Played with Fire

APRIL 14, 2022

As game fans, we can choose from both big AAA productions and less known (but not always) indie productions. A few words about indie games. Indie , which is short for independent , means independent of the creator – financially, conceptually, or in terms of time. What are indie games and why are they popular?

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Indy AAA Games Mechanics 52

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Midnight Girl , from indie studio Italic , oozes French cool. Ryder: “Making and releasing a game in general is extremely taxing, whether you’re making a small indie title or releasing a AAA-game on PS5. The point-and-click adventure unfolds in a stylish 1960s Paris that exudes both an inviting and eerie ambiance.

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Indy Studios Point and Click Vector Graphics 115

GamesIndustry.biz

MARCH 7, 2024

Merry and Kom have over thirty years of experience in AAA, mobile, and indie game development. Headquartered in British Columbia, Canada, Simply Sweet Games is a fully remote studio that is currently developing its inaugural mobile title – the roguelike word puzzle Criss Cross Castles.

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Electronics AAA Puzzle Mobile 104

GamesIndustry.biz

JUNE 7, 2023

From AAA to indie and midsized titles, various presentations will be dedicated to showing the public what they can look forward to. Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Although E3 is canceled this year , this week marks the start of 2023's summer games showcases.

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AAA Indy Games Development 111

PreMortem.Games

JANUARY 8, 2024

In AAA, the roles are typically very specialized and each individual doesn’t have much room to experiment outside of their responsibilities. The advantage of the indie space in general is that we get to work on smaller, more niche ideas. “Motivation is a limited resource that will inevitably wear out in a year or two.

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Dev Playtesting AAA Indy 156

GamesIndustry.biz

JUNE 9, 2023

Organised by GamesIndustry.biz parent ReedPop, the event will once again offer attendees the chance to play a mix of AAA and indie games (as well as tabletop and retro titles), take part in esports competitions, and watch developers discuss their work on stage. Read more

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Esports AAA Indy Development 98

Starloop Studios

JANUARY 12, 2023

It has become an integral part of game development, from small-scale indie gems to AAA blockbusters. Visual effects in modern gaming can be a transformative process that brings a title’s presentation and immersion to the next level.

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AAA Entertainment Indy Game Developer 98

GamesIndustry.biz

JULY 3, 2023

It's been a bit of an unusual year for the AAA games industry. But there have been a handful of new indie games that have broken through, and Hi-Fi Rush found an audience via Xbox Game Pass. New IP has fared less well, with Forspoken and Redfall missing in terms of quality and popularity. Read more

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AAA Fantasy Indy Games 98

GamesIndustry.biz

JANUARY 12, 2023

It tracks all physical sales in major European countries (see list below), and digital sales from most major AAA publishers (the main exception is Nintendo, which doesn't share digital data) in every territory across Europe. The data does not include games from indie teams. Read more.

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Console PC AAA Data 97

Game Wisdom

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

Why Horror Is the Hardest Game Genre Josh Bycer josh@game-wisdom.com This year I was all set to play the latest crop of indie (and AAA) horror games for Halloween, except this time I didn’t find a lot of games compared to last year.

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Horror AAA Indy Games 59

GamesIndustry.biz

APRIL 20, 2023

This norm, however, may soon be a relic of the past as software from technology company Move hopes to revolutionise motion capture for AAA and indies alike, as well as beyond games.

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Technology AI AAA Indy 107

GamesIndustry.biz

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

As reported by IGN , the entertainment union known as the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) collected data from hundreds of AAA, mobile, and indie developers between March and mid-August 2023. 57% of those surveyed said they most recently worked on an AAA game.

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Game Developer Game Development AAA Development 52

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 16, 2023

There are plenty of indie developers that say this and it’s possibly the most crucial part of game design and development. Trying to develop an indie game on the scale of a AAA title is the reason why a lot of indie studios fail.”

