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Businesses Entertainment Games

Indie Game Developers See Big Opportunity 119

Posted by Zonk from the plenty-of-pennies-in-tetris dept.
An anonymous reader writes "BusinessWeek Online is running a story on the new opportunities indie game developers are finding in the casual games space. They also have a Q&A with one of Microsoft's gaming gurus." From the article: "Until recently, the market for electronic games was mainly young, male, and diehard. These days, a bigger, more age-diverse group that increasingly includes and women is joining in the fun, spending anywhere from a few minutes a day to long stretches on online poker or games such as Bejewelled, Tetris, and The Sims. As more people sign up for high-speed Internet access (almost 60% of the U.S. population now has access to broadband), the gaming experience -- both for games playable online, such as Bejewelled, and CD- or DVD-ROM titles with an online component, like The Sims -- has become more appealing. Casual gamers now make up about 1% of the $20.5 billion game-software market."
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Indie Game Developers See Big Opportunity More

Indie Game Developers See Big Opportunity

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  • Of course (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:42PM (#13792559) Journal
    Take any retail industry. Make distribution costs sufficiently close to zero. Make unit cost close to zero.

    Independent producers will grow like weeds. Add in the fact that the casual gamer market was underutilized... Profit!

    • Make distribution costs sufficiently close to zero. Make unit cost close to zero. Independent producers will grow like weeds.

      Given your description, I think you meant, "Independent producers will grow, like, weed."

    • Profits tend to zero (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:52PM (#13792639)
      Perfect competition: Characterized by a free flow of information, no barriers to entry, and a large number of buyers and sellers.

      Each seller supplies and each buyer purchases only a small fraction of the total supply of the commodity. As a result, no single seller or buyer can influence the market price. The sellers earn only normal profits (the minimum profit necessary to keep them in business). If sellers earn excess profits, other sellers will enter the market, boosting the supply and thus driving down the price of the commodity, until only normal profits are possible.

      Sounds like a real goldmine!

      • Perfect competition: Characterized by a free flow of information, no barriers to entry, and a large number of buyers and sellers.

        This isn't perfect competition though, because perfect competition is also characterized by the selling of perfect substitutes, and some games are considerably funner than others. Therefore, the funner games would have an advantage.

      • Re:Profits tend to zero (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @03:11PM (#13792794) Journal
        "Characterized by a free flow of information, no barriers to entry, and a large number of buyers and sellers."

        Except that there are barriers to entry (development costs -- like hiring a good designer & good developer). Still, much smaller barriers than in many other industries.

        Also, a perfectly competitive market assumes that all products are equivalent, which is not the case here. So, some developers will realize a hefty profit (due to a better product) and some will realize losses. In the long run, extrapolated across all competitors, you are correct... but there is still a huge capacity for profit due to differences in the product.

    • Steam (Score:2)

      by bhsx ( 458600 )
      On October 12th, Rag Doll Kung Fu [slashdot.org] came out. You know how I know that? They advertised on the Steam network. I spent about 3 hours reading about and watching videos of this very unique game. Then I Pre-Loaded it for a $2 discount on this $14 dollar game. It is awesome. It was developed by one individual (the cut scenes are a rather funny, extremely low-budget kung fu movie he had made with some friends that kicked-started the project).
      My point being: Steam let me know about, purchase, and then dist

  • The Sims not online (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Since when does the average Sims title have an online component?

  • So nothing's changed then? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Buddy_DoQ ( 922706 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:44PM (#13792571) Homepage
    What they're trying to say is, that nothing has changed since the days of Tertris.


    Boys are still the big buyers and mom sometimes likes Tertis-like games. Making more Tertis-like games may bring in more money, but I don't think it'll be as big as they think. (But I've been wrong before, and as an indie type my self, I'd love to be!)

    • Re:So nothing's changed then? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Xarius ( 691264 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:47PM (#13792592) Homepage
      How can someone spell Tetris wrong three times in a row?!

    • Re:So nothing's changed then? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by garcia ( 6573 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:49PM (#13792613)
      Boys are still the big buyers and mom sometimes likes Tertis-like games. Making more Tertis-like games may bring in more money, but I don't think it'll be as big as they think. (But I've been wrong before, and as an indie type my self, I'd love to be!)

