Is There Hope For Indie Computer RPGs?
Yesterday's post prompted a ton of awesome discussion, and was mostly sans the flames I was half expecting.

Since I've been skewing Rampant Games and Tales of the Rampant Coyote towards the indie Computer Role-Playing Game (CRPG) niche a little bit, if I really felt that indie RPGs were doomed I'd be packing it up and call it quits. I'm not doing that. Not by a longshot. I really do feel there is hope for indie RPGs yet. In fact, not just hope, but potential for an extremely bright future. Call me naive or whatnot, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

To start it off, I'm going to point at some previous articles as a starting point:

How to Avoid Making Money Making Indie Games

How To Get Me To Buy Your Indie RPG

Is There A Magic Formula For Succes?
Now, I'm not on expert on the indie RPG market, though I've been trying to feel for its pulse a little bit lately. The good news is that there does seem to be one. I know three authors who HAVE had some success in this arena, and they are the ones who could really address the problem: Jeff Vogel, Amanda Fitch, and Georgina Bensley. They are currently the best "success stories" the indie RPG field has to offer. I'm sure they are probably tired of hearing their names invoked for this reason, but I'll go ahead and quote Georgina, author of Cute Knight, from a recent post on indiegamer.com:

"...If there's one thing I know, it's that there ain't one true way. :)

I'm not going to give them any sort of step-by-step because there are no (or few) strict steps and if I made some up they'd probably come back to haunt me when someone tried them and they didn't work. I can tell people what worked for me and I can suggest when I think they're pretty clearly going down a 'bad' path, but I can't tell them how to Make It Big.

If there is a 'typical' indie experience, I am not it. "

Everything I've read (by successful developers), everything I've experienced in over seven years of mainstream(ish) game development and four years of indie game development and sales indicates that Georgina is probably more typical than she knows. In any hit-driven business, success is like catching lighting in a bottle. There's no magic formula for success (though if there is one, Blizzard probably has it and guards it ferociously). But there are some classic mistakes that get made over and over again that screw up chances for success.

I don't want to criticize Dave Moffat, the creator of The Omega Syndrome. I dig what he's done, I share his pain, and I think he brings up some really good points. My hat is off to anyone and everyone who manages to complete an RPG (even if I hate the game). And I know he worked his butt off making The Omega Syndrome something that not only he himself is proud of, but something his customers could be satisfied with. It was a huge task.

But here are a few things to consider.

It Takes Years To Become An Overnight Success
Aveyond was Amaranth Games' third (I think) publicly-released title. Jeff Vogel has made HOW MANY RPGs now? Something like fifteen, with a sixteenth on the way? And Cute Knight was only one of many "girl-friendly" anime-style games created by Hanako Games - and not her first to incorporate RPG elements, either.

It's not just a case of trying, trying again until you succeed. The cost of getting a "new" customer (in terms of advertising and marketing effort) is several times higher than that of retaining an existing customer. While Aveyond really "broke out" through casual games channels, its initial success and sales surge came from - as I have understand it - sales to existing fans of Ahriman's Prophecy, her free "prequel" RPG. I don't know how many Geneforge 4 customers are playing Spiderweb RPGs for the first time, but I expect the majority have played the previous games in the series. These developers aren't just making a game. They are creating a brand, a flavor, a style that players enjoy and want to keep returning to. Just as readers may have favorite novelists.

I have heard a few musicians note that their "overnight success" came only after years of hard work. And I have yet to hear of a best-selling writer who couldn't wallpaper their house with rejection notices from earlier in their career. This sounds like an accurate depiction of indie RPG world, as well.

The Old School Is No Longer In Session
I remember what it was like in the late 80's and early 90's. We had so many kick-butt RPGs back then, and it seemed like a new "must-have" RPG was coming out every single month. And many gamers have fond memories of those awesome 16-bit console RPGs for the SNES and Sega. It's tempting to focus on that audience of yesteryear and say, "I am writing for these guys."

