List of indie game developers

Last updated

This is a list of developers of indie games, which includes video game developers who are not owned by nor do they receive significant financial backing from a video game publisher. Independent developers, which can be single individuals, small groups, or large organizations, retain operational control over their organizations and processes. Some self-publish their own games while others work with publishers.

Contents

List of notable developers

Legend
Active
Defunct or no longer active
Undetermined status

There are thousands of independent game development studios which either self-publish their titles, or enter into licensing or co-development agreements with publishers. This list is not intended to be exhaustive with respect to developers or their games, and includes only notable developers and their most notable game examples.

DeveloperCity Autonomous area CountryNotable gamesNotes
17-Bit Kyoto Japan Founded as Haunted Temple Studios in 2009
ACE Team Santiago Santiago Chile
Akupara Games Los Angeles California United States Includes developer and porting credited titles
Alec Holowka Winnipeg Manitoba Canada
Alientrap Saskatoon Saskatchewan Canada
Amanita Design [1] Brno Czech Republic
Ambrosia Software Rochester New York United States Escape Velocity series
AmnesiaGames Santiago de Chile Chile
Ankama Games Roubaix France Dofus Denton Designs
Anna Anthropy Oakland California United States
Arcane Kids Los Angeles California United States
Arcen Games Durham North Carolina United States
Arrowhead Game Studios Stockholm Sweden
Artix Entertainment Land o' Lakes Florida United States
Atelier 801 Lille Hauts-de-France France Transformice
Aventurine SA Athens Greece Darkfall Online
Babaroga Chicago Illinois United States
Basilisk Games Indianapolis Indiana United States Eschalon series
Bennett Foddy New York United States
The Behemoth [1] San Diego California United States
Benjamin Rivers Toronto Ontario Canada
Big Finish Games Salt Lake City Utah United States Three Cards to Midnight
Blitz Games Studios Warwickshire United Kingdom (England)
Blue Fang Games Waltham Massachusetts United States Zoo Tycoon series
Bohemia Interactive Studio Prague Czech Republic
Boomzap Entertainment Singapore Singapore
Capybara Games [1] [2] Toronto Ontario Canada
CBE Software Brno Czech Republic
CCP Games Reykjavík Iceland Eve Online
Choice Provisions Santa Cruz California United States Bit.Trip seriesFormerly Gaijin Games
Christine Love Toronto Ontario Canada
Chromatic Games Gainesville Florida United States Dungeon Defenders
Christopher Howard Wolf Rocky Point North Carolina United States
Cinemax Prague Czech Republic
Colossal Order Tampere Finland Cities: Skylines
Comcept Tokyo and Osaka Japan Mighty No. 9 Founded by Keiji Inafune
Compulsion Games Montreal Quebec Canada
ConcernedApe Seattle United States Stardew Valley Developer and publisher
Craneballs Studio Ostrava Czech Republic Planet Nomads
Croteam Zagreb Croatia
Crytek Black Sea Sofia Bulgaria Formerly Black Sea Studios
Curve Digital London England United Kingdom
Cypronia Michalovce Slovakia State of War Formerly Cypron Studios
Daedalic Entertainment Hamburg Germany
Daisuke Amaya Japan
Datcroft Games London England United Kingdom Fragoria
Daniel Benmergui [2] Buenos Aires Argentina
Daniel Remar Sweden Iji
Davilex Games [2] Houten Utrecht Netherlands A2 Racer
Dejobaan Games [1] Boston Massachusetts United States
Denis Galanin Russia
Dennaton Games Sweden
Derek Smart Fort Lauderdale Florida United States
Derek Yu [2] Pasadena California United States
Digital Eel Seattle Washington United States
Digital Happiness Bandung West Java Indonesia Dreadout
Dreadlocks Ltd Prague Czech Republic
DrinkBox Studios Toronto Ontario Canada
Dr. Panda [3] Chengdu China Formerly TribePlay
