From Underground to World-Renowned:
Following Up on the First Annual Independent Games Festival Finalists

Contents

From Underground to World-Renowned Fiercely Independent to the End Crime Pays

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, independent game development was limited to high-tech college campuses like MIT and Berkeley, or to the basement of a hack who would give his "new-and-improved" version of Ultima to a friend -- in a Ziploc bag.

In the '90s the Internet brought underground titles to the surface, giving isolated programmers and designers the whole world as their audience. The internet allowed "lone wolf" developers to form packs, and, in some cases, work together to make their dream game a reality.

The ultimate validation of the independent scene, however, occurred in 1999. That year's Game Developers Conference, with sponsorship from the Gathering of Developers, presented the 1st Annual Independent Games Festival. Suddenly, it was publicly acknowledged that game development wasn't a hobby -- it was an art.

The IGF is still an unrivaled annual event, going into its third year this March. At the time, however, the IGF was groundbreaking; it gave respect to the game development underground while simultaneously maintaining credibility within the underground -- no easy feat. Nearly 100 aspiring game development teams and individuals entered their projects, competing to be one of the 15 finalists for six awards: Best Programming, Best Visual Art, Best Audio, Best Game Design, Audience Award and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize Award.

After the fanfare and awards each of the individual finalists had to come back down to earth and ask themselves: "Okay, we have earned this accolade. Now where do we go from here?"

One-and-a-half years later, I caught up with the first-ever IGF finalists to find out what they have been doing. Like any form of expression that is wild and pure, anything can happen in independent game development. Some developers have continued independent game development, others have gone professional, and still others decided that the IGF event was enough for them. Here are their stories.

Joining the Big Leagues

Perhaps the most inspiring post-IGF story is that of Vicarious Visions, whose IGF entry Terminus was published by Vatical Entertainment earlier this year. President and COO Guha Bala said that winning the Best Programming and Best Audio Award at the show contributed to his company's recent success. "The IGF prize convinced our publishing partners, Vatical Entertainment, that the game would be a good bet. It also gave print and online media good reason to cover news on the game."

One of the many characters in Vicarious Visions' Terminus

"The biggest contribution of the IGF award to our careers was the vote of confidence the judging panels and development community gave to our previously unsupported hard work. The sense of pride that resulted helped to gel our team and our identity as group that could grow beyond our financial and geographic constraints." Bala also said, "The recognition the IGF allows for small, independent developers is an important factor in promoting competition and new ideas in an industry dominated by rigid brands and licenses."

Like many of the other finalists, Vicarious Visions had paid its dues before entering the festival. Around the time of the IGF, in fact, it was already looking into working on Nintendo Game Boy titles, among other things. Bala said the IGF was one of the major catalysts to put Vicarious Visions in the spotlight. "Prior to the IGF, Vicarious Visions had limited exposure in the industry, and nonexistent title track record in North America. The IGF Award lent credibility to our ambitions of creating great, industry leading games."

The once-small company now has more than 50 employees and has developed games for the Playstation and Game Boy Color, working with publishers ranging from Konami to THQ. As for future titles from Vicarious Visions, Bala said his team is "working on launch titles for Game Boy Advance, X-Box, Gamecube, and a second generation title for PS2. We follow a multiplatform approach to technology investment and focus on action and racing game genres."

Screenshot showing Terminus' NAVMAP interface.

Even with many games published and even more on the way, Bala said that his company still appreciates being connected to the rest of the game development community. "We still correspond with competing teams, and keep in touch regularly via GDC events. It is refreshing to know that we are not going it alone."

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Fiercely Independent to the End