Once economic analysts and social pundits got over the shock waves of video games’ assault on our culture, they began to look at the nuances of the industry. For several years, there wasn’t much product variation to see outside of shooters, fantasy RPGs, and sports games. The Sims brought some variety and expanded the player base to more mature “casual gamers”, but for the most part the games have been for the young.
That is starting to change. Indie game developers catering to a more dedicated gaming community have operated under the radar, for the most part. They’re starting to get the recognition they deserve and that, in turn, is expanding the number and complexity of game genres coming to market. Big game companies like Electronic Arts and Nintendo continue to churn out sequels to their big moneymakers like Madden’s NFL Football and Zelda. Its sales are still huge, but as its audiences mature, the market finds room for games that go beyond sports, war, and wizards.
Indie games are developing their own distribution channels. Valve, the company that had huge success with Half Life, now distributes its games through its own online service, Steam. It sells directly to the player and provides the servers for users of its games to play single or multiplayer over the Internet. Their games come from a variety of developers and range from cartoon and noir mysteries to empire building and more standard fare. Steam provides an outlet for some indie games to reach a larger audience.
Manifesto Games is a website dedicated to the support, promotion and distribution of independently produced video games. The site has game reviews, provides a sales mechanism for the various producers, provides a “top ten” list of current indie games, and has a Soapbox forum for comments, recommendations, complaints, etc. of active players.
Manifesto’s game review categories include some standards such as Adventure, Role Playing Games and Sim/Tycoon games. But there are also categories like Schmup and Turn-based Strategy, categories that the major producers don’t promote and, in the case of Schmup, probably don’t understand. It’s a term that seems to generally refer to games that recreate early spaceship shooters but with much cooler graphics and real storylines.
Many of the games found on Manifesto follow conventional game profiles, such as war games and RPG magic, but incorporate some element of reality or human complexity not readily found in standard fare. of the games. There is a simulation game available on the site called Democracy. It’s not a concept that matches the standard for testosterone-based video games.
By virtue of distribution channels like Manifesto and Steam, independent developers have a chance at commercial exposure and hopefully some commercial success. This foot in the door of a huge commercial monolith has spawned outrageous creativity by expanding game genres into more original and complex formats.
It’s like good new bands that outperform record companies, introduce themselves through YouTube and MySpace, and sell their CDs online. Independent game producers have created a market that allows for creativity and product honesty.