Indie Success
by Hillel
I’m not a big fan of energy drinks or diet supplements. If I could design my daily energy boost it would be a story every day about a tiny enterprise that makes it big without all the trappings of a large enterprise. Today’s story is:
I know these stories represent one extreme end of the spectrum in terms of all the independent development that’s happening. But the fact that it’s possible at all I find super encouraging and inspiring.
Posted on August 14th, 2008
in Companies We Admire
One Response to “Indie Success”
The RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 and 2 games are a similar story. They were written by one guy, Chris Sawyer, plus an artist and music composer. I’ve also seen reports that developers of popular iPhone apps, like the crossword game 2 Across, are also doing well for themselves.
Games are one of the few areas where ordinary consumers will still pay for software on a regular basis. While much of the focus in the gaming world goes on the multimillion dollar 3D games there are plenty of riches to be made in less graphically intense experiences. The best selling PC game of all time is The Sims, which hardly uses ground breaking graphics. The key, though, is that it is a very immersive experience, especially for teenage girls that can use it to express a level of control in the imaginary Sims world that they don’t yet have in their real world.
Coming up with an immersive experience is not easy and while it can include jaw dropping graphics and sound effects, like COD4, it can also be delivered with very run of the mill graphics like Rollercoaster Tycoon.