Edmund McMillen [2] Santa Cruz California United States
Elixir Studios London England United Kingdom
Eurocom Derby England United Kingdom
Evony, LLC Guangzhou China Evony: Age I
Extremely OK Games Vancouver British Columbia Canada Formerly Maddy Makes Games
Facepunch Studios Walsall England United Kingdom
Firefly Studios London England United Kingdom
Flying Wild Hog Warsaw Poland
Freebird Games Markham Ontario Canada To the Moon
Frictional Games Helsingborg Sweden
Frima Quebec City Quebec Canada
Frogwares Kyiv Ukraine
Frontier Developments Cambridge United Kingdom (England)
The Fullbright Company [2] Portland Oregon United States Gone Home
Games Distillery Bratislava Bratislava Region Slovakia Aqua
GarageGames Eugene Oregon United States Marble Blast Ultra
Giant Sparrow Santa Monica California United States
Giant Squid Santa Monica California United States
Gogii Games Moncton New Brunswick Canada
Greenheart Games Brisbane Queensland Australia Game Dev Tycoon
Grip Digital Prague Czech Republic
Guild Software Milwaukee Wisconsin United States Vendetta Online
Haemimont Games Sofia Bulgaria
Halfbrick Studios Brisbane Queensland Australia
Hanako Games United Kingdom
hap inc. Tokyo Japan
Hazelight Studios Stockholm Sweden
Heart Machine Culver City California United States Hyper Light Drifter
Hello Games [1] Guildford England United Kingdom
Hexage Mníšek pod Brdy Czech Republic
Hidden Path Entertainment Bellevue Washington United States
Himalaya Studios Chandler Arizona United States Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine
House House Melbourne Victoria Australia Untitled Goose Game
Ice-Pick Lodge Moscow Russia
Image & Form Gothenburg Sweden SteamWorld series
Inti Creates Ichikawa Chiba Japan Developer and publisher, formed by ex-Capcom staff
Introversion Software United Kingdom
Invictus Games Debrecen Hungary Project Torque
Jagex Cambridge England United Kingdom
Jason Rohrer [1] Potsdam New York United States
Jonatan "Cactus" Söderström [1] Gothenburg Sweden Clean Asia!
Jph Wacheski Ottawa Ontario Canada
Keen Software House Prague Czech Republic
Kiro'o Games Yaounde Cameroon Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan
Kitfox Games Montreal Quebec Canada Developer and publisher
Kloonigames [1] Finland Crayon Physics Deluxe
Kunos Simulazioni Vallelunga Circuit Latium Italy
Laminar Research Columbia South Carolina United States X-Plane
Larian Studios Ghent Belgium Developer and publisher
Lazy 8 Studios San Francisco California United States
Lindsay Grace Washington, DC District of Columbia United States Big Huggin'
Little Green Men Games Zagreb Croatia
Llamasoft United Kingdom
Madfinger Games Brno Czech Republic
MDickie United Kingdom Wrestling Empire
Mega Cat Studios Pittsburgh Pennsylvania United States
Messhof Los Angeles California United States Nidhogg
MidBoss San Francisco California United States Read Only Memories
Mighty Rabbit Studios Cary North Carolina United States
Mode 7 Games Brighton East Sussex England
Mike Bithell United Kingdom
Molleindustria Turin Italy
Moon Studios Vienna Austria The studio began as a xbox game studios first-party developer and their first commercial video game was the Ori video game series which was entirely financed by Microsoft who also holds the games Intellectual Property.
Muse Games New York City New York United States Guns of Icarus Online
NeocoreGames Budapest Hungary The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing
New Star Games United Kingdom New Star Soccer
Nicalis Santa Ana California United States Developer and publisher
Nifflas Umeå Sweden
Nival Interactive Moscow Russia
Number None California United States
The Odd Gentlemen [1] California United States The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
Owlchemy Labs Boston Massachusetts United States
