No, This article is about the invisible and invincible heros. It is about those who nurises a dream about making an adventure game, not to make big bucks, but simply with the one goal of making a good game.

Independent, amateur, underground, fan adventure... There are many names.

This is about adventure games developed by people that burns for the genre and that are being spread either by free downloading on the internet or by being sold for an amount of money not nearly covering the actual costs.

Common for them are that they do not have any big companys backing them up. They are instead acting totally on their own premises. Something that brings the games together is that they by their grade of freedom are able to vitalize an entire genre.

Well, now that the internet is so widespread and virtualy anyone can make their own site with a webshop whats the big deal with having a major corporation backing you up?

The answer is threefolded. There are three things the companys provide that, if you are on your own, you either have to do yourself or don't do at all.

• First there are the strictly practical matters like burn the CD:s, put games in their boxes, print manuals and above all distribute the game.
  
  
• Secondly there is the marketing. Very few independent game developers can afford advertisements in magazines or even banners at websites. They mostly have to take care of marketing by using non-commersial channels and moth-to-mouth methods.
  
  
• The last and the more double-edged advantage is that the companys provide monetary resources. Accepting money can also mean that you accept loosing control over the project and its direction.
  
  
  

So, what is it that makes the independent developers the heros of the genre?

I would say that the main reason is that they have an idéa and they dare to carry it out. Despite the fact that it is hard labour and probably a great personal risk, financially.

It seems as if there are more and more indie games released all the time. Some examples of recent games are Dark Fall, Harvest, Out of Order and King's Quest Remake. The big companys are moving away from the adventure game market. The boom in the number of indie games released points to the fact that there is a void in the genre.

At Deltér Adventures we are looking forward to what this complete boom in game developement will implicate for the future and if there is going to be any reaction at all from the larger corporations. Or maybe this reaction already started with the new kinds of adventure games we can see in the near future, with more advenced engines, 3D graphics and new and different approaches towards the adventure genre?

To give at least some attention to the heros we will from now on have a section with links to indie games.

Indie

We have also interviewed two interesting independent game developers:

Interview: Michael B. Clark
Interview: Chrille Blomqvist, GASPOP



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