What is Indie Game

In addition to the blockbuster titles advertised both in graphics and gameplay by hit makers, Indie games are gradually becoming more popular and becoming a new pastime among young people. So what is Indie game specifically, how was it developed? Why has not this concept become known in recent years? If you are looking to learn about Indie games, please refer to the following article.

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What is Indie game?

In the video game industry, an Indie game (stand for Independent game , roughly translated as the independent game) refers to games usually created by individuals or small development teams without support. finance from major game publishers, as opposed to most "AAA games". Due to its independence and freedom of development, Indie games often focus on innovation and take risks that rarely occur in AAA games. Indie games tend to be sold through digital distribution channels instead of retail due to the lack of publisher support. Therefore, the term is also synonymous with "independent music" or "independent film" in the respective media.

Indie game development existed in parallel with the development of personal computers in the 1980s and 1990s through shareware and other forms of file sharing. The growth was also driven by some of the most influential games released in the 2010s, such as Super Meat Boy , Fez , Braid , Minecraft , Shovel Knight , Undertale and Cuphead .

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It should be noted, there is still no precise, widely accepted definition of what constitutes an "Indie game", in addition to the independent development process, beyond the limits of AAA games (development). by major studios and publishers). However, Indie games still have some common characteristics. They are developed by individuals, small groups or small independent companies. Typically, Indie games are smaller than mainstream games. Indie game developers are often not financially supported by the publishers who do not want to risk and like the "big budget" games. Instead, they often have limited budgets, such as sourcing from individual funds or through fundraising. By independence,Developers are not restricted from control or creativity and are not required to have publisher approval. Therefore, design decisions are not limited by the allocated budget. Moreover, the smaller team size will increase the participation of individuals.

Individuals and small groups - unrestricted creativity - have made Indie games known as innovative, creative and experimental art games. If limited in the ability to create graphics, developers can rely on gameplay innovation. However, being "independent" does not mean that the game always focuses on innovation. In fact, many games labeled "Indie" are still of poor quality and may not have been made for profit.

Moreover, Indie games do not necessarily have to be completely isolated from the major publishers. For example , Bastion , a game developed by Supergiant Games, was released by WB Games. Although Warner Bros. paid for the distribution and marketing of the game, Supergiant Games still rejected any funding for development, instead building the game themselves. As a result, the game is still considered "independent".

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Jesper Juul, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, who studies the video game market, wrote in his book Handmade Pixels that the definition of an Indie game is still ambiguous, depending on the scales. Subjective reminders vary. Juul has classified three cases where a game can be considered independent: financially independent games with major publishers; aesthetically independent games and significantly different in style of art from AAA games; and games that bring out cultural ideas independently from mainstream games. However, Juul also wrote that ultimately considering whether a game is "Indie" can still be highly subjective and there are no specific rules that can distinguish Indie games from non-"games." Indie ".

Indie game development

As described above, there is no clear scale for an Indie game development studio. A number of successful Indie games, including Axiom Verge , Cave Story , Papers , Please and Spelunky , are all developed by a single person, although often with the support of artists. More common are developers in the form of small teams, from two to a few dozen people. Although development teams can scale, operating a studio will become more costly, which can lead to a lot of risks if the game does not bring the expected results.

To find a budget for the game, developers can rely on starting a crowdfunding campaign, finding publishers, or building community support in the development process. Without the support of the publisher, developers often choose to distribute digital on the Internet. Most Indie games do not make a significant profit.

Indie game development should not be confused with hobby game development, as Indie game developers tend to be more product oriented than hobby. Many hobbyists create mods for existing games, or just work with a specific part of the game. People with such interests often produce non-commercial products, and the level can range from newcomers to industry veterans.

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Through the article above, I introduced an overview to you about the concepts and differences in the development process of Indie game. In recent years, "Indie game" has been mentioned more and more because the definition of it is still vague, and the means of distributing games have been richer thanks to the development of Internet. Due to the independent development, creativity in gameplay, Indie game is now very popular with young people, even more than many blockbuster games on the market.