But "those guys" aren't around anymore as an audience. Oh, sure, we're still alive and kicking, posting on forums and blogs about the "good ol' days" when we had to hike uphill both ways in the snow and all that, and why they don't make games like they used to. And that niche is still there. But a lot of those fans have moved on. They are playing new, different games now like Final Fantasy XII and Oblivion and in a couple of months maybe Hellgate: London. Or maybe they got sucked into MMOs and are spending 50 hours a week raiding to get new gear for their third level 70 and increase their DPS by 0.1%. Or maybe they quit gaming altogether, using their computer mainly to watch YouTube videos.

But in the three "success" stories above, I think all three have reached out to new audiences. Cute Knight and Aveyond found their big success in the casual market, and I remember reading an interview with Jeff Vogel where he said many of his customers are new to RPGs with his games. It makes sense on many levels. Now where are we gonna get them from? That I don't know. That may differ from game to game. Maybe a game just for those guys who post inane comments on YouTube? Who knows.

Which brings me to a third point:

If You Build It, They Will NOT Come
This is true of all games. I try - with what limited time I can muster - to keep an ear to the ground on the developments in the indie RPG world. And I am still constantly uncovering games I have never even heard of. The indie RPG community seems to be masterful at hiding their work from the prying eyes of the public. Several people have commented about the Omega Syndrome's pull from sale that they had never even heard of the game before.

This is hardly a problem of just the indie RPG developers, of course. We indies in general need to get a lot smarter about how we handle marketing. It seems like we figure that if we can't beat the mainstream publishers' incredible marketing budgets, we just ought to not even try and just see what happens.

We can't find our audience if we don't spend as much effort trying to get the message to them as we do making these games. That's maybe not what people want to hear, but that seems to be a truth that cuts across all media and industries.

We Need To Change The Rules
Gareth Fouche commented in the forum on yesterday's topic:

"the industry is rife with 'working harder not smarter'. People are constantly recreating the wheel. I'm not surprised RPGs take so long to make. People seem to have forgotten the lesson learned with the Infinity engine. Ie that you can milk these suckers for a long time/many games. RPGers aren't as fussy as the mainstream crowd, despite Oblivion. Quite frankly I am dying for a new RPG right now. And I'm sure I'm not the only RPG fan that feels that way."

We have come to regard the "exploration" system of roleplaying as one of the defining elements of the genre, in which the player consumes content at a voracious rate - which means a ton of development work. Are there better ways of dealing with this problem? One thing we've learned from games like Nethack and other Roguelikes is that a really detailed, interesting rule-system can be just as engrossing (if not more so) than the most lifelike graphics. Warren Spector has mentioned his desire to someday create an RPG that takes place entirely within a city block. There are lots of places we can take the genre without getting into an arms-race with games like Oblivion - or even Neverwinter Nights.

We Need Personality, Style, and Brand
While there are many authors that may emulate or imitate Stephen King's style, there's only one Stephen King, and his readers know this. Ditto for Tolkien, Hemmingway, Grisham, Dickens, Clancy, Evanovich, Chandler, Card, and Jordan. They have their own style, personality, voice... and brand. That's something no amount of development budget can touch.

And that's something a very small team of developers can pull off in RPGs, perhaps better than a big-budget studio.

And More?
What's your take? Is there hope? Can indies pick up the torch? What can we do - not only as developers but as fans of the genre who'd like to see more quality RPGs land on our systems?

Note - Images taken from Cute Knight, Aveyond, Scars of War, and The Broken Hourglass.

(Vaguely) related indie RPG evangelizing:
* 20 Ways To Make Money Making Indie Games
* The Key To Small Business Success: Don't Die
* Interview With Amanda Fitch, Indie RPG and Casual Game Developer
* Interview With Georgina Bensley, Creator of Cute Knight
* Beyond the Gate: Jason Compton on the Making of "The Broken Hourglass"

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Labels: Biz, Indie Evangelism, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:00 PM (Permalink)