      I enjoy puzzle games like Tetris and specifically "Bejeweled" (or any of the 1000 other names it goes by depending on variation) but that's because they are "free". I can go to Yahoo Games and fire up a game of Gin, Literati, Bejeweled, etc, all for nothing. I don't need a game to sit on my HD taking up space, I don't need the latest and greatest system to run it, I don't need to pay an arm and a leg, and I don't get bored with the game after I "finish" it.

      My problem with most modern games is that the long term playability just isn't there. Yeah, most FPS shooters with online play break that mold but there are plenty of others that don't. You need to invest too much in hardware, software, and time and then you're bored with it in a month/year.

      I have a Ms. Pacman machine (currently in disrepair unfortunately). It's been out since 1982 and it's just as much fun today as it was then.

      I'll take a puzzle game over some multi-million dollar interactive movie anyday.
      • Various Namco Museum collections for various platforms include Ms. Pacman along with other 80s arcade classics.

        The ones I know it's in are Namco Museum 50th Anniversary for Xbox, and Namco Museum Battle Collection for PSP.

        These and the Midway and Atari collections are heaven for the casual retro action gamer.
      • While that is true, and does cost less. Those kind of games don't offer everyone long term amusement (attension spans, different upbringings, specific like for fast paced games and eye candy)
        I personally have probably spent more time on the expensive eye candy interactive movie type game you speak of than the general no cost time fillers and board game type things.
        Some people also like to marvel at scenery and get into a storyline as they play a game. I personally get bored of games that are very simmilar
      • "I have a Ms. Pacman machine (currently in disrepair unfortunately). It's been out since 1982 and it's just as much fun today as it was then."

        If it's in disrepair now, and was 'out' in 1982, of course it's the same amount of fun -- it doesn't work now and it didn't work then!
      • Puzzle games seems to be a bit of a misnomer in the casual arena. The puzzles are often at the stimulus/response level of Bejeweled and its kin.

        I got it wrong and made Drippy [screamingduck.com] which is more in the Tetris vein. If you look at most of the Casual game portals you won't find many games like this. There is too much decision making involved in where to put things.

        With my other games Fitznik [screamingduck.com] and Fitznik 2 [screamingduck.com] I made really hard puzzles.
        They also don't do so well on the casual portals. For Fitznik, by far the biggges
      • You criticise modern games for having no long-term playability then talk about tetris and bejewelled. Tetris is a very shallow game, the playability is basic. It's the same movement over and over again. It gets tired after about 15 minutes.

  • Only 1%.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by wpiman ( 739077 ) * on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:45PM (#13792577)
    that seems low to me.

    I would probably catorgorize myself as a casual gamer- I play once a week- often not at all- but I'd say I buy 5-6 games a year. I'd like to play more- but don't have time. Is this just me or are others in this same category?

    • I agree that the number seems very low. I buy maybe two games a year, as do most of the folks I know... Perhaps they mean 1% by percentage of sales, rather than number of gamers.
    • I would probably catorgorize myself as a casual gamer- I play once a week- often not at all- but I'd say I buy 5-6 games a year. I'd like to play more- but don't have time. Is this just me or are others in this same category?

      If you play once a week or less then, yes, I would say that you're a casual gamer. But that's not all... You purchase 5-6 games a year. That makes you more than casual in my book.

      While I sometimes play more than once a week or less I have purchased about 5 or 6 games in the last 5+ y
    • 1% of a 20 billion dollar market is $200,000,000. Not bad for a market the industry thusfar has shrugged off.
      • Yeah, I know what you mean.
        Games like Nintendogs just push away the casual gamer, and embrace the hardcore lifestyle, you know?
        The Sims is just one of those games that turns people off. I mean, who, besides the hardcore gamer, likes to pretend they have a life?
        And don't even get me started on those simple puzzle games... Nobody who's not a hardcore gamer has time to learn which blocks dissappear when!!

