either sheer innovation or distilling genres to their barest forms. I consider indie development as separate from the retail game industry, although they certainly look to each other for influences-how many indie FPS games would there be if the retail market focused on the puzzle genre?

Demographically distinct from “indie” games are so-called “casual” games. I use this term to refer to the market currently served by distribution channels like Yahoo! Games and RealArcade. This market is largely ignored and underserved by the traditional retail game industry channels. Casual game developers focus in very heavily on creating games suited for this demographic, idealized as a 35 year-old soccer mom.

I consider the majority of casual game development to be an extension of the industry. It’s really just semantics, but I view it this way due to the ever-increasing amount of large 10+ person studios developing casual games. The barrier-to-entry for casual distribution is high, too, since the big players control an insanely huge audience. I expect to see more retail giants tap the casual demographic through services like EA’s Pogo.com (personally, I’m surprised neither HD-enabled PS2 nor Xbox have tapped into it already).

The GDC is insanely expensive for independent developers, and particularly so for students. While there are alternative means of attending-IGDA scholarship, Conference Associate volunteer program, etc-it really does create a barrier. I think it’s somewhat ironic to have sessions geared at the indie scene when anyone attending paid at least $825 to be there.

There should be more conferences and get-togethers for the independent developer. It would be interesting to create an analogous version of E3 for the indie world; something more focused on business connections and exhibiting upcoming titles than academic betterment.

I’m very excited to meet the other developers, and honored we were considered to be among their ranks. The IGF’s recent-as of last year, I believe-focus on innovation has helped reflect the finer points of the independent games of today. It shows off the things independent games are great at: appealing to a mass audience (Beesly’s Buzzwords, Chomp Chomp Safari, Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates), raw innovation (Gish, Bontãgo, Façade), and refining a genre to an extreme amount of gameplay depth (Take Command, Space Station Manager). That’s just off the top of my head; the games listed are just examples.

It’s assumed by the nature of a competition, but I think it’s worthwhile to note the IGF only reflects the highest-quality output of independent developers. The Game Developer’s Choice Awards do not necessarily reflect the wide range of quality actually found on store shelves. Likewise, the IGF highlights only the cream of the crop amongst indie game development projects.

The wide-reaching demographic appeal of casual genres pioneered by independent developers will become much more commercialized. In particular, the casual space is being targeted by goliath corporations who realize the potential and disposable income of the average 35 year-old.

Another trend I see emerging is veteran industry developers giving up retail development in favor of the smaller teams and project scope of independent work. A good example of this is Escape Factory: after peaking at 25 employees and losing funding on their retail project, the Escape Factory founders moved on to start Sprout Games (Bounce Symphony, Word Symphony, Feeding Frenzy).

I expect to see an increase of self-funded studios, which will change the balance of power in the retail game industry. We’ve even batted around the idea of starting up a retail game project five years from now funded by our casual games’ revenue.

A: Planned. I had been planning a game related business for several years, and been involved in doing contract work for Java games back in the middle nineties. In early 2002 things finally started to fit together and I started working in Mistaril full time in the summer of 2002.

A: I have not been employed in the mainstream game development industry.

A: Develop more games. The company has found a very supportive community of players and as with all companies, there are plenty of ideas to develop. In 5 years time I will be working with the same thing as now, but there will probably be more people involved in the production process.

A: Being humble about your work and having enough courage to stand up and take feedback. My biggest victory was accepting that the game was not perfect and still releasing it.

A: Self publishing has so far been the most profitable option. Being an IGF finalist has given some good general exposure.

A: Definetly as part of the overall games development. My humble guess is that their part of total games sales will increase over the next years.

A: There are very few GDC sessions aimed at independent developers, especially for ones making downloadable games. My guess is probably that the core reason is that indie skillsets include a lot of business skills very different from the retail business model. For starters, most independent developers have more than five clients.

A: For starters, I really think the other finalists this year are pretty good and I'm happy to be part of such a crowd. I haven't really formed a good opinion on how well the IGF represents the state of independent games. I think that due to the emphasis on originality some financially important games are left out, but if this is good or bad is difficult to say. Competitions like this always require value judgements and classification, someting very subjective.

A: As very good. A lot of good opportunities, great distribution channels, low barriers to entry and excellent development tools. This is a good time to be in the business or start out.

Chronic Logic becoming an independent developer just sort of happened. When Chronic Logic was started we knew that we wanted to make video games, but we didn’t know what it really meant to be an indie developer. At some point over the last couple years we realized that we were an independent developer and that’s what we wanted to be.

