I started Minicore Studios in 2011 because I had a hard time dealing with the idea that rising the ranks in a larger company likely meant little creative control for years and years. I'm a big believer in the craft of game development -- unique narratives, settings, and characters define my favorite games of the past and the games we're making at Minicore.
Platform agnostic and hungry for a foothold in the industry as a leader in artfully crafted games, we were able to raise private funds to operate while we develop what we hope will be the next 2D masterpiece, Laika Believes. We're also involved with mobile games -- Tumblewords for iOS is out now and is awesome. I highly recommend it.
I have a unique business perspective as well as the perspective of someone who doesn't always agree with the leaders of our industry. Most recently, the push for more democratization in games from Valve and other leaders in games have caused me to ponder the future of independent gaming and perhaps the need for a curation-based platform to counterbalance the shift toward public design.
This past Sunday's Nation of Indies event pumped life into a recently struggling Austin game development scene. Here are some highlights from the event from the standpoint of an indie developer in the audience.
Closed platforms are becoming a thing of the past. While mainly good news for independent developers, the bad news is with openness comes overcrowding and discovery issues for games without traditional marketing hooks. OUYA is not fixing that problem yet.
@ Dane MacMahon r n r nOh absolutely not. I guess I listed both because I 'd have a hard time characterizing Kamitani 's response. That 's a potentially dangerous proximity I created and didn 't mean to. Thanks.
I think a fraction of the media is biased toward art games. I 'd argue that the largest and most influential gaming sites on the planet IGN, Kotaku, Destructoid, etc. have an obligation to their advertisers to feature mainstream hits and most of what I see from those sites on ...
