Spiderweb Software’s Jeff Vogel (Avernum, Geneforge) describes his
View From the Bottom of the game industry over on RPG Vault. Or what Joe Indie calls the “anti-Pavlina” view of game development.
What is the moral of this? The game industry is a highly competitive, scary place. It’s not hopeless, but it’s a tough road. And that’s a good place to start to describe the view from the bottom.
Also check out part two of Jeff’s series View From the Bottom #2:
Indie developers have a real purpose in this world. They make little niche products for markets too small for Activision. They make many new puzzle games for the casual audience. Or, at least, the same old puzzle game again and again. They rewrite Asteroids… because someone has to.
Looks like a series that is well worth following. Vogel has a long successful history in the indie game industry and probably knows what he’s talking about.
Update:
Psychochild responds to Vogel’s article with The Indie Problem…again:
So, let’s talk about the real problems with indie game development and why you don’t see innovation from them.
Let’s be honest here, there are some serious issues you have to deal with as an independent game developer. It would be wonderful if that old myth about “if you build it, they will come” were true. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.