Our super-awesome video production unit (aka: Frank and Neil) has been carefully crafting Indiecade developer profiles and interviews all day.
Below, indie-fan, please find video of Nathan Valla showing off Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. And, under the "Read More" tag, you'll find a video of Ryan Henson-Creighton, co-creator of the best game ever made on earth, Sissy's Magical Ponycorn Adventure, discussing what it's like to co-develop a game with a five year-old girl.
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Manuel’s Note: I met Matt Gilgenbach of 24 Caret Games last year right year right before IndieCade when he showed off Retro/Grade. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to keep in touch with him and even write about his engagement last year. When I’m bogged down with IndieCade articles, Matt jumps in to save the day.
Indie development is a lot of fun, but if you talk to any indie developer, they will all tell you the same thing: it’s tough! I’ve been indie for three years now, so I’ve picked up some tips on how to succeed. Read on for five tips to succeed as an indie developer. These gems of wisdom come to you straight from the horse's mouth. Er, fingers.
Many who think seriously about games see the future of the entire field coming from indie game developers. Indie games are nothing if not innovative, quirky and creative, and are likely paving the way for the future. Last weekend, Indiecade was held in Los Angeles, and we were all over it, but it wasn't all playing games. There were also interesting speeches, like the keynote below.
Click play to watch Richard Lemarchand, Lead Game Designer at Naughty Dog, give a history of the Indie gaming movement, from its birth on primitive computers and arcades, through the influence of alternative media and music, up to the present world of independent game development.
The 2011 IndieCade Awards were held last night in Santa Monica, and XBLA platformer Fez came away the big winner, taking home awards for both Best in Show and Story/World Design. Johann Sebastian Joust also won two awards, one for Best Technology and G4's own Impact Award, for impact on the gaming community.
Click the cut for a full Indiecade winners
I have the same problem every year. When IndieCade finally comes around, no one (including me) knows what to do, where to start, or how to tackle so many games. They try going clockwise. They try going counter-clockwise. Sometimes they just look at the game, get intimidated, and move on. Gamers, I need you to get your hands dirty and play some of the best games around. My friends just won’t do it.
It’s times like these I turn to a higher power and ask, “What would Will Wright do?” He would make a game out of it. I welcome all Player 1s and Player 2s to the first ever IndieCade: The Game. All you need to do is to come down to IndieCade this weekend and have the drive to win. I will be your helpful quest giver for this event. Your assistance is needed. Experience, gold, and maybe some swag will be your virtual trophies.
Activision today announced it would like submissions for the second annual Activision independent Games Competition, a program set up to encourage up-and-coming game designers by showering them with money and prizes. The competition is open to all independent game developers headquartered in the U.S. and offers prizes totalling $250,000. Submissions will be accepted from October 3 through December 31, 2011.
"Who will judge the winners of this awesome competition?" you're probably asking. Well, it will be administered by Indiecade, the preeminent organization supporting the indie gaming community.
What’s worse than going to a party and not knowing anyone there? Not being invited. Well guess what, you’re invited to this year’s IndieCade happening in on October 8 and 9 in Culver City, California. We got the invitation out of the way. Now, you just need to get to know some people. Below are five people/groups/games that you need to know about before attending one of the biggest indie game festivals around. I’ll be there too, but you already know me. I mean, we see each other like once a week. You probably can’t take much more than that. Right?
Robin Hunicke is an ultimate nerd. She's getting a doctorate in artificial intelligence, she's worked with Will Wright and Steven Spielberg, works in the Experimental Game Workship at GDC, and is part of IndieCade. Oh, and she also happens to be an executive producer on thatgamecompany's upcoming PSN title Journey. I was lucky enough to get my hands sandy with the game at Fantastic Arcade in Austin, and Robin happened to be in town. We sat down and talked about the upcoming title, her background, and the current state of indie games. Have a look at the full interview after the break.
When pitching this weekly indie column, I turned to the one idea that has permeated every article that I’ve written so far – get indie games into the hands of the people and they will demand more. For every complaint about a worn out title bought off the shelf, there’s an indie game that addresses that very complaint and does it well. Worlds you can never dream of and heroes that break molds instead of heads wait out there to be found. But finding them is a completely different question. As I mentioned in my last article, writers and bloggers started sorting through the shards of glass for diamonds. But there is still another way to get some of the best games you’ve never heard of into your hands – festivals.
