作者：Agnieszka Andrzejewska

你可能想知道本文主要谈论哪些内容？是关于独立游戏的术语、定义或者只是一些粗略的想法？现在我想与你分享我对独立游戏开发者的看法。

本文由两大目录组成，作为文章的“前言”：

1.我是从iOS游戏开发的角度阐述本文内容——我认为有些内容可能也适用于其它平台（比如PC或Android）的一些元素，但我并没有其他平台的开发经验。

2.以下为我的“看法”，无任何冒犯之意。

Indie Dev(from gamasutra)

让我们从维基百科的定义入手：

独立电子游戏开发者，即在无电子游戏发行商的资金赞助下开发游戏的过程。

当我开始开发游戏的时候，我的想法确实如此！我猜想，这是一个完美的定义吗？不！完全不是！那么关于独立开发者的正确定义以及真正定义之间有什么区别呢？我们又要做何种改善呢？

大约两年前，我与一位朋友（他是个程序员）讨论了苹果手机的发展状况。最后我得出了个结论：人人都可以在iPhone上开发游戏，然后获取收益！我总想“制作”游戏，但是我又觉得这一行业离我非常遥远，超出了我的范围，但这两小时的谈话使我意识到我的想法大错特错！我立即买了《App Savvy》和《iPhone App Entrepreneur》，阅读后我发现，我要试试看！不，我要做出成绩！

我甚至不知道自己走上了独立开发之路！我开始深入浏览网页，不断扩充自己的知识。我发现大量的网站都出现了这个词“独立游戏（indie）”！我笑了——我不是一个人在战斗！因为我也即将成为独立开发行业中的一员了！

正如我之前提到的，某些事情发生了变化……我仍然是个独立的开发者（纯粹/原始的定义），然而，现在当我听到或者看到关于独立游戏开发者发布新游戏的消息时，我就会反问自己：这真的叫独立吗？

事实是：许多开发者都和发行商达成了协议。

无论发行商的规模有多大，这都涉及到了发行商。因此开发者的独立性又从何而谈？他们是“无意中”失去了独立性还是“有意”丢失的？或者他们压根就没放在心上？如果真是这样，原因呢？

我的脑中只想到一个词——销售。为了立即获得成功，独立游戏开发商不得不在市场营销上投入许多精力，建立一个适宜且合理的PR活动来增加机会，提高销售量（收入）。他们必须把宝贵的时间用于推广而不是开发。因此依靠发行商的最大优势在于节省时间！开发人员可以只关注游戏而暂时“忘却”营销上的繁杂琐事——因为有其他人帮忙管理。那么游戏该如何定价呢？开发者必须听从发行商的安排从而按照他们的建议修改完善游戏的功能吗？或者他们仍然保持这一领域的独立性，但需支付一定费用（或者共享收入）？据我所知，这主要取决于发生商，当然还有两者之间的协议。

所以，即使游戏发行商没有直接的财政支撑，他们也会间接地支持开发者的——时间就是金钱，当然这并非免费。这样值得吗？我可以想象，单单聘请PR公司所需的费用就很高，而营销效果可能不比同发行商合作的效果好……另一方面，有些由abc公司或xyz公司发行的游戏并未取得成功——所以拥有发行商并非意味着“双赢”的结果。

一些大型的游戏开发公司并没有与发行商合作，他们有能力自己发行游戏，对此如何看待？

以Epic Games和ChAIR Entertainment Group（Epic的分公司）为例——他们从未与任何发行商合作，因为他们压根不需要！那他们属于独立开发者吗？或者我们可以认为投资这些项目的费用来自Epic吗？我们假设Epic是Chair游戏的发行商，但是假如Epic自己发行了一款iOS游戏，将会怎么样呢？他们会自己发行，所以按照维基百科的定义，他们属于游戏开发的一部分！因为他们百分之百独立！

确切地说——我并非与开发商对立，我只是想澄清独立开发的哪部分是独立的。

也许在开发初期，多数重要理念转变为真正的游戏/玩法时，这些开发者都是独立状态，但如果考虑到营销一词的分量时，我们不得不对“独立”一词重新定义。

假设独立开发者的心中仍然激情洋溢，我希望与发行商合作的开发者到最后都不要丢失那份热情。当一款游戏由发行商进行销售时，并不意味着开发者下一个项目也要通过这种途径发行！他们可以回归完全的独立性——如果这不违背协议的话。