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Technology Indy Playtesting Games 104

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 27, 2023

The market is so saturated, that every little defect becomes an ‘elephant in the room’ for players that often compare a low-budget indie title to AAA games. The more you raise the bar, the more you risk disappointing somebody, especially if you don’t have AAA budgets.”

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Pixel Studios Development Film 209

Ask a Game Dev

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

As in-engine rendering improves, AAA games will likely move away from pre-rendered cutscenes but AAA games are far from the only games that use cutscenes and have engines that can render high quality cinematic visuals (e.g. mobile, consoles with weaker hardware specs, indie games) for important parts.

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Cutscenes Render Cinematics Engine 40

Game Dev Unchained

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

” “I’m the founder and CEO of Strange Loop Games,” began Krajewski, detailing his journey from working on AAA titles at prominent companies like EA and Midway to establishing his own remote studio. While the significance of platforms like Steam is evident, there’s been a notable evolution in the indie gaming scene.

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Indy AAA Platformer Educational 105

Ask a Game Dev

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Indie studios and smaller publishers don't really have the money to pay union scale and often save money by using their developers or friends/family as actors. This is mostly setting up an agreement for large AAA games. To my recollection, only about 40% of video game voice acting is done by union workers anyway.

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AAA Studios Dev Indy 52

PreMortem.Games

JUNE 29, 2023

A game trailer (especially for indie games) is part story and part instructional video. Fine line between flashy and simple editing I think one of the biggest mistakes a lot of indie games make is to chase the editing style of AAA games or Hollywood movies in hopes of looking like a ‘real’ or ‘legitimate’ trailer.

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Editing Communications Entertainment Games 234

AWS Games

MAY 12, 2023

AWS are also proud to continue supporting the game developer community and we want to highlight the best games from indie studios to AAA game studios built on AWS. Come join AWS GameTime on Twitch at 4pm BST on the 1st Thursday of every month and check out our previous episodes on-demand on YouTube and Twitch.

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Game Developer Game Development AAA Development 67

Game Errors

OCTOBER 17, 2023

Interesting fact : Did You Know Crashing is Most Common in Indie Games? Indie games like Wizard with a Gun often face more crash issues compared to AAA titles. Given that indie developers might not have the vast resources to iron out all bugs, crashes can be more frequent.

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Co-op Indy Graphics Sandbox 52

PreMortem.Games

JUNE 7, 2023

The abysmal ideas about driving physics held by the indie community of course! I wonder if AAA games like GT7 and Forza use the same type of workarounds that are totally detached from a physically-based car?” What inspired you to make Drift Type C?

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Dev Asset Concepts Electronics 104

The Bottom Feeder

OCTOBER 13, 2021

Our tiny company has been earning (well, "earning") a good living making indie computer games for 27 years now. A really solid story in an indie game. Thus, you'll mainly get it in indie games. For a AAA game to have a unique authorial voice, it has to have someone VERY famous or influential working on it. We sell words.

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Writing Games AAA Indy 57

Moonmana

APRIL 7, 2023

Both Unity and Unreal are popular choices among giant game development studios as well as indie developers. Some say Unreal is better just because it’s a common choice for AAA studios. Unity is the best option for indie developers and mobile game projects. But is there an ultimate winner? What is Unreal?

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Engine Engineering AAA Asset 52

The Bottom Feeder

MAY 26, 2022

AAA games are now up to $70, and nobody will talk about that price with anything other than rage. I've been seeing this phenomenon for a long time: No matter how good an indie game (or any game) is, no matter how cheap it is, a few Steam reviews will always say it's too expensive. Indie games all around are raising their prices.

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Indy AAA Software Entertainment 52

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 9, 2023

Every man and his dog has made an indie game but no one has painted a game yet. A point of interest in the indie game sea.” These were small versions of the AAA games I had played a lot of, but they were just as enjoyable.” In the 15 years since Braid came out, every man and his dog has made an indie game.