No one at Chronic Logic was employed in the mainstream game development industry. We had all worked on games on our own and knew that we wanted to work for ourselves making games.

Our goals as independent game developers are really simple. We just want to be able to support ourselves and keep making the games we want. We want to remain independent and keeping making innovative games, that may not appeal to the broadest market, but will be a lot more enjoyable to the people they do appeal to. In a year we hope to have a couple more games under our belt, but the future is an abstract concept which us humans are incapable of fully comprehending.

Financially there have been times when it was difficult to keep paying all the bills. How did we over come this, borrowing money? Also keeping focus and finishing projects over long periods of time can be difficult.

We are open to publishing possibilities, but we will also continue to self publish our current and future games. Being an IGF finalist has helped us get more bit more exposure and recognition.

Indie games are an important part of the game development industry. Indie developers can try much more risky projects and unproven ideas. This is very important to the industry as a whole, as it keep introducing new ideas and concepts to the industry. I cant say how the overall industry views indies, because I have only been an indie developer.

GDC showcasing IGF is a great benefit for independent games and developers. Anything that gets good independent games and developers more exposure and will help the indie games industry.

The IGF's focus on innovation and the way that games are judged favors games that are different from the majority. You will see some of the more creative independent games in IGF. In this way I don’t think IGF represents the state of independentgames as a whole. You wont see the 1000 puzzle game clones that the indie game industry produces every year at IGF. You also might not see some of the most fun games win any prizes, because the judging is so strongly based on specific criteria’s. The IGF finalists seem to always include some great games and games that I am not very interested in. I guess this speaks for the variety of games that make the finals every year. I am excited to see all the games this year at GDC.

I think as mainstream games continue to suck more and more people will play and make independent games, causing a collapse in the stock market, opening the door for a social revolution in which people actual care about society as a whole instead of individual gains. No longer will a person's worth be based on what they own, but what they have contributed to mankind. Also there will be less independent puzzle games, since that markets been flooded.

Well our case is a little different than most of the finalist, we made this game as students at DigiPen. Toward the end of development, we decided that we would enter the IGF as an independent developer, because we felt that Bontago was very innovative and professional.

No none of us have been employed in the gamming industry as of yet. Ideally, the four of us would like to stay together and continue to develop more innovative games.

Right now our goals are pretty up in the air.

Well we had the added burden to complete our game while also taking 20+ credit hours worth of classes at DigiPen. We overcame this by having good planning, an excellent well-thought-out design, and a team that got along very well.

It isn’t likely that Bontago will be published as-is, but there is the possibility that a sequel would be commercially developed.

Indie games are definitely a part of the games industry though they are often overlooked. We think the games industry views indie games as a main source for new ideas and concepts that large game companies are too afraid to experiment with.

Dunno…

I would say that the IGF represents the current state of the independent gaming community with the notable exception of Mod development.

As more people become involved with the internet and gaming, indie games will become more ‘mainstream,’ because they appeal to a slightly separate audience than other games. Indie games impact the mainstream industry by bringing a wider audience to the industry, and (hopefully) keeping the industry from rehashing the same old game over and over again.

My partner Josh Welber and I started our company in January 2001 in order to make games. We knew we could earn a living making web-based marketing/promotional games for clients, but we were less clear about how to make money from our own titles. After coming out to GDC in March of that year, we started to get a clearer picture of how that might be possible. The downloadable market was just starting to get going and we made some good contacts with distributors in that area. Since then, we’ve been balancing the bread-and-butter client work with the financially riskier original titles.

Prior to starting this company, Josh and I were both consultants working for various Internet companies. Neither of us had worked in the game industry. We got to make some games as consultants, but also lots of pretty boring web applications and such. Now we are entirely focused on games, which is excellent.

We are trying to get to a point where original Large Animal titles generate enough revenue to cover our operating costs. While it would really nice to sink one’s teeth into a big old console or retail PC title, those aren’t objectives for us. We like making games for the casual market…lately we’ve been really focused on making games that our parents can play. That’s a surprisingly difficult design challenge and we like that sort of problem.

I’d say the most difficult part is deciding when to stop. There’s never a shortage of ideas and there’s always that one more feature tempting you. It’s much more difficult to draw the line or take stuff away. I think that as a team, we sort of informally take turns being feature-cop and asking “Do we really need that?”. Since there’s no publisher breathing down your neck, its easier to pretend you have all the time in the world. Of course, the fact that a business needs to make money to survive helps keep the pressure on.

