The Indie Games Movement: Developers Make a Comeback

Independent games are becoming more popular than ever. According to Andy Schatz of Pocketwatch, “Indie visionaries have single-handedly created the casual game genre, brought back long-dormant genres such as the strategy, adventure, and puzzle games, and have created entirely new concepts within gaming.” Now with companies like GarageGames, it has become even easier for independent developers to release their games to the public. GarageGames president, Mark Frohnmayer, says that independent games now represent about $1 billion in annual sales. GarageGames is a company that creates game engines that independent developers can purchase for a nominal fee to create their games. They create engines like Torque Game Builder, Torque 3D and Torque X which is said to be a development tool for the Xbox Live Arcade. Developers can buy the Torque Engine for $100 per programmer, and can create a game with almost no other overhead. Although many Independent games are not very good, they push the boundaries of game design and can also be quite well designed too.

With Indie games being easier and cheaper to make, they are making a big splash into the mainstream audience. Quite a few Indie games have gotten a lot of press and been put onto consoles like the Xbox 360 Live Arcade and the PS3. Some games of note are fl0w and fl0wer as well as Everyday Shooter. GameDailyBiz states that these games have become such a big deal in the development world that at IndieGamesCon Greg Canessa, Group Manager of Xbox Casual Games, stated that he would like to see Microsoft's next-gen console become a kind of home for indie development.

Another exciting thing going on because of the Indie games movement is that while many major developers are creating franchises and we are seeing reiterations and re-releases of older games, indie developers are giving us new and innovative games that really push the boundaries and bring back old game genres, such as top down shooters, while implementing them in new ways. Indie developers are willing to take more risks than major developers, and it shows in the variety in their game design. Derek Yu from Bit-Blot thinks that, “For the mainstream industry, everything goes in one direction: bigger, shinier, 3D-ier. Indie games go in every direction, and it's exciting as hell.”

What is also very exciting is that when an indie game makes it big with a new mechanic or innovation, it influences the mainstream developers, and we start to see new mechanics in mainstream games. Independent games introduce new mechanics for mainstream developers. “The industry benefits through the introduction and testing of novel ideas & techniques that can be used to enhance larger games. Larger studios are often responsible for technical innovation, but it's independent studios that push the boundaries of creative innovation,” says Thomas Arundel from Darwinia.

Indie games are also usually smaller, casual games that make it much easier to distribute them. This opens the market up to anyone who has a computer and the Internet. Independent games are not hardware dependent and thus allow anyone to play the independent games easily. With the ability now to play games on the web or get digital downloads, on computers or consoles, the independent game market is of an almost infinite size for developers. Independent games are a new movement in video game culture that will not be going away anytime soon. They will, and already have been, influencing mainstream developers and creating big names for themselves and receiving a lot of press. All in all it is an exciting time for game developers, especially indie developers.

Nintendo Surgeons: Video Games Help Surgeons to Be More Precise

It seems that playing video games can help surgeons to be more precise and make less mistakes in certain kinds of surgery. "I use the same hand-eye coordination to play video games as I use for surgery," Dr. James "Butch" Rosser from Beth Israel Medical Center told USA Today. Studies show that playing video games actually does have an effect on a surgeon’s performance in the operating room. Reuters Life! states that those surgeons who played video games, specifically a Nintendo Gamecube game called Super Monkey Ball, three hours a week made 37 percent fewer errors and accomplished tasks 27 percent faster, while also scoring 42 percent higher on the skills tests. These statistics were made using 33 surgeons doing surgical skills tests in laparoscopic surgery.

Wired records Rosser as saying "Traditional academic surgeons look at what I do and thumb their noses," at the first Video Game/Entertainment Industry Technology and Medicine Conference. Even though previous research has stated that, "fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, visual attention, depth perception and computer competency,” are affected. Few academics are willing to share in Rosser’s view of video games as training tools. This study, however, may start to turn some heads and change some minds. Even now in response to this study, some games that are specifically targeted at surgeons are being developed specifically as training tools. Even in the commercial field, some games like Trauma Center are making a showing in surgery related games.

However, studies were also quick to show that this is not an excuse to let a child play video games for nine hours at day. The study mentioned that surgeons played for 3 hours a week, and that letting a child play video games in no way made them more prone to get into medical school. Playing video games helps surgeons to improve their already existing skills, not create surgery skills on the spot.

On another note, in the military, they are even making a virtual simulation called STATCare that helps to train combat medics in a multitude of tasks they would need in the field. While the program is not technically a video game and does not really respond as one, the developers are trying to make it significantly more game like. There is another program that is being developed for medical use called The Journey to Wild Divine that relies on biofeedback. While more of a meditation and spiritual simulation, the biofeedback could be used in all sorts of medical tasks and simulations.

It seems that laparoscopic surgery especially would be affected by video game skills since surgeons do not handle the actual tools, but manipulate them with a computer in a micro incision. As this type of surgery becomes more and more popular, video game training will probably become more and more popular. It may also lead to using video game training for other types of surgeons as test results keep coming in pointing to a correlation between video game playing and increases hand-eye coordination.

All this publicity in the medical world about video games has really changed how some people view them. Some hospitals like Beth Israel Medical Center are encouraging their surgeons to play video games for a few hours a week to hone their eye-hand coordination skills, and help them to warm up before a surgery. As Rosser says, “You have to be a Nintendo Surgeon.” Video games have been shown to be relevant in many other aspects of life rather than just entertainment. They are a very versatile art form that can be utilized for improving many areas of society. I hope that through all these sorts of studies, the stigma of video games being only for a certain demographic can be thrown off and that game companies will start to make games that appeal to a wider audience and for wider purposes.

