Kudos is supported for how long?

Just a general enquiry directed at Cliffski. I’m curious how long you actually plan to keep working on Kudos with regard to patches, updates etc?

I’m not asking from any particular concern but I realise that you’re an independent developer who’s made a few games on your own now and I’m curious more than anything on how viable it is to keep working on something already released when another project is beckoning or the sales start dying down.

Is the independant scene viable enough to stick with a project as good as Kudos for a fair amount of time or are you already planning your next masterpeice? I’d love to be an independent developer like yourself but I have neither the discipline nor the skill to do well at it, I suspect.

depends how well it sells!
But I intend to support the game for the next god knows how many years in terms of bug fixes. As for extra content etc, Im still working on new stuff now, and probably there will be more releases after that.

Xerra,

If you are curious and interested in Indie game development then there are quite a few sites with useful and informative info. Here are a few sites that are well respected within the Indie gaming and development community:

gametunnel.com - Independant Game News, Articles, Reviews, Previews, Interviews, and Forums

indiegamer.com - great set of forums for Indie Developers with questions. Great community for beginning developers and veterans alike.

indieinformer.com - Indie Game News, Developer News, and Industry News, also contains developer blogs.

These are just a few of the sites that are out there with information related to the independant gaming scene. Perhaps none of this was what you were looking for but hopefully some of these sites and the info they contain will be helpful to you.

Unfortunately I can’t give you a straight answer at how viable indie game development is, but at least with all of these sites you can get in touch with some of the developers out there (Indie forums are great for that!) and find out what kind of success and hardships can be expected within the scene.

Personally I think the Indie scene is a great place to be extremely creative, unfortunately there is also a plethora of unoriginal clones flooding the Indie scene that are being passed off as “Casual” games. This unfortunately hurts the scene but at the same time, thankfully, we have developers such as Positech (Cliffski), Chronic Logic, Cornucopia, Hamumu Software, and Robinson Technologies, Outside The Box Software, and just to name a few, who create games with much more originality and PuppyGames, who also show much more care for their products than some of the other developers out there that are just looking to make a quick buck off of rehashed clones. There is still a lot to like about the Indie scene because of the developers mentioned (there are also many more that I haven’t mentioned but I can’t remember them all and it would take some time to list them :slight_smile: ) But thankfully they’re out there. Well, hope this inspires you a little.

Cheers.

J.

Thanks a lot for those links, Johnny. I’m the biggest supporter of indie-games out there. I love games that are off the commercial track because, while maybe not massive in size, they are labours of love and tend to focus on gameplay above all else. And gameplay is the biggest rule of getting it right that I’d ever live by if I was walking the same road.

Lots of other arguments for Indie stuff above commercial poop is support, price, modding to name just a few. And when you’ve played games like Orbz and Master of defence then you just sit in front of the screen and think to yourself “Why can’t the big companies get it right like these guys have?”

I tend to play MMORPGS more than anything else over the last couple of years mainly because I’ve been disillusioned by the stuff on the shelves and I’ve always loved the idea of games evolving around what the public wants but there’s sometimes the odd gem out there that gets a little Kudos in my book (if you pardon the pun). Can’t think of much recently that’s rocked my boat with the exception of maybe FlatOut 2. And this is from a man who much prefers the slower, thinking-mans games.

Your welcome Xerra. :smiley:

I’m a gamer through and through. I’m sure that if you held a stethascope up to my chest all you’d hear are video game theme tunes. I’ve been through more games than James Bond 007 has been through women. (Sean Connery’s Bond of course) 8) I have quite the collection of mainstream game titles, you name a system and I either have it or have had it, and the list of Indie titles I have either tried or own is huge also.

The Indie scene, while sometimes appearing to be an intron within the larger mainstream gaming industry, actually holds much more promise and perhaps a remedy to the conveluted mainstream industry, simply because this is a venue where quite literally anyone can participate and bring there ideas and creativety to life for anyone and everyone else who might be willing or interested. The gaming scene right now is a volatile but exciting place. The mainstream is not exactly the place you want to be if you plan on producing your own new idea, don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of room for new and creative ideas but the big publishers aren’t interested. They are interested in the bottom line. There’s nothing wrong with money, but there is something wrong with making it your first priority above all else. If it is a product you’re selling then satisfaction should be your first priority - satisfaction for yourself and for the people you believe intend to use your product. That’s why there is such a high turn over in the gaming industry right now, companies merging and being dismantled as quickly as the movement in the stockmarket. It’s all very dizzying. This is where the Indie scene has awesome potential. Some companies would really like to get their hands in the Indie scene also, simply because they see lost profits and missed opportunities rather than the creativity and freedom behind it all. As long as there are strong Indie developers out there, the kind that develop games that they themselves would actually play, there is quite a bit of hope and a lot of positive energy that will continue to keep this scene growing. This is also part of the reason why this scene can be so exciting.

