indie
CompanyUnited States
Documents about indie
Extra Credits6 min
Global Games: Mexico, Argentina & Chile - The Future of Game Design in Latin America - Extra Credits
The Latin American game industry presents a complex landscape of potential and structural challenges, with Brazil currently positioned as the most likely regional leader.
- Brazil is currently positioned as the most likely leader for the Latin American game industry, despite significant structural and economic hurdles across the region.
- Mexico’s potential as a development hub is constrained by semi-monopolistic cartels that stifle competition and a lack of concentrated middle-class consumers for the console market.
- Mexico possesses a massive internal market of 116 million people, but its growth is currently limited by uneven wealth distribution and a failure to integrate gaming into existing entertainment business models.
Extra CreditsMay 2013
Extra Credits9 min
Games You Might Not Have Tried - ep 5 - Find New Games - Extra Credits
This overview highlights a curated selection of video games chosen for their novelty, innovative mechanics, and unique narrative approaches rather than traditional metrics of production quality.
- Prioritizing creative risk-taking and unconventional design often yields more memorable and intellectually stimulating experiences than traditional high-production-value titles.
- Thomas Was Alone demonstrates how simple mechanics can serve as effective narrative metaphors, while The Unfinished Swan highlights the value of aesthetic innovation.
- Titles like Mark of the Ninja and FTL prove that refined genre-specific mechanics—such as stealth systems and roguelike structures—can define a game's success regardless of budget.
Extra CreditsMay 2013
PocketGamer.biz4 min
The Game Bakers' Emeric Thoa on its social beat-'em up Combo Crew
Combo Crew represents a strategic effort by the French indie studio The Game Bakers to adapt the traditional beat-'em-up genre for mobile devices.
- The Game Bakers developed Combo Crew to adapt traditional arcade beat-'em-up mechanics for mobile by replacing complex button inputs with a simplified four-directional swipe system.
- The game utilizes an asynchronous multiplayer model that allows players to join friends' sessions to clear levels and restore health, mimicking the cooperative experience of classic couch co-op titles.
- Core gameplay progression is driven by tactical customization, where players select specific move sets to balance between high-speed, multi-hit combos and slower, high-damage strikes.
PocketGamer.bizMar 2013
Extra Credits5 min
EC Fund Update - Indie Game Publishing - Extra Credits
The initiative to establish an indie game publishing entity, funded through community crowdfunding, was launched to test the viability of a more equitable publisher-developer relationship.
- The initiative to establish a community-funded indie publishing entity was ultimately discontinued due to the operational complexities of balancing legal requirements, professional commitments, and high project failure rates.
- The project aimed to test a sustainable, equitable publishing model by focusing on small-scale game development with budgets ranging from $20,000 to $30,000.
- To mitigate risk, the selection process mandated a functional demo as a prerequisite, prioritizing tangible proof of concept over abstract creative pitches.
Extra CreditsMay 2012
Extra Credits12 min
Games You Might Not Have Tried - ep 2 - Find New Games - Extra Credits
This overview serves as a curated recommendation list for gamers seeking titles that offer unique mechanics, unconventional narratives, or distinct genre blends.
- The curation prioritizes games with innovative design mechanics or unconventional narratives over mainstream popularity or critical perfection.
- Bastion is highlighted for its sophisticated, non-linear narration system, while The Stanley Parable is noted for its meta-commentary on player choice.
- The list identifies specific mechanical strengths in niche titles, such as Terraria’s combat-focused exploration and the steep, rewarding learning curve of Monster Hunter.
Extra CreditsMay 2012
Extra Credits9 min
Mailbag 1 - Questions About the Game Industry - Extra Credits
This overview addresses common inquiries regarding the state of the video game industry as of late 2010.
- The dominance of first-person shooters in 2010 is driven by the commercial success of the genre and the availability of standardized development engines like Unreal, which lower entry barriers for mid-tier studios.
- The perceived decline of the JRPG genre is not a lack of innovation, but rather an over-reliance on a small number of major publishers like Square Enix.
- PC gaming remains a robust market segment when accounting for the growth of MMOs, social gaming, and indie titles, despite challenges related to high technical requirements and costs compared to consoles.
Extra CreditsFeb 2012
Extra Credits8 min
Innovation - How AAA and Indie Games Can Learn From Each Other - Extra Credits
The video game industry currently faces a structural divide between independent developers and AAA studios, which hinders the medium's creative potential.
- AAA studios and indie developers operate in a structural divide where AAA prioritizes risk-averse, iterative formulas, while indie teams are constrained by limited funding and marketing despite their capacity for innovation.
- Publishers should establish dedicated indie-publishing divisions to provide smaller teams with essential distribution, funding, and technical infrastructure.
- This symbiotic model allows publishers to test innovative concepts in a low-risk environment, identifying successful prototypes that can be scaled into larger, mainstream projects.
Extra CreditsJan 2012