无论发生什么，我就是一名独立开发者，即使我是个女人（来自一个小国家），而且直到现在也没有在游戏公司工作过。

我的独立性占了多少比例呢？90%？75%？50%？我聘请了两名外包人员——2D美工和声效总监（我用私人预算支付他们的工资），而且我还有一位免费的程序员（我的朋友）！我负责设计游戏并执行开发过程（用我的积蓄采购了软件、硬件和其它一些设施），然而我仍是一名独立的开发者！所有的决定都由我执行。所有的错误也都由我负责，但我希望不要犯太多的错误。

我需要发行商吗？

直到现在，我都没有考虑过这个问题。我有足够的资金（还有时间）来发行游戏，所以我觉得我不需要额外的赞助。现在我关注的是我的游戏，虽然它仍在制作中，但不久就要进行第一次的beta测试。我的时间用于“开发”，当然也包括“营销”，我会阅读与PR元素及独立团队有关的书籍（我在许多网页和论坛上找到了有价值的信息）。

我必须承认现在的处境很安逸——我有份正常的工作，因此没有时间上的压力，但是我得“贡献”自己的私人时间（我常常工作到夜里，比如凌晨2点到3点），然而也有独立开发者只专注于他们自己的项目。因为他们得靠自己游戏的收益生存！因此我相信，为了降低巨大失败的风险，他们会聘请发行商（或者投资方）作后盾——在这种情况中是完全合理的。

如果我觉得自己需要市场营销支持，我会寻找一家优秀的PR公司。即使需要时间，我也会节约时间，所以我认为这是在缺乏时间的情况下的最佳解决方案。我不相信奇迹，不认为自己的游戏会成为App Store榜单冠军。

结果是，我和其他独立开发者有何区别？

只是没有发行商支持的区别？我也是这么认为。在这种情况下，我们应该重新定义维基百科中关于独立电子游戏开发者的含义吗？我不知道，也许没必要——独立团队可以有自己的看法。对我来说，最重要一点是我想成为一名独立的开发者——一个拥有自己视角、自己设计、自己游戏的女人！（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

To be an Indie Developer

by Agnieszka Andrzejewska

You probably would like to know what this post is about? A terminology, a definition or just some rough thoughts about indie(s)? I’d like to share with you what comes to my mind in term of developers who are working alone on their titles (like me)

Two major items, as a “foreword” for this article:

I’m writing this article from iOS development perspective – I can assume that some elements can fit to other platforms (e.g. PC or Android) but I don’t have any experience with them.

Everything below are my “thoughts” and I don’t want to offend anyone

Let’s begin with THE definition from WIKI:

Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher.

I thought exactly the same when I’ve started developing my game! Is this a perfect definition? I guess… no! Not anymore! So what was changed or where is a difference between the right and the real definition of indie developer? But give me a second before I’ll try to answer for this question…

More or less two years ago I talked to my friend (who was a programmer) about iPhone’s phenomenon. The final conclusion for me was: everybody can develop a game on iPhone and … earn some money! I always wanted to “create” a game but I thought that this industry is far-far-away, out of my range, but after this two-hours-dicsussion I realized that I was wrong!
I bought and read two books “App Savvy” and “iPhone App Entrepreneur” – WOW! This is it – I’ll try! No! I’ll do it!

I didn’t even know there is something like an indie development (indie developer/indie games/or just “indie” term)! I started browsing Internet deeply and my knowledge was growing day by day. I discovered tons of sites where everyone was using a single term… indie! I kept smiling – I’m not alone! I’ll be part of this industry – indie development!

As I mentioned earlier, something has changed… I’m still an indie (in a pure/original definition) but right now when I read or hear information about new game developed by an indie developer I’m asking myself: is this still an indie?

The thing is: lots of developers singed an agreement with… a publisher!

It doesn’t matter if this is the biggest or a small one, but this is still a publisher. So what about developers’ independency? Did they lose it by “an accident” or “on purpose” or… they just don’t care about it anymore? If yes, why?

