Serious, Indie, Mobile Games Highlight GDC Monday

The first day of GDC is generally devoted to games just a bit off the beaten path. In recent years, serious games have vied with titles from the mobile and indie markets on the first two days of the Game Developer's Conference. Probably the most interesting serious discussion from Monday was word from Square/Enix's new serious games arm. Sessions like innovations in Indie games and how to get your Indie game published rounded out the independent games discussions for the day. The pirates at Three Rings also put on a good show, talking about how to make an indie MMOG. Meanwhile, on the mobile front, EA veteran Trip Hawkins talked about innovations on the smallest screen, while Nokia rolled out some new details on their next generation of N-Gage .

serious games, not Serious...

[wowbagger]

It might be worth noting that the "serious games" does not mean "Serious games" as in Serious Sam.

The collision distance for technical and gaming terms is getting smaller all the time....

Re:

[Lord Kestrel]

Yeah, that was a big letdown. I frantically clicked on the article, hoping that there was news of a new Serious game, and much to my chagrin, it had nothing to do with that.

Spelling Square Enix

[Anonymous Coward]

I love how there seems to be no official idea on how Square Enix is supposed to be spelled.

Slashdot goes with Square/Enix.

TFA on the other hand goes with a random fix of Square-Enix and Square Enix.

Square Enix themselves, like all good trademarked brands, insists on always capitalizing it with a space: "SQUARE ENIX".

So I guess the right answer is Square Enix.

(And, because I it made me laugh while I was searching how Square Enix spelled their own name, I noticed that their MMORPG is getting the amazing abili [playonline.com]

Re:

[toleraen]

Don't forget Squeenix! [google.com]

Seriously

[Photon Ghoul]

Seriously, what exactly is a "serious game" and why is that a genre unto it's own? I'm seriously curious about this as my interests are seriously piqued.

Indie MMO

[Aladrin]

The most interesting information in here is in an odd place. The 'Indie MMO' discussion. It actually has more to do with general indie games than MMOs in particularly. Paraphrased, they say 'Worry about quality, not being the biggest.' They talk about Puzzle Pirates (Which I never considered an MMO, but I guess it really is) and how they started with 6 guys willing to work themselves into an early grave trying to make the game take off. It STILL cost them $250,000 to make. Ouch! They make the money now to more than justify the initial expense, but I'm amazed at how much it costs to get off the ground.

Re:

[PresidentEnder]

I've often wondered if it would be possible for a few guys to develop a game in their spare time (after work, on weekends, and whatnot) that could be commercially viable. This article would seem to eliminate MMOs, at least, from consideration.