We have good relationships with most of the big distributors of downloadable games and plan to continue supplying those channels with our games. We have an upcoming 3d title (built with the Torque engine) that we are interested in talking to publishers about, but it would also work well as an electronically distributed title.

I think that independently developed games are critical to the health of the industry because of their potential to innovate. I assume that people working for large publishers and developers in the industry are interested in independent games in at least a peripheral way, but at the end of the day, they need to meet keep apace of players’ skyrocketing expectations for game technology. (Expectations that have been fueled by their marketing machines, of course.) That type of technology is expensive and far out of reach for most independent developers, and I think that as long as that is the case, it will be hard for most people to compare mainstream and independently developed games (even though the latter may in many cases be superior games).

GDC is a great conference and I look forward to it every year. It’s a great place to recharge creatively and remind yourself that there are thousands of other people like you, sitting in front of a computer 12 hours a day for the rest of the year because they want to make games. However, it’s pretty expensive for the indie developer - it would be nice if more people in that category could afford to attend. I’m not sure how exactly to achieve that, but I’m sure Alan Yu can think of something. One of the hardest things for an indie developer is getting exposure for their game(s). The IGF is a great idea and I’m happy to see that it is growing (adding a category, getting more sponsors involved, etc). Hopefully it will continue to evolve and help attract the attention of the rest of the industry and the public at large to indie game developers.

There are some fantastic games among the 20 that were chosen as finalists and I assume that there were many more fantastic games that weren’t chosen. As we all know, it’s a highly subjective endeavor. While we feel honored that a small group of judges from the industry liked our game, it would be really cool if the IGF could get a couple million average people to play the games that are submitted and vote for their favorite.

I think that independent game developers with some business savvy and a lot of good luck will continue to be able to make a living in this industry. Smaller shops have flexibility that larger developers and publishers can only dream of. The growth of downloadable games market over the past few years is a very positive sign. Independent game developers are in a unique position to create innovative products for players who are currently underserved by the mainstream game industry.

I’ve always loved computer games, and I created lots of simple little games in college. It has been a hobby of mine for a long time. I love playing games, and I love creating them!

In recent years, I have noticed two trends in the mainstream gaming industry that prompted me to consider turning my hobby into a viable business. The first trend is a lack of creativity. I don’t even look for games in the stores anymore because there is nothing there I haven’t already played a hundred times. The graphics and sound might be fancier, but they’re essentially the same games I played ten years ago. The second trend is a growing vacuum of clean, family-friendly games. The store shelves are littered with trashy titles and grotesque games. We have many friends with kids who have lamented over this trend, and the more people we talked to, the more we realized that there is a sizable market here that is being largely ignored by the mainstream game companies.

After lots of encouragement from family and friends, my wife and I started our own computer game company. We want to create clean, family-friendly games for boys and girls of all ages that are original and entertaining. Our target audience is primarily Christian families, although our games appeal to anyone who is looking for some good clean fun.

N/A

Since we are a small startup company, we currently operate on a part-time basis. Our current plan is to release 2-3 games a year for the next couple of years, while we get established and begin to grow the company. Within 5 years, we want to be doing independent game development on a full-time basis. We’ve got some great ideas for epic-sized games, but we need to be able to devote our entire time to implementing them.

The most challenging part of completing Fashion Cents was creating all the interchangeable clothes! We wanted the game to have a cartoon look and feel, so all of the dolls and clothes are hand-drawn. Scanning the graphics and sizing them all to fit properly was a real challenge. We ended up refinishing all the graphics and repainting them in Corel Photo Paint, so in a sense, we had to do most of the artwork twice.

For the time being, all of our games will be published as shareware. It was the easiest way for us to get started in the business, because there are minimal up-front costs. The most difficult part of getting started has been advertising, letting gamers know our company exists. That was the main reason we entered our first game in the IGF. We figured if the game could at least qualify as a Finalist, we would get lots of publicity. And we were right! It’s given us a big boost!

Independent games are a VITAL part of the game industry, even if many mainstream companies don’t want to acknowledge it. Traditionally, independent game developers have led the way in terms of innovation and creative ideas, while mainstream game companies are usually bound by market trends and corporate politics. The trend I have observed is that when an independent game makes the big time, the mainstream companies seize upon the idea and build on it, adding better graphics and sound. Without independent developers, I don’t think there would be many truly original games available.

