Indie game

Independent video games (commonly referred to as indie games) are video games created by individuals or small teams generally without video game publisher financial support. Indie games often focus on innovation and rely on digital distribution. Indie gaming has seen a rise in the latter half of the 2000s decade, primarily due to new online distribution methods and development tools. Some games originated as indie have become very successful financially, such as Braid,World of Goo,Flow, and Minecraft.

Overview

Indie Game: The Movie

Indie Game: The Movie is a 2012 documentary film by Canadian filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot. The film documents the struggles of independent game developers Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes during the development of Super Meat Boy, Phil Fish during the development of Fez, and also Jonathan Blow, who reflects on the success of Braid.

After two successful Kickstarter funds, interviews were conducted with prominent indie developers within the community. After recording over 300 hours of footage, Swirsky and Pajot decided to cut the movie down to follow the four developers selected. Their reasoning behind this was to show game development in the "past, present and future" tenses through each individual's story.

Synopsis

The film shows the high level of personal expression that typically goes into independent games, through the story of three games: Braid was released in 2008, Super Meat Boy was preparing for its 2011 release, while Fez was struggling with development hell for several years.

Ludum Dare

Ludum Dare (LD) (from Latin "to give a game", formerly Ludum Dare 48 (LD48), also referenced as LDJAM) is an accelerated video game development competition. It was founded by Geoff Howland and was first held in April 2002. Participants are required to create a video game that fits within a given theme in two days. A unique feature of this competition is that participants often release a time-lapse video of the development of their game.

History

Ludum Dare was originally only an Internet forum. The first competition—often referred to as "Ludum Dare Zero"—was held in April 2002, with 18 participants. Its popularity turned the focus towards the competitions rather than the forum. The time limit was subsequently increased to 48 hours, because 24 hours were decided to be too few. Since 2011 the competition has seen significant annual increases in numbers of game submissions, partly owing to the public awareness of Minecraft designer Markus Persson, who has participated seven times.

Game

A game is structured form of play, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements. However, the distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as Mahjong, solitaire, or some video games).

Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational, or psychological role.

Attested as early as 2600 BC, games are a universal part of human experience and present in all cultures. The Royal Game of Ur, Senet, and Mancala are some of the oldest known games.

Indie Game Jam

The Indie Game Jam (IGJ) was an effort to rapidly prototype video game designs and inject new ideas into the game industry. Started in 2002 by a group of game designer-programmers, the event featured a shared game engine technology and worked on by other designer-programmers for a single long weekend. The games resulting from that weekend were then published, open-source, on the IGJ web page.

Overview

IGJ was an event for indie game developers that allowed them to develop and present ideas without publisher restrictions. Hosted in Oakland, California just before the Game Developers Conference, the IGJ ran on sponsorship and donations.

IGJ was known for innovation and rapid prototyping of new gameplay ideas. After the third IGJ, Doug Church commented, "[..] it's kinda true that nothing works, but you just throw everyone into the middle of the fire and things come out." He commented that small experiments can lead to big developments in the field. He also noted that while IGJ may not itself revolutionize the mainstream video game industry, but may inspire individuals to innovate. Justin Hall explained that the "roots of electronic entertainment life [lie in such] collaborations".