  • Negative Effects? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by matr0x_x ( 919985 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:46PM (#13792584) Homepage
    I am not convinced that games going mainstream is necessarily a good thing! As more and more average Americans start playing video games in their spare time, the lucrative market video game creators will target will also change. Pretty soon games like Halo will be on the back burner to "every day games" free of killing and other evils. Could this mean a world full of The Sims knockoffs?
    • Absurd. For starters, it's 1% of the market. There is potential in casual gamers, but with advertising in video games on the rise and the increase in non-casual gamers (ex-casual gamers becoming regular gamers, people who never gamed before becoming regular gamers) there is, and will be for quite a while, more money to be made in non-casual gaming. You don't have to worry about gamers or game companies destroying the industry, you have to worry about lawmakers and Jack Thompsons destroying the industry (or

    • Re:Negative Effects? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by confusednoise ( 596236 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @03:26PM (#13792922)
      Wrong wrong wrong. If it becomes easier/lower cost to create and distribute games, variety will increase are more niche markets are able to be filled. Game makers no longer have to bet on the biggest market out there - indie makers can find a small audience for their game and make enough to get by. All this means *more* different kinds of games, not less.

      Now: s/games/[books|music|any content you want]/ and think over the benefits of indie producers again.

    • I don't know if we would be saddled with tons of Sims knock-offs, but we would probably get Sims Crime Scene Investigators.

    • Ah yes (Score:2)

      by mcc ( 14761 )
      Surely as video games become more mainstream, Halo will be the first to suffer

    • Re:Negative Effects? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by freeweed ( 309734 )
      I'm pretty sure games like Halo are a direct result of games going mainstream already.
    • As more and more average Americans start playing video games in their spare time, the lucrative market video game creators will target will also change.

      Uhh, hate to break it to you, but that has already happened. Mainstream consumers flock to buy the next (sport-name)(year) or (war-name)(sequel-number) while the rest of us will sift through to find the good stuff.

      It's no different than music, books, TV, and movies. Crap is cheap easy to produce and enough people like it that the publishers can make money
  • Here we go, I can see it now. Soon enough I'll have to wade through a sea of EMO kids trying to get my copy of HL3 or Doom 18, having my tastes in game critiqued and told how I should really be playing "Indie Games" because thats where the "real talent" is.

  • I'm surprised (Score:4, Informative)

    by Conspiracy_Of_Doves ( 236787 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:47PM (#13792591)
    They didn't mention Manifesto Games [manifestogames.com], the new startup established by Greg Costikyan, author of the Scratchware Manifesto [the-underdogs.org]

    • Re:I'm surprised (Score:3, Informative)

      by Toddarooski ( 12363 )
      As I recall, Manifesto games is intentionally avoiding going after the casual game market. They're looking for Indie Hardcore games. TFA seems to use "Indie" and "Causal" interchangably, which is true for a lot of the games out there right now, but not all of 'em...
    • I'm not. Although I wish that project well, so far its nothing but a very ugly single page website with no games (or even games in development). There are plenty of thriving small games companies that arent just making bejewelled clones,and have finished games vailable. I could easily plug my political strategy game (www.democracygame.com) here, or the excellent LUX by sillysoft, or puppygames Ultratron, or Shorthike.
      The 'match 3' causal games bubble happened a few years ago and has probbaly now reached its

  • This is great! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Yhippa ( 443967 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:47PM (#13792597) Journal
    I've been waiting for things like this to really pick up. Most of the games I've played on the consoles or PC are incremental improvements over a previous version. I like the fact that the barrier for entry is lower so that people with different ideas get a shot at making some cool games.

    I think a lot of us remember the days of the Atari 2600 where there were few sequels and mostly different (and sometimes weird) ideas. I felt that way about games until they started to become really commercialized in the late 90's and all we get now are rehashes because the big businesses are not willing to take risks and want steady incomes. Maybe we'll see some new games now.

    • Big game companies went the way of movie studios. In fact, the big studios have big stakes in video game production (a friend of mine works as a game producer at Viacom.) So it's not hard to understand that the same risk-averse "go with what worked before" mentality would manifest itself in the game industry.

    • Re:This is great! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Magnusite ( 526038 )
      Bingo! You hit the nail on the head!