I think the biggest challenge facing the game industry is innovation. In the past, many independent games have been technically innovative, blazing new trails in graphics and sound. For example, we all know that Commander Keen was one of the first games to bring smooth scrolling worlds to the PC, and Wolfenstein 3D paved the way for 3D games.

However, in recent years, technology has advanced to the point where the small independent developer cannot afford to compete with the deep pockets of the mainstream game companies in the areas of technical innovation. It takes too much time and resources for the average independent to develop something that is technically innovative. I think independent developers need to learn how to be innovative in new ways, such as gameplay - give the players a unique experience. Some of the games that have had the most impact on me (as a consumer) in terms of “wow” factor have not had true-color, photo-realistic, 3D graphics or amazing surround sound. The games that are the most memorable for me are the ones that let me see/do things that I had never experienced in a game before!

Or an independent developer could be innovative with respect to his marketing approach - write games for niche markets, like girls, small children, or Christian families. It’s a basic rule of business: find a demand and fill it. There are many groups that are overlooked or ignored by the mainstream companies, and that’s a wonderful opportunity for an independent to step in and create something truly unique. Our game, Fashion Cents, is a good example of how this can be done successfully!

I think the GDC and the gaming industry could do more to encourage developers to be innovative in new ways. I appreciate thought-provoking articles by writers such as Ernest Adams, but those kinds of resources are too rare. We need more resources that challenge developers to think outside the box. Many consumers, myself included, want something new to play.

Funny you should ask about other finalists. After we submitted Fashion Cents to the IGF, we began working on our next game. It was a word search game but instead of a traditional square grid, we decided to do a hexagonal-shaped grid and use a bumblebee theme. When the IGF announced the finalists back on December 12, we naturally looked through the list to see who our competition was. We were very surprised to discover an entry in the Web/Downloadable category entitled, Beesly’s Buzzwords! It was very similar to our idea! At first we were rather bummed. But then we realized that even though someone beat us to the punch, it was obviously a prize-winning idea! So we are encouraged by the fact that we’re on a roll!

As usual, there is quite a variety of games in the IGF. It’s great to see the large amount of diversity in what is being produced. I certainly hope that’s indicative of a future trend in the independent games market, because we need more variety!

I think many consumers are looking for something new and different, and independent game developers have a unique opportunity to satisfy that desire because they are not bound by corporate politics and marketing trends. Those developers who can think outside the box and create truly original games that give gamers unique experiences will do very well in this business. Those developers who can’t, who just reinvent the wheel, will never last. You can’t make it as an Independent by writing Quake and Half-Life clones, because you can’t compete with the mainstream game companies who produce those games far better than you. I think the successful independent games in coming years will be those that give the players something they haven’t seen before.

As far as the mainstream industry goes, I think independent games will continue to lead the way in terms of creativity and innovation. As usual, when an independent game makes the big time, the mainstream companies will jump on the bandwagon and try to better it.

When we started our studio in the Philippines, we all had no prior game development experience. When we were developing Anito, we shopped it around to different publishers, but because we had no reputation and had a small budget for producing the game, we stayed an independent studio. Fortunately, it enabled us to enter our game at the IGF, and here we are now =)

All of us have never worked in the game industry prior to developing Anito (since there was also no game industry to speak of in our country). A lot of people in our team entered Anino Entertainment straight out of school. So we wouldn't know what it's like working in the mainstream gaming industry =)

Our goal is to make the absolute best games that we can possibly make. We feel that we have the people to make AAA games. We would also like to have the resources and contacts in the industry to make this happen. In a year, I'd imagine that we would be working on our first high-profile game. In 5 years, we can hopefully have 2 or 3 teams doing the same.

The biggest challenge was undertaking such a big project with a very small team. There were only 7 full-time developers working on Anito, and as you may know teams making RPGs usually take anywhere from 20-50 people, because of the massive amount of content that has to be put in the game. We had to cut back a lot of content to meet our deadline, including an entire chapter for both players, an NPC race, and quests related to these elements. We also had a lot of trial and error during development - the initial town of Lanuevo was remade 4 times until the final version, and we went for sprite based animation instead of boned models since it took less research to implement that.

We already have or are talking to publishers for almost all of the possible territories in Europe. We still have no North American publisher as of now, and are still looking for one.

We self-published our game in the Philippines, and are also using those copies to fulfill our online orders. Being in the IGF definitely helped us gain the attention of our foreign partners - it lent us some credibility that might have otherwise been missing from an unknown rookie studio.

