GDC: Day 1
ModDB's first day at GDC is all about indies. Apologies for the lack of images.
Posted by stenchy on Mar 24th, 2009
'Twas a great day today. Last year really felt like we were nobodies and had everything to prove. This year, after running into people from both Overgrowth and Zeno Clash, I can honestly feel good about what we've accomplished over the last year and how much of an impact we made. Still, there's always more to be done. I've taken quite a few notes on the sessions I was present at today. These notes may materialize into articles eventually, but not today – I'm about ready to pass out. Nevertheless, here's a short summary of today's highlights.
Sessions:
2D Boy: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Going Indie But Were Afraid to Ask
Ron Carmel and his partner Kyle Gabler seem to be making all the right moves with their wildly successful indie game, World of Goo. In this session, Ron's breaks down the sales figures of WoG for 2008 and lets us know which outlets mattered the most. In a surprise to many, WiiWare would have all but dominated everything else were it not for the almighty Steam sale.
Indie Games: From Buzz to Business
Game lawyer Tom Buscaglia peppers Zach Aikman (Fishbeat), Micheal Wilford (Twisted Pixel) and Dylan Fitterer (Audiosurf, LLC) with questions on how to nurse the buzz earned from IGF and PAX10 awards/nominations through to genuine business possibilities. The 3 took different routes but all agreed that press exposure was something you should give your full attention for as long as you have it. While it may siphon time away from actual development, its a necessary tactic to help ensure a successful game launch.
Embracing Constraints
Dylan Fitterer takes the stage again to emphasize constraints as necessary development tools for independents. While many independent (and mod) teams may push the bar in order to make themselves more comparable to full-on commercial studio titles, Dylan embraced his constraints to help himself author one of the bestselling indie games ever. Just as artists have done more with less, indie game developers should consider enforcing constraints to stimulate proactive development and unleash true creative freedom.
Stardock on The PC Hardcore Scene as Indie
Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock and outspoken advocate against DRM, reveals how his company has been able to achieve the heights of success developing and publishing games like Sins of the Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations II. While not multi-million dollar blockbusters, Stardock is still thriving on what many wrongly consider to be a niche audience. After all, compared to games like Civilization 4, many FPS games just don't stack up in sales numbers.
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Looks just great from the inside guys. Keep up the good journalism.
but hold on, last time I checked Stardock dumps there IPs once they stop getting money from their expansion packs- they don't continue to support the games they already have, in the case of Sins of a Solar empire it plays like its missing a HUGE chunk of content that will slowly trickle in using micro expansions-- personally though I think that sucks because they're more concerned with getting sales for Demigod.
Also did you guys hear anything about Introversion's new game coming out this year. Its the most impressive thing I've ever seen-- the sad thing is we STILL don't know what the hell the game actually is :D
Stardock isn't the shining example of indie development that everyone makes them out to be. Apparently, they're in the business of making money just like evil EA! Holy ****!
I was just disappointed with SoaSE and agree with Mr_Cyberpunk that a huge chunk of the game felt missing and was far from complete. Stenchy, thanks for the updates. Looking forward to more.
I should add it was Ironclad - with a team of 9 people - that developed SoaSE. Without Stardock, you might not have even had a game to complain about :P
Say what you will about Stardock, but they're not all about profit margins. If they were, they wouldn't be all about strategy games with minimal advertising budgets. They're making games they want to play and staying afloat so they can keep doing it. Nothing shameless in that.
I just feel they should finish the projects that they hyped on about before they start another project that they'll most likely do the same to.
That's what ****** me off about EA too. A good publisher will let the game see its full potential. Stardock used to do this when they were developing GalCiv- so why are they now going the profit chuck strategy that the other bastard publishers invented?
If you want a great publisher for the whole DRM crusade, look no further than Paradox Interactive- they published Mount and Blade, they're also in competition with StarDock's Impulse, Paradox created the service GamersGate which I think is pretty good and DRM free.
I'd actually like to hear from them at GDC since they're the ones taking more indie developers on than any other publisher I've seen. I just love Mount and Blade as well as the fact that they were allowed to actually finish the game before moving on- plus their Beta policy was a brilliant idea to securing publishers and I hope they do it with the expansion.
The also published the game Knights of Honor which was simply amazing.
So to be a shining example of indie development you have to live some sort of bohemian existance ?
A lot of people would argue yes since Indies have been struggling for years now- its what separates us from the mega corps but its also what makes our games not as shiny as the AAA releases.. well that is until someone releases something just as good for us to develop with :D
My issue with Star Dock is that in the gal civ days they were brilliant, but that's because they were struggling. It seems when a developer/publisher has even a bit of success everything starts to turn Roman Empire or as we call it "EA syndrome".
I'm just ****** off with them because a "micro expansion" for sins is ********, that game deserved Waaaaay more support than it was given- which as I already said was because DemiGod was coming out and was more shinier press wise. Its like they don't care about Sins anymore now that they have demi god- else they would've patched it for longer than what they did.
I was not very happy with the end product and I'll avoid demi-god till they support it better.
To be a shining beacon of Indie Dev is to build monumental releases that surpass the bigger shinier games through good Gameplay! which is what Indie developers are better at!
Indie Games: From Buzz to Business was a very useful session =) There were a lot of good summits that was worth every penny. Hope your enjoying GDC as much as I am =D
go cortex command!
Impress me later when you have correct grammar please.
gtfo noob.