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Independent Developers. That small group of individuals with an idea to carve their own path and create games they would enjoy. Unique people with bold ideas and the drive to see them through. In the last few years, their numbers have grown from a few to dozens. It seems like every few days another one crops up with a new adventure game announcement. Many of them never seem to get beyond the announcement stage and simply fade away.










Over the last couple of years I've gotten to know several of them, and have played nearly all of their games - I even got to beta test some of them on occasion! Being able to talk one-on-one with someone whose creation kept you transfixed to your computer screen for hours, even days, is pretty rewarding. I can only compare it to being able to talk to your favorite musician whose music you escape into. I think that is one of the things that set these people apart - they are for the most part, approachable.










I realized that I had many of the same questions for each of them and thought, wouldn't it be interesting to get them all to answer those same questions at the same time? I sent out my emails pitching the idea and was overwhelmed by the response. I figured if I had 25% participation, I would be lucky. They are VERY busy individuals afterall. Net result was around 90% and a really HUGE interview!

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On G4 TV, a group of well-known developers in a roundtable forum were asked by the host their opinions of the potential for the Xbox 360. One of them responded that it would allow him to blow things up in bigger and better ways. And we still wonder why the mainstream community looks upon gamers as idiots.

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Is it still possible for a lone coder to write a game all on his own? DAN MARSHALL finds out…

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Among videogame clichés, the supposed death of the adventure genre takes top honors. It's the one topic that just won't go away. And one has to wonder why that is. Maybe it's because the people asking the questions, namely industry journalists, grew up playing adventure games. Or maybe it's because certain famed developers, true rockstars back in the 80s and 90s, have virtually disappeared and people wonder where they went. Sure, they're not all gone. But it's not like they're still doing their thing, either.








So, why is it? And more importantly, will people ever stop asking? The answer, not so surprisingly, is no. The adventure genre hasn't died, nor will it ever die so long as gamers care about stories. Yes, the genre finds itself in a bit of a slump. In fact, it's been sitting in that slump for years now. But that hardly translates to the passing of an entire genre - one that birthed a slew of titles as seminal for the games industry as silent shorts were for Hollywood.

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Games are a new, different type of narrative, one that inspires emotion and immersion in ways that no other medium can, and strong interactive stories can not emulate the tactics of film. This was the central theme of "Perfecting the Mix of Story, Character Development, and Interactivity," a panel session held this afternoon, on the second day of the E3 2006.

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Cage wants to see games with deeper, more mature stories, with one aspect that games in general are missing: meaning ."In this industry there's a real lack of meaning in general," he said ."Most of the time it's a hero fighting against zombies and killing everyone to save his life or whatever. There are so many other great characters and emotions we can use to create an experience. We shouldn't limit ourselves to basic things."

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he was developing a first-person shooter. And through the simple addition of adding a wedding ring to the character's hand, he said that the game's focus test players responded overwhelmingly, asking questions about the character's past and showing an active interest.

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Contents of a Marketing Plan







These sections of a marketing plan are listed below.








* Goals
* Distribution
* Product
* Promotion
* Website
* Demo
* Measurement
* Maintenance
* Refinement

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We recently had the pleasure to devour a book that should be must reading for every single independent developer in the adventure game community. Joseph Lieberman, the author, has collected his years of experience in the gaming industry to provide an outline describing how develop, market and publish your game from start to finish.









Rather than review the book - the title of which speaks for itself - we thought you might instead enjoy this interview with the author.

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So you want to make a living as an adventure game developer? How do you do it? And since the adventure game market is so small, how will you ever make enough money? And what if nobody likes your game enough to buy it? So many questions! Well, it's time to find some answers.







In this essay I will look at the adventure games market in general, then look at some amateur games that tried to go commercial, and then see what we can learn.

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#1 - Competitions
#2 - Selling Stuff via CafePress
#3 - Selling eBooks
#4 - Selling Books (CafePress or Lulu.com)
#5 - Donations
#6 - Text Link Ads (I expect to get $100 this month, and within coming months I’m confident to see this figure go to $200 or more)
#7 - Google AdSense. (For this income stream, I also expect to get around $100 this month and estimating the figure to double in the coming months)

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One of the main concerns for indie game producers is how to price the game. Simplest method would be to use the ‘magical’ $19.95 price for your game, but there are more approaches available. Selecting the right price for your product is one of the key decisions in selling. Common objectives for pricing can be profit maximization, or simply - survival.

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