AniAko
08-24-2011, 10:08 PM
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6204/6071851509_c5657accdf.jpg
Independent gaming seems to be all the rave lately. A lot of developers may get their start in this arena or old veterans might shed the BigGame corp. shackles and make a go at their vision. And who's to blame them? Indie gaming seems to resemble a wild west of sorts; they come for the opportunity, and before you know it a town pops up full of brothels, drunks, gunslingers, and swindlers selling you the latest miracle tonic.
Sure it's life at a low scale and slow pace with simple pleasures, and your favorite tobacco costs twice as much as it does in the bit city, but it's freedom right? Now I'm not insinuating that independent gaming is better or worse than its big brother industry, but it gives off that rag-tag, disorganized, hodge-podge, risky desert town that contains 1001 ways to leave this plane of existence kind of vibe. However, it's under the guise of that environment, some of the truest innovation we experience thrives best; be it the prostitutes and booze, a Jacks over 7's hand in poker, or the lack of luxuries or law that feeds the human need to innovate.
So where do gamers end up in the mix? Sometimes it's with a $2.99 game that crashes their phone when you accidentally touch the volume buttons, or it's with a Free-to-Play game that people will venture out and buy a new phone that supports it just to play the game. It almost feels "insignificant" because the entry fee into this Indie game world is cheap yet fulfilling, and if something doesn't work out, we just move along. Meanwhile the snake oil vendor sets up shop for the next... "customer." Be that as it may, what I really think gamers get out of the Indie industry is a chance to find that game "built-for-them."
What is "your game?" The cross-over game you talked to your friends about, a new twist on an old concept, or maybe just a version of the "Helicopter Game" flash game with lasers, techno music and kittens. Sometimes it's a game you haven't even fathomed yourself yet, but someone else has. With the success of games like "I made a game with Zombies in It!", Miner Dig Deep, and larger establishments like Minecraft, there's proof that a game is waiting out there to find the perfect gamer to fall in love with it as if it was their own flesh and blood.
I make it a habit (more often than I'd like to admit) to peruse the XBox Live Indie Arcade to troll for new innovations. I'm happy to say I've found several games "made for me" and I keep returning with the high hopes of finding more. Today, I'm hoping Chester becomes one of those titles.
It's born from a simple concept: a platform game. Next allow the user to re-skin the game to their liking. It's not a foreign concept, I loved the option in Pac-man CE 2 to re-skin any level I was playing on. But this time they're talking about an entire 2D world. A first? Perhaps, perhaps not, but combine it with some witty humor, and Brilliant Blue-G (and its sole employee) just might make a name for itself as "the humorous game that did that re-skinning thing, and was fun to boot."
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6079/6072393474_8fb89d0ac2_z.jpg
"Press start, you ninny." It looks full of cheeky humor, sometimes a vital genetic component of a game "made-for-me." That combined with the press release where the developer refers to the game as "an absurd 2d platformer," and I'm already looking forward to handing over my 240MS points next Thursday, September 1st.... after checking out the demo of course, another benefit to us gamers in the Indie circle searching for "the-game-made-for-me"
fIQRWT-Va6Q
Independent gaming seems to be all the rave lately. A lot of developers may get their start in this arena or old veterans might shed the BigGame corp. shackles and make a go at their vision. And who's to blame them? Indie gaming seems to resemble a wild west of sorts; they come for the opportunity, and before you know it a town pops up full of brothels, drunks, gunslingers, and swindlers selling you the latest miracle tonic.
Sure it's life at a low scale and slow pace with simple pleasures, and your favorite tobacco costs twice as much as it does in the bit city, but it's freedom right? Now I'm not insinuating that independent gaming is better or worse than its big brother industry, but it gives off that rag-tag, disorganized, hodge-podge, risky desert town that contains 1001 ways to leave this plane of existence kind of vibe. However, it's under the guise of that environment, some of the truest innovation we experience thrives best; be it the prostitutes and booze, a Jacks over 7's hand in poker, or the lack of luxuries or law that feeds the human need to innovate.
So where do gamers end up in the mix? Sometimes it's with a $2.99 game that crashes their phone when you accidentally touch the volume buttons, or it's with a Free-to-Play game that people will venture out and buy a new phone that supports it just to play the game. It almost feels "insignificant" because the entry fee into this Indie game world is cheap yet fulfilling, and if something doesn't work out, we just move along. Meanwhile the snake oil vendor sets up shop for the next... "customer." Be that as it may, what I really think gamers get out of the Indie industry is a chance to find that game "built-for-them."
What is "your game?" The cross-over game you talked to your friends about, a new twist on an old concept, or maybe just a version of the "Helicopter Game" flash game with lasers, techno music and kittens. Sometimes it's a game you haven't even fathomed yourself yet, but someone else has. With the success of games like "I made a game with Zombies in It!", Miner Dig Deep, and larger establishments like Minecraft, there's proof that a game is waiting out there to find the perfect gamer to fall in love with it as if it was their own flesh and blood.
I make it a habit (more often than I'd like to admit) to peruse the XBox Live Indie Arcade to troll for new innovations. I'm happy to say I've found several games "made for me" and I keep returning with the high hopes of finding more. Today, I'm hoping Chester becomes one of those titles.
It's born from a simple concept: a platform game. Next allow the user to re-skin the game to their liking. It's not a foreign concept, I loved the option in Pac-man CE 2 to re-skin any level I was playing on. But this time they're talking about an entire 2D world. A first? Perhaps, perhaps not, but combine it with some witty humor, and Brilliant Blue-G (and its sole employee) just might make a name for itself as "the humorous game that did that re-skinning thing, and was fun to boot."
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6079/6072393474_8fb89d0ac2_z.jpg
"Press start, you ninny." It looks full of cheeky humor, sometimes a vital genetic component of a game "made-for-me." That combined with the press release where the developer refers to the game as "an absurd 2d platformer," and I'm already looking forward to handing over my 240MS points next Thursday, September 1st.... after checking out the demo of course, another benefit to us gamers in the Indie circle searching for "the-game-made-for-me"
fIQRWT-Va6Q