My Beautiful Indie Soapbox

Hey everyone!

Today I want to talk about something a little bit different. It’s not directly related to My Beautiful Paper Smile, but it definitely has an affect on it. I’m going to talk about why you should support indie games.

A snippet of history:

From the dawn of the video game industry, indie games have been here. Many of the original indie game developers went on to start their own companies, which created many of the current AAA behemoths that we see in gaming today. Games like Pong and Tetris were created by a single person each, and are now hailed as some of the forefathers of video games today.

In recent years, solo and small teams of people create thousands of games a year. The indie market has seen some highs, and lows, and is currently in a pretty consistent state. People are learning to adapt to changes in the industry, and coming to terms with the new business models necessary to successfully launch a game. And this is where the rest of the world comes in.

Without the massive audience that indies have produced, it’d be a lot less fun for your local neighborhood geeks to make games in their home office. People are constantly searching for the next cool, funny, or bizarre game; and if we’re gonna keep making crazy games, we need crazy people to play them!

The freedom of indie games:

AAA games are pretty awesome, but they often lack the flavor that indies have. When you’re a massive company, pouring millions of dollars into every game you make, you need to make sure you can recoup your costs with as low of a risk as possible. This leads to most large studios creating many sequels, and using the same formula to create their games. Which isn’t entirely a bad thing. We all need some high-quality, action-packed shooters and open-world games. But in the same way that eating pizza gets old after a few days, so do those awesome AAA games. Gotta throw some burgers and fries into our meal plan!

The thing about indie games that makes them special is that their developers can create whatever they want, however they want. This leads to indie development being a high-risk business, but in turn allows an incredible payoff for those who can utilize this strength, and deliver an amazing, one of a kind experience to players. These games are the burgers and fries of the industry, and the biggest reason to support them.

If you see someone thinking outside of the box, and doing something unique, they probably put a lot of effort in to get there. When a developer makes something that people really believe in and get a lot of support, it allows them to continue sharing their creativity, and gives us all more amazing experiences. Almost every game I own is either made by one person or a small team of amazingly talented individuals, who love creating art for people to enjoy. If not for the players that make up the majority of the indie gaming community, this wouldn’t be possible at all.

Thanks everyone for reading my rant on indie games, and remember, keep smiling :)

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