Comments on: Editorial: Develop in My Back Yard http://lusipurr.com/2014/07/09/editorial-develop-in-my-back-yard/ Tue, 22 Mar 2016 03:04:25 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.2 By: SKS http://lusipurr.com/2014/07/09/editorial-develop-in-my-back-yard/#comment-73054 Sun, 13 Jul 2014 23:26:01 +0000 http://lusipurr.com/?p=11603#comment-73054 Far to the North of Silicon Beach, the one man army that is Psychotic Psoftware. Impressed with his inaugural indie shump Power-Up (initially developed with XNA for XBLIG).

Recently ‘Greenlighted’ after a very successful Kickstarter campaign last year, this gentleman has upcoming works – @psypsoft

Both NG Dev Team & Hucast Games are a German-based developer/publishers, with a talent for coding titles aimed at long dead platforms (Neo Geo, Dreamcast) – @ngdevteam & @hucastgames respectively.

I saw a wonderful looking point & click this past week, Goetia. The folks responsible being another European team (Suchee). Courtesy of Square Enix’s Collective website, I think the Collective is quite a new enterprise (akin to Greenlight) – @PlayGoetia.

]]> By: Ethan 'Ethos' Pipher http://lusipurr.com/2014/07/09/editorial-develop-in-my-back-yard/#comment-73025 Thu, 10 Jul 2014 13:25:47 +0000 http://lusipurr.com/?p=11603#comment-73025 I can’t think of anything to add to Lusi’s fine list. Toronto used to be a desert for game development, but it’s been picking up as well. I feel like Ubisoft Toronto has had a hand in that just by existing although I’m obviously more excited by Drinkbox Studio’s presence.

]]> By: Lusipurr http://lusipurr.com/2014/07/09/editorial-develop-in-my-back-yard/#comment-73022 Thu, 10 Jul 2014 02:27:19 +0000 http://lusipurr.com/?p=11603#comment-73022 @Mel: Machiniarium is a thoroughly fun (and quite funny at times) point-and-click adventure game. If you’re a fan of the genre, you should definitely buy it. Same thing for Botanicula.

]]> By: Andrew 'Mel' Melcon http://lusipurr.com/2014/07/09/editorial-develop-in-my-back-yard/#comment-73019 Wed, 09 Jul 2014 19:31:10 +0000 http://lusipurr.com/?p=11603#comment-73019 Now that you mentioned it, Lusi, anyone have any opinions on Machinarium? I was eyeballing it on Steam recently. The last point n click I REALLY played was The Neverhood about a billion years ago.

Anway, I had always been dimly aware of some studios that came out of the UK, but I hadn’t really noticed quite how much. I knew Rare (back when it mattered) and Rockstar were based out of there but I had forgotten Criterion was as well. I was, and remain, a huge fan of early Burnout. So good.

]]> By: Lusipurr http://lusipurr.com/2014/07/09/editorial-develop-in-my-back-yard/#comment-73018 Wed, 09 Jul 2014 18:33:09 +0000 http://lusipurr.com/?p=11603#comment-73018 are there any indie developers you would like to hear more about here?

You know I love the indies. Here are some of the companies/people I rate highly:

Amanita Design (Botanicula, Machinarium)
Drinkbox Studios (Guacamelee!)
FrozenByte (Trine, Trine 2)
Giant Sparrow (The Unfinished Swan)
Housemarque (Super Stardust, OutLand, Resogun)
Mike Bithell (Thomas Was Alone)
Number None (Braid, The Witness)
PlayDead (Limbo, Inside)
PocketWatch Games (Monaco, Armada)
Polytron Corporation (Fez)
Q-Games (Pixeljunk series)
Queasy Games (Everyday Shooter)
Thatgamecompany (flOw, Flower, Journey)
Yacht Club Games (Shovel Knight)

They come in all shapes and sizes, as you see. In addition, there are smaller developers and publishing houses: NIS, Atlus, and Gaijinworks/MonkeyPaw spring to mind.

In this industry, staying small seems to be the best way to remain true to a vision. We have all watched small, good companies become bloated, greedy porridge factories. It happens again and again: Activision, Squaresoft, Blizzard, Popcap…

Luckily, the list above shows us that the indies are there to be the forefront of innovative, creative, and fun game design. Who needs the monoliths, anyway? They are dinosaurs.

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