The indie threshold.

[RageBurner]

I'm genuinely curious here, as I don't have a personal parameter for this.

What's your view on what you consider truly indie? for example, I love Inti Creates games for carrying the torch of Mega Man, Mega Man X and such as well as having original IPs, but they aren't exactly a two-person outfit programming from a cramped dormitory.

So, when does a non AAA game is no longer indie in your minds?

 

[Yousef]

It depends. If someone called shantae indie, I don’t butt in. But I avoid calling her that because it’s pretty dubious. Some say indie isn’t indie if it existed in ps2 era or before. I’d say that’s not strictly true. Kao the kangaroo and ty the Tasmanian tiger have always been extremely niche, are they indie? Maybe.

 

[RustySK]

I mostly go by whether a large publisher was involved with a game's development.

That said, I'd have a hard time specifying what differentiates a smaller publisher from a larger one.
So something like Devolver for example presents a conundrum I don't have a definitive answer to.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

A lot of huge companies started as guys putting stuff together on their home computers (like CodeMasters), so it's really hard to put my finger on it. I guess that any game made by a small studio and released without the help of a big publisher?

 

[RageBurner]

In general terms

I mostly go by whether a large publisher was involved with a game's development.

That said, I'd have a hard time specifying what differentiates a smaller publisher from a larger one.
So something like Devolver for example presents a conundrum I don't have a definitive answer to.

I do think this provides a good general metric. Say, for example, Wild Hearts. It had a big budget, right, but that's because of EA, not the studio, correct?

 

[Yousef]

Devolver May as well be a parody of the gaming industry ?

Post automatically merged: Dec 11, 2024

In general terms

I do think this provides a good general metric. Say, for example, Wild Hearts. It had a big budget, right, but that's because of EA, not the studio, correct?

Yes!!! I can verify this as your resident musou nutjob!! >: D
Yeah omega force is a smaller team indeed

 

[RustySK]

Say, for example, Wild Hearts. It had a big budget, right, but that's because of EA, not the studio, correct?

Yeah pretty much! Though I wouldn't be surprised to find holes in that theory once you start to dig deep.

 

[RageBurner]

Yes!!! I can verify this as your resident musou nutjob!! >: D
Yeah omega force is a smaller team indeed

They are a studio inside Koei right?

 

[Yousef]

They are a studio inside Koei right?

Yes!

 

[chrismas]

In today's landscape "indie" games are no longer bound by pesky things like dev team sizes or publisher involvement, and can now be defined solely by how they look and feel. It's really about how twee and "retro" (or depressing and retro) it looks, or how closely it rips off an old game series, or even how many decks it can build roguelikely. Same shift in definition that "indie" music took in the 00s, more or less. Dave the Diver is my foremost example of this, though I can only point to how
a. Nexon developed and published it in full
b. Nexon successfully marketed the game as "indie" by scrubbing all mention of themselves from PR materials and closely following the usual trajectory of an "indie" title, Early Access and all.

 

[RageBurner]

In today's landscape "indie" games are no longer bound by pesky things like dev team sizes or publisher involvement, and can now by defined solely by how they look and feel. It's really about how twee and "retro" (or depressing and retro) it looks, or how closely it rips off an old game series, or even how many decks it can build roguelikely. Same shift in definition that "indie" music took in the 00s, more or less. Dave the Diver is my foremost example of this, though I can only point to how
a. Nexon developed and published it in full
b. Nexon successfully marketed the game as "indie" by scrubbing all mention of themselves from PR materials and closely following the usual trajectory of an "indie" title, Early Access and all.

Huh.. yeah, I guess my view is outdated! haha.