Gamasutra on the indie economics talk

Yesterday Greg Costikyan and I did an on-stage conversation at Indiecade about the economics of the indie market. It was pretty wide-ranging, with discussions of Rochdale cooperatives, performing rights organizations, designing games that can be hobbies rather than disposable content, and more.

Greg Costikyan and Raph Koster speak about indie economics! @IndieCade -f- @SwedenGameArena @HogskolanSkovde pic.twitter.com/dVHzWRhQVb

— Martin Hagvall (@studygames) October 12, 2014

As you might expect, there was no easy answer. Otherwise all the usual suggested tactics would have worked better for Costikyan, who deadpanned right away: “I have founded two failed companies. Follow my advice and you too can fail.” Koster, who despite having sold a successful company, noted “You can be successful business-wise, and still not achieve what you want in games.”

Gamasutra has a write-up that captures some of it, but not all. It was, perhaps, a bit of a depressing conversation. Among other things, we discussed the fact that there’s probably an oversupply of indies now, and that the rising market landscape means that some sorts of games — indeed, many of the most exciting kinds of games that have arisen in the last few years — might not be all that economically viable.

As far as the rest of IndieCade — it was inspiring and exciting. A wide variety of games of all sorts were being showcased, from VR to tabletop. It was my first time, and it felt like a pretty tight-knit community, but very welcoming. I wish I had been able to go all four days.