Indie games aren't all they're made out to be

[AndrewG]

10 years ago, anyone wanting to enter the game industry would have to have an entire team behind them. But now, as can be seen by the countless shitty Kickstarter campaigns, anyone living in their parents basement can make a game. Is this really good for the gaming industry or is quantity intruding on quality?
The massive increase in indie games, in my opinion, has lowered the standard for game development. The expectation on larger companies to constantly release new games, at the speed that indie developers do, has had an overall negative impact upon the final outcome. Steam Greenlight is a prime example. So many of these games implement "Early Access Beta" or are at the "Pre-Pre Alpha v0.01" stages. The short term benefit of having something to show for your work is quickly counteracted by the extremely limited gameplay offered.
What are your thoughts? I like to keep an open mind but from what I've seen so far the games coming out of the indie industry are mediocre at best.

 

[OursIsTheFury]

I think it's the opposite. Anyone can make a game nowadays, so those dreamers of the past who thought they needed thousands upon thousands of dollars to build their dream can start right now with basic games just to get their name out there. You can make a name for yourself, make some connections, make some fans, then ask them to help you get a kickstarter fund going, and then you can recruit more people for your cause. The indie scene for me is about gamers just like you and me who grew up playing games trying to make games for our own.

 

[Bayoneutra]

I have to agree with OursIsTheFury on this one; indie games are changing the industry for the better.

To what was already said I'd like to add that indie developers tend to be more risk-takers than companies; companies like to stick to what they are sure will give them a huge money income and therefore can be rather formulaic at times, while indie games usually have to rely on their creativity and outside-the-box thinking to get out there, therefore making the gaming industry a lot more complex and helping it avoid getting stagnant.

Not to mention that the indie scene has increased competition AND variety. As a consequence, companies have to remain more in touch with the market, study their demands and develop games according to what the people want, lest they risk getting left behind by an increasingly more creative and fun indie gaming marketing.

 

[PenguinManiac]

Well said. Indie developers are pushing the boundaries of the gaming industry by reviving genres that would have been otherwise overshadowed by the trending ones (most indie games focus on niches, after all). That's because they're sure to be games made by gamers and, mostly, for gamers, and not for their wallets. Indie developers are sure to be passionate about their work because that's the only way they can possibly find the willpower to keep going until the very end.
Taking aside the crappy, subpar games that used to flood Greenlight (maybe it's for the best it was replaced), indie games make the market livelier and more exciting to explore. They aren't lowering the standards for game development, because AAA titles will always have a different appeal because they need to sustain a much bigger underlying structure with their income. Furthermore, major releases always get more marketing and often have an existing fanbase, so the pressure for new games to be released with mounting haste is only true for those companies that were already planning to in the first place to cash in more money.

 

[Xilkozuf]

Indie gaming is the best thing in the recent years! I find some of them are even better than recent AAA games, and I don't think they are ruining the industry... at least by themselves.
Stuff like Kickstarter can be easily abused, and it happened a lot in the past: projects were funded and never released, and who know what happened to the money. Steam Greenlight was a mistake: now it's closing down, but there were so many crappy games in there... now probably will even be actually worse, since from what I understood you'll just need to pay to have your game released.
But this can also be good: there will be many bad joke game (and the reviews will flag them as such), but there will also be good games from unknown developers, games that years ago would never been released.

 

[overcast]

I think we have to be open minded about it. You can see that new ideas and good games often help for many reasons. You can't expect to always have expensive games in market in the name of quality. Market has to be open for all. And each type of game should be served here. Many people don't like GTA does that mean such games should be closed?

 

[Jonathan Solomon]

I think it's the opposite. Anyone can make a game nowadays, so those dreamers of the past who thought they needed thousands upon thousands of dollars to build their dream can start right now with basic games just to get their name out there.

That's what I basically feel. Like I've said in the past, I've always been a supporter of indie developed games. Not all are the best, but some of them have great potential to be produced into something worth investing into. The progression of indie games over the past decade has opened up a new platform for individual developers looking to turn their gaming ideas into reality. Along with indie games, I've also always supported the underdog instead of big corporations anyway.