next »

[Stokbrood]

Hello everyone !

I've done some researches lately, wandered around the Internet to get this question answered and no one seems to have the same opinion on that particular question : When do you cease to be a cute indie and start walking on the AAA street ?

I'm particularly wondering because even within our own studio I've heard different points of view, the problem is that when it's time to start marketing, I'll have to know how to sell it, right ?
- We're a team of about 20 juniors, 2 of us have actually released a game
- We have a publisher, and got some help from them, they will also help and guide us marketing-wise and communication-wise because of our inexperience here, so we could handle it for our next game.
- We do have every creative rights on our game and still possess all the rights of our title.
- The creation of the game began with 3 dudes working on a kitchen table and had a successful Kickstarter campaign, it all began in 2015 and here we are.

So in one side, some of us consider ourselves as indie : starting from the said kitchen table, constantly trying stuff within the game, and are almost all juniors. On the other side, some tell that we have a publisher and therefore the "indie" side is gone so it would just be a question of money even though several other projects considered as indies received funds as well [thinking about the Cuphead case but I'm not sure about it], plus the ambition was to make an "AAA feeling" with a tiny budget.

What's your opinion about it, not only for our case but in general  ? 

Sorry for the broken English, it's not my mother tongue obviously !
Thanks for reading this and have a nice day !

[Oskuro]

In my opinion, those are two separate things.

The definition of "indie" is nebulous at best, and it's still not clear what it really means nowadays. Originally it used to mean "independent", as in independent of a publisher or investors that might exert creative control.

Nowadays it ain't that clear. To me, "indie" is more about creative vision than the business of videogames, regardless of who is footing the bill, but your opinion might differ.


"AAA" on the other hand, is just a marketing buzzword used by publishers to make their investments seem as something worthwhile. Don't fall for it. It is not meant to convey quality to the public, it's meant to convey profitability to investors.

The so called "AAA" quality has been achieved or even surpassed by smaller studios who just played it smart with their resources, again proving that it is just a meaningless buzzword.

As to "When does my studio start walking the 'AAA' street?" Well, that's pretty easy. When the most important part in your development process are concepts like market share, positioning, profitability and the like; And when the actual creative process becomes not secondary, but tertiary or worse, congratulations, you're in the "AAA" world! Now get ready to be crushed by industry giants with massive marketing budgets... Or, if you have something unique, to be absorbed by them and eventually dismantled.

And this last part is not alarmist speculation, there's plenty of evidence of that being the standard process with smaller studios entering the "AAA" arena, it's happened once and again. Just make sure to understand this and know where you want to go. If you and your team are OK with giving up creative control for potential financial gains, then go ahead. If your identity as a team is important, then look very carefully into whatever deal your publisher or any other publisher throws at you.


Incidentally, this is the exact same state of business for any industry, not just videogames.

[woodsmoke]

I think there is alot between indie and AAA. AAA is when tens of millions of dollars are being invested to make a game. There is also A and AA, with under 10mio investment. At least thats how I see it. Indies are independent from outside investors who are not part of the group of people creating the game.

[Cobralad]

AAA: intuitive, honest, energetic, trustful
indie: in tune with spiritual world, honest, pisces

[zizulot]

Priorities:

AAA - Get profit
Indie - Get loyal fanbase

[ProgramGamer]

How to transition from Indie to AAA: Get a publisher.

[Stokbrood]

Thank you guys for your responses !

Our budget seems to say A or AA but our way to work and overall team spirit and our wish to make people happy before making anything says indie ahah, I'll still have to struggle a bit 

Seems like we're not getting a "perfect" definition, and it's kinda enjoyable to be honest, to see everyone's opinion about that, I'll still read the responses with a lot of interest eheh !

[InfiniteStateMachine]

AAA: intuitive, honest, energetic, trustful
indie: in tune with spiritual world, honest, pisces

I get it now. thank you

[Cobralad]

no, its aaa

[Superb Joe]

if you have to ask then you're not it

[pulse]

If your game is at least 60 GB in size, it's AAA 

[Schoq]

 the time for AAAA games is here

[Cobralad]

thats witcher 3

[ViktorTheBoar]

If your game is at least 60 GB in size, it's AAA 

Oh crap. I hope our home produced FMV game doesn't become AAA D:

[SchriefFighter]

There are many factors that play into it. There's quality of games, acknowledgment from critics and fans, getting a publisher that is know for producing AAA titles, it's a lot of factors.

[The Armorman]

when you have a team of too many people to decide on anything reasonable and have to defer to market research and what every other game on the market is doing

best advice I ever got: never talk to anyone who makes comics for the big two, and never talk to anyone who works for a videogame studio!