IndieGamesCon

JustinMette writes "Are you an independent game developer trying to make it in the industry? If so, you will probably be extremely interested to read about the upcoming IndieGamesCon 2002 hosted by GarageGames. You can read all about the conference in an interview with Jay Moore, GarageGames Marketing Manager. And yes, the conference is sponsored by a Brewery with the official "indie" beer, Spank Dog Ale! "World Domination through Collaboration" (official conference motto), Justin Mette 21-6 Productions Inc."

Not indie beer

[gmhowell]

Indie beer is what I make on my stove. What people in my brew club brew in their turkey fryers. I am free from market concerns and pressures. A microbrewery is not.

"Indie"

[JMZero]

Not all of us indie game developers are trying to "make it big" or even "make money". I'm content to write free, simple games as a hobby. The GarageGames model of "sell your game (and give us money)" isn't the only or best way to go, I don't think.

Oddly enough, in my experience the quality of the average "shareware" or "try-and-buy" game or utility is a fair bit lower than the quality of the average freeware equivalent (go look at the shareware photo editors on download.com, then look at GIMP). Somehow I think a different crowd is attracted to the goal of "selling my software", as opposed to "developing some real good software".

I might have gone to the conference if it was a little closer, but I don't know that it's going to be what people are expecting. I worry that it's going to be a mess of people trying to sell their games. This might be fun as a consumer, but it's not exactly educational, edifying or likely to really build the indie developer community.