I’ve been pretty obsessed with gaming for a while now. Like so many twenty-something year olds, gaming offers a means to escape from the bustle of ‘RL’ and explore some pretty incredible worlds. Games have evolved into a wonderful media phenomenon that I’m extremely glad I am taking part in.
While the gaming industry itself is booming (officially beating DVDs and CDs in terms of sales in 2008 for the first time ever), the independent gaming scene has trundled along un-noticed for the most part. Of course, now and again an independent developer has sprung up with a release that has blown minds, but they were few and far between.
And yet I have still always been fascinated with the whole scene. As always, Wikipedia best explains what is meant by an independent video game:
Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher.
While it sounds like such a risky strategy, it clearly leaves developers to make their own game, their own way.
And now it would appear that all that risk is paying off. 2008 saw indie games climbing from the back seat into the passenger’s place and now independent developers are popping up all over the place.
Meet World of Goo. Chances are you already have. Created by independent developers 2D Boy (who consist of 2, yes 2 guys) and released in 2008, it was deemed so utterly brilliant that it managed to pick up a nice few GOTY awards, beating off the likes of Grand Theft Auto 4, Super Smash Bros Brawl and Guitar Hero: World Tour – all titles that were developed by teams consisting of many more than 2 members, all which years and years of experience in making hit titles.
So is the power of the independent developer, and as they say, things can only get better. Enter Independently Speaking. My love for indie games has led me to this point. My name is Michael Rose and I am a senior editor over at Steamfriends. I’m also an editor on Gameconnect Magazine.
My stints on both these gaming sites have led me more deeply into the world of independent gaming – especially Steamfriends, since the Steam platform gives so much support to indie developers. Steam is the perfect medium for independent producers to deal out their goods to the world and the scene owes a lot to it.
Independently Speaking will be my attempt to follow the independent scene through every future twist and turn and keep both you and myself up-to-date with all the ‘goss’ from the up-rising world of indie.
I hope you enjoy the ride.