      The very reason that people did not create wave after wave of FPS games is that they were not technically possible on the Commodore 64, Apple II, or Atari 800. Sure, there were some wireframe simulations of FPS exploration like Cholo, The Colony and others, but they did not move fast enough to give the visceral feelings modern hardware can (Run! Shoot! Flee!), so they just did not appeal to the mass populace.

      Modern hardware now allows full First Person immersion, so w

      • Interesting point, put I want to say that easy distribution doesn't necessarily mean more ingenious games.

        Let's say I have a small game company.
        "Hmm..." I think, "I can make a really cool medieval farming strategy multiplayer online game!"
        So I do. Thousands of dollars and countless hours later, I publish the sucker and put it online.
        In the weeks that follow, I barely cut even, even though my game, through word-of-mouth, has reached a large audience of the hardcore gaming types.
        "Hmmmm... That didn't go s
      • The very reason that people did not create wave after wave of FPS games is that they were not technically possible on the Commodore 64, Apple II, or Atari 800. Sure, there were some wireframe simulations of FPS exploration like Cholo, The Colony and others, but they did not move fast enough to give the visceral feelings modern hardware can (Run! Shoot! Flee!), so they just did not appeal to the mass populace.

        One of my favorite games on the Atari 800 was Alternate Reality: The City, and sequel, The Dungeon
  • I had hope until the last line of the headline.. 1% ???? How does a indie company / startup go into their local innovation funding office and pitch their great quirky game idea when they can only say "Games like this will be 3% maybe of the game market this year!"? btw when is it indie, and when do you use indy.. ??
    • btw when is it indie, and when do you use indy.. ??

      "Indie" is short for "Independent".
      "Indy" is short for "Indiana was the dog's name!!!"
    • "How does a indie company / startup go into their local innovation funding office and pitch their great quirky game idea when they can only say 'Games like this will be 3% maybe of the game market this year!'"

      Because 1% of $20.5 billion is still over $20 million. Given the low production and distribution costs of most of these small games, revenues of $100,000 would still earn major profit.
      • First, 1% of $20.5 billion is $205 million. But this only supports your point :) Second, revenues of $100,000 would earn major profit for you, for sure, but innovation funds only begin to get interested when there is "hockey stick growth" into the 7-digit or 8-digits numbers at the end of your 3-year business plan. Your measly 6-digit profit figures won't even get a sideways glance.
        • Oops, typo.

          Re: Inno funds, sure. But the point of the article is not about small indie game companies getting major investment. It's about small innovative companies (or individuals) who do not need that kind of startup capital to make a profit, by taking advantage of cheap distribution channels for games that appeal to the growing casual gamer market.
        • but innovation funds only begin to get interested when there is "hockey stick growth" into the 7-digit or 8-digits numbers at the end of your 3-year business plan

          If an "innovation fund" is anything like a "venture capitalist" or worse, like getting money from EA/Vivendi, then wouldn't that be what the entire concept of "scratchware" is actively TRYING to avoid? Being given money in exchange for being told you have to make $rehash_of_established_game_style

          Of course, I've never heard the term "innovation fun
      • Because 1% of $20.5 billion is still over $20 million. Given the low production and distribution costs of most of these small games, revenues of $100,000 would still earn major profit.

        I find it interesting that people think getting 1% of a $20 billion pie is worth the effort to develop games, yet when it's pointed out that non-Windows operating systems make up, say, 6%-10% of the user base for home PCs, the response is "you can't spend that much development time/money on such a small piece of the market, it
        • Nice inference, there. You're onto something, definitely. The question, I think, is cost of porting those games -- there might be a ton of work involved -- and distributing them (since they are not downloadable due to size).

  • Voice-recognition RPG (Score:5, Interesting)

    by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:51PM (#13792633)
    Some cellphone service provider is going to make a killing on a voice-activated old-school RPG. The player speaks their commands ("move forward" "pick up crystal") and a pleasant synth or sampled voice tells the player what they see ("You are in a dark forest and the sun is setting. In front of you lies a shining sword and a bulging bag. A trail leads forward toward a crumbling castle").

    Just think of the minutes burned as the "caller" explores some world/dungeon for hours.

