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[Alex Vostrov]

Another blog post that might be useful to beginner devs (like myself  ).

I’ve had a minor revelation today.  It’s not overly original, but it was meaningful to me.  Perhaps you will find it useful too.

I’m in the middle of deciding if I want to make games full-time.  It’s a pretty scary decision – lots of uncertainty down that path.  Because of my semi-schizophrenic personality, one of the doubts manifests as “What if I make an awesome game and it gets buried in the noise?”

Being an indie developer is often a lonely business.  You can talk to friends in the same boat, but a lot of the time there’s an “us against the world” feeling.  The odds are usually stacked against you.

Today, I was finally able to put the stake through the heart of this mindset.

Your Secret PR Team

If you’re making amazing things, you’re not alone, wherever you are.  You have a secret band of allies who want to help you – the gaming press.

A lot of the time the press gets a bad rap.  The journalists are often rushed and pressured in the their work.  Mainstream devs blame them for playing the games part-way.  Gamers cast a wary eye towards bribery and corruption.  It’s a lot less glamorous than it appears from the outside.

While the concerns are valid, there’s also a ton of good that a single, passionate journalist can do.  If you have some hidden gem that they can bring into light, they’ll be your guerilla PR person.  They’ll show the game to their friends and contacts, explain why it’s notable and generally spread the awesomeness around.  That’s how I think that Dwarf Fortress got out – Tarn Adams has horrible marketing skills.

I suspect that in some quarters journalists are looked down upon.  They’re viewed as people who couldn’t make games, so they settled for writing about them.  It’s a grave mistake to adopt this view.  While the press might not be a part of the day-to-day creative process, they are a part of the gaming ecosystem.

By bringing notable works to the public’s attention, the journalists can encourage certain games and genres.  The press has an equal voice in the development of the medium, on par with designers and players.  Game development is such a fickle business that the influence of one passionate person behind the scenes might save a small developer from going bankrupt.

So, the next time you feel that you’re fighting against the world, remember that there are people who would be glad to fight by your side.  You might even try talking with them sometime.  After all, it’s likely that they didn’t get into the biz for the big bucks.  They might have some interesting ideas about design and the industry.

[Falmil]

Are you going to post every one of your article-type blog posts here? What would be the point of going to your blog then?

[Alex Vostrov]

I'm only posting things that are relevant to this board.  Sometimes I do book reviews or talk about other things that are not game related.

I'd rather have people to discuss my ideas with than have some miniscule blip on my analytics.

[Paul Eres]

i'd say that some game journalists are friends of indie devs, but that most aren't; most have never played or reviewed an indie game, and would never consider doing so. but some do, and we should be thankful for those few.

[Richard Kain]

I think that part of the problem is that indie developers don't reach out to game journalists as much as they ought to. If you've got a legitimate indie game that you are a decent way into, try ringing up every media outlet that you can. Journalists are always looking for new, interesting stories. If your game is decent, they will probably be willing to run something on it.

When it comes to marketing, indie devs need to be proactive about it. Get out there and sell your game, and people will begin to take notice.

[Paul Eres]

i don't think that's true, really; when immortal defense was released i sent emails to every major games journalist / games site as well as the ones that only review indie games, and only the ones that reviewed indie games reviewed it. blaming indies for not asking them to review their games doesn't make sense to me, because usually they do. they'll generally review indie games that are on wiiware/xbla occasionally, since that's part of their job, but not otherwise.

[John Sandoval]

1UP's Scott Sharkey was the fellow who got me into independant videogames in the first place.

[synapse]

Do you have any hard data that backs up this idea?  I know Introversion was boosted a lot because of.. interesting.. PR tactics, but I haven't really heard much else.  I'd be interested.