Fun in Game Design: Why We Play Games

There are different theories about fun in game design. Some people have formulas, some people have done studies, and some people have even written books. Gameproducer.net writes about seven things that can make a game fun. Each element that they state is fairly vague and can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Some pertain to formal aspects of the game, and others are relevant in the dramatic aspects of the game. In each portion they give fairly specific examples of what they mean. However, they are quick to point out that these seven elements can only help make a fun game, but they do not necessitate it. In general, making a game fun is much more difficult than just adding certain elements. A designer should look to evoke emotion from the player not only through the storyline of the game, but also through the game design and within the gameplay itself.

Lead Designer of Ultima Online, Creative Director of Star Wars Galaxy, and founder of Area, Raph Koster, has written a book called A Theory of Fun for Game Design. He digs deeply into the theories of fun in game design and hits all sorts of ideas, such as difficulty, people and learning etcetera. He infers that unpredictability is essential to fun gameplay design. Koster says, “Since games are teaching tools, players seeking to advance in a game will always try to optimize what they are doing. If they are clever and see an optimal path - an Alexandrine solution to a Gordian problem - they’ll do that instead of the ‘intended gameplay.’ They will try to make the gameplay as predictable as possible. This then means it becomes boring, and not fun.” Later, he talks about observations he has made in his game design, as well as in his research and in observing his children at play. He does not have a specific list that one should hit to make a game fun, but he does lay out his philosophy behind games and what make them fun for different people and why.

Nicole Lazzaro of XEODesign, Inc. conducted a study on why people play games and the four keys to more emotion without story. She infers that fun is an emotion, and that we have fun when emotion is evoked from a game. Lazzaro states four keys which she names: fiero, curiosity, amuse and relax, or hard fun, easy fun, people fun and serious fun respectively. She studied all sorts of people from hardcore gamers to non-gamers and took note of their reactions when they played games. The study found that evoking certain types of emotion lead to certain types of fun. For example, when a player overcomes a difficult or frustrating challenge, they have a sense of triumph or fiero. The player feels good about himself and also has a story to relate. This sense of accomplishment is fun for the player. Lazzaro looks into the reasons why people have fun playing games and shows goals that a designer should strive towards when creating games. They should look toward evoking one or many of these certain emotions from their players.

However, despite all of this, no one challenge or aspect of a game can be fun for everyone. Designers also have to look into what types of players are out there and what will be fun for each type. Richard Bartle writes about the four different types of players in a paper titled "Players Who Suit MUDs". He states the four types of players are: Achievers, players who like to get everything in the game and the highest level possible; Explorers, players who like to find everything in a game, all the routes and secrets; Socialisers, players who like to meet other people and interact with them in game; and Killers, people who like to kill other players and grief them in game. A good game designer creates a game that can cater to each type of player’s interest while not allowing for one player’s interest to overshadow another’s. For example, a game designer needs to find a way for there to be Killers in a game with Socialisers and let them both are able to have fun at the same time. All in all there needs to be a balance of interest for each type of player to keep them all interested in the game and not become frustrated. This is a very difficult task, and one that game designers are constantly coming up against. Different designers find different ways of solving this problem, and each is significant to its own designer. Also, “Fun” is a very abstract and subjective topic, but there are ways to evoke it from players and keep them coming back to a game that they love.

PlaySmart: Games in Education

There has been some publicity lately about the way some games are, as Christopher Null from Yahoo! Tech writes, “Good for the body, Good for the brain.” With the advent of the Nintendo Wii, physical therapists have been turning to the Wii to help their patients out. Also, A Nintendo DS game called Brain Age was designed to help people keep their brains sharp. Brain Age has also been used by doctor’s to help their elderly patients exercise their minds.

Because of all of this, a non-profit organization called Star Inc., has created a program called PlaySmart that “uses video games to teach children skills like problem solving, objective thinking, literacy, and jumping on turtles” as Kotaku’s Mike Fahey writes. PlaySmart will be coming to schools all over the Los Angeles county starting on October 1, 2007. (An image of students enrolled in this program can be seen to the left.)

Star Inc., has developed this program to use video games to teach students all sorts of skills ranging from literacy to time management. They use games such as Mario Kart (pictured below), Dance Dance Revolution and Pokemon Trading Card Game to teach students these skills. They have even created classes that parents can take with their kids as well as to learn about the medium, and how their kids can learn and stay active while playing video games. This program seems like it could be a good way to bring video games to an older generation as well as clear up some misconceptions that people have about games. On the other hand, as I have not seen the curriculum or the program in action, it could also be a colossal waste of time and even start turning even more people off to games if it does not stay organized and relevant. As it is just starting out, this first year of the program should be monitored very closely to see how successful it is.

On a broader note, it is very exciting to see this new wave of games and philosophy of games. From the Wii to Brain Age, this idea of helping people to stay active through “games” is very interesting and has been widening the user base quite a lot. People who never played games or ever had an interest in them at all have started to play and become very active. Even my parents have a fun time playing the Wii because it is so intuitive and easy to learn. I hope that if this trend keeps up and game designers take into account the success they have had with these ideas, more and more games will be produced that appeal to a wider audience in this way. Also, this program may also lead more people who are not in the gaming community to look at games in a different way, that they will see other merit in them than just entertainment. This program and philosophy could be the beginning of the gaming community growing outside of its current demographic and reaching a much different kind of demographic. If this keeps going on, I think it will lead to a de-villainization of games and an acceptance by a wider audience not only in age, but hopefully in gender as well. Eventually, I think it will lead to a wider acceptance of game outside of the gaming community as well. Even though some people may never be interested in playing games for themselves, they would be accepting of games and see their merit as an artistic and educational medium that can contribute positively to society.