    • Holy crap, I want to play it already! Seriously! Not on my cellphone though, on a device that sounds nicer, but I don't have to watch all the time, so I can read and play the game at the same time.

    • Character actors, line up (Score:5, Funny)

      by ianscot ( 591483 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @03:11PM (#13792791)
      We need to audition for the definitive "You may be eaten by a Grue" voice.
    • Yeah, but what about when your playing the latest Mission:Impossible tie-in game?

      You: "Open the door."
      Phone: "The door opens. Stepping inside, you see a large water tank, possibly the cooling chamber for the reactor you were sent to destroy."
      You: "Place the plastic explosives on the nuclear reactor coolant controller."

      Whumpf! "Hey, what the heck? Who are you guys? Why did you tackle me? What's going on?
      Secret Police: "By authority of the Terrorist Wartime Powers Act, I'm taking you in! But before I

    • You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all different.
    • It would work better as a phone RPG playable with other players.
      That way you could hire GMs like you would a phone-whore, and get other people playing too. You'd have to have an optional monthly-fee, though, or some people would really get into power gaming.

      "I don't care how the freakin' room looks! Just give me a rundown on any monsters, treasure, or traps! No, don't pause to look at the notes! I'm not paying you $3.00 a minute to scribble on your notes and tell me about waterfalls!!"
  • Did anyone else mentally stumble over the awkward incorrect grammar in the summary? Example:
    "that increasingly includes and women is joining in the fun"

    Did the submitter C&P, or did he re-type?

  • Yawn (Score:4, Insightful)

    by beakerMeep ( 716990 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:53PM (#13792654)
    These articles are like "is apple dying?" articles. Need to run one of them every few months as per the publishers guidebook for easy stories. Not that this story is wrong but talking about games like Bejewelled-like as some sort of new market is silly.

    From the article, "Until recently, the market for electronic games was mainly young, male, and diehard."

    Not at all.

    Girls have outnumbered guys playing games for years and it's all games like this with companies capitalizing all along.

    For once i would like to see information on how this effects more traditionally "guy" games. For instance i bet the are significantly more girls playing WoW than ever played Ultima Online despite it still being vastly a male audience. Also would like to see how girls have influced the creation of more advanced games that cater to their gender more so than their male counterparts -- such as Black and White or The Sims.

    I'm not holding my breath though ;)

    • "For once i would like to see information on how this effects more traditionally "guy" games. For instance i bet the are significantly more girls playing WoW than ever played Ultima Online despite it still being vastly a male audience."

      To study this phenomenon, you would first need some way to filter out all of the guys who claim to be girls in online games. And believe me, there's more than you think.

      • Guys who claim to be girls or guys who are playing female characters without making any claim of being female in real life? There is, you know, a difference.
    • "Girls have outnumbered guys playing games for years and it's all games like this with companies capitalizing all along."

      Yes, girls outnumber guys... but guys spend more money on games. So the male market, expressed as monetary values, is larger than the female market.

  • Several factors .... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AlltheCoolNamesGone ( 838035 ) * on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:57PM (#13792684)
    as to why there seems to be more "casual" gamers.

    1. More homes have PCs now. Do you really think that people are not going to take advantage of all the features of a PC?

    2. There is little to no social stigma left to playing PC games.

    3. Lack of time in our daily lives. (When you grow up and have a family you cant spend 8 hours a day 7 days a week playing your favorite games)

    This shouldn't be surpriseing if anything the casual gamer market should continue growing.
    • "2. There is little to no social stigma left to playing PC games."

      No kidding...this is why every bar nowadays has a Megatouch XL system sitting *right on the bar* near the end. I've seen this machine in small, local ethnic bars in Trenton up to the bar in a fishing lodge in Canada. And there is always someone playing it and it doesn't even look out of place anymore. Btw, know what kind of hardware is inside? I saw one boot up and it's just a 486-100 with 32 megs of RAM built into a small, indestructible

  • Distribution client? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by No Such Agency ( 136681 ) <abmackay AT gmail DOT com> on Friday October 14, 2005 @02:57PM (#13792687)
    "almost 60% of the U.S. population now has access to broadband"

    Does this mean that 60% of the population HAS broadband access in their homes? Or that they could have it installed if they want? I assume that it means the former, since almost everyone has cable TV by now and therefore likely access to cable internet.

