Oh man, people are going to hate me for this post. But here goes...
Have you noticed the trend that whenever there is talk about 'indie game development' people's reactions always "OMG it's gonna be a gaming renaissance!" And what happens? You never hear about these supposed great and wonderful 'indie games' that were going to smash the uncreative mold of all gaming. In other words, the 'indie game revolution' never happens.
Why is this? As someone who bought the commercial program from Garage Games and have been in the so-called 'indie game community', I can guarentee you that this move will fizzle just like the other proclaimed 'indie game revolutions'. Most indie game makers have no interest in learning the business. They want to make games for themselves. They want to make THEIR 'dream games'. I have no issue with this except watching these guys go through the highs of their 'ideas' and run smack into the wall of reality is pretty funny. Many of these kids are attempting to make an MMORPG or a Starcraft clone or something else. "ARE YOU INSANE!?" I tell these MMORPG makers. You just aren't going to make the next World of Warcraft with a few people in a few months. Eventually, their 'development' dries up and the team disbands. There is also frequent and blatant copyright abuse which, I suppose, is OK for a non-commercial game but is inexcusable if you're selling your game for money.
The indie-community is far from a bastion of creativity and humble simplicity. Rather, it is a den filled with copycats, with people who want to re-make their 'favorite game', and wannabe designers swelled with the most ridiculous egotism (they all believe their game will be the next 'game of the year').
I don't want to discourage anyone, but I want to point out why there will be no 'revolution' of awesome indie games coming. I have heard this sing-song a million times before. What no one is pointing out is that you could already create user made games for XBLA. Buy a kit from Garage Games and make your game and see if you can sell it to Microsoft. This is what Marble Blast and Mutant Storm basically did (and keep in mind that the developers for both of those are professional game makers, they aren't the usual 'indie' riff-raff) (and the developers for Marble Blast are, of course, some of those who worked on Tribes anyway).
The Torque Engine has many benefits such as being compatible for Windows, Mac, and Linux. But it will not be 'easy' to learn as anyone who has access to the Torque engine will confess. Warren Spector admitted during the development of Deus Ex that if they re-did things, they would not have used the Unreal Tournament engine. Sometimes it is easier to make your own engine than to learn someone else's and modify it to do what you want.
It looks like Garage Games is having some trouble. They have admitted that when Garage Games first appeared, they had many submissions but since then it has tapered off. Most of the stuff they recieve is garbage: just Pac-Man and bad shmup clones. No wonder the games featured on the website have been there for years.
arne said:
Actually, I heard the Torque stuff from GarageGames that is mentioned in the release makes things a lot more newbie friendly than just having to learn C#.
In order to get Torque to do anything interesting, you're going to have to know how to program. Anyone who is expecting some gift from the gods where they can finally make their 'dream game' with 'easy tools' will sorely be disapointed. There will be a learning curve. If you want to get started now or have an idea, go to Garage Games and get a kit now. The kits for the 360, from what I've read and from what Arne is saying, will be very similiar. With Garage Games having so many dry submissions, it makes me think the same will occur with the 360.
We've never seen these 'indie game revolutions zOMG' ever pan out so I believe cynicism to be healthy here.
Here is what I see:
Garage Games, with stagnant submissions and growth, is trying to expand onto the 360.
Garage Games and Microsoft will also open up an avenue of microtransmissions as that $99 is just the beginning. You will have to pay $20 or more a pop for more tutorials, sample content, and so on. I know this because this is how Garage Games already does it at garagegames.com.
Though people will hate me for saying this, when people saw Live as 'innovative' the only thing I saw really innovative was how it charged people for using their own servers. I am in a similiar cynical fashion with this:
Now people are celebrating to pay Microsoft to make games for them!
Who is leveraging who?
There is nothing new here. All of this has been available on the PC for several years. Even with the huge PC install base, there was no 'indie revolution'. Why should one expect that to change for the 360 which has a much smaller install base and user base than the PC?
As someone who has worked with these tools, I can clearly say you guys are getting worked up for nothing. Please stop being tools to silly hype. And for heaven's sake, work to build your own business system instead of someone else's (which this is clearly going after...).