[floatstarpx]

i don't think that's true, really; when immortal defense was released i sent emails to every major games journalist / games site as well as the ones that only review indie games, and only the ones that reviewed indie games reviewed it. blaming indies for not asking them to review their games doesn't make sense to me, because usually they do. they'll generally review indie games that are on wiiware/xbla occasionally, since that's part of their job, but not otherwise.

we had almost the opposite reaction ... we sent out to a lot of indie sites, and a lot of mainstream gaming sites.

around 20% of the indie sites got back to us or mentioned us on their site - far lower than i expected... probably more like 1/3rd of the mainstream sites mailed us back, or reviewed the game. XNA games get less coverage, especially on indie sites. i know they owe us nothing, but it seems odd that we didn't get an e-mail back from the majority of indie sites... very very glad to the ones that did get back to us tho, and wrote some brilliantly fair and balanced reviews

depending on your style of game too - look through all the news articles on Tigsource, and notice that all of the games featured have a pixel art / retro style (last game not of that style: March 29th, and a 'guest review')... sure, that's a lot of indie gamer's preferred style, and it's kinda what's "hip" in the indie scene - but there's a lot of other stuff out there that isn't getting covered, even on these specialist indie sites. it's a shame!

ok ok - so here's the deal. we *are* the indie game scene, so this is as much my fault as anyone else's.. i play a lot of indie games (especially on XNA) - maybe i should write reviews of more of them? i've played some great games on there, which i've seen practically zero mention of on any of the sites i browse. thoughts?

[Paul Eres]

by xna, do you mean xblig? it's unclear what you mean because many pc-exclusive xna games do exist (like blueberry garden), but you said 'on xna' -- xna isn't a platform, it's a language/engine/library. if you do mean xblig, i think the main explanation for that is that mainstream game journalists typically own an xbox, whereas indie game sites are run by people who do not.

however, are you seriously saying games like poto and cabenga and ceramic shooter are "pixel art"? i don't think you know what pixel art means if so. you may be confusing pixel art for any game that's not 3d.

[floatstarpx]

by xna, do you mean xblig? it's unclear what you mean because many pc-exclusive xna games do exist (like blueberry garden), but you said 'on xna' -- xna isn't a platform, it's a language/engine/library. if you do mean xblig, i think the main explanation for that is that mainstream game journalists typically own an xbox, whereas indie game sites are run by people who do not.

yes, xblig.... sorry, i think you knew what i meant... "XNA creators club" often gets shortened to just xna - so within that community they're (almost) interchangeable.

don't own an xbox? really!? that's pretty shocking, but fair enough i suppose.. you'd think they'd have a friend with one who could help out? or at least one contributor with an x360?

however, are you seriously saying games like poto and cabenga and ceramic shooter are "pixel art"? i don't think you know what pixel art means if so. you may be confusing pixel art for any game that's not 3d.

haha, ok, Paul - yes, it may have been a bit of a generalisation, and probably even an exaggeration in order to make my point.. but many of the games getting the coverage on this particular site have similar vibes, or that kinda kitsch retro angle.. and i'm sure, again - you know perfectly well what i was getting at - and that is that some sites only seem to cover a small, niche segment of the indie game market.
hey - it's not necessarily a bad thing .. each of the indie game news sites seems to focus on its particular flavour ...

[Paul Eres]

why is it shocking? an xbox that can play xblig games (one with a hard drive) costs $300 -- and indies are poor. i do know think timw (of the indiegames.com/blog) doesn't own an xbox or any modern console (he lives in malaysia where they are out of the price range of most people there).

i didn't own an xbox until a few months ago. i was finally able to play a few xblig games that people had randomly sent me free codes for over the last few years. but i've not had a chance to review them, and haven't really liked the ones i've played or would put them at the same level as the games on the frontpage in terms of gameplay depth or interest value, with the possible exception of 'weapon of choice'.

[floatstarpx]

why is it shocking? an xbox that can play xblig games (one with a hard drive) costs $300 -- and indies are poor. i do know think timw (of the indiegames.com/blog) doesn't own an xbox or any modern console (he lives in malaysia where they are out of the price range of most people there).

well, yes, but as i say - you'd think they'd know someone with one... and, you gotta remember - they're putting themselves in a position where they are saying "i will bring you news about indie games"... you'd expect them to be at least partially equipped to do so, or even if they can't play the games - they can still post trailers of the more exciting looking ones. i don't think lack of xboxes is the reason. quite often it's not even reviews we're talking about - trailers, news, etc..
i've been reading this site a long time, and i've been involved in games development of some kind for longer. i don't tend to post on forums often, so i'm probably not an instantly familiar face

i didn't own an xbox until a few months ago. i was finally able to play a few xblig games that people had randomly sent me free codes for over the last few years. but i've not had a chance to review them, and haven't really liked the ones i've played or would put them at the same level as the games on the frontpage in terms of gameplay depth or interest value, with the possible exception of 'weapon of choice'.