    I wonder what the possibilities would be for starting a Steam-like service, but instead of peddling one's own games, instead distributing inexpensive indie games in exchange for a percentage? Would many casual gamers install a client like that?
    • Don't you think if they meant 60% has access, not 60% has access to, they would've left out the "to" in that sentence?

      Not all cable companies offer internet. Not all homes are serviced by cable. Much of rural US can't get any form of broadband other than satellite.
    • Does this mean that 60% of the population HAS broadband access in their homes? Or that they could have it installed if they want?
      It means 60% of the population has the potential to get broadband. It's debateable as to whether 60% of the US population is on the internet, let alone has broadband.

      You can equate the sentence to something like "Anyone can live the American Dream(TM)!"
    • I presume you haven't heard of Wild Tangent? They already do that. Or RealArcade? They already do that. I know there are a few others I'm missing...

      Downloadable casual games are reasonable even over dial up considering most don't have the massive art asset library that a mainstream game requires.
    • I wonder what the possibilities would be for starting a Steam-like service, but instead of peddling one's own games, instead distributing inexpensive indie games in exchange for a percentage?
      I pointed this out elsewhere in the thread, but Steam already does this.
      Rag Doll Kung Fu [ragdollkungfu.com] just came out, only through Steam. RDKF is an awesome time killer.
      Disclosure: I have nothing to do with said game in any way, just really, really impressed.
    • I wonder what the possibilities would be for starting a Steam-like service, but instead of peddling one's own games, instead distributing inexpensive indie games in exchange for a percentage? Would many casual gamers install a client like that?

      While this probably isn't what you had in mind, I've found Emerge to be a very nice client for installing games, both casual and not so casual. Check out http://www.gentoo-portage.com/Browse [gentoo-portage.com] and look through the various game categories. Plenty of games are availabl

  • A great market (Score:2, Interesting)

    by core ( 3330 )
    Casual downloadable games are a great market indeed. My latest title, Atlantis, is #1 in sales on big portals right now (Real Arcade and BigFish Games at the moment), and direct sales, in number of units, are way into the 4-digits range after three months out. We get to make the games we like and have direct contact with customers to help them out and gather suggestions, which is fantastic.

    Best regards,
    Emmanuel

    --
    Smash hit ball matching game for PC and Mac:
    http://www.funpause.com/atlantis/ [funpause.com]
    Currently #1 on Rea

  • It's all about puzzle games (Score:3, Interesting)

    by British ( 51765 ) <british1500@gmail.com> on Friday October 14, 2005 @03:12PM (#13792797) Homepage Journal
    I love GTA, etc, but I have a place in my heart for puzzle games. Gotta love 'em
    1. Low system requirements. You can port it to a freakin' Atari 2600 depending on the game, or a cell phone.
    2. Takes almost no time to learn.
    3. Often many puzzle games have open-ended design to expand gameplay without making hit hideously complicated.

    Every time I see one of those media players with a d-pad, I always wonder if it would be possible to port Tetris, Bejweled, etc on them. oh what fun it would be to port Bejeweled to as many portable systems as possible(cell phone(done), PSP, GBA, wonderswan, GP32, Tapwave Zodiac, Ipod(wow does it need more games), GP32X, digital cameras(mame was done) and anything else I haven't mentioned).

    Bejeweled for everyone!

  • Problem with indi games dev (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Having worked on 4 mods now, 2 halflife, 2 Unreal I can tell you why independent games development is not going to get any easier in the next few years. For starters costs, in sheer man hours work is vast, translate that into salaries and I will take a stab at saying games devs outspend filmakers. Unstable market and too much nanny legislation is going to scare most indis away from taking the risks. Making games is a very risky business, the best stuff is only made for people who do it for the love of it im
  • I could swear I read something just like this several (3-4) years ago when I logged onto www.gamedev.net.

