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116-670: Celso Riva (born c. 1974) is an Italian independent video game designer of several critically acclaimed games, including The Goalkeeper , Universal Boxing Manager , Magic Stones , the Heileen and Vera Blanc series, Bionic Heart , and the Loren the Amazon Princess . At the age of twenty, Riva began his career, designing small-scale games for the Italian market. He took a seven-year sabbatical until 2003, when he discovered

232-531: A StreetPass arena mode, which lets players record themselves moving around an arena and attempting to defeat an invisible enemy. The recording is then sent to other players connected through StreetPass, allowing the recorded player characters to fight each other in combat. Shovel Knight and his partner Shield Knight are renowned and successful adventurers, but while exploring the Tower of Fate, an amulet curses Shield Knight and leaves Shovel Knight stranded outside of

348-481: A retro style of the 8-bit and 16-bit generations , with simpler graphics atop the more complex mechanics. Indie games may fall into classic game genres, but new gameplay innovations have been seen. However, being "indie" does not imply that the game focuses on innovation. In fact, many games with the "indie" label can be of poor quality and may not be made for profit. Jesper Juul , an associate professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts that has studied

464-421: A bygone era, yet an equally fresh, captivating and innovative game" and Nintendo Life praised the 3DS version's "excellent controls, gorgeous graphics, an incredible soundtrack and endearing characters ... top-notch level design, varied gameplay, hidden rooms, optional challenges and a deceptively rich combat system." Including Kickstarter backers, 180,000 copies of Shovel Knight were sold within one month of

580-445: A commercial entity could. The industry had started to coalesce around video game publishers that could pay larger developers to make games and handle all the marketing and publication costs as well as opportunities to franchise game series. Publishers tended to be risk averse due to high costs of production, and they would reject all small-size and too innovative concepts of small game developers. The market also became fractured due to

696-488: A four-player battle mode, a mission-based challenge setting, a body swap mode, and additional playable story campaigns for three boss characters. To promote the Kickstarter, Yacht Club distributed copies of its initial Penny Arcade Expo demo to several prominent gaming personalities on YouTube, including Two Best Friends Play and Game Grumps . According to Shovel Knight programmer David D'Angelo, Shield Knight

812-519: A further boost by the use of crowdfunding as a means for indie developers to raise funds to produce a game and to determine the desire for a game, rather than risk time and investment into a game that does not sell well. While video games had used crowdfunding prior to 2012, several large indie game-related projects successfully raised millions of dollars through Kickstarter , and since then, several other similar crowdfunding options for game developers have become available. Crowdfunding eliminated some of

928-525: A game as indie is from its innovation, creativity, and artistic experimentation, factors enabled by small teams free of financial and creative oversight. This definition is reflective of an "indie spirit" that is diametrically opposite of the corporate culture of AAA development, and makes a game "indie", where the factors of financial and creative independence make a game "independent". Developers with limited ability to create graphics can rely on gameplay innovation. This often leads to indie games having

1044-472: A game developed by two people. Microsoft continued to follow up on this promotion in the following years, bringing in more games onto XBLA such as Super Meat Boy , Limbo , and Fez . Sony and Nintendo followed suit, encouraging indie developers to bring games onto their platforms. By 2013, all three console manufacturers had established programs that allowed indie developers to apply for low-cost development toolkits and licenses to publish directly onto

1160-433: A gaming platform. At the time, shareware was generally associated with hobbyist programmers, but the releases of Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 and Doom in 1993 showed the shareware route to be a viable platform for titles from mainstream developers. The current, common understanding of indie games on personal computer took shape in the early 2000s from several factors. Key was the availability of online distribution over

1276-481: A hobbyist programming magazine that users could share their programs with. Over time, ASCII saw the opportunity to publish game development kits, and by 1992, released the first commercial version of the RPG Maker software. While the software cost money to obtain, users could release completed games with it as freeware or commercial products, which established the potential for a commercial independent games market by

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1392-425: A message related to these factors, something that could not be done in mainstream titles. In comparing indie games to independent film and the state of their respective industries, the indie game's rise was occurring approximately at the same relative time as its market was starting to grow exponentially and be seen as a supporting offshoot of the mainstream works. Indie games saw a large boost in visibility within

1508-478: A move that both designers liked. They soon thought that this move would be better suited in their game for a shovel instead of a sword. Other specific inspirations include Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse , DuckTales , Super Mario Bros. 3 , the Mega Man series, U.N. Squadron , and Dark Souls . The decision of the character's name was "pretty much settled" after the first brainstorming session, with

