Game Developer is a website created in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acted as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer prior to the latter's closure in 2013.
Randy Smith is an American video game designer. He co-owns and is the creative director of Tiger Style. He has worked extensively on the Thief series with both Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm.
An indie video game or indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game 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 analogous to independent music or independent film in those respective mediums.
Xbox Live Indie Games were 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 local classification requirements which were unable to be fulfilled, though there were workarounds which allowed Australian users to download them regardless. 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.
Blitz Games Studios Limited was a British video game developer based in Leamington Spa. Founded in 1990 by the Oliver Twins, who ran the company until its closure in 2013, it is best known for producing games such as The Fairly OddParents, Bratz, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Biggest Loser, and Karaoke Revolution.
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.
Runic Games was an American computer game developer based in Seattle. It was formed by former Flagship Studios developers in August 2008. In 2009, the company released Torchlight, a single-player action role-playing game. It was acquired by Perfect World in May 2010. They released a sequel, Torchlight II, in 2012. It was at this time the developers revealed they were no longer pursuing plans to create an MMO in the Torchlight universe.
Limbo is a puzzle-platform video game with horror elements developed by independent studio Playdead and originally published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. The game was released in July 2010 on Xbox Live Arcade, and it has since been ported by Playdead to several other systems, including the PlayStation 3, Linux and Microsoft Windows. Limbo is a 2D side-scroller, incorporating a physics system that governs environmental objects and the player character. The player guides an unnamed boy through dangerous environments and traps as he searches for his sister. The developer built the game's puzzles expecting the player to fail before finding the correct solution. Playdead called the style of play "trial and death", and used gruesome imagery for the boy's deaths to steer the player from unworkable solutions.
I Made a Game with Zombies in It!, is a zombie-themed multidirectional shooter video game for the Xbox 360, available through the Xbox Live Indie Games service. Released in 2009, it was developed by Ska Studios and was designed entirely by company founder James Silva, previously best known for the Xbox Live Arcade game The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. The game was developed using Microsoft XNA, though its tongue-in-cheek description claims it was made using "Hypermagic Engine 3.0 and the Megacore X parallelization processor." The game's title makes excessive comic usage of features of Internet writing, such as leetspeak, overuse of exclamation marks, and typographical errors. It has since been re-launched through Steam in November 2021 and through Xbox Store in October 2022, and is currently still available for download.
Daniel Benmergui is an independent game designer from Buenos Aires, Argentina known for the creation of art games such as Today I Die, I Wish I Were the Moon, and Storyteller.
Heather Kelley is a media artist, writer and video game designer. She is a co-founder of the Kokoromi experimental game collective, with whom she produces and curates the annual Gamma game event promoting experimental games as creative expression in a social context. She regularly appears as a jury member for several computer gaming festivals. She is also a frequent public speaker at technology events.
Dust: An Elysian Tail is a 2012 action role-playing game developed by American independent designer Dean Dodrill studio Humble Hearts with support by Microsoft Game Studios Japan and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released for Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade in August 15, 2012. It was subsequently ported by Humble Hearts for Windows in May 24, 2013, for Linux and OS X in December 17, 2013, and for PlayStation 4 in October 2014. A version for the Nintendo Switch was announced at E3 2018 and was released by Limited Run Games in September 10, 2018.
Blendo Games is an American independent video game development company based in Culver City, California. It was founded by Brendon Chung in 2010 and is primarily a one-person effort. Blendo Games gained more widespread exposure with the short form stand alone title Gravity Bone; the following games Flotilla and Atom Zombie Smasher were met with critical praise. The studio has also released several other games in several genres.
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor is a 2009 side-scrolling action-puzzle video game for iOS and Android, developed and published by Tiger Style. The player takes control of a spider who comes to reside in to the deserted Bryce Manor and must spin webs to trap various types of insects, whilst simultaneously ascertaining what happened to the former residents of the manor. The game received critical acclaim and won multiple awards. Originally released in August, a Director's Cut update replaced the original version on the App Store in December. The update added ten levels, twenty-four Game Center achievements, new music, more story elements and an insect. A year after the game's initial release, a HD version was released for the iPad. In 2013, the game was also released for Android. A sequel, Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon, was released in August 2015 for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac and Linux.
Waking Mars is a 2012 platform-adventure game developed and published by Tiger Style. Players jetpack through underground Mars caves and encounter a host of alien lifeforms that operate as an ecosystem. Players must master the behaviors of these creatures to create ecosystems of their own design to survive and discover the secrets of Mars' past. The game has been nominated for Best Mobile Game and Excellence in Audio in 2012 Independent Game Festival. In June 2012, Waking Mars was also named the Best Game of 2012 by Paste.
David Kalina is the co-founder and co-owner of the award-winning game studio Tiger Style. Kalina started Tiger Style with Randy Smith in 2009, and released the award-winning game Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, and most recently the Independent Games Festival nominated game Waking Mars.
The Indie Game Challenge was an American award competition run in conjunction between the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), GameStop and The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University (SMU) to support independent video game development. Started in 2009, the competition highlighted ten to twelve independent games, with winning games receiving monetary rewards in addition to the award. The ceremonies were held during the annual D.I.C.E. Summit, during which the finalists are able to demonstrate their games to the press. The competition has not been held since the 2012 D.I.C.E. Summit.
Adam Saltsman, also known as Adam Atomic, is an American indie video game designer best known for creating the endless runner Canabalt. He is a founder of Semi Secret Software and Finji video game studios.
Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon is a 2015 puzzle video game developed by Tiger Style. It is the sequel to the multiple award-winning 2009 game Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor.
Arthouse animation is a combination of art film and animated film.