Parallax Studio Nixa Missouri United States Darkstar: The Interactive Movie
PixelJAM Games United States Dino Run
Polytron Corporation [1] Montreal Quebec Canada Fez
Playdead [1] Copenhagen Denmark
Puppy Games Notting Hill England United Kingdom
Positech Games United Kingdom
Private Moon Studios Hungary
Provox Games Zagreb Croatia Space Force: Rogue Universe
Punch Entertainment Palo Alto California United States
Q-Games Kyoto Kyoto Prefecture Japan
Queasy Games Canada
Rake in Grass Prague Czech Republic
Red Barrels Montreal Quebec Canada Developer and publisher
Red Thread Games Oslo Norway
Renegade Kid Austin Texas United States Mutant Mudds
Relentless Software Brighton England United Kingdom
Re-Logic Floyds Knobs Indiana United States Terraria
Renegade Kid Austin Texas United States
Roll7 London England United Kingdom
Ronimo Games [1] Utrecht Netherlands
Rovio Entertainment Espoo Finland Angry Birds
S2 Games Rohnert Park California United States
Saber Interactive Millburn New Jersey United States
Sandlot Games Bothell Washington United States Cake Mania
Santa Cruz Games Santa Cruz California United States
Schell Games Pittsburgh Pennsylvania United States I Expect You To Die Developer and publisher
Scott Cawthon Salado Texas United States Five Nights at Freddy's seriesSince 2021 only active as a publisher
Semi Secret Software [1] Austin Texas United States Canabalt
Sidhe Wellington New Zealand
Simogo Malmö Sweden
Silver Creek Entertainment Grants Pass Oregon United States Soltrio Solitaire
Ska Studios Marcy New York United States
Skygoblin Gothenburg Sweden The Journey Down
Sokpop Collective Utrecht Utrecht Netherlands
Soldak Entertainment Dallas Texas United States
Spiderweb Software Seattle Washington United States
Stardock Plymouth Michigan United States
Stoic Studio Austin Texas United States The Banner Saga series
Storm Impact Glenview Illinois United States TaskMaker
Studio Pixel Japan
Studio Thunderhorse Roseville California United States Flynn: Son of Crimson
Subatomic Studios Boston Massachusetts United States Fieldrunners
Supergiant Games San Jose California United States
SuperVillain Studios Santa Ana California United States
Tarsier Studios Malmö Sweden Little Nightmares
Tale of Tales Ghent Belgium
TaleWorlds Ankara Turkey
Team Shanghai Alice Ebina Kanagawa Japan Touhou Project
Telltale Games San Rafael California United States
Terry Cavanagh London England United Kingdom
thatgamecompany [1] Los Angeles California United States
Three Rings Design San Francisco California United States
Thunder Lotus Games Montreal Quebec Canada
Tiger Style [2] Austin Texas United States
tinyBuild Bothell Washington United States No Time to Explain Since 2016 only active as a publisher
Terri Vellmann Brazil Heavy Bullets
Toby Fox Boston Massachusetts United States
Torpex Games Bellevue Washington United States Schizoid
Tomorrow Corporation United States
Tribute Games Montreal Quebec Canada Developer and publisher
Trickster Arts Brno Czech Republic
Uber Entertainment Kirkland Washington United States
Vectorpark Brooklyn New York United States
Vlambeer [2] Utrecht Netherlands
VoxelStorm Manchester England United Kingdom
Wadjet Eye Games New York City New York United States
WayForward Technologies, Inc. Valencia California United States
Wolfire Games Berkeley California United States
XGen Studios Edmonton Alberta Canada
XMG Studio Toronto Ontario Canada
Xona Games [4] Yarmouth Nova Scotia Canada
Yacht Club Games Valencia California United States Shovel Knight Founded by former Wayforward director Sean Velasco
Young Horses Chicago Illinois United States
Zachtronics Seattle Washington United States
Zoetrope Interactive Istanbul Turkey
Zoink Gothenburg Sweden
Zoonami Cambridge England United Kingdom
ZootFly Ljubljana Slovenia First Battalion