I think that indie studios are an important part of the overall industry. This is were some of the brightest people get their start, and without the indie games some very talented people who can move into the mainstream developement (if they wished) might remain unknown. But there are also people who I think like staying in independent development, and not having to deal with the whims of the big publishers. This allows for a level of innovation that many times cannot be seen in mainstream games. Their production values may not be as high, but the gameplay is often very interesting and different from what we can usually buy off the store.

Aside from these yearly events where indies get noticed and awarded, it's usually a hard road for us. Except for the largest indie studios, it's a struggle to get funding, to get people to know about your game (indies usually don't have any advertising money), which translates to low sales. It's a vicious cycle that tends to drive people out to get "real", more boring jobs. Fortunately, there are sites such as GameDev.net, DIYGames and GameTunnel who frequently monitor the events of the underground gaming scene. Hooray also for sites such as Dexterity.com where some of the best (and most fun) indie games are being sold.

GDC is a great place to go around in, see the big guys and the little guys like us, attend all the interesting talks, and check out what happens to the industry in general. And what GDC is already doing for the indies through IGF is already fantastic; I don't think we can possibly ask them for more.

Mainstream gaming press seem to give little thought to indie games and their developers. There's only room for the biggest games with huge production values. And this is what most of the gamers read, which influence their buying decisions. And sometimes, when they do review indie games they rank terribly low on the scoring systems, putting more emphasis on production value (which is admittedly lower on indie games) than the overall gaming experience. I'm not asking for a different scale for indie developers, but I just wish that the traditional gaming media, when looking at indie games, focus more on the things that indie games are usually known for: innovation and gameplay. There are some mainstream game sites however that already act this way, and for that we are thankful.

I personally haven't played any of the other games in this year's IGF. And the only one that I remember playing previously was Pontifex. Pontifex is an example of a great-playing game which didn't look great at all (at least in its first few iterations!) But it was really fun. I remember losing quite a few hours of working time to that game. Other games, such as Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, seem extremely interesting. I plan to try that particular game sometime.

This is as hard as asking me to describe to future of the whole game industry! But I'll give my two cents' worth.

The definition of "indie" will become more blurred than ever. People will start to come out with indie games that are more and more resembling mainstream games, while there will be indie games that will stick to the traditional notion of short, easy-to-play arcade or puzzle like games. This will confuse a lot of people, but I think it's generally a good thing as people will be able to see all the sorts of different games that the indie developers are capable of.

As for their impact on the mainstream industry, I'm not very optimistic about indies making a significant impact; the mainstream industry is already very crowded right now as it is. But there may come a time when players will say "I've seen this all before! I'm tired of sequel-itis and me-too games! I want something fresh!" And when that time comes, indie developers better be ready to offer them something new, original, and (most importantly) fun.

Another area that indie gaming may fulfill is to create games that will not be commercial hits but will explore the boundaries in game design. This is something that happens in film, and I'd like to see it in games as well.

I've been writing computer games since I got my first Commodore 16. When I was around 14, I started selling Legend Of the Red Dragon (a BBS game) and it eventually sold very well. I remember getting 50 checks in the mail in a single day and thinking "Man, this is where it's at!" It was about that time I quit working at my dad's cabinet shop and never looked back, much to his chagrin. :D

I've been self employed for the last 13 years but I have worked on many games as a hired gun/consultant.

Working on other people's stuff feels very different - having to deliver under pressure on a project I'm not really interested in is great conditioning though; I believe it helps me finish my own stuff faster, especially during motivational lapses.

I’d like to continue working from home, learn Japanese better (I’ve been in Japan about two years now) and finish my overly ambitious game project someday. Right now I’m able to spend a lot of time with my family and I don’t want that to change, it’s great.

Hmm. Dungeon Scroll was designed and developed at a leisurely pace in less than a month, it was probably the first 'zero stress during development' game I ever worked on. I put up a post mortem on Dungeon Scroll with some source here actually:
( http://www.rtsoft.com/codedojo/how_to_write_a_word_game.htm )

I had to deal with some bugs in the CDX library (a pretty cool directx 7 wrapper) which wasted a bit of time.

Nah I’m not really looking for a publisher, at least not with my current games. Too much effort for too little payoff.

I don't think being an IGF finalist really helped me much in that department, just attracted more of the questionable budget-ware guys that I was already getting contacted by anyway. (Speaking of last years experience with Teenage Lawnmower) It really depends on the game; some games are more marketable than others.

I’m probably overly pessimistic in this area, but that’s just my experience.

