

Dear John Carmack (2011) - jeffreyrogers
http://news.quelsolaar.com/#post88

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yellowapple
This article puts into pretty good words what draws me toward indie games
nowadays. Their development is typically devoid of artists making beautiful
in-game art, so the good ones have to resort to mechanical innovation in order
to differentiate themselves against the vast ocean of other games vying for
players' time and (usually) money. It's this sort of differentiation that made
me fall in love with World of Goo (which also, incidentally, is backed by more
conventional storytelling of those wanderlusting gooballs, but I always felt
the mechanics of the game were the bigger sell) and Kerbal Space Program. It's
this sort of differentiation that caused Minecraft to explode with popularity
- both among those playing it and those seeking to emulate it.

The video game industry tends to seesaw between indie-dominated and big-name-
dominated. I think we're going to be seeing a hard downswing toward indie-
dominated pretty soon, if we're not seeing it already.