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Video game developer</span> Software developer specializing in the creation of video games

A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with employee responsibilities split between individual disciplines, such as programmers, designers, artists, etc. Most game development companies have video game publisher financial and usually marketing support. Self-funded developers are known as independent or indie developers and usually make indie games.

A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Double Fine</span> American video game developer

Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double Fine's first two games – Psychonauts and Brütal Legend – underperformed publishers' expectations despite critical praise. The future of the company was assured when Schafer turned to several in-house prototypes built during a two-week period known as "Amnesia Fortnight" to expand as smaller titles, all of which were licensed through publishers and met with commercial success. Schafer has since repeated these Amnesia Fortnights, using fan-voting mechanics, to help select and build smaller titles. Double Fine is also credited with driving interest in crowdfunding in video games, having been able to raise more than US$3 million for the development of Broken Age, at the time one of the largest projects funded by Kickstarter, and more than US$3 million for the development of Psychonauts 2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft XNA</span> Freeware set of tools by Microsoft

Microsoft XNA is a freeware set of tools with a managed runtime environment that Microsoft developed to facilitate video game development. XNA is based on .NET Framework, with versions that run on Windows and Xbox 360. XNA Game Studio can help develop XNA games. The XNA toolset was announced on March 24, 2004, at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. A first Community Technology Preview of XNA Build was released on March 14, 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Wilson (executive)</span> American video game producer

Michael S. Wilson is an American business executive, video game producer, and film-maker. Beginning his career at DWANGO as Vice President of Development before being hired to lead marketing and publishing at id Software in 1995, Wilson has subsequently co-founded multiple independent video game publishers, including Gathering of Developers, Gamecock Media Group, Devolver Digital, Good Shepherd Entertainment, and DeepWell DTx.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indie game</span> Class of video game, generally independently published

An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. Because of their independence and freedom to develop, indie games often focus on innovation, experimental gameplay, and taking risks not usually afforded in AAA games. Indie games tend to be sold through digital distribution channels rather than at retail due to a lack of publisher support. The term is synonymous with that of independent music or independent film in those respective mediums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renegade Kid</span> Former American video game developer

Renegade Kid LLC was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The studio was founded in 2007 by Gregg Hargrove and Jools Watsham, video game development veterans formerly of Iguana Entertainment. In August 2016, Hargrove and Watsham announced that they had split their operations, with the intellectual property rights distributed between each's own studios, Atooi (Watsham) and Infitizmo (Hargrove).

Xbox Live Indie Games are video games created by individual developers or small teams of developers released on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360. The games were developed using Microsoft XNA, and developed by one or more independent developers that are registered with App Hub. Unlike Xbox Live Arcade titles, these were generally only tested within the local creator community, had much lower costs of production, and generally were less expensive to purchase. The service was released to widespread use alongside the New Xbox Experience, and as of November 2014, over 3,300 games had been released on the service, many receiving media attention. All Indie Games currently require the user to be logged into their Xbox Live account to initiate the start-up of each game. Indie Games were not available in Australia, due to the requirement for all games to be rated by the Australian Classification Board, and the prohibitive expenses involved. The Xbox Live Indie Games program did not continue with the release of the Xbox One, and the marketplace for these games was shuttered on October 7, 2017.

Engine Software is a Dutch video game developer, located in Doetinchem, Netherlands, which specialized in handheld video games and digital platforms until 2011. In the period after (2011-present) they have become more active and known for high-end ports and adaptations of games to modern consoles, mobile, PC and streaming services like Stadia and Luna. Some of the best known games they have worked on include Puzzle Quest for the Nintendo DS, Terraria for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Wii U, Killer7 Remastered for PC, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch for Nintendo Switch and No More Heroes / No More Heroes 2 for Nintendo Switch.

<i>Fez</i> (video game) 2012 video game

Fez is a 2012 indie puzzle-platform game developed by Polytron Corporation and published by Trapdoor. The player-character Gomez receives a fez that reveals his two-dimensional (2D) world to be one of four sides of a three-dimensional (3D) world. The player rotates between these four 2D views to realign platforms and solve puzzles. The objective is to collect cubes and cube fragments to restore order to the universe.

indiePub American video game publisher

indiePub Entertainment, Inc. was a publisher of video games based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.

<i>Machinarium</i> 2009 video game

Machinarium is a puzzle point-and-click adventure game developed by Amanita Design. It was released on 16 October 2009 for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, on 8 September 2011 for iPad 2 on the App Store, on 21 November 2011 for BlackBerry PlayBook, on 10 May 2012 for Android, on 6 September 2012 on PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network in Europe, on 9 October 2012 in North America and on 18 October 2012 in Asia, and was also released for PlayStation Vita on 26 March 2013 in North America, on 1 May 2013 in Europe and on 7 May 2013 in Asia. Demos for Windows, Mac and Linux were made available on 30 September 2009. A future release for the Wii's WiiWare service was cancelled as of November 2011 due to WiiWare's 40MB limit.

