indie games

[Killer]

recently indie games had a huge community and more lovers than AAA games, if indie studios become a part of huge company like microsoft or sony that will make the games that this studios do more better or the games will be trash?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Killer:

recently indie games had a huge community and more lovers than AAA games, if indie studios become a part of huge company like microsoft or sony that will make the games that this studios do more better or the games will be trash?

Being purchased by a large company doesn't mean the developer's games won't be trash.

[Saturn830]

'Indie' is going to mean a lot less in the near future as everyone who can generate llm content will be publishing 'indie' content. Instead of the lable representing a unique brand of skill and creativity it will represent no skill or creativity at all.

[xBCxRangers]

"Indie" is kind of a broad term isn't it? Arma i would think is considered indie, yet may be of Triple A quality. Snowrunner, Hell Let Loose, stuff like that.

[The nameless Gamer]

Indie developers don't necessarily grow rapidly. For every "Supergiant Games", there are dozens of companies who don't experience an explosion in popularity. They mostly make games for specific audiences and unless the game ticks every checkbox with MANY people or happens to be made for a very starved market, its popularity remains fairly humble.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Saturn830:

'Indie' is going to mean a lot less in the near future as everyone who can generate llm content will be publishing 'indie' content. Instead of the lable representing a unique brand of skill and creativity it will represent no skill or creativity at all.

We've long reached the point where "indie" doesn't automatically mean "unique" nor "creative", just look at the bazillion indie roguelikes.

[Archmagos Kryzan]

Microsoft/Xbox have a bad habit of destroying there studios. Don't wish that on an Indie Dev.

[ペンギン]

Should first look at what "indie" is anyway. Definition of "indie" means, 1-9 involved people in this business. This means that many products that can be found on Steam are incorrectly labeled and very few devs are really "independent".

Apart from that, the "indie" era is long gone, because just like big studios, they are under pressure and are subject to various dependencies. Monetization, development speed and quick short-term profit at any costs at the expense of quality and content. Not forgetting the current "AI" and the forced "optional online" trend by many products.

If we look further into why, we quickly end up with those who give developers the tools and ressources. For my opinion, the market destroys itself because the loss of many things is simply too high.

[Lithurge]

The indie creators of Firewatch got absorbed by Valve. They've not produced anything since having canned the game they were working on when bought.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by ペンギン:

Should first look at what "indie" is anyway. too high.

That's why I have always avoided using the term entirely, and just split the the market into "AAA" and "not-AAA" games, and don't generally bother at all since it's all just "games".
I'm not entirely sure about the "AAA" definition either, but I seem to have an idea what people mean when they use the term, so it's fine.

Doing that also takes away the distinction from the publisher and puts it back to the games. While there "the usual AAA publishers" that are also the only ones doing "AAA" games, you can still get a non-AAA game from these publishers by doing that.

Last but not least, I care nothing about business contracts behind the games. To me, "Indie" has always felt like a business-relation, or lack thereof because one company is doing both the development and publishing roles -- yet, there are plenty of games that are labelled "Indie" by the anonymous internet crowd, while the Steam store page still has distinctly different names on the "Developer" and "Publisher" items.

[Doctor Zalgo]

Originally posted by Saturn830:

'Indie' is going to mean a lot less in the near future as everyone who can generate llm content will be publishing 'indie' content. Instead of the lable representing a unique brand of skill and creativity it will represent no skill or creativity at all.

Bizarre anti-AI rant aside. Indie just means independent from a publisher.

[Saturn830]

Originally posted by Doctor Zalgo:

Bizarre anti-AI rant aside. Indie just means independent from a publisher.

The topic is clearly about what the term means to consumers, many of which have appreciated the passion and ethical business practices they feel are lacking in the big publishers like EA and Activision. Now that anyone 'independent from a publisher' can try and shovel out content from an llm, we have to re-examine that positive image.

[Lithurge]

Originally posted by Saturn830:

Originally posted by Doctor Zalgo:

Bizarre anti-AI rant aside. Indie just means independent from a publisher.

The topic is clearly about what the term means to consumers, many of which have appreciated the passion and ethical business practices they feel are lacking in the big publishers like EA and Activision. Now that anyone 'independent from a publisher' can try and shovel out content from an llm, we have to re-examine that positive image.

Anybody could (and did) produce games from the beginning of home computer based gaming, all they had to do was learn how to code. We've also had game-maker programs for years, so I don't think that much has changed. Perhaps the only thing that has is a centralised platform like Steam has made it easier for people to publish, but that still doesn't guarantee their game gets seen or purchased.

[Anonymous Helper]

Originally posted by Saturn830:

Originally posted by Doctor Zalgo:

Bizarre anti-AI rant aside. Indie just means independent from a publisher.

The topic is clearly about what the term means to consumers, many of which have appreciated the passion and ethical business practices they feel are lacking in the big publishers like EA and Activision. Now that anyone 'independent from a publisher' can try and shovel out content from an llm, we have to re-examine that positive image.

Indie game/indie game dev term has and never has had anything to do with ethics or passion. It means solely that game was made by an independent game developer without funding or control from publishers or any other outside entity.

[Saturn830]

Originally posted by Anonymous Helper:

]Indie game/indie game dev term has and never has had anything to do with ethics or passion. It means solely that game was made by an independent game developer without funding or control from publishers or any other outside entity.

Once again, OP was clearly talking about what people think of indie in the sense of a brand and the value they place on it. If I say "Sports journalism means a lot less to fans since all those writers were caught taking bribes", I'm neither disputing nor discussing that 'sports journalism' is a profession where people write about athletic events.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Anonymous Helper:

Originally posted by Saturn830:

The topic is clearly about what the term means to consumers, many of which have appreciated the passion and ethical business practices they feel are lacking in the big publishers like EA and Activision. Now that anyone 'independent from a publisher' can try and shovel out content from an llm, we have to re-examine that positive image.

Indie game/indie game dev term has and never has had anything to do with ethics or passion. It means solely that game was made by an independent game developer without funding or control from publishers or any other outside entity.

Yep. And the real fun part is that they even try to project that on "what the terms means for consumers".

No, it doesn't. Different people have different views. simple. People can't even agree on which companies actually are indie or not.