I've always wondered what the difference is between independant and commercial game design companies. Can anyone tell me? Thanks for any help.

They aren't mutually exclusive(I think). A commercial game company is a game company that sells it's games. An independant game company owned by some person, and not a game publisher.

Ah, I think I get it now. Thank you.

No problem! I'm sure someone can give a more detailed/correct response than me though.

Commercial game companies rush the programmers to get shit done as fast as they can, and have a nice financial backing... Independant game companies are generally a bunch of people over the internet who are collaberating to create a game with no financial backing.

And so, if an independant game company proves itself to be a good game designing company, it can eventually become commercial. Right?

Quote:Original post by Drakkcon
No problem! I'm sure someone can give a more detailed/correct response than me though.

The labels doesn't mean much, except a bit of prestige between other game developers. There's a lot of bluring between the two, but I'll add one more to add more confusion.

Hobbyist. A hobbyist is the one you'll find most frequently on these boards and in life in general. Hobbyists consist of either a lone wolf or a group of people who create games in their spare time for fun and / or a minor profit.

Independent. An Independant is not owned by a publisher / larger company. They can have tons of money or none at all. The difference between an independent and a hobbiest is that the independent is full time while a hobbyist is part-time. In sports, they'd be the unrestricted free agent. The Behemoth's Alien Hominid is a good example of an independent game.

Most people group independent and hobbyist together because smaller companies frequently go between the two. I feel they're slightly different.

Commercial. A commercial game company is owned by a publisher / larger company or under contract by that company. Valve for example is owned by Vivendi Universal. EA owns Origin. These software companies have a working relationship with their parent companies. They maybe partly funded by parent companies and usually some creative control by the parent company.

Companies go between these labels occsaionally. An independent can be purchased by a larger company or a company can buy out their contract and become an independent.

And just because a company is indepentent, doesn't mean it isn't wealthy or successful. Some companies prefer to remain indepenent to keep creative control over their product. Some companies prefer to be bought out to obtain a larger cash flow. There's no shame in belonging to ether one.

Thanks a lot guys. Especially Binomine. Now I understand the differences, and that being commercial isn't always better than being independant.

Yeah, being independent seems a little better. The thing is though, if you want to create games for this generation consoles or later, then most likely you will have to Commercial. So, if you just want to be a PC Game Developer, then I would be independent. If you want to be a console game developer, then I would be commercial.

Chad.