On the other hand, Dungeon Scroll is more casual than my usual fare so it’s made sense to put it into channels I usually don’t, such as on Real Arcade.

That's a hard question because there are so many different caliber and degrees of 'indie'. I think "casual games for your mom indie" has really been noticed in the mainstream and hope other forms will see more recognition; the problem is having a small team develop all that content... but people are doing it, amazing really.

The IGF is pretty neat and it will only get bigger and more refined as the years go by.

More indie media coverage and demo distribution would be helpful but overall I think that's been improving. Now it's just up to us to make some killer games.

From what I've seen it's a very high quality batch of games, I think the judges did a good job.

I'm guessing there are a lot of great games that got skipped simply because the authors didn't enter. With how easy it was this year (it now can be done entirely online) there is just no excuse.

Indie distribution is going through some big changes and when the dust settles I hope people can A, still find my stuff and B, realize I’m the guy who made it. :D

Adam and myself both have a very entrepreneurial spirit. We both always wanted to get our own thing going and luckily we found each other. Once we saw that the other had the same dreams, we started work on our game.

We were both employed by a software company that sometimes worked on game contracts. The best thing about working on our own is that we get to decide what goes in the games.

We are just hoping to make enough money to keep funding more games. We currently work nights and weekends and it would be great to work on our own thing full time.

I won't consider our game complete until it's for sale.

We are currently planning on self publishing but we are listening to offers. Being a finalist in the IGF has given us a lot of exposure and we have been contacted many times by publishers.

We definitely feel that there is plenty of room in the game industry for Indies. A good game is good, no matter who makes it. It takes a lot for me to lay down 60-70 dollars for a game, but I'm more willing to take a chance with a less expensive indeed game.

I think it's great. With the internet you can make and publish your own game if you want to. How much you get involved is purely up to you. I think publishers take way too much of a cut, but no one makes you sign. If you don't like it you don't have to do it.

I don't know that much about all of the Indies games out there. I have seen the finalists and have looked at last years as well. All the games look great. The amazing thing is that because we are Indies, you don't see the same ideas rehashed in every game like you do in the commercial world. Every game is vastly different.

I think the indie game will always be there because they are more likely to come up with the new cool ideas than the mainstream. They are beholden to no one which gives them the freedom to create the game that they want to, with the money people coming in and telling them to do it differently.

The three of us met and became friends while working on different projects at a game company (no plugs) in Kirkland, WA. We started making games together almost right away because we like each other's ideas.

Yes, there are professional programmers, artists and level designers among us, but the lawyers will descend like winged monkeys if I say another word. (j/k)

Eventually, we'd like to see our games being enjoyed on the Moon and Mars. Ultimately, we'd like to become Jovian Game Barons and rule the game industry from our fortified ice palace on Europa. Actually, we just go game by game, although we're always thinking ahead to what the next one or two might be.

Figuring out what to name it. (If you've seen the titles of our games then you know what I mean.) In the future we're going to use one-word game names like Zap or Fizz. We've already used Groink. I have no idea what I'm talking about right now.

It's not hard for us to complete a game. Digital Eel is self-funded and very grassroots, and we make modest-sized games so the process is pretty easy going.

====no comment====

====no comment====

====no comment====

We've played most of the games in the web-downloadable category and they're terrific. Last year's nominees were great too. I'm sure there are exceptions out there but the games that get nominated do represent a kind of "best of the indies" roster.

We actually started our company a few years ago to develop "advergames." But we found advergame development a little too limiting for us, since it was more about the advertising, and less about the actual game. Over time, we simply evolved into a full-fledged game developer, focusing on Web-based and downloadable games.

AstroManic Studios is comprised of two full time people. There's myself (Jack Lyon) and Patrick Baggatta. Patrick has a background the in the video game magazine industry, so he knew a lot about the traditional game developer market coming into this company.

But I think both of us agree that the overwhelming attraction of being a small developer is the complete freedom and creativity. We have no specific client, so we can work on game titles that are only limited by our imagination, skill and time. We also personally get to work on a variety of things that developers working at larger companies don't get to. The graphics, the game design, the music and sound effects, the marketing, the distribution - it all falls on two people.

On the down side, being a small developer means that it all falls on two people. We try to develop a title every three to four months, which means there's only so much you can do. Since our budget is basically zero, we can' t usually hire out any of the work, which can limit the overall depth or production value of a game. For Chomp! Chomp! Safari, however, our friend Nathan Wilson did the character illustration and a lot of the artwork, which ended up being an enormous contribution to the game's success.

