What is Indie Gaming?
Indie gaming is one of the grey areas in the gaming industry it is a brand that can help up and coming game developers to break into the mainstream market, they are a group of gamers that have no financial backing from big companies , putting into lame mans terms they are kids living in there parents basement putting it bluntly they aspire to become the next Ubisoft, Epic games, Sony, microsoft, nintendo interns. a digital portfolio so to say,
I am going off topic!!
So lets just say a 15yr old kid as been given a gaming pc with the ability to play games fall in love with the aspect of gaming how it works how to generate a world that they want, the creation freedom it gives you, the kids that make them use free programmes like unity, unreal engine, godot engine the list is endless.
That is indie gaming, its freedom with no financial terms and conditions without management breathing down you no window finishing window you do it at your own speed, in your own time without taking all the fun out of gaming.
Fun Fact, did you know that minecraft was originally an indie game before Mojang bought it outright for £2.5 Million then sold it to microsoft for £2.5 Billion yes Billion.
So if you go on steam and type in indie games you will be shocked at how many games are free there, there is a load them onto an open source platform then steam checks them over to make sure there is a beginning, a middle and an end. It works on every pc regardless of the spec.
For example if it’s a beginners midrange or ultimately it will run, that means everyone will get the chance to play them, steam will keep an eye on the analytics, see what is the most popular and then they will offer a fee to buy it off them then sell their platform by giving the creator a share of it.
A list of examples of indie game that started it as a small little side hustle and became popular and a high grossing game are:
Minecraft
Stardew Valley
Hades
Hollow Knight
As you can see here a few popular titles which the developers did not expect to become so popular and there are so many more. I could go on forever! Indie games are across every genre and people don’t realise as there is no market for it.
It just takes someone looking through the endless list on platforms like steam, gog games, epic games, nvidia+ on a pc. You don’t really see these on the console stores as they are drenched in their own brand of games and the massive studios they have brought. Don’t forget the little groups trying to break into the market. It’s unfair.
For something that started in the 80’s has become the fore front of the gaming world, yes you have your double A and your triple A games you pay through the nose and line the massive markets pockets which do it for profit and dont care who they ruin on the way with more money than sense if you know what i mean, then these groups and individuals are slowly taking over under the radar.
If you take anything from reading this, take this, always stand up for the little guy and help out the smaller creators, developers that have a passion to create great games and not about making money or profits putting their name out there getting notice to help them out.
Ian Gornall
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