Hey fellow gamers, have you ever played a game and really hated a specific thing about it? Maybe you’ve thought to yourself , “Hey Me, we could have done a much better job at this than these trained developers with experience, training, and resources at their disposal, and we could have made it better without all of that. Just give us a hammer and some tablets and we’ll write out the code right now”. Now you have to tell yourself to shut up and realize that you probably are going to have to work on that plan of action a bit more if this is actually going to happen. Also, just as a side note, you should probably stop talking to yourself like that, or see a shrink, you’re kind of weird.
So anyways, back to the topic at hand, which I haven’t introduced, but you have probably deduced after loudly consulting with yourself. I’m going to be talking about indie game development and the amazing upsurge we have seen in the world of gaming in the last few years, both in terms of full games and the world of mods.
So let’s start with a little background. Indie gaming generally refers to games that are created by independent developers (see, that’s where the ‘Indie” part comes from, I bet yourself told you that) that don’t have the kind of commercial and development backup that the big name companies do. A lot of times this has limited the sales and reach of these often amazing games; the developers just don’t have the money to distribute a game to the masses. This is a huge loss because some amazing games have come from indie developers, who often bring the craziest out-of-the-box ideas to the gaming world. Rather than being stuck in the regular corporate environment, where it seems bold now that games are too often labelled as risky and shelved, indie developers are driven by what kinds of games they want to see and play – and that is where creativity comes from.
Some of these challenges have been relieved for Indie developers with the introduction of digital distribution systems like Xbox Live Arcade and Steam. These digital stores allow great indie games to be seen, bought, and played by millions of people. If a game is selling for $5 on a digital system then the developer can make that a viable business, rather than sinking money into physical manufacturing and advertising on a product that may or may not make back the investment. Great games like Braid were launched this way, and blew people away with the story and gameplay.
Of course there is also the continually evolving, sometimes free-to-play model of indie development, where one of the best examples is probably Minecraft. This game was originally released in a free Alpha version (it is still technically in Beta phase right now despite being a huge commercial success) after a week of development before its release on May 17, 2009. Since then the game has seen continuous patches and commercial versions for PC (November 2011), Android (October 2011), iOS (November 2011), and Xbox 360 (May 2012).
The other big realm of indie development that I want to talk about is modding, which I talked about last issue a bit. Continuing to play Skyrim, I have come to really appreciate the mods that people have created, and the basic to drastic changes they can have.
Many mods are very simple in operation as they simply alter existing parameters within the game world, like damage ratings, weights of items, and the appearance or actions of game components. Damage rating changes are sometimes viewed as a form of cheating by some gamers, but as Skyrim is single player and you never have to worry about someone cheating in a multiplayer match, it really doesn’t matter. These kinds of mods normally are in reaction to things in the game that a person doesn’t like, for instance, destruction spells like fire never really increasing in power, only costing less to cast. This is something I agree with whole-heartedly; when my hero is at level 20, 30, 40 and so on, I want the fire spell to be more powerful than it was at level 1.
Another mod I appreciate is one that changes the weight of in-game items to zero or some other low number. When your hero can only carry 300 or so pounds of items and armour takes up 150 that doesn’t leave much room to carry potions, weapons, maybe pick up that troll skull or the giant fat you found. I have no idea what giant fat is used for at this point, but I’ve killed two of them so far.
Graphics mods are another great kind of mod. If you have a powerful enough computer you can replace the regular in-game textures with high definition ones, add post-processing for increased shading and lighting effects, implement more realistic weather effects, among other things to make the game more visually immersive.
Then there are the stupid fun mods that do absolutely nothing for the game but are fun anyway. Currently all of the rivers in my game world are now populated with classy crabs instead of the boring normal crustaceans; every one of them is now sporting a top hat and monocle. Why, you might ask? Because.
Finally, there are the total world changing mods that change the entire experience of a part of the game, or the entire thing. Take the ability to craft lightsabers as standard weapons, add entirely new races, or completely duplicate the races and many of the locations in The Lord of the Rings, these are amazing mods that have taken people a lot of time to create. That is the greatest advantage of mods: they allow people with creative ideas, but lacking technical skills or the financial backing, to create an entire game. Mods allow indie developers, or potential indie developers to build on an existing framework and show what they are capable of without having to start from scratch.
So the next time you are browsing for a new game to pick up and play check out the indie games, there may be a hidden gem waiting to be discovered and launch an amazing new talent into the spotlight. Amazing creativity is often found outside of the standard gaming IPs we see year after year, so pick up something new, and Keep on Gaming.
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