Harris vehemently agrees. "Some of them cloak it all with this thin veneer of 'sticking it to the man' and being 'anti-DRM' and 'anti-big corporations.' Despite me giving a free demo, no DRM, innovative games, at reasonable prices with great tech support from a one-man company, the bastards still rip me off and take my stuff anyway."
In some cases, success as a tiny game studio demands walking the fence between mainstream and indie. "I've been getting contract job offers from mainstream game companies that are worth three to four times the amount I was making when I left the industry," says Evans.
"Having successfully funded and released some games on our own, we've gotten some attention that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise," Taylor adds. "Having people come to us because of what we've done on our own is a pretty big win."
Staying Indie?
What happens when the dream of making your own games as your own boss buckles under the weight of reality?
For Tipping, the indie or mainstream question doesn't matter as much. It's all about the games. He says, "It was more about artistic expression than money. But sadly, there's always a base level of income you need to maintain to support that ideal. We love making games, so if we had to return to mainstream development, we'd be fine with that."
Harris found he enjoys the business side of running a games company as much as he enjoys making games. "I'm definitely happier as an indie because I like succeeding or failing on my terms. I can't imagine working for three years on one game again, or being detached from the business side of things. If I needed a fulltime job again, I'd try and get into marketing or some other area of programming, rather than go back to AAA gaming."
For Peeler, it's still about the freedom. "I never would have been able to create Depths of Peril in the mainstream. I don't have a boss. My commute is now about 10 seconds to get across the room. I no longer have to go to meetings. I no longer have to deal with publishers trying to withhold payments to get their way."
"Creating indie games allowed me to gain experience and improve my skill set in a way that is almost impossible in today's game industry," Evans maintains. "By going indie, I amassed a ton of experience in three to four years time that probably would have taken me a decade to gain in the industry."
Going indie is a struggle. The challenges mount, and the dream can get frayed around the edges. But for many professionals, what brought them out of the big studios and back into the garage or bedroom to make their own games hasn't changed.
Schatz sums it up with his usual enthusiasm: "I support myself and I'm perpetually only one game away from being a millionaire gaming rock star. Why would I quit now?"
Jay Barnson lives a not-so-secret double life as a mainstream game programmer by day and an indie game developer at Rampant Games by night. He can be found and abused at Tales of the Rampant Coyote (http://www.rampantgames.com/blog).
