Just a short post for tonight, this is something I can ramble about for ages.

Independent video games are a core part of the industry now, like it or not. Ever since before the advent of the Internet, dedicated programmers were selling their bedroom software on floppies. While most indie games are low-budget (which arguably can add to their creativity), a lot of these games are also low-effort. Especially in the recent era of Steam Greenlight, there was no shortage cynical trash built and pushed onto the platform. These games saw relative success because of their integration with the Steam achievement/trading card system, and draw similarities with AAA titles of late.

Big Budget, Low Return

AAA game development is a calculated risk. You're playing with large budgets and need to be sure that your company will see returns. Sometimes, these returns don't come. To ensure their profits, developers have adopted the mobile game pastime of offering microtransactions to support their in-game content. On a smaller scale, these low-effort independent games follow the same pattern. Say your game took about a week to develop by yourself using store-bought assets, and does not have value as a game. If you can load it up with Steam achievements and put a $0.50 price tag on it, people will buy the game just to sell the correlating trading cards and make profit. At the end of the day, both are purely business. The AAA studios and the trash-spewing indie studios have the same end goal in mind, player and industry be damned.

#High-effort Indies
Not all indie games are as cynical as the ones I was talking about above, however. Recently we've seen the release of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice from Ninja Theory.

This game was self-published, and it reeks of thought, effort, and a respect for the medium. It is a fusion of Nordic themes and psychological dread, polished to a sheen. Studios such as Vlambeer consistently put out fun, simple action games. Klei Entertainment's Invisible, Inc is a cyberpunk/noire themed turn-based strategy game with stealth and hacking mechanics, with a fantastic story to boot.

Saving Grace

My point with listing just a few wonderful indie titles is, I truly think they are the saving grace of the industry. At the end of the day, video games are a form of art. We get lost in the marketing and hype cycles and forget what this medium really boils down to, sharing experiences with other people. Indie developers; please continue doing what you're doing. People reading this who have that great game idea in your head; make it. We live in the Internet age, all of the information of the world is available to you if you look for it. I look forward to seeing what you create.