Only one thing comes to my mind – sales. Right now to be succeeded, indie developers have to put a lot of effort into marketing, to build a proper and reasonable PR to increase a chance for large sales (/incomes). They have to spend their valuable time on promotion instead of development. So the biggest advantage of heaving a publisher (behind developer’s back) is a time-saving! Developer can be focused on the game and in the most cases he/she can “forget” about mess around marketing – because someone else takes care of this. What can be a price for this? Do developers have to “listen” a publisher and implement/change game’s features according to its suggestions or they keep the independency in this area, but they have to “only” pay a fee (or share incomes)? As I know, it depends on publisher and of course an agreement.

So even if there isn’t something like a financial support of a game publisher directly, they support a developer indirectly – time is money, but of course this is not for free. Is this worth it? I can imagine that hiring (only) PR company can cost a lot of money and potentially marketing’s impact can be smaller than cooperating with a publisher, but… On the other hand, there are games published by “abc” or “xyz” company without a success – so having a publisher doesn’t mean “win-win” strategy.

Probably some people can argue with this but this is not a point of my conclusion…

What about some big gamedev companies that don’t have to sing any agreement with a publisher and they are big ”enough” to release and publish their games by themselves?

Take a look at Epic Games and ChAIR Entertainment Group (which is a part of Epic’s family) – they have never used any publisher because they didn’t have to! Are they an indie developer? Or should we consider Epic’s finances as an investor in their project(s)? Ok, we can assume that Epic is a publisher for Chair’s game(s), but what if Epic releases an iOS game by themselves? They will publish it by themselves, so according to WIKI’s definition (and my thoughts) they ARE a part of indie development! Why not? They are independent in 100%! Surprised?

I haven’t done deep research in this area yet, but I can assume that some gamedev companies (that worked with publishers on AAA titles in the past) are participating in iOS development right now. So in this “area” of game industry they can be completely independent. They have a brand, they already now how to go through PR strategy, they have resources and enough money to ship a game without a publisher – easy win!

To be clear – I’m not against publishers, I only want to clarify which part of the indie development is… independent.

Maybe everyone is independent in an early stage of development, when most important ideas change into a real game / gameplay, but if we are thinking about a marketing crescendo we have to redefine the “indie” term.

I assume that still there is a passion in indie developers‘ hearts and I hope those who are cooperating with publisher don’t lose it till the end. Shipping one game with a publisher doesn’t mean that developer is obligated to go the same way with an another project! He/she can go back to the full independency – if this is not against signed agreement

Whatever happens, I’m an indie developer, even if I’m a woman (from a small country – like Poland) who didn’t work in the game industry – till now.

I’m independent in xy-percentage. 90%, 75% or only 50%? I hired two contractors – 2D Artist and Audio Director (I paid them using private budget) and I “have” a programmer (my friend) who is doing everything by himself for free! I designed the game and I’m executing the development using my savings for this (to buy software, hardware and to pay for assets), but still… I’m independent developer! All decisions are mine. All mistakes are mine too, but I hope I will not make too many of them

Do I need a publisher?

I’ve never thought about this… till now  I have enough money (and time!) to release the game, so in my opinion I don’t need any additional support (there is a chance that I’m wrong). Right now I’m focused on the game, which still is WIP but the first beta tests are coming soon. I’m splitting my time for “development” and of course for marketing – reading a lot about PR elements and of course about indie community (there are tons of sites and forums where I can find valuable information).

I must admit that I’m in a comfortable situation – I have a regular job, so there is no time pressure, but… I have to “sacrifice” my private time (very often I’m working till late night, like 2-3AM, energy drinks rocks!), but there are indie developers who are working ONLY on their indie projects. They live off the profit from their titles! So I can believe that they want to decrease a risk of EPIC fail and they use publishers (or investors) as a “support” – in this case this is completely reasonable.

If I feel that I need a support in marketing, I’ll look for a good PR company. Even if it costs, I’ll save time, so I think this can be the best solution during no-time-stage. I don’t believe in a miracle, that my game will be #1 on AppStore.

So where is a difference between me and other indies?

Only a publisher? YES, I think so. In this case, should we redefine WIKI’s definition of independent video game development? I don’t know, maybe it unnecessary – the community can have a private opinion about this. For me, the most important message is… I want to be an indie developer – a women who has own vision, own design and … own game!（source:gamasutra）