Standalone Thread

What's the deal with the Standalone category? What makes this different from "Indie", which is standalone anyway?

I'm not 100% sure but I think "Standalone" is if you take a game engine ( like Q3 ) which is open and make a mod in a way you don't need the original game ( in this case Q3A ) whereas "Indie" usually make their own engine or use something like Torque to create a new game ( not based on another one ).

As I see it, 'Indie' indicates an actual fledling game company releasing small but full features games. I suppose the 'Standalone' category would be for games made by mod-like teams (generally a bunch of people who only know each other through the net) which don't require any particular game in order to run.

Although I agree it would be fine to just dump them all in one category.

Indie = Independent Developer or Non-Published Studio. Can be for profit or just for fun.
Commercial = Developer who is paid by a publisher to develop games for the intention of sale.

--

Standalone = Game that is able to run on its own, it is a complete packaged game
Mod = A game that requires something to be pre-installed on the system before it will work.

--

You can definately combine them, Indie Mod, Indie Standalone, Commercial Mod and Commercial Standalone (aka GAME ). Commercial mods could be classified as expansions as they are essentially doing the exact same thing. Stand Alone as I established can run without any prior installments.

Yeah so standalone means it's not by an independent developer? Makes no sense, especially since the Games section lists standalones strictly, none depending on game. Very redundant and pointless categorization.

Edited by: leilei

Standalone = non-commercial game due to restrictions, mostly just fanwork and derivative material or using GPL tech.
Indie = Independent game produced using licensed and/or proprietary tech.

stenchy wrote: Standalone = non-commercial game due to restrictions, mostly just fanwork and derivative material or using GPL tech.

Makes no sense. Also there's nothing restricting a GPL-derived game from being commercial. This smells of standard "ITS OPEN SOURCE" discrimination

Edited by: leilei

Aren't standalone games based on engines, which have been released to the public? Open Source projects produce standalone games like "Beyond the Red Line". They are not really mods, because they don't require a previous installation of another game. Yet they are based on some engine, which had originally entailed a commercial license.

Indie developers use either their own engines, or license an engine. I don't know any, who chose open source engines for their commercial project, but there may well be some. This definition is not a very good one and the borders between them are not really sharp.

I was hoping this thread would resolve this, but now I am further confused.

leilei wrote: Yeah so standalone means it's not by an independent developer? Makes no sense, especially since the Games section lists standalones strictly, none depending on game. Very redundant and pointless categorization.

I happen to agree too, Games pretty much cover Standalone and that anything that is a Standalone expansion would have to have the same engine anyway. (EG. Dawn Of War)
And yes you can have a Standalone Independent game, thats what I said, I should know since I'm developing one and I'm also an Indie. However the Category is redundant thanks to the Games category we now have as a result of V4.

So Standalone is pretty much GAME now. Mods can't be stand alone as that would be ILLEGAL . GAMES that use OpenSource such as QUAKE3 are covered by the fact that QUAKE3 is an Engine in itself, therefore any games built using the SDK can be their own GAMES rather than MODS as they no longer require the original game in order to be played (aka STANDALONE but we don't need that since we have GAME now). All the have to do is add the Quake 3 engine to their profile. That GAME can then have MODS added to it as a result of people wanting to modify that game (rather than Quake3 itself which is an engine).

The grey issue is that if the game contains Quake3 resources such as Meshes and Textures then it should be classified as a MOD, if the game is a Total Conversion then it is a GAME as it should not contain any resources from Quake3. Just the engine and code is all.

Edited by: formerlyknownasMrCP

Mostly it's down to where you think you fit, but here's a rough guide:

If your game is essentially a mod, but you've just included the engine with it, then it's Standalone. For example, most of the Quake standalones could be turned into mods for an existing installation.

If your game cannot be turned into a mod, then it's an Indie project.

However, I'll bring this up and we might roll Standalone Mods into Games for you.

Leaves also the question what you consider an Indie. Somebody said "'Indie' indicates an actual fledling game company releasing small but full features games". As I see it "Indie" is anybody who does make a game without working for a well known studio or publisher. I don't think Indies are required to have a company name tagged on their heels for doing what they do.

jacksonj04 wrote: If your game is essentially a mod, but you've just included the engine with it, then it's Standalone. For example, most of the Quake standalones could be turned into mods for an existing installation.

Not exactly. You can't just run Quake to play Nexuiz. You can't just run Quake3 to play OpenArena. You can't run Quake2 to play Digital Paintball 2.

I can only see the Standalone classification for retail expansion packs that are playable by their own (i.e. Blue Shift, Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith)

Edited by: leilei

Dragonlord wrote: Leaves also the question what you consider an Indie. Somebody said "'Indie' indicates an actual fledling game company releasing small but full features games". As I see it "Indie" is anybody who does make a game without working for a well known studio or publisher. I don't think Indies are required to have a company name tagged on their heels for doing what they do.

Well hold on, the studio that I work for is an Indie studio, it mainly refers to the fact that all operations are run by the studio rather than the publisher, however yes it also does apply to those who aren't apart of a studio either. It should be a classification that states that this studio/developer is not signed to any publisher yet or is self publishing. The second they do sign onto a publisher is when they stop being an indie studio/developer. You can also be a company or just a development group such as the ones featured here on ModDB.

jacksonj04 wrote: If your game is essentially a mod, but you've just included the engine
with it, then it's Standalone. For example, most of the Quake
standalones could be turned into mods for an existing installation.

Except that would be defeating the purpose of having it STANDALONE in the first place The point is that all the resources come standard so you don't have to install any third parties - even if it was the engine the game was developed for. Standalone should mean, If I click on the .exe file the game should work and not require any additional files. A mod however requires actually activating the mod through the original game.

Unless an agreement can be reached, I am going to change the categories too one of the following:

• Commercial and indie (easy and simple)
• Commerical, indie and kitgame (what it was before)

Let me know which you prefer, or please suggest improvements if they should come to mind.

Commercial and Indie will do just fine.