So I'm sitting there playing with my cat when all the sudden I realize something... Every single highly succesful indie game incorperates a new concept behind it. This makes a lot of since, wouldn't you agree? If you make a First Person shooter and sell it for 20 bucks, would someone honestly buy that over going and getting a professional FPS for 20 bucks? The graphics are better, sound is better, gameplay is (mostly) smoother. So, the only way the indie developers can get themselves ahead of the game is by creating concepts no one has thought of, or on topics that the indusrty won't touch! Examples: BreakQuest: the first "block breaker" game to be centered around a very strong physics engine Defcon: The first realistic RTS game that focused it's tactics more around the concept of chess than conventional warfare. Console RPG's: These can generally go un-noticed, but they do offer a quality that was lost long ago in the RPG realm, simple graphics. Aveyond is rediculously addictive for how stupid the story line is. Half Life 1: Yes, belive it or not, half life was an indie game (and Valve still is technically independant). It was the first FPS to incorperate seamless story-telling into a game. Gish: come on... name one other platformer where you're a 12 pound ball of sticky tar. This is the first game to ever have concepts anywhere close to this. The way to get famous is to be creative to your breaking point. Not gonna lie, it could end up completley alienating and unplayable, but on the other side, you could end up getting pretty rich. Look at Introversion! lol, idk, I'm just venting :P

You don't have to reinvent the wheel each time : just add a few twists to it, and make it the most fun possible. It's just that, really.

Quote:Original post by Funkymunky
Usually, the pro game will cost substantially more than the indie game, so its lower price is really its better selling point.

I agree, but HL2 episode one started as 20 bucks, counter strike source is 20 bucks, most of the older unreal tournaments are from $7 - $15 bucks... You see where I'm going here.

No, that's with marketing. They sell for that much in stores.

Ahh, I see. I'm not sure how that affects the player, but good point.

I agree with Trapper Zoid, Starcraft was/is stupidly successful dispite the fact that there's little originality about it. What Blizzard did was simply push out an extremely well polished clone of existing games (which they have a reputation for). Just look at World Of Warcraft, most of the elements in that game you'd find in Everquest.

Quote:I've seen good story-telling in first person games since Ultima Underworld, and I've seen the introduction of several of the techniques used by Valve in other previous games such as Cybermage: Darklight Awakening (which had the bulk of its story told "in game").

Ahh, such fond memories. ^^

EDIT: In hindsight i guess Starcraft and WoW aren't really good examples of indie games. Xp

I think something more along the lines of Doukutsu Monogatari (cave story) would probably serve as a better example.

[Edited by - Gyrthok on August 12, 2007 8:40:50 PM]