quite.. which is why it's a shame that so many quality titles get buried beneath the mediocre ones.. and without a few sources outside of the xbox marketplace showing trailers and writing reviews, it's very difficult for people to find the quality in there underneath all the "avatar xyz" and "game that makes a scary noise when you press X"...

all I'm saying is, from an outside perspective, the kinds of indie games covered on this site (and a few others) are generally fairly skewed towards a certain flavour of game in relation to the overall brilliant output of the independent games movement... i wasn't remotely putting down any of your hard work contributing to this site, Paul, which i have a lot of respect for (which is why i found it so strange you jumped to the defensive!) - just a little criticism from an outside perspective.

if you guys are genuinely strapped for people to write about xbli games - well, you got yourself a guy right here. i don't have a great deal of time on my hands, but i can do my bit.

[Paul Eres]

lack of an xbox was certainly the reason in my case (as a tigsource editor) at least -- and you have to remember that indie game blogs are run by volunteer indie developers, not journalists who are paid for it

so i don't think putting ourselves in a position is the right phrase for it, it's more like the editors are only ones who bother to (very occasionally) review games. expecting people to buy every system or platform so that they can review indie games on all those platforms is asking way too much: that'd mean that the editors should optimally have access to wii's, xbox's, ps3's, iphones, pc's, macs, cell phones, ipads, and linux systems (because indie games appear on all of those). we just aren't that rich. only professional game journalists have access to all that.

i didn't mean to seem defensive, it's just that that criticism of the site makes no sense to me, and is the opposite of my opinion -- i really don't believe that tigsource focuses mainly on retro or pixel art games or has a bias towards those. if anything, the bias is the opposite; i feel as if games with poor graphics aren't covered as much on the frontpage as they should be, and that there's a bias towards pretty-looking games.

but yes, please do review some games for the frontpage using the guest reviewer system, would be great to see more xblig games reviewed here.

[floatstarpx]

lack of an xbox was certainly the reason in my case (as a tigsource editor) at least -- and you have to remember that indie game blogs are run by volunteer indie developers, not journalists who are paid for it

so i don't think putting ourselves in a position is the right phrase for it, it's more like the editors are only ones who bother to (very occasionally) review games. expecting people to buy every system or platform so that they can review indie games on all those platforms is asking way too much: that'd mean that the editors should optimally have access to wii's, xbox's, ps3's, iphones, pc's, macs, cell phones, ipads, and linux systems (because indie games appear on all of those). we just aren't that rich. only professional game journalists have access to all that.

no, don't worry - i understand being broke. independent development is my only income source currently, also.
but between however many of you, you'd figure the majority of that is covered... and where nobody contributing has the ability to play it - you don't have to play it, just post a link, a screenshot, or a trailer if it looks good. i understand you can't do this with everything you get sent - the front page would be full, and it risks the excellent games being lost in between the not-so-excellent games.. but where there's time, and space, i think a little more couldn't hurt.

i didn't mean to seem defensive, it's just that that criticism of the site makes no sense to me, and is the opposite of my opinion -- i really don't believe that tigsource focuses mainly on retro or pixel art games or has a bias towards those. if anything, the bias is the opposite; i feel as if games with poor graphics aren't covered as much on the frontpage as they should be, and that there's a bias towards pretty-looking games.

as i say, outside perspective, and a little bit of exaggeration on my part... it may look different from the inside.
the first indie game i released was in 1999 (according to the file modified date on a mirror site where i've just found it, at least .. but seems right to me.) ... there were a few (long) gaps here and there up until now, and i was surprised at the way the 'scene' had developed when i recently returned.. there wasn't even a scene like there is now back then.

but yes, please do review some games for the frontpage using the guest reviewer system, would be great to see more xblig games reviewed here.

i will
in a lot of ways, i'd rather it was less reviews, and more just info, quality new releases, good trailers... it says "Independent Gaming News. Unfiltered". I'm not sure that's really what we're getting, by your own admission above...? you'd figure, if it was truly 'unfiltered', we'd see more news on here than on the other indie games sites, not less?