We know there are gems in the indie world, but what stops people playing them? in my opinon, too much uninspired or cloned garbage out there. If you have trouble finding good games in the mainstream/AAA world, it’s even worse in the indie world. The signal to noise ratio difference is staggering. When there are good games, they often don’t get the mainstream press they deserve. Often a unique “out there” game gets lots of love from the critics, but is so far out of the mainstream that it often fails to bring in more attention from traditional gamers which is what the scene needs. Examples of this are Darwinia and Katamari Damacy, while the game cognoscenti (journalists and developers) love them, the average gamer does not while competent games that could cross the gap often don’t get the attention they deserve. After all this was one of the reasons I got off my ass to create this site.
I think the various “points of attention” in the industry such as the portals, magazines etc could do a better job here. However I’m getting off topic, this is how about how to get traditional gamers to try and indie game. Usually when a traditional gamer hears about an indie or a casual game they usually think of one of the many shoot’em up or puzzle game knockoffs, or things like Uno. Usually the image of something half assed or done in Flash pops into mind as well. It isn’t compelling and for the most part they are right. For all the press that Katamari Damacy has gotten, it has been Line Rider that’s been the biggest hit with most of my gamer friends. This is an excellent example of a game with “crossover” potential. Indie gamers (if we’re to be categorised) need to be exposing traditional gamers to games like these, or ones that innovate on familiar themes (such as Penumbra) to get their attention. Innovative concepts that are shallow or designed as 5 minute games does not. I see Microsoft struggling to promote XBox Live for example, one approach they are doing is promoting older games since they have brand recognition, however not enough is being done to promote their original offerings. The result is that your average gamer thinks XBL Arcade is only for old games or for shit games to put it bluntly. Nowhere is it more obvious when people message me whenever I am playing something from Live Arcade asking me “what is that game? ive never heard of it? Live Arcade?? ohhhh (I can then see them mentally discarding it as a shit game)”. There are a lot of graphically polished turds both on XBL as well as in the PC arena, but Microsoft will take something that looks polished even if the gameplay itself is trite but at the same time if you have a good game but doesn’t meet their 1080p hi fidelity standards you won’t have a shot, especially with the 50 meg limit. It’s understandable that they want both a polished delivery mechanism and a polished delivery channel but this excludes many potential games (for example Line Rider). I don’t think this is doing any favors for them in the long term.
Anyhow.. I hate for the solution to be a site plug but one of the goals for this site is to provide a list of games that any gamer can check out and be impressed by, not just indie gamers who are more supportive and optimistic for games that regular gamers would not have the patience for.