I think our biggest goal is just to continue making better games. Games that look better and play better. We're actually not interested in becoming a very large company. In a perfect world, we would bring two or three more people on board to focus on the things that we can't give a lot of attention to.

The hardest part is simply the huge amount of development that's required to make a game that's worthwhile with such a small team. Patrick does all the actual coding, which is a gargantuan undertaking.

Designing a successful Web-based game is also an incredible challenge. Since it's on the Web, the average person is only going to try the game out for a few seconds, before they click on something else. So, there's the difficult mix of designing a game that someone will immediately understand and enjoy, while making the game deep enough that they'll want to continue to play it beyond those first few minutes of discovery.

Obviously, we haven't completely overcome these challenges, but I hope that we improve our speed and quality with every game that we develop.

Being so small, there's no way for us to successfully publish on our own games. Since our games our distributed on the Web, we actually use dozens of publishers. We've actually been very fortunate in that regard - we've partnered with some really great publishers that believe in what we're doing and deliver our game to places that we could never get to on our own.

Our specific market of downloadable games is an interesting one, since the space is actually shared by big game developers and small indies like ourselves. There are places where our games are listed along titles developed by Sega and Atari, which is just amazing for us. But, for now at least, I still the two industries as pretty separate. The vast majority of developers in the downloadable game market are still small independents like us. Our customers are also a totally different demographic.

I'm really not sure. GDC is without a doubt the best show for us, though. We 've found some great distributors through the show.

We honestly haven't had any time to really check out the other finalist. I' ve always really liked the stuff that Large Animal Games has done though. I' d say they're a strong example of an indie game developer that does consistently high-quality work.

With all the downloadable game sites doing well, it seems that there's been a gigantic increase in independent developers over the last two years. It's getting extremely crowded in our space - the game title turnover rate on all the more popular downloadable game sites is just mind boggling. With so many new developers and games popping up, it does make it more of a challenge to create a game that even has a chance to get noticed.

Beyond that, I think that the quality and creativity of independent games is going to continue to rise. Indie developers are far more likely to take risks and make really unique games that don't necessarily fit in one particular genre. And as more professional-level development, graphic and sound tools are becoming affordable to a company of our size, I think the production value of the average indie game is going to skyrocket.

I was working for a company doing massively multiplayer role playing games, and got frustrated with the management there as well as the projects we were working on. My brother and I decided to do our own games professionally, and the rest is history. We didn't initially anticipate our current market or type of games, however.

Working on your own projects is definitely rewarding, when those projects are labors of love. If you are doing indie games on more of a contractor basis, it's a lot less fun. It can also be difficult maintaining motivation without a lot of outsiders pushing you on. Working alone or with only a few other people can also be a drag. But of course there's huge potential upside, and you get to set your own hours and do your own projects!

We like to make socially interesting game experiences that aren't like other games that already exist. In a year I think we'll be similar to how we are now, but with much better distribution. We may also have some other products that don't fit our current mold by then. In five, I think we'll be a well known name in multiplayer web games, and possibly many other channels. I think we'll still be 'independent', though.

Which one? We've made about 14 at this point, packaged in 25 skins available in several different locations! Completing games is relatively easy for us these days, because all our games rely on our proprietary platform which is designed to make prototyping and deploying multiplayer games a snap.

We have a few distribution models, but at the moment none of them requires a traditional publisher. Future titles or retail versions may require a publisher, but being indie is really just about developing the games independently. Using a publisher for distribution doesn't take away from that. It's the publisher funding the whole process of development that matters.

Certainly they're part of it. It's really just a question of who is calling the shots during development. The overall industry may be a bit surprised as the indie share of things grows. However, we're already starting to see consolidation and some new 'publishers' in the online space. Things on the web may simply get to be more like they are at retail soon. Of course there will always be indie developers, but how many people will get to see the games they make?

I think the IGF is a great venue for independent games. Raising awareness is probably the thing that's going to improve the state of things the most. Also, we need better free tools for game developers. The price of developing a reasonably complex game is really high right now.

They represent one facet of independent game development. There are many facets, though. For example, there are lots of indy projects that never get to a stage that would interest the IGF. You could argue that being incomplete those aren't really games, but they certainly have things to contribute.

I think that independent games are going to become more and more common as more people learn to program and development gets easier due to improved tools. Let's face it: programming is the critical piece that takes a lot of specialized knowledge in game development. Sure, you need to do artwork and create a good design, but those things can be done poorly. With programming, if you don't have the skills you can't even make a poor product.

