Xona Games - A Little Bit of Indie Game Dev Philosophy

A Little Bit of Indie Game Dev Philosophy

Sunday, November 8, 2015
By: Matthew Doucette

Some thoughts from a fellow indie game designer struck a chord with me:

"I feel like many mainstream games sort of hold your hand through the gameplay a lot, in order to cater to a wider audience. Indie games are really awesome for that reason among several others - we're allowed to be totally unapologetic because we don't have investors to answer to. We enjoy making challenging games because we're hardcore gamers ourselves =) Personally, I'm a big fan of games that are WAY beyond my skill level - it's so rewarding when I finally defeat them." - Cassie Chui (reddit; twitter)

Source: https://ma.reddit.com/r/Gaming4Gamers/comments/1mijmj/electronic_super_joy_devs_ama/

P.S. Cassie Chui is a level designer on Electronic Super Joy, a game by Michael Todd -- who happens to live in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada now, very close to Xona Games!

I relate to her thoughts, very much so. It is exactly how I feel. It reminds my of thoughts I expressed in my Death in Video Games article as well as in my interviewed on monetization practices.

And now, this marks the third time I am blogging the following Jonathan Blow interview, relating to all of the aforementioned ideas:

Jonathan Blow: How Mainstream Devs Are Getting It Wrong

That is all.

About the Author: I am Matthew Doucette of Xona Games, an award-winning indie game studio that I founded with my twin brother. We make intensified arcade-style retro games. Our business, our games, our technology, and we as competitive gamers have won prestigious awards and received worldwide press. Our business has won $190,000 in contests. Our games have ranked from #1 in Canada to #1 in Japan, have become #1 best sellers in multiple countries, have won game contests, and have held 3 of the top 5 rated spots in Japan of all Xbox LIVE indie games. Our game engines have been awarded for technical excellence. And we, the developers, have placed #1 in competitive gaming competitions -- relating to the games we make. Read about our story, our awards, our games, and view our blog.