The World of Indie Games

The Future of Indie

The best thing about indie games nowadays though is the way they are spreading to other systems and are being encouraged by some of the major developers, like Microsoft.

Microsoft in particular is going crazy for indie developers and cheaply giving away support and assets to indie game makers who want to sign up to the XNA Creators Club. Doing so allows designers to create their own games, with the hope of distributing them on Xbox Live and becoming the next Geometry Wars.

But Microsoft isn’t alone in the way it is encouraging indie developers.

Nintendo too is eager to entice bedroom-based game designers to the Wii and is encouraging developers to make ‘WiiWare’ games which will build on the unique and lower-end appeal of the Wii as a console.

No matter how many indie games are slowly drawn to the console life though, which obviously gives a load of benefits to the designers as they can design for established hardware and aim more directly at a casual gaming market, I feel that the PC is always going to be true home of the indie designer.


It’s something in the blood; deeply ingrained into the culture of the indie designer who wants to create a simple, low-tech game which is built around a single killer feature or gameplay ethic. It appeals to the stereotype of a bedroom-bound designer, ploughing away at a game in his spare time. It’s an approach which is obviously very successful on the PC – as evidenced by Counter-strike, which started life as a simple and lowly mod.

As the world of indie and experimental games continues to grow over the next few years, particularly with indie-influenced games like Portal coming to the fore soon, the impact on mainstream games could be massive.

With Wii and Xbox both trying to take a portion of the market and both promising to let indie designers reap the rewards themselves - not to mention the effect of digital distribution methods like Steam which automatically open games like Rag Doll Kung Fu and Garry’s Mod to a huge audience - there’s bound to be an influx of new talent to the indie scene. The increasing number of entries into the Independent Games Festival is a clear enough indicator of that.


With more and more gamers taking an interest in indie games and more attention being lavished upon the creators of high quality indie games, it’s clear that the indie gaming scene is on the verge of a revolution which will push indie titles to a level comparable to triple A titles. It may even be possible that the next Crysis-beater could be just around the corner and that it could be an indie game.

In the world of independent and experimental games development, seemingly anything is possible.