Re: [GD-Design] Indie games?

[Jan E. <ch...@in...>]

On Wed, 26 Feb 2003, Brian Hook wrote:

>>Actually, I think there is one genre where one person could do a
>>great game: strategy games.
>
>Absolutely, and there are indie developers that are doing pretty well 
>in that area.  BattleFront, StarDock and Strategy First all come to 
>mind.  However, titles of this type -- turn-based strategy, 4-X 
>games, etc. -- do not tend to sell particularly well, but maybe 
>enough to sustain a very small team of developers.  Maybe.

Battlefront sold the first Combat Mission only over the web. You got a CD
and a manual. I think it sold pretty well, and after a while it appeared
as a boxed game in shops over here. But CM managed to really revolutionize
WW2 wargaming with their introduction of realistic 3D modelling. 

>Even so, the cost to develop games of this type are far from trivial. 
> Even accepting that "design > tech/art", you still need a lot of 
>content.

Of course, but that genre is a bit more realistic. Players don't demand
state-of-the-art multithreaded texturewhizbangs with Cg and THX 6.3 sound
in a teratexel DVD engine. Only games with no real playable content need
that. :)

-- 

             Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off.
                                              -- Terry Pratchett, Small Gods