It is mostly about applying viral marketing, indie film and music marketing techniques and the 'attitude' of 'indie' to indie games.
Some people seemed to enjoy it. But the people not reading it right off the bat are the people I want to. I do have substantial expirence in the fields I described above. So I can list that information too.
I like JustLuke's idea to take out the whole 'kinds of buyers' section and replace it with something shorter. Unless someone else objects? In which case I can go with my first plan and change their names.
I don't know if John Pickford is gonna come back to see my response to his question or not. If so. No, but like I said above, it is more about how to sell the game, make a game that is indie, and be indie. Which is exactly what you've done with Naked War. When I got to the end of the article I looked over the Naked War site to gather information about it. I noticed an article that I went back and read. Do you mind if I use it has a reference? It also talks about a lot of the same things I do, and you are a hell of a lot more credible than me, likey from all standpoints, certainly from games.
Lastly.
You have to understand the difference between who is buying what exists, and who is willing to buy what could exist.
I'm told a lot that the casual games market sells mostly to lower-middle age women. Did you ever stop to think why? It should be anything but. They aren't the people who are online the most. They aren't the people who go out to a store and buy a brand new game off the shelf.
Personally. I think it can only be explained by the rest of the game buyers rushing out to buy AAA games. Pay more for more quality. And why is that? Cause indie games doesn't mean the same as indie music. Indie music means there isn't some big producer hanging over them telling them what to put in their music, how to sound, even writting music for them. It doesn't all sound the same, cause they have the freedom to be different. Indie music is about talking to their fans, it is about getting feedback and playing small shows. That is what indie should be about. And that is what we THINK indie games are about. But they aren't.
They are about clones, bad graphics, cut corners and shallow simplistic game play. Something only a complete novice to games would buy cause it is cheap and looks cute. Who are complete novices to games? Oh.. Middle aged women.
It is a symptom of the disease, not the target market. Indie music doesn't just cater to one kind of person. It caters to every kind of person. The only people that don't listen to any indie music are those who only listen to music casually.
Think about how ass-backwards indie games are. Where causal music listeners are the ones who listen to label music on the radio only. Like when they drive. Or in a club. Or maybe they buy an album once a year. And everyone else is perfectly willing to listen to an indie band to see if they are cool or not.
Meanwhile. No one will even look at indie games, unless they are casual gamers and just want something that isn't fun to play for more than an hour.
Same with Indie films. Indie films are doing better and better at the Oscars, in theaters and on DVD. Sometimes they come out in the wrong order. You'll see the DVD, it'll sell really really well and they will release it in the theaters. There was a day when 'direct to video' was exclusively bad.
Indie games is supposed to be like this: Deal with topics you can't normally touch. Be a little or a lot grass roots. Have flexible payment methods, or new ways to make money. Experiment with gameplay. Be new, fresh and different.
We want so hard to be both indie and AAA. I think it betrays both.
The problem is that any musician can get some tracks cut, not any designer can finish a game.
In that regard it is more like indie film. But indie games aren't even like that.
Indie films get help from all over, they can raise small sums of money from hundreds of people. They might have many novice hands on set to do minor things.
Indie game designers don't do this. They tackle it all on thier own. Hmm.. There is something else I should add in, perhaps. A section about teamwork.
Some people seemed to enjoy it. But the people not reading it right off the bat are the people I want to. I do have substantial expirence in the fields I described above. So I can list that information too.
I like JustLuke's idea to take out the whole 'kinds of buyers' section and replace it with something shorter. Unless someone else objects? In which case I can go with my first plan and change their names.
I don't know if John Pickford is gonna come back to see my response to his question or not. If so. No, but like I said above, it is more about how to sell the game, make a game that is indie, and be indie. Which is exactly what you've done with Naked War. When I got to the end of the article I looked over the Naked War site to gather information about it. I noticed an article that I went back and read. Do you mind if I use it has a reference? It also talks about a lot of the same things I do, and you are a hell of a lot more credible than me, likey from all standpoints, certainly from games.
Lastly.
You have to understand the difference between who is buying what exists, and who is willing to buy what could exist.
I'm told a lot that the casual games market sells mostly to lower-middle age women. Did you ever stop to think why? It should be anything but. They aren't the people who are online the most. They aren't the people who go out to a store and buy a brand new game off the shelf.
Personally. I think it can only be explained by the rest of the game buyers rushing out to buy AAA games. Pay more for more quality. And why is that? Cause indie games doesn't mean the same as indie music. Indie music means there isn't some big producer hanging over them telling them what to put in their music, how to sound, even writting music for them. It doesn't all sound the same, cause they have the freedom to be different. Indie music is about talking to their fans, it is about getting feedback and playing small shows. That is what indie should be about. And that is what we THINK indie games are about. But they aren't.
They are about clones, bad graphics, cut corners and shallow simplistic game play. Something only a complete novice to games would buy cause it is cheap and looks cute. Who are complete novices to games? Oh.. Middle aged women.
It is a symptom of the disease, not the target market. Indie music doesn't just cater to one kind of person. It caters to every kind of person. The only people that don't listen to any indie music are those who only listen to music casually.
Think about how ass-backwards indie games are. Where causal music listeners are the ones who listen to label music on the radio only. Like when they drive. Or in a club. Or maybe they buy an album once a year. And everyone else is perfectly willing to listen to an indie band to see if they are cool or not.
Meanwhile. No one will even look at indie games, unless they are casual gamers and just want something that isn't fun to play for more than an hour.
Same with Indie films. Indie films are doing better and better at the Oscars, in theaters and on DVD. Sometimes they come out in the wrong order. You'll see the DVD, it'll sell really really well and they will release it in the theaters. There was a day when 'direct to video' was exclusively bad.
Indie games is supposed to be like this: Deal with topics you can't normally touch. Be a little or a lot grass roots. Have flexible payment methods, or new ways to make money. Experiment with gameplay. Be new, fresh and different.
We want so hard to be both indie and AAA. I think it betrays both.
The problem is that any musician can get some tracks cut, not any designer can finish a game.
In that regard it is more like indie film. But indie games aren't even like that.
Indie films get help from all over, they can raise small sums of money from hundreds of people. They might have many novice hands on set to do minor things.
Indie game designers don't do this. They tackle it all on thier own. Hmm.. There is something else I should add in, perhaps. A section about teamwork.