  • Casual gaming is a crowded market (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Junks Jerzey ( 54586 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @03:19PM (#13792851)
    Five years ago, this was big news. Very few companies were looking to the Solitaire / Minesweeper market. Some were, yes, and some of these were doing extremely well. Since then there has been a proliferation of casual game companies to the point where it's a difficult market to break into. A big reason for this is that the barriers for entry are low: games that involve fairly simple programming, aren't content heavy, aren't 3D, etc. You can toss together a Bewjeweled-like game in a week, plus spend another few weeks polishing it up. What's worse is that there's very little innovation of any kind. Everyone is cloning the same handful of games, usually bubble-popping games (like Bejeweled). And it's unclear that the casual market has any interest in innovation anyway. People want a mindless game like Solitaire or Bejeweled and that's that. They don't want an endless stream of games.
    • You can toss together a Bewjeweled-like game in a week, plus spend another few weeks polishing it up.

      Oh yes, that's what everyone thinks before actually trying to make one. Just go ahead, make a Bejewelled-like game with a comparable quality in a few weeks. You'll soon be wondering where did all these months go.

      As an experiment, take a look at our games, and try to guess what the development times were.

  • 60% of Americans... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mpapet ( 761907 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @03:23PM (#13792892) Homepage
    almost 60% of the U.S. population now has access to broadband

    Just because they have access doesn't mean they HAVE broadband, much less a computer. Please note a significant portion of American homes still do not have PC's. It really bugs me when stats are used in this way.

    At this point, it's kind of like the phone I'd guess in that its only a matter of time (non-computer users dying) before it gets much closer to the entire population.

  • Sortasoft (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TheSifters ( 228899 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @03:30PM (#13792961)
    I've recently entered into the casual games industry myself. There is definitely a market out there and I love working for myself and creating whatever I feel like creating. I have also found that the developer community is very helpful and willing to share their knowledge. If anyone wants to know more about just ask I'd love to share what i've learned.

    My first casual game Funky Farm [sortasoft.com] has been doing better than I could ever have imagined, and I'm close to finishing my 2nd casual game. If you want to check out my site.... www.sortasoft.com [sortasoft.com]
    • There's something very funky about the javascript you're using to popup the screenshots. I just tried to take a look on Safari on MacOSX (yes I realize your game only works on Windows :-)) and the screenshot window pops up and then closes right away. Looking at the JS code, it appears you have some window.close() calls in there. That doesn't seem right... the window opens and immediately closes. Perhaps some other browsers don't execute .close(), but Safari sure seems to - thus I cannot see your enlar
    • Out of curiousity, would you mind sharing approximately how well it's doing from a unit sales per timeframe standpoint? People like me want to know! :-)
  • I'll take this opportunity to shameless plug my Online Scrabble [sf.net] game written in Python. Stop by and play a game!
  • Zounds! Is it time for the "Niche Industry X is resurgent!" filler story again? No real news going on, I take it.

  • This has a lot to do with the previous article about videogame aesthetics, in that a lot of independent developers have their own visual style. Once everything is made by the same guys, everything starts to look bad, and play worse. With indie developers, you don't have as much pressure, and a lot of games like Marathon [bungie.org] and Katamari [namco.com] have a sort of quirkiness that I find appealing.

    Personally I don't think I have enough indie games. Stubbs the Zombie [stubbsthezombie.com] is looking good, though. I might get it when it comes out.

  • read from someone with a clue :)

    http://grumpygamer.com/6647684 [grumpygamer.com]
  • I thought the whole of gaming was a casual activity.
  • The writers there have been blathering on and on about it for as long as I've been reading it. I'm too lazy to find the link to the specific article but it was one the ones about long rants about a hit driven industry the gaming has become and unlike other mediums where indie persists and is partially funded by the hits making it more appealing to a greater number and occasionally people filter in to the mainstream. There was also the article at wired a while back about the long tail.
    http://www.escapis [escapistmagazine.com]
  • I like Bejeweled. I do. I play it on my Treo when I'm away from a computer and I'm waiting on something. You know, waiting to see a doctor, or while having my car serviced, whatever. It's an open-ended game that is instantly engaging, yet can be put down at any point. It's a good distraction for up to 15 minutes or so.