Controllers and hands; there’s nothing more pure than that. Two indie game festivals released their lists of games that they’re showings. If the stars at night are big and bright, then maybe you can make it this week down to Alamo Drafthouse’s Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, home of the largest genre film festival and of the second annual Fantastic Arcade, which runs September 22 to 29. Kids on the West Coat will need to wait a couple more weeks for IndieCade to open up in beautiful Downtown Culver City on October 8 – 9. Of course, the sensible way to address these two festivals would be to run down their respective lists of indie titles to compare and contrast the narratives being woven by their choices.
Or we could just set up a Pit Fight. That’s right. In traditional internet-style, two festivals vie for dominance through bare-chested brute force. Two shall enter. One shall leave. The message boards will be lit on fire and be already bared the exits. Let’s get it on!
The finalists for the 2011 IndieCade Festival have been chosen. Only the cream of the Indie crop have risen high enough to be included. All of these games will be playable by attendees of IndieCade which takes place on October 8th and 9th. 446 games were submitted, only 36 were chosen, but there can be only one. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your games.
While everyone was out at PAX not learning about the release date of The Old Republic, the boys over at Microsoft announced the winners of the Build. Dream. Play. challenge. First place went to Solar 2, the Katamari meets asteroid crashing game. TIC: Part 1, robot platforming at its finest, took home a respectable second place while the DDR meets RPG, Sequence, finished in third.
I can personally attest that each of these XBLIG titles each deserve recognition as well your attention the next time you happen to be online with a couple of loose Microsoft points jingling in your pocket. But the grand prize winner was the one game I hadn’t yet played, Blocks That Matter. Give this puzzle platformer a whirl and you’ll agree that there’s no other game like it around.
Sometimes I get busy I miss a couple of projects here and there. With PAX, Indie Uprising and IndieCade landing on our virtual shores, I only have so much time to give you all the info you need to be on top of the indie scene. Here’s everything you need to know about what’s going on in the world of cutting age indie gaming this week.
Down the hallway past the old movie posters of stars long gone and empty sets waiting for their next moment of inspiration, the future of videogames is being created behind wooden doors and warm computers. This wasn’t the secret basement of EA’s campus or a Microsoft war room I was walking into. Instead, it was the first IndieCade Mobile 3D Game Jam session where new developers and indie legends would get a chance to develop a game in the span of two days. From concept to playable demo, groups of eager designers would get the first crack at LG’s new Real3D mobile phone. For a company looking towards the future, they were in no better hands than the group that sat before me in that classroom.
Chris Bell, from thatgamecompany, said it best when he was asked what piece of advice he had for the budding developers – "Go deeper." Challenge what other people know about games. Move past the notions of gaming conventions. Don’t be afraid of failure. In other words, go deeper with the understanding of how 3D works, go deeper with how we perceive games, and challenge yourself above all else. Talk to a couple of the developers and you’ll understand what an exciting time it is right now to be in indie games. As Celia Pearce, the IndieCade Festival Chair, pointed out, it’s all about innovation. More companies like LG will and should follow suit by using indie games as a way to create content and push the technology forward. In that classroom on USC campus, I witnessed the future and indie games were leading the way.
Lights flashing, people running into each other, the floor shaking with the rumbling bass from twenty different booths; E3 is best described as a dozen rock concerts going on at once. Giant marquees and statues for all the big games appear nearly everywhere you turn. You can probably guess that a game with little fanfare on a single screen would require quite a bit of hunting to find.
So at this year's E3, I went on the hunt to find the best indie titles. A couple of them were only playable on one screen behind a booth which was often hidden by a bigger booth. But, I was able to complete my quest. A big special thanks to IndieCade for having such a great presence at the show! Here are just a few of the hidden treasures I found in my search for the best indie games at E3.
John Romero is one of the geniuses behind Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein 3D, and let's not forget Dangerous Dave (Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion is his favorite). According to Romero, everything used to be indie games, but then the industry exploded, and now there's a very clear divide. It's really eye-opening to hear one of the biggies behind id talking about independent games, and why he remains excited about them.
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