Because I’m a huge fan of a wide variety of game genres I’m just listing a few other Indie titles of notable mention that almost anyone can play and enjoy, this is all based on opinion of course, but these titles are readily available in the form of a playable demo or or limited game time so game players really have nothing to lose by trying them out:

Gish - by Chronic Logic
Flatspace - Cornucopia
Starscape - Moonpod Games
Smugglers 3 & Empires and Dungeons - Neils Bauer Games
Titan Attacks and Ultratron - PuppyGames
Starwraith Series - by StarWraith 3D Games
Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space - ShrapnelGames.com
Minions of Mirth (MMORPG) - Prairie Games
Starship Tycoon & Democracy (we already like Kudos) - Positech
Dungeon Scroll - Robinson Technologies
Professor Fizzwizzle - Grubby Games
Astral Masters - Apus Software
BreakQuest - Nurium
Paradoxion - VSB Games

This list could go on and on… There are far too many out there, but here are a few that I have listed for anyone who has not yet discovered some of these great Indie games.

Cheers!

J.

And …

TV Manager - Neils Bauer again
UnReal World - Sami Maraanen
Legends of Mystifa - Jared Conway
Battle for Wesnoth
Brainsbreaker
C-evo
Decker - Shaun Overcash
Gamebiz - Veloci
Helherron
Space Empires II, III & IV - Malfador Machinations
Crooked Money, Car Thief, White Dolphn Bar - Maxima Games
Teudogar
Natuk - Tom Proudfoot
Yipes I II & III - Yipesoftware
Winged Warrior I II & III - Dataware

etc., etc., etc…

Don’t forget:

Arklight - PiEye Games
Aveyond - Amaranth Games
Geneforge 1, 2, and 3 - Spiderweb games
Lux (Lux Deluxe) - Sillysoft
Mage Bros. & Hopmon - JJSoft
Wik & The Fable of Souls - Reflexive
Mutant Storm - PomPom
Dr. Lunatic - Hamumu
Global Defense Network - Evertt.com
Astropop - Popcap
Outpost Kaloki - NinjaBee
“N” - Metanet Software
Trash - Inhuman Games
DROD - Caravel Games
Darwinia & Uplink - Introversion Software

and many, many more… This list could go on, which I think is awesome.
There are too many to remember in just one sitting. This just goes to show that the Independant Scene is alive and well. Hopefully the list will continue to grow at a steady pace. :slight_smile:

J.

We’re probably a bit off-topic here but I can’t believe I missed Uplink when I mention the great indie games. That was so incredibly awesome, it’s untrue. Wonderfull game that I’d still go back to now. Just wish I had been better at playing it :slight_smile:

Darwinia was also good fun but Uplink appealed more to me as the scenario reminded me of the old Activision C64 games Hacker and Hacker 2. Now those were brilliant… memories :slight_smile:

It’s brilliant, isn’t it!! I haven’t bought a commercial game since Zoo Tycoon (I) and I can’t remember when I did before that! Indie stuff is so much better quality and it’s nice to know your money goes straight to the developer, and isn’t strained through useless middlemen. And you get support and bug fixes all the time, unlike commercial rubbish.

Another little game I’ve found (and really only torn myself away to play Kudos…) is Fate by WildTangent. It’s got cute and fun all wrapped up in to one…

I just thought I would throw that in with your other lists guys. I’ve tried Wik, and Astral Masters as well, and a big thumbs up to them both.

Unfortunately, unlike Vampire…I CAN remember the last commercial game I bought…it was the new Glamour Life add-on for Sims 2…I’m a sucker for anything Sims…sigh I’m going back to my Kudos life now girn

You’re right xerra, this is getting off topic even though it is interesting. I’ll create a new topic where we can list all of our favorite Indie titles. Perhaps we can get people to share their gaming experiences also, in the same sort of way you describe feeling nostalgic about Hacker and Hacker 2.

Cheers.

J.