Rumors - News - Remarks by Russell Carroll

An E3 perspective... (May 16, 2005)

With E3 coming up, what may be considered the most influential in E3 in history (right up until next year), it's time to take a moment to discuss what E3 means to Indie games and indie gamers. This is the third E3 for Game Tunnel and the third time that we won't be covering the Electronic Entertainment Expo. It's not that we are against the expo. Really it is just that there is little for Indies to be connected to at E3. Sure there will probably be the yearly tantalizing information on They Came From Hollywood, but the likelihood remains that few if any indie games will be appreciated at E3. The expansion of indie games onto the XBox through Xbox Live may also provide a couple of news stories, but often these are seen as background noise in the picture as painted by the gaming media. Instead of spending time and money on covering the indie side of E3, GT focuses on the GDC, which has the additional component of the Independent Games Festival. In the future GT may also cover the Independent Games Conference, the Garage Games angle on the world of indie games.

However, just because there aren't a lot of Indies at the Electronic Entertainment Expo doesn't mean that the E3 doesn't impact indie games in a significant manner. While the big three (Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo) all have very different ideas about what will make the next generation of gaming the best ever, one thing that they all agree on is that the cost of making games will continue to increase as will the size of the teams making those games. Both of these things will positively impact indie games. It is quite likely that many people developing games in the mainstream world will find themselves wanting more say in the development process than they have as member 423 on the team of 600. The reality is that very few people became game programmers so that they could simply create the games that are given to them (and only a portion of the game at that). Most of them want to make their own game and use their own ideas. This desire, I believe, will lead many developers to look to the indie world as a place where they can do 'what they want to.'

One of the ways that those developers may make their way into the indie market is through creating games for the next generation systems. While I don't really believe that indie developers will be able to create games that compete graphically with the best of what the next generation has to offer, the next generation should offer an interesting opportunity to indie developers who want to make games for the current generation of consoles (as was suggested by the Alien Hominid team in our Q&A with them). As it appears that the next generation of consoles will all be backwards compatible (unless Microsoft makes a horrific mistake) the opportunity for independent developers to create games for the current set of consoles and have them then also available to a large audience through the next generation consoles is something that Indie developers have never had before and may provide a new level of growth to the indie industry. The importance of this movement would only increase if it attracts the developers who become disenchanted with being un-involved in the formative parts of game creation with the next generation consoles and want to do their own thing.

Another item to watch at this year's E3, from an indie standpoint, will be the focus on innovation. Many a person has stated that the critics’ fascination with indie games comes from their jaded viewpoint of playing so many games that they are looking for anything different and therefore reward those 'weird' games with inflated scores. With the next generation in gaming each of the major players (Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft) is looking for a way to bring in new users to their fold while also expanding the number of people playing. This effort will be called innovation no matter what is being done. Already in the preview of the 360 Microsoft talked about how the processing power of the new Xbox will allow us to play games that we couldn't previously imagine (though notably the key launch title is yet another FPS - YAFPS). While Microsoft has focused on HD and personal customizations through XBox Live to give gamers more ability to control their online personas and interact in an online community, Sony (Microsoft's major competitor) has thus far been quiet on how they will provide a new gaming experience. I personally think that Microsoft's strategy is a poor one as it takes games from the mainstream that they have been moving towards and aims them more towards the niche audience that they once inhabited. However their focus on HD and customization (the wow and the bling) certainly should fit into the 'hip' marketplace of the moment. Like Sony, Nintendo hasn't fully announced their plans either, though they have focused more in their discussions about trying to lure non-gamers into the mix with simplified controls and new game experiences that wouldn't typically be classified as games. Nintendo has far less to lose in the fight of the next generation and it will be interesting to see what their focus on what I would call innovation will profit them.

Regardless of the outcome of this year's E3 one thing can be certain. The world will watch anxiously anticipating what will be next. As they do, and Indie's take second stage, I hope that some of the excitement in regards to trying things that are new and different will carry over to players and they’ll take a look at what indie games have to offer.

News & Rumors

● RPG games seem to en vogue at the moment and several companies are working on them. Of course there are always plenty of people working on RPG games, finishing them is the hard part. Mountain King is rumored to be working on one, but they came to the conclusion that there wasn't any art/graphic software that meets their needs...so they’re taking a little side trip to make the software themselves. Winterwolves officially announced that their next game will be a RPG/Card game mix based on Celtic Mythology currently called ‘Magic Stones.' Finally, (just because I had to stop somewhere and we could talk about RPG games that are under development for days) ‘TaleWorlds’  has renamed their IGF entry ‘War Rider’ to ‘Mount & Blade’. The name fits the feel of the game a bit more and it really is shaping up nicely, though it does have a good ways to go until it is completed.

● Breakout fans have seen a couple of new releases the last few weeks with Alpha 72 stepping away from those great ‘Chromate’ games to give us ‘The Magic Blackboard’, and Reflected Games is following up the interesting ‘Storm’ with a good-looking and addictive breakout game called ‘Sunnyball’.

● Following on the heels of my last column, ‘Cactus Bruce and the Corporate Monkeys’ was just upgraded to version 2.0, most notably by the addition of in-game comic strips and a new interface, more game modes and modified mouse control.