In the video game industry, digital distribution is the process of delivering video game content as digital information, without the exchange or purchase of new physical media such as ROM cartridges, magnetic storage, optical discs and flash memory cards. This process has existed since the early 1980s, but it was only with network advancements in bandwidth capabilities in the early 2000s that digital distribution became more prominent as a method of selling games. Currently, the process is dominated by online distribution over broadband Internet.

The Indie Fund is an organization created by several independent game developers to help fund budding indie video game development. The Indie Fund was created in early 2010, its purpose aimed "to encourage the next generation of game developers" by providing them funding for development of these games without the terms that would normally be associated with publication agreements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maximum Games</span> Video game publisher and distributor

Maximum Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Walnut Creek, California. Originally founded in 2009 as a publisher of family-oriented titles for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, the company shifted to publishing games of all genres for all ages across all platforms shortly after inception.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phil Fish</span> French-Canadian former indie video game designer

Philippe Poisson, better known as Phil Fish, is a French Canadian former indie game designer best known for his work on the 2012 platform game Fez. He was born and raised in Quebec, where his experiences with Nintendo games in his youth would later influence his game design. He studied game design at the Montreal National Animation and Design Centre, and worked at Ubisoft and Artificial Mind and Movement before starting Polytron in 2008.

Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alpha, alpha, and/or beta, while the developer is able to use those funds to continue further development on the game. Those that pay to participate typically help to debug the game, provide feedback and suggestions, may have access to special materials in the game. The early-access approach is a common way to obtain funding for indie games, and may also be used along with other funding mechanisms, including crowdfunding. Many crowdfunding projects promise to offer access to alpha and/or beta versions of the game as development progresses; however, unlike some of these projects which solicit funds but do not yet have a playable game, all early access games offer an immediately playable version of the unfinished game to players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AAA (video game industry)</span> High-budget video game

In the video game industry, AAA (Triple-A) is an informal classification used to classify video games produced and distributed by a mid-sized or major publisher, which typically have higher development and marketing budgets than other tiers of games. In the mid-2010s, the term "AAA+" was used to describe AAA type games that generated additional revenue over time, in a similar fashion to massively multiplayer online games, by using games-as-a-service methods such as season passes and expansion packs. The similar construction "III" (Triple-I) has also been used to describe high-production-value games in the indie game industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ID@Xbox</span>

ID@Xbox is a program by Microsoft allowing independent video game developers to self-publish titles for Windows, and the Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Series S home video game consoles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wales Interactive</span>

Wales Interactive Limited is a Welsh independent video game developer and publisher established in 2011 and based in Penarth, Wales. The studio, best known for Maid of Sker, The Bunker, Five Dates and The Complex, have published over 30 video game titles for PC, mobile and video game consoles. They are a multi award winning studio with accolades including BAFTA Cymru Games Award 2012 and 2018, Appster's Award for Best Indie Game Developer 2014, GREAT Face of British Business Winner 2015, South Wales Business of the Year 2014 and 2016, and Wales Technology Award Winner 2017 and 2018. The studio supports a variety of gaming platforms including PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows as well as virtual reality devices including HTC Vive, Oculus Quest 2 and PlayStation VR. Wales Interactive develop and publish their own original intellectual property as well as third-party titles. Wales Interactive is noted for being part of the mid-2010s revival of the genre of FMV games, i.e. their titles The Bunker, Late Shift and others all substitute traditional game mechanics with live action footage.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Webster, Andrew (June 23, 2012). "26 indie game developers you need to follow". GamesRadar . Future plc . Retrieved August 8, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Campbell, Colin (December 18, 2012). "12 Top Indie Developers Talk Games". IGN . j2 Global . Retrieved August 8, 2013.
  3. "TribePlay Rebrands as Dr. Panda in Honor of Children's Game Franchise". adweek.com.
  4. Charla, Chris (February 27, 2014). "New Developers Sign On to ID@Xbox". Xbox Wire . Microsoft . Retrieved July 7, 2014.