The thought of making indie games for a living either by myself, or with a group of close friends, without the meddling of big business politics and angst seems like a wonderful ideal. One which evidently some people are able to successfully pursue. I can't see how it's possible though. Why would a consumer pay 19.99 or even 9.99 for a shareware game when they can purchase a 6 month old professional game at Walmart for the same price? A game where the content is likely to be much richer due to the exhorbant amount of resources and man hours that commercial development houses can provide. I understand that Indies don't usually pull in the millions that the Big development houses can, but how do they even eke out an existence? I love games, and spend far too much time on them, but even I don't buy these games. I simply don't have enough time to play every game, so I tend to pick the ones with the most to offer. Occasionally an underdog like Tetris or Wolfenstein 3d rears it head, but the number of Indie developers leads me to believe that there somehow really must be more of a market for these games than I would believe. What am I missing? How is this possible?

I think most just do it for the heck of it. :p They get their money from other jobs, and just make games for something to do.

Like this

The types of games that typically succeed in the indie market, or rather those examples of success we've seen in the indie market, are not the types of games that are competing with those you might find on store shelves. The also typically have garnered a market that we don't typically associate with being gamers. For example, one of the most rapidly growing groups of gamers is women above 35 years of age. Mom's not playing Halo, much less a B-string indie FPS, she's playing bejewelled, internet Backgammon, Hearts, Snood and other such games. Thats not to say that there aren't "typical" independant games, or even ones that do well, just that most of the successful titles are the ones that cater to a different audience, or at least offer a different experience.

These types of games may not be as flashy as the latest FPS or RTS game, but they are a good fit for independant developers. Typically they are rather simple technically, light on art asset requirements and can easily be accomplished by a small team or even a lone individual. They don't take a lot of money or resources to make a reality and, if the game proves a success, can provide the developer with a sizable return on the investment. I don't have any numbers, and this is largely speculation, but I would wager that a popular indie, internet-type game like Bejeweled provides more return on investment than even the most successfull console games like Halo or GTA.

For example, assume that Halo 2 sold 5 million copies at $50, thats $250,000,000, no small chunk of change, but only a ten-fold return. Assume that a game like bejeweld cost 10-15 thousand to produce, bejeweled only needs to make 100k-150k to surpass Halo 2's returns. To top it off, bungie probably sees a lot less of that $50 than bejewelled's developers do.

What I can't stand is when people say:

"Why buy an indie game when I can buy a professional one for the same price/cheaper?"

It's the whole point. You play games that are fun, interesting, and addictive. Personally, most professional games don't add up to even 2 of those things. I'd much rather pay 10 dollars for a game someone made in my highschool than paying 5 for diablo. It just works that way.

What sucks is so many people look at it that way. "Well, they're professional, so anything else made by anyone other than a professional must suck."

that's totally taken out of proportion. If you played an idie game and said, "OMFG, this game totally kicks some major ass!", wouldn't you spend 10 bucks on it rather than guessing with some other same-old professional quality ones?

Personally, I'd rather play a well-though out, creative, addicting indie game, with lesser graphics than a professional one. Professionals try to appeal to the masses, rather than the kids that can really get into something fun. For example, all out gore is in my book, and I'd love to have another doom.

Some of it has to do with 'You get what you pay for', and if you pay more it feels like you're getting something superior. If you see a game on the shelf for the 'standard' $49.95 price, and next to it is a game for $19.95, psychologically most people would feel that the $20 game is inferior in "some way", and think that paying $50 means you're getting "more game" to play. They don't even get to bring it home to try, so it doesn't matter if it is in fact 'better'

Quote: Original post by Daivam
I love games, and spend far too much time on them, but even I don't buy these games.

Put bluntly, you're not in the target market for 99% of indies. Most are targetting the casual user who'll spend ten or so minutes in a lunchtime as a diversion. The want something thats minimal commitment and easy to pick up and put down. And often they're geared to run on pretty much any pc with no config or messing around.

There are a few indies around targeting different markets (like PomPom for example) but these are again not aiming for the same area as off the shelf commercial stuff - in PomPom's case they're covering an area thats been largely forgotten by the big studios.