Independent Games Festival Finalists Roundup Comments by Jim Rossignol

Looks like many of them are worth a try. Interesting games.

Gogo Teeth!

Dyson was created by haowan (Teeth), wasn't int?

Dyson for teh W1N!

/salutes haowan

vote for Dyson

"Over-hyped"? You cannot OVER hype the indie gaming scene.

Tried Dyson about 6 months ago - was disappointed. There didn't seem to be any real strategy to it.

Dyson was great fun.

Thanks guys :) And thanks Jim!

We'll be releasing a new build very soon with a bit more polish. The game will become more interesting over the next few months as we add features, we've got a few game design additions and tweaks to improve the strategy a bit. Keep an eye on the official site :)

www.dyson-game.com

btw I absolutely love Blueberry Garden. It's completely delightful. The world is slowly filling up with water, so you have to build up the tower to get to the tap to turn it off. I'm not sure what happens after that.

I wonder, is the name of the game in any way related to Freeman Dyson?

That's right, Dyson came up with the concept of Dyson Trees, which are genetically modified organisms that you plant on an asteroid and leave. They grow using the asteroid's resources as fuel, with the intent that later on, people can go and live inside the asteroid or inside the tree itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_tree

Dyson's theories are superb :D

We need more games with his theories.

/salutes haowan

so screenshots for only two of the five, no video and where are the links to check these out? come on EG, help us out.

So how come Indie games featured in these places are never.... 'normal' games? Like you never hear about a badass FPS coming from an indie dev, or cool 2D fighter?

Maybe I should just release my half-baked code as it is, give it an esoteric title, and some bland/childlike/pixellated graphics and some convoluted backstory/no backstory and people can talk about how revolution and amazing it is because its "so simplistic yet abstract" and "is a meta-commentry on gaming".

Fuck off. It's a half-baked idea where the developer couldn't come up with a full gameplay progression mechanic, so they cobbled some bits together and have effectively produced a glorified semi-tech demo.

/Jaded Dev ranting

Part of the joy of indie game development is that you don't have to stick to the tropes. Frankly I find FPS games really fucking boring, so making one would just drive me nuts. Seriously why would you give up everything to get creative freedom... and then make an FPS?

re: "So how come Indie games featured in these places are never.... 'normal' games? Like you never hear about a badass FPS coming from an indie dev, or cool 2D fighter?"

Because Indie devs make the games they want to make and play. Because there are already dozens of FPS and 2d fighting games. Because a FPS will be compared to the likes of Halo and almost certainly found lacking, a 2D fighter will be compared to StreetFighter similarly, whereas a game about blueberries can only really be compared to other blueberry games. Because far too many games are already "normal". Because innovation is good. Because creative people like being creative...

I wish the games industry would make fewer FPS games and more games about blueberries and Dyson trees, personally.

@Ranger101: You have obviously missed the point of the indie gaming scene.

There are lots of indie developed FPS's and 2D fighter games out there. You never hear about them because the amount and because these don't generate enough attention to attract the bigger gaming sites.

Yeah it was just a frustrated rant of two halves, most of it bullshit. Some of you know how it is.

I still hold by this though:

"...It's a half-baked idea where the developer couldn't come up with a full gameplay progression mechanic, so they cobbled some bits together and have effectively produced a glorified semi-tech demo. " A lot of indie games suffer from this. It's a focus of being 'different' over just having good fucking gameplay. That's bullshit.

(Disclaimer: I am an Indie game dev/producer by night, Professional/Corporate Software Dev by day.... making a game that doesn't fit in with the norms but isn't a fucking glorified semi-tech demo).

Oh yeah, I don't buy the idea that I have to understand or be part of a 'scene' or 'community'. Fuck that. I hold my production values to the same values of a published company - albeit on a shoestring budget. In otherwords when the game finally gets reviewed, it gets compared to a AAA title, and not excused / marked up because I didn't have a billion dollar budget. If it's a 3/10 game then its an actaul 3/10 game, if its 9/10 then it stands proudly next to Halolz or whatever. Not 9/10 "because its an indie game, you know".

I completely support the idea that you don't have to be 'in' indie games to make indie games. Just look at Mat Dickie, who made a living from indie games for 8 years without being part of any community at all.

