David vs Goliath: Aspects of Successful Independent Game Development

Consider what goes into a video game. Between graphics, sound, and gameplay, the video game has the potential to be the most complex, engaging, and representative artistic medium we have.

It's a wonder how anything less than the largest companies with the most resources can make good games. Yet, independent, "indie" studios have provided some of the most innovative, interesting, and quality gaming experiences around; competing with companies thousands of times larger than their own.

The question remains: How do indie developers compete with triple-A studios despite their severely limited budgets?

The independent game studio's greatest advantage is its freedom from corporate influence. In a WIRED article from 2016, game developer, Maxime Beaudoin recounted his decision to quit his job as a software architect for Ubisoft, stating, "You're a drop in a glass of water, and as soon as you realize that, your ownership evaporates in the sun. And without ownership, there's no motivation." Soon after, he formed his own games studio, Gingear Studio, which went on to create the award-winning mobile game, "Open Bar".

This sentiment proved mutual between many game developers. In my email correspondence with Mike Hergaarden, co-founder of M2H Game Studio and co-creator of the WW1 Game Series: "Verdun" and "Tannenberg," his feelings mirrored that of Beaudoin, stating, "I personally like it much better as independent studio. As a smaller studio we do a lot more, can explore much more things that we'd like to do, where generally in a triple A studio you'd be working on one specific task for years." His endorsement of the indie ethos continued, stating, "as we do not have bosses or investors, we're completely free to work how we want. We can easily change a game concept last minute without needing approval which is often essential for success as games are too hard to predict and design will often need tweaking/overhauls."

The advantages of the small, independant team have shown true for decades. Underground imprisoned cartoon head YouTuber and late 90s shooter game enthusiast, Civvie 11, put it best when describing what made the level design of the classic first person shooter, Duke Nukem 3D so memorable: "(It's) Not a team of people working on set dressing, and another team working on layout, and another one working on the lighting; (it's) that personal touch; one designer provoking the player in very specific ways." While the Duke's first three-dimensional outing may not have been strictly indie as we know it today, the principles exhibited at that point in time reflect what we enjoy about the products of a small team of well-rounded creators.

However, the small team approach has a glaring downside: a limited budget. On this topic, I corresponded with David Szymanski, creator of the hugely popular retro-throwback shooter, "Dusk."

"When Dusk was starting to look like it would be a bigger release than originally planned, my approach was still to design around problems instead of using a budget to surmount them," stated Szymanski, "I was (and still am) used to working as though there weren't any budget."

Szymanski, who got his start making narrative-driven horror games while running a small piano tuning business, used his no-budget experience to his advantage when he was hired at New Blood Interactive. "Since I'm just so used to operating as a "bottom feeder" of sorts, usually anything that's genuinely going to need money thrown at it to work ends up getting cut in the brainstorming phase," he stated.

His go-to example of creativity-over-budget from "Dusk" was level E2M5: The Escher Labs. "It was originally just going to be a normal Black Mesa like laboratory environment," stated Szymanski, "Problem was, I just couldn't think up any good or interesting ways to dress it up. So eventually I came up with the whole 'weird MC Escher level' idea to get around that block." This was a case where a budget would have actively hampered his creativity, as he stated, " If I'd been relying on purchased assets or a modeler, that never would have happened."

Despite how creativity may surmount budgetary restrictions in the creative process, you still need a computer to make a get there in the first place. I talked with independent game developer and head of Possum House Games, Dennis McCorry about his experiences making games from his bedroom with no budget.

He recalled two of his games: "The Sword and the Slime", a large-scale platformer with an emphasis on unique movement mechanics, and "Heavy is the Crown," an experimental game about herding sheep to feed your family. "("Heavy is the Crown") was a simple game that we did in two days, but the reaction to that game was comparable to the Sword and the Slime," stated McCorry, "which is the most amazing and conflicting and irritating feeling."

His takeaway from this experience? "If I can just do it in two days and get the same reaction, I'm just gonna make a bunch of games in two days," stated McCorry.

Whether the game is made in two days or two years, the defining factor of its success is public opinion.

I spoke to Matthew Barry, a student representative for the school of Interactive Games and Media at the Rochester Institute of Technology about what qualities are distinct when playing indie and triple-A games.

"Indie has a lot more freedom," said Barry, "they feel like passion projects with a lot of attention to detail... but triple-A (studios) have a massive budget, so they get to use top-of-the-line technology, so you get things like mo-cap for animation."

"Both are great development fields," sated Barry. When deciding what to play, "it depends on what you're into: if you're looking for smaller projects, indie would be that way, but if you want to play with a lot of other people or go with the popular choice, then it's always going to be triple-A"

As with any product, there is a paradoxical nature to game development. No matter the budget, no matter the equipment, no matter the market; you can't buy creativity. There's a whole world of talented developers putting their heart and soul into short, focused games, just waiting to be experienced. Now it's just up to the common gamer to recognize quality where it stands to give attention to those who deserve it.