KG

Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good piece of freeware, and appreciate it when a developer churns something out in there own free time asking for nothing in return. Indeed, when I was younger, and had little access to money or a credit/debit card I’d probably eschew any title from an indie developer that asked for money, and would turn my nose up should the sequal to a favourite piece of freeware go shareware. However this was only an act of disappointment, and a reluctance to tread into the unknown.

Yet now I’m pleased to see that more and more indie games developers are not only feeling confident about charging, but seem to be garnering significant audiences. Audiosurf for example hit the steam most sold list, found lots of space in the gaming press and even managed to make the rare escape into the mainstream media. This has been matched by increases in quality in indie games, and although they may not quite match the scope of some commercial titles, they are still polished, and often innovative. The ‘bedroom coder’ is making a resurgence, and I’ll quite happily support hir.

Hell, in PC Gaming tonnes of people see AAA title and think free.

One definition seems to be that it’s any game that doesn’t have a publisher or funding. Another definition is that it’s just ‘different’, either a retro throwback or .. well, they can be so different I can’t even describe how different they may be. All of those things can demand our money.

Another definition is that they’re made by people who’re just crazed about gaming and want to make a game they want to play. Some would say that once they start asking for cash, they’re giving in to the ‘mainstream’ and are making the game for somebody else, the customer.

It’s complicated though. Could success with a freeware game help them bust into the industry? Could it be repackaged later as a commercial product? Would it be possible to cynically put out a game they don’t respect in order to please the masses, and so they might’ve well been doing it for cash?

The whole idea of “indy games” is wrapped up in technicalities and “style”, and I think the term is rapidly losing all meaning if it hasn’t already. But that site is helping to spotlight a lot of games that I know are great and I’m happy I didn’t miss out on, and if they have to use the indy moniker to help share them with the world, so be it.

Freeware is probably more valuable to some people than whatever “indy” means, too. But if they called it the freeware awards you’d probably assume it’s going to be a lot of crap that’s free for a reason maybe a few gems. IMO that list is about 50/50 (brilliance/pointlesscrap), but whatever.

cliffski: http://www.gametunnel.com/cat_goty.php