{"id":116051,"date":"2025-05-09T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/?post_type=ftm_article&p=116051"},"modified":"2025-05-08T16:56:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T20:56:21","slug":"indie-game-development","status":"publish","type":"ftm_article","link":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/consumer-tech\/indie-game-development","title":{"rendered":"Indie developers may save the video game industry from itself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The bottom fell out<\/a> of the video game industry last year, though you\u2019d be forgiven if you find that news surprising. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just two years prior, the industry earned an estimated $184 billion in revenue<\/a>. That\u2019s more than the music industry and global box office combined<\/a>. Around 60% of Americans play video games<\/a>, and while teen boys are still the most likely to identify as gamers<\/a>, the average player<\/a> is 36 years old and has been stomping goombas and throwing hadokens for 17 years. Even video game movie adaptations<\/a> haven\u2019t been that bad lately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this points to the fact that, despite their humble, hobbyist origins, video games have become an economic force and cultural touchpoint in the 21st century. Why the rough times, then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic headwinds, for a start. The industry defied expectations and grew steadily during the 2008 recession and the 2020 pandemic. These feats led some to herald video games as recession-proof<\/a>. However, post-pandemic woes and the call of the outdoors after lockdown led to slumping sales in a long-overdue market correction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those sales slumps couldn\u2019t have come at a worse time, either, as rising development costs are plaguing studios. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGame design is often no longer predominantly the task of crafting challenges that elicit joy, delight, and surprise.”<\/p>Simon Parkin<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While prestige titles like Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, and God of War, known in the industry as \u201cAAA games,\u201d make millions in revenue, they also cost millions to make. Activision\u2019s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020), for instance, had a development price tag of around $700 million<\/a>. That figure is double some of the most expensive movies<\/a> ever made, and it doesn\u2019t even account for the marketing budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To improve the odds of recouping such investments, publishers are increasingly turning to games as a service. This model seeks to continually monetize a game after its initial launch or sale through practices such as subscriptions, season passes, microtransactions, and various (occasionally scammy<\/a>) blockchain hijinks. The strategy can be a windfall for any game lucky enough to strike a chord with a large audience, but disastrous<\/a> for anything less than a hit<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGame design is often no longer predominantly the task of crafting challenges that elicit joy, delight, and surprise (or the noblest of creative goals, encouraging people to see the world from an unfamiliar perspective),\u201d journalist Simon Parkin wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times<\/a>. \u201cIt is primarily the job of building machines to keep players engrossed and spending, in many cases, by grinding out repetitive tasks rather than ones that encourage creative or exploratory play.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pair these trends with high investor expectations and an increasingly saturated market, and it didn\u2019t take a financial prophet to see hard times coming. Between 2023 and 2024, the video game industry laid off an estimated 25,000 people<\/a>, and several studios shuttered their doors. An inventive, well-regarded game<\/a> with healthy sales is no longer a guarantee of survival. Today, success must be stratospheric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s a silver lining, it\u2019s to be found in the industry\u2019s indie space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Indie developers push the medium forward as big-name publishers focus on safe bets.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Independent developers are crafting smaller, more economically viable games that are not only experiencing commercial success<\/a>, but also garnering recognition as some of the best games of their respective release years<\/a> \u2014 or even as stone-cold classics worthy of a place in the pantheon of Mario and Sonic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps more importantly, these developers continue to push the medium forward<\/a> as big-name publishers focus on safe bets and machine-pressed sequels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This turn of events is the result of the right technologies reaching the hands of a culture of passionate creators who were willing to take risks to share their visions with players worldwide. However, the indie scene is not isolated from the larger industry, and the very trends and technologies that raised it up may now threaten its future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A short history of early indie games<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Deciding who qualifies as an indie developer isn\u2019t an exact science. For many, indie games are made by small teams with equally small budgets (though how<\/em> small is up for debate). Others don\u2019t care about size as long as the developer isn\u2019t bound<\/a> to outside stakeholders, and for some, being \u201cindie\u201d is more about style or vibe than anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the boundary is breathable, and the distinguishing mark is more a communal spirit of creativity and experimentation than something calculated. Or, as Christian Tuttle, the solo developer who founded Imaginary Game Studios<\/a>, told Freethink, \u201cI think what many people call \u2018indie development\u2019 now is just what game development was in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this viewpoint, the rise of the indies is the story of video games coming full circle, as that creative spirit was certainly the force that energized gaming\u2019s early hobbyists<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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