The recent news about the job cuts at EA prompted some thoughts as well as thinking about the spurt of indie films that have achieved a lot with a very small budget. One of the things that discussed all the time about game development is the cost of development. The cost of tools, team, and all the other associated costs, and yet we see some indie games make it bigger it leads one to wonder.

Does it really cost or does it really need to cost that much to make a game. Certainly big budget Triple A titles spend amazing amounts of money for the building of their products, and yet even these have a tendency to fall short when they roll out. Yet we see low cost indie games or smaller budget games go on to success and prosperity. Is it the lack of funds that prompts that extra something in the creative process that leads these titles to shine?

With studios cutting their work forces, what is the soon to be unemployed to do? Why don’t they go rogue and build their own titles while they job hunt? I suspect a major influx of these previous employed designers, programmers, artists and so forth could make a serious impact on the indie scene, bringing their experience and their own creative vision to the table. We all want to get paid for the work we do, that goes without saying, but the more I watch and think, the more I see a sort of stagnancy in the gaming corporate world.

Like any industry it’s grown and growing bigger and bigger, and with any large system, there’s a vacuum that slowly sucks the life out of it. More and more we hear about user generated content, we hear about the free to play model, we hear about how the industry is growing in demographic and the casual market is making crazy amounts of money when they get it right.

So what’s the magic ingredient? Looking at Farmville and the numbers it generates in terms of users, the believed amount of money it generates and the cost it was for development. Does the industry need to shift from these overkill budgets and focus on the product in terms of creativity and experience and cut costs not on the staff but on the prices paid for the rest. I’d rather pay for quality staff to create an awesome game, and then spend a fortune on the newest shiniest engine.

If Facebook, MySpace, and if the overall casual game market teaches us anything, you don’t need to have the amazing stunning, photo realistic graphics with 3D depth whenever your characters sneeze to capture the players.  Sure it is nice, but required to be successful? Doesn’t appear that way to me, and hasn’t for a while, not anymore anyways, there’s always some example that changes the way we look at things.

It sucks to loose your job, no question, but it doesn’t mean it’s the end, if you want to make games, and then make games; sure it might not be the amazing budgeted game you’re used to, but it doesn’t mean it will suck, just means you need to be more inventive. These days getting into the industry usually requires all kinds of experience, education, previous products delivered and so on. That amuses me considering the origins of the industry was certainly not built by experienced , titles delivered hands, but by people who wanted to create fun, entertaining games.

When did we get away from that?

So many people want to make games, so make games.  You don’t need the company to tell you what to work on unless you’re working for them. You’re cut loose so finally pursue that game idea you’ve had stashed in your old campfire note book since you first killed slimes in Dragon Warrior. The only limit to your creativity is yourself. Sure it costs money to do it the way you exactly pictured it, but if you deliver something that starts building your own momentum, you build upon it and make your own destiny using your own creativity and your own hands.

A renaissance of creativity in the indie space would be delightful, and watching more and more indie titles make it big would certainly be a healthy thing for the industry, I’m tired of seeing 15 sequels of the same tired old game; I personally thrive on the new when it comes to my game playing habits. I don’t mind the usual settings, but I want to see them delivered in a new way, with a new spin.

I want to see something magical come out of no where in our industry all the time and it’s entirely possible. Considering many of the players of games might be rocking the latest amazing title from “Insert studio here” when that experience is over, they loop back to the old games, their favourites from the previous generations. Just because the technology has changed it doesn’t mean that style of game isn’t viable, it just means people aren’t looking back and thinking “hey I loved this; why not make something to recapture the nostalgia?”

It’s never the end, it’s good to have accomplished something before, but it’s what you do next that has real meaning.