The impact on the mainstream industry really depends on what you consider an independent game and what you consider the mainstream industry. If an independent game is any game that is not funded by a publisher, then there are two possibilities: either it was funded by someone with deep pockets, or it is a really simple game. Simple games can be great, and the question then becomes whether or not the mainstream industry includes those. If so, you'll see some serious impact. If not, then since no many people have the opportunity to get external funding, so you won't see much impact. Again, as tools develop it may become easier to make complex games, but there's always going to be a limit to how complex a couple people in a garage can get, even if that's speaking just graphically.

It was sort of an accident. A few years ago I was a producer at Eidos & one of the games I was given was T-Tex - a 3D FPS for the GBC (not GBA). The developers of this game had a great idea, but no idea how to put it into practice. Its a long story, but the upshot is that I left Eidos, we got involved & Slitherine was born, but we took it in a very different direction & have now brought 4 PC strategy games to the market, which we think is a major achievement!

Initially I worked at Intelligent Games, who unfortunately are no longer with us. While there I worked on a number of titles including Simisle for Maxis and was team leader on the Westwood projects, such as Red Alert Aftermath & Counterstrike, Dune 2000 & Dune Emperor, before I decided I needed a change of scenery. I moved to Eidos as a producer and worked on Urban Chaos, Praetorians, Warrior Kings and Deus Ex. I realised that working for a publisher was not as much fun as I'd hoped as the developers don't want to listen to any of your feedback and just think you are interfering. To them you are always an outsider. This made me want to get back into development again & that's why Slitherine happened.

In theory large developers offers security, but in practice its not always true. The problem with a large developer like IG is that the wage bill is huge - with around 50 developers costing £3-4k a month its around £250k a month with overheads! If your game is a month late, that's £250k lost. You cannot afford to fund your own game development because of the cost, which means you are always trying to sell an idea to a publisher. If it takes you 4 months to sell the idea, that's £1m. What if they turn you down.... The amounts of money involved are scary. You can go from a nice profit of £1m to a loss in a few months.

Say you work for EA and are doing Harry Potter II. If they cancel the project half way through what can you do? You can't take it to another publisher because EA own the Harry Potter license. You are tied in to them completely and any work you have done is wasted.

Being independent means we fund the development, not a publisher. It also means we own all the IP and any licenses required to do the game. Its a little scary because you don't know if anyone will publish your game when its done, so there are still risks - just different ones! The advantage is if one publisher says no, you can to the next, then the next. There are a surprising number of them out there!

There are too many people involved between the developer & the gamer & each take a chunk of the pie. For example Legion sold around 35,000 copies in the US and we received about $2-$3 a unit. Gamers don't realise how much of their money gets eaten up by shops, warehouses, etc. We'd like to cut down on the number of people taking their chunk of the pie & we still want to be independent!

There are so many challenges its hard to pick one out! There is the development itself, but so much other stuff that people forget about! Negotiating with publishers, contracts, marketing, testing, manuals, box art, translations. The list goes on! You need a team with a mix of skills ranging from the obvious art, programming & design tasks, to project management, marketing, test management, business management (pay the bills, wages, taxes etc), contract negotiation.

We are publishing Spartan through the normal channels and have signed publishers in most areas, but are still looking for partners in some places. If anyone is interested they should contact us! We'll be looking at all the options in the long term.

I see them as the same thing, just on a different scale :)

Currently its very hard for independents to get to market. Until you've proven yourself with a published game its hard to get anyone to take you seriously. There are incubator programs and the like, but at the moment nobody has developed the skill of talent spotting. In other industries scouts will spot up and coming talent and develop them. As an industry we just don't do that at the moment. We wait till someone has proved they can sell games before we are willing to invest in them and it is restricting the development of the industry.

I hadn't actually heard of the IGF before this year and we only found out about it on the day the entries were due. We had to rush so much to get all the information together and we really didn't think it would lead anywhere. The version we sent off was one that we had just sent to the beta testers, so we were lucky to have that available. In the end its worked out really well for us. Being a finalist in the competition has opened a lot of doors.

As we have been mastering Spartan for the last months we haven't really had a chance to look at the competition. After working till 9pm every day the last thing you want to do is look at another game ;)

I think its looking healthy. Managing game developers is like herding cats - they all want to go their own way and do their own thing. I think game developers will always be looking for a way to be in control of their game and this means we see new developers springing up for a long time to come. The failure rate is pretty high right now, but maybe that will improve as the industry matures.