1624-705: A number of dedicated investor-based indie game funds have been established such as the Indie Fund . Indie developers can submit applications requesting grants from these funds. The money is typically provided as a seed investment to be repaid through game royalties. Several national governments, through their public arts agencies, also have made similar grants available to indie developers. Prior to digital distribution, hobbyist programmers typically relied on mail order to distribute their product. They would place ads in local papers or hobbyist computer magazines such as Creative Computing and Byte and, once payment

1740-880: A playable guest character in several games including Indie Pogo , Blade Strangers , Cook, Serve, Delicious: Battle Kitchen , Move or Die , Dino-Run DX , Runner3 , Riverbond , Rivals of Aether , Blaster Master Zero , Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night , Road Redemption , Epic Manager, C-Wars , Starr Mazer , Runbow , All-Stars Dungeons and Diamonds , Ghost Police , Mutant Mudds Super Challenge , Pixel Noir , and Mighty Quest . Shovel Knight characters make cameo appearances in Brawlhalla , Super Smash Bros. Ultimate , Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 , Two Brothers , Yooka-Laylee , Aegis Defenders , The Reward: Tales of Alethrion , River City Ransom: Underground , Creepy Castle , Puzzle Depot , Crypt of

1856-515: A popular form of distribution even with availability of bulletin board systems and the Internet. By the 2000s, indie developers relied on the Internet as their primary distribution means as without a publisher, it was nearly impossible to stock an indie game at retail, the mail order concept having long since died out. Shovel Knight Shovel Knight is a platform video game developed and published by Yacht Club Games . Development

1972-429: A publisher. Indie games are distinct from open source games . The latter are games which are developed with the intent to release the source code and other assets under an open source license . While many of the same principles used to develop open source games are the same as for indie games, open source games are not developed for commercial gain and instead as a hobbyist pursuit. However, commercial sales are not

2088-406: A requirement for an indie game and such games can be offered as freeware , most notably with Spelunky on its original release and Dwarf Fortress , with the exception of its enhanced visual front-end version while its base version remains free. The onset of indie game development is difficult to track due to the broadness of what defines an indie game, and the term was not really in use until

2204-459: A salesman named Chester hidden inside levels, the player can purchase items called Relics with treasure. These Relics provide helpful effects and are powered using a resource called magic. Examples of Relics include a magical locket that grants temporary invulnerability, or a wand that shoots fireballs. The player can further use treasure to buy useful upgrades for Shovel Knight's health , magic capacity, armor, or shovel. For example, an upgrade for

2320-443: A service that included some indie games, though these drew little attention in the first few years. In 2008, Microsoft ran its "XBLA Summer of Arcade" promotion, which included the releases of indie games Braid , Castle Crashers , and Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 alongside two AAA games. While all three indie games had a high number of downloads, Braid received critical acclaim and drew mainstream media recognition for being

2436-550: A shoulder bash which turns into a spin attack upon colliding with enemies or objects. King Knight's campaign features a card battle mini-game called "Joustus", in which players place cards on a field to claim spaces marked with gems. In addition to the DLC campaigns, Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove features a multiplayer fighting game add-on called Shovel Knight Showdown . In Showdown , up to four players compete in various game modes using playable fighters based around characters in

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2552-542: A single person, though often with support of artists and musicians for those assets. More common are small teams of developers, from two to a few dozen, with additional support from external artists. While it is possible for development teams to be larger, with this comes a higher cost overhead of running the studio, which may be risky if the game does not perform well. Indie teams can arise from many different directions. One common path recently includes student projects, developed as prototypes as part of their coursework, which

2668-526: Is a 2D side-scrolling platform game with an 8-bit graphical style. In the base campaign retroactively titled Shovel of Hope , players control the eponymous adventurer as he goes on a journey to rescue his partner Shield Knight while fighting the Enchantress and her Order of No Quarter. Shovel Knight can attack with his shovel, dig through dirt blocks, unearth treasure, or use this tool to bounce upon enemies and objects. Levels are themed around

2784-543: Is based on similar terms like independent film and independent music , where the concept is often related to self-publishing and independence from major studios or distributors. However, as with both indie films and music, there is no exact, widely accepted definition of what constitutes an "indie game" besides falling well outside the bounds of triple-A video game development by large publishers and development studios. One simple definition, described by Laura Parker for GameSpot , says "independent video game development

2900-516: Is compatible with Shovel Knight series amiibo figures, allowing players to store customized characters or summon cosmetic fairies. A body swap mode allows players to alter the genders or identifying pronouns of certain characters in the Shovel of Hope campaign. Three additional single-player campaigns titled Plague of Shadows , Specter of Torment , and King of Cards focus on different playable characters who appear as boss characters in

3016-530: Is primarily referred to as an "indie game" because of its success in the Western market. It is one of the most