Independent games take flight

06.10.2008
Not all attention-drawing games are produced or distributed by the big, marquee developers. IndieCade, an organization dedicated to showcasing and promoting independent gamemakers, offers evidence with its display of independent games at the here this weekend. This event comes just one week before IndieCade's first juried games festival in Bellevue, Washington, where dozens of independents will show their stuff.

Sam Roberts, director of says the event is designed to raise the profile of independent game developers, in the same way that film festivals or music festivals can for other creative artists. The festival will be judged by game designers, game reviewers, and educators.

"Our mission is to support independent game developers and their games, and bring the games to an audience that may be interested in them, but unaware of them," Roberts explains.

Example for Indies

But will independent games follow a path as their creative cousins in music? "The biggest things that have helped independent music reach past the record companies and reach audiences directly are independent radio and digital distribution, [both] through the Internet," Roberts says. "There's no need to make a physical piece of media; you can put your music up on a MySpace page, and there's no barrier to putting your content out there. Services that are comparable, like cdbaby.com, don't need anything, either, so there's no barrier to entry" and to getting music out there.

However, "just being able to sell your music on the Internet won't get you there on its own. Music awareness is developed through Internet radio, MySpace pages, and through social networking. That's how people hear about music," Roberts adds. And in that regard, the situation parallels that of independent games. "Anyone in the game space can sell their content on the Internet, but unless you're on a major casual games portal, or through one of the major consoles' download services," independently produced games just aren't visible to public at large.