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Dev Art Concepts Indy 104

Mircosoft Game Dev

OCTOBER 2, 2019

They help everyone –– from indie developers to AAA studios –– to focus on creating the best game rather than having to rebuild a physics engine, shift graphics blobs manually in memory, or develop reliable back-end infrastructure. That meant the path from gamer to game developer was inexpensive and usually free.

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Development AAA Indy Engine 52

The Bottom Feeder

JULY 24, 2023

I've been writing indie games for a living for 30 years now and so have been shipping them continuously for longer, as far as I know, than anybody else, ever. Never trust professional reviews of AAA games. They were written by professional indie game developers who should know better. (I’m Don't do that. That was is.

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Indy AAA Games Communications 89

PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Every man and his dog has made an indie game but no one has painted a game yet. A point of interest in the indie game sea.” These were small versions of the AAA games I had played a lot of, but they were just as enjoyable.” In the 15 years since Braid came out, every man and his dog has made an indie game.

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Dev Art Concepts Film 104

Gamesbrief

AUGUST 11, 2022

There are three major ways that we, as consumers, spend money on video games: We subscribe to services such as Gamepass, Apple Arcade or Netflix We buy “boxed product” games, for example: AAA titles in physical boxes or indie games on Steam We buy virtual currency or virtual items in free-to-play or service games.

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Games AAA Culling Indy 52

iHobo

JULY 12, 2023

Although these lines are increasingly blurred today (as AAA cRPGs will tend to draw heavily from both traditions), there is a clear historical period after the Ultima - Wizardry split that dominates more than two decades of cRPG design.

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Open World AAA Game Design Game Designer 52

Game Design Aspect

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

This keynote examines how personal narratives inform narrative and character design as a whole in a game or virtual setting, Join us for a look at moments in popular games informed by personal narrative, from the indie to the AAA level, and reflect on steps that might be taken in order to retain authenticity while avoiding the pitfalls that naturally (..)

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Writing Educational Education UX 52

Deconstructor of Fun

DECEMBER 13, 2022

That makes them the closest thing in games to a rock supergroup: Maya Kylmamaa (Game Lead, Engineer) , was CEO of the now defunct Reforged Studios (a Helsinki studio focused on AAA strategy games). The common point is that both were the co-founders of the indie games company Scuttlebutt Games. What can we expect from this team?

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Studios Mobile Mobile Console 52

iXie gaming

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

We can see AAA titles running on handheld devices, while also catering to indie titles that are released on all platforms. With platform exclusivity shrinking by the day, and devices big and small butting heads in terms of power, the future of handheld gaming, while strong, will be different.

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Console Games Fantasy Mobile 52

Game Design Aspect

JUNE 9, 2021

This keynote examines how personal narratives inform narrative and character design as a whole in a game or virtual setting, Join us for a look at moments in popular games informed by personal narrative, from the indie to the AAA level, and reflect on steps that might be taken in order to retain authenticity while avoiding the pitfalls that naturally (..)

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Educational Education Writing UX 52

Moonmana

OCTOBER 31, 2022

As a result, he began his career as an indie developer, creating games independently, and then founded a company that is still expanding. We are excited to be a part of creating AAA games that are the best in their class. “It had all been a dream come true,” she says. .

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Concepts Game Developer Game Development Development 52

The Bottom Feeder

APRIL 5, 2023

As I said in my last GoWR piece (which got quite a lot of reads), it's kind of futile to critique big AAA games. There Is, Of Course, a Place For Honesty In Video Games Mainly indie games that last less than 3 hours. I mean, they'll sell good for an indie game. A lot of people have played it. It was intensely awaited.

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Game Dev Unchained

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

The Creative Spirit of “Lucid”: A Deep Dive into the Musical and Inspirational Layers of Indie Game Development While many of us have been engrossed in the epic cinematic experiences of Hollywood or caught up in the intricate weaves of Studio Ghibli’s storytelling, a fresh voice has emerged from the world of indie game development.

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