I also agree that you should make games to your own standards - if those standards are the polish and production values associated with so-called AAA game development, that is your cross to bear. Personally I do not pander to the press and I do not care whose games my work is compared to or how people rate it. I make my games to the best of my ability a fun and interesting experience, and this is how I would prefer to be recognised.

For me, bucking game design and expectational trends of the hardcore isn't just a personal preference, it's also a business move. I can see that FPS games, and to a wider extent tech-based games, have a limited market both in terms of supported users and interested users. It is a common theme - one can hear people complaining about identikit shootan games and lack of innovation through communities and even in development and publishing circles, right to the top of EA. It has always been this way (look at video documentaries of the 80s industry to see how people were trying to innovate then due to people cloning game designs). Personally I don't want to compete with a 150-person team when I can find a niche market of like-minded players to myself whose size can amply support me through sales I can make to them, and who are not already being amply served by CryTek, iD, Epic, etc etc etc.

These games may not be tech demos in your sense of the term, but they demonstrate interesting game design, or excellently applied game development in some way. Some are out (Showtime is available on Community Games as we speak), so I hardly think you can call that 'half-baked', 'semi-tech', or any of the other things you've called these games. Also the ones that aren't are still in development - the IGF rules allow entry for games that have alpha functionality, so by definition the games at IGF may be unfinished.

I also don't agree that reviewers are rating indie games up because of their team size. I credit them with enough intelligence to actually find the fun in these games. You can't honestly think that everyone who reviewed World of Goo didn't find it fun, but rated it highly just because it wasn't a 3D shooter?

I haven't played World of Goo so I can't really comment. Weapon Of Choice, for example, 7/10 on EG.... really? There was an inference by the reviewer that it got that score because it was a Community game. Maybe I read into it too much.

As for "semi-tech-demos" or "half-baked" ideas; I hold the much commended AudioSurf up to that. It was just Vib Ribbon with a poor version of Klax. Gameplay wise it sucked balls, but because it could render you fave mp3s into a track..... To me it was one step above a winamp visualiser plugin. But as a Game to get scores ranging from 7-9/10?

I mean, its awesome shit to get tracks from 'tracks', but to slap a half-baked game on top of it that not only 'borrowed' from Klax, but actually took a step back.... there's no way if it was produced by EA would it have gotton such commendation.

Anyway, thanks for your opinions dude, it was interesting to hear from you and you raise some very valid points. Just having a shitty design time with my producer.

The point of the indie gaming scene is making something the way you want with your own ideas of what should be in your game. At least that is the basic point of it that I can gather.

But each to their own understanding. Basically, somewhere into 1990-something, everyone was kind of an indie developer - compared to what gaming is today.

And I agree with you, Ranger101, an indie game will be compared to AAA titles in any case, mostly the gamers themselves if a review site doesn't.

@Ranger101: Likewise dude, it is an interesting discussion and we are all in the same indie boat in a sense :)

Hey guys/gals, we released an updated version of Dyson (1.10) on our website, some of you may have grabbed the previous version already as this article was already up before we updated in which case I reccomend grabbing the game again :-)

Details of the release are on the site :-)
http://www.dyson-game.com/

I'm an indie dev. I've produced a 3d FPS - ok, 3d tank combat - but it's pretty much the same thing. The game's available on Steam, has been getting good reviews and people seem to enjoy it. Which is great given how long it took to develop the damn thing.

Still, didn't even get a look in at the IGF or Indiecade (ok, it made the finalists list for Indiecade).

Ok, fair enough, there's probably good reasons for that, but if I was of a cynical mindset, I might look grumpy, wave my arms around and say something like 'perhaps I should have just made another 2d platformer with an odd gameplay mechanic, abstract graphics and a touch of emo and I'd have scooped the awards pool. After all, just how many 2d platformers do we really need? 2d? Bah! Step up to 3d you pussies. Hrummph."

But that would just be if I was of a cynical mindset...
(Perhaps Unity3d on Windows will see an explosion of 3d indie titles.)

http://www.tankuniversal.com

Heh - kinda of what I was feeling a little yesterday madjack! Good luck with everything, and glad to hear your game is doing good stuff!

Edit -- Wow that is one colourful game! Very Tron like - I like.