[IGDA_indies] What should the Indie SIG do?

[Brandon J. Van Every]

I mostly echo Brian's sentiment that we must answer the WHYs first.
That said, I think many of Mikey's milestones are reasonable growth
metrics.  We can measure 'success' against them; but first, we must
decide what we're trying to succeed at.

A few of my specific thoughts follow.

Mikey Lubker wrote:
>
> Anyone interested in creating SIG projects (on local or international
scale) to create games (probably using open source) or participating in
game projects (such as Happypenguin.com's game of the month)

No.  I am an Indie in order to try to create a commercially viable,
self-sustaining business.  Although open source technologies are part of
my business model, I am not the slightest bit interested in hobbyist
volunteer work.  The Indie SIG has to be about making money as an indie.
If it isn't, it's DOA.

Academic, educational, public outreach, and hobbyist can all go get
their own SIGs.

> or game programming competitions?

No.  The Independent Game Festival has put years of funding, effort, and
refinement to make it what it is today.  I've judged for 2 years now,
and the judging standards are almost mature.  The IGF prizes reward
innovation, and winning the IGF has become a respected accolade.  I
looked at the game "Spartan" at Bestbuy the other day, and it had "IGF
Winner 2004 for Innovation In Visual Art" on the box.  As an IGF judge,
I helped put that endorsement there.  It appears that Slitherine Studios
managed to parlay their IGF win into a publishing deal, which ok per the
rules of the contest.  You have to be indie when you enter, and I
believe also as you enter the final judging round, although I need to
check on that.

Anyways, the IGF's endorsement is turning into a path by which indies
can get published.  It also happened for Pontifex 2 by Chronic Logic,
who partnered up with NVIDIA and some other outfit to produce BridgeIt!
Basically, the same game with decent art assets, instead of the
butt-ugly stuff they submitted to IGF 2003.  Personally I think Pontifex
2 should have won the Innovation In Game Design award, but it didn't.
It did get Audience Choice.

So, I'm mainly interested in strengthening the IGF contest.  That would
mean more judges, more categories, and more prize money.

There may come a point when IGDA Indies are so well organized that they
have the resources to create their own contest.  But that is certainly
not now, and we should not bother with it now.  I'm speaking from the
voice of experience about what it actually takes to judge such things.
Never mind fund and market them.


Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

Taking risk where others will not.