Postmortems from Game Developer

AFTERWORD

Independent Game Development

By now it's a commonplace observation that the game industry has become more conservative, that games have become less interesting, more stereotyped, less original, less willing to take risks. This development coincides with a trend towards consolidation: large publishing conglomerates have bought out many of the small independent developers. These conglomerates make money by cranking out sequels and copycat products rather than truly interesting and innovative creations. As a result, each year E3 is crammed with the same old games with new names and the latest graphical bells and whistles.

One response has been to look for freshness and inspiration outside the corporate environment, from independent game ...