    But who in the hell wants to play it at home, in their living room, on their TV? Moreover, who can afford to drop $400 on an Xbox 360 (and, if the cycle continues as it has been, an in
  • it's called Gweled, and available at : http://sebdelestaing.free.fr/gweled/ [sebdelestaing.free.fr]

  • Lamer. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by dermusikman ( 540176 )
    Until recently, the market for electronic games was mainly young, male, and diehard.

    i call B.S. young, male, and diehard is where the big name publishers have been getting most of their profits, and therefore have been afraid to vary from the formula for so long. but i recall a WEALTH of great, accessible games to people of all ages and genders back in the 386 days and shortly thereafter.
    remember Myst? that game you never played because it didn't have action? the one that made more money and garnere
  • I love to pimp my own casual game whenever this topic comes up: PigShooter! [spiffytech.com] It's free! It sorta runs on Windows! It sorta runs on MacOSX! You can't lose! You can't win! There's no scores and no hurt feelings! Greatest game ever if I do say so myself... :-)
  • Would somebody from Escapist or Businessweek please write an article about all the miserable failures in indie game development? Holy crap, they make it sound like it's so easy to jump in and make money. It's incredibly difficult to make a quality game worth paying attention to, and that's not even the real trouble. Can you market the game and get those sales? Average indie devs can't, and there's a lot of Peter Pans out there that haven't grown up and gotten anyplace with selling their games. Average
  • "almost 60% of the U.S. population now has access to broadband" This is an absolutely incorrect statement. Of all homes in the continental US (computer or not) only about 35% have some [greater than modem speed] acccess. As someone in a rural area, its maddening to hear these blatantly wrong statements. Especially when large companies with 85% market penetration in a given city are still hawking thier crud to that same city. Worse is that we have the technology to eliminate this divide but it will not h
  • Games are one of the most useless and at the same time complicated kind of software human can make . Amount of time need to be put into semi interesting semi marketable game rivals making some new OS , office package or alike . Time and efforts spent into it could be put into making half a dozen buisness quality apps/web sites. I kinda think the only hope for indie game dev is open source -so he can reuse cumbersome but neccesary stuff ( graphics ,physics ,sound ,animation,interface , scripting engines)
    • but we all know how open source is "good" at reuse and standartization (basically almsot everyone suffers from NIH syndrome and reinvents the wheel , in the end we have half a hundred wheels and still no working carts) .

      Bullshit.

      Open source is one of the *best* sources of software reuse. You just don't see most of the reimplemented wheels in closed source. I'll bet that there are over 100 http servers on Freshmeat. I'll bet that there are many *thousands* of closed source http servers. Cross-platform co
  • Anyone who is interested in getting into indie game dev should definitely check out the indiegamer forums [indiegamer.com]. There's tons of good info available and it's populated by a large group of indie/casual games developers along with artists, portals, and other and various other industry people.

  • Wildlife Tycoon (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ajschatz ( 923015 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @08:52PM (#13795193) Homepage
    Hi guys, this is Andy Schatz, the guy in the first sentence of the article. Just wanted to post here in the off chance that someone would be interested in my work or my perspective on indie games... The risk averse publishers in the big console-driven world are leaving many niches open for us indie types. Look at Wildlife Tycoon (www.wildlifetycoon.com). It's been a long time since someone came out with a compelling Tycoon game (unless you count Outpost Kaloki, which was great). I was able to design, engineer, and do the business for a game that will compete in a large market niche for minimal cost. The game was developed in 10 months (with 4 contract artists, 1 contract sound designer, and 1 contract writer, all part time) for 6000 dollars. This is partly because large corporations haven't upped the ante in this niche by innovating because they are scared to be spending big money on studios when they don't know the designs are going to be good. The DOWNLOADABLE tycoon market is almost entirely devoid of competition. My research has showed that the market buying retail Tycoon games is a very similar market to those buying casual downloadable games, but this area of the market hasn't been tapped yet. Oh, and the game is FREAKING COOL. Josiah Pisciotta, creater of Gish, has been hooked on it for the past 3 days, not getting his work done. That's my strategy, of course, to make games cool enough to make my competition stop working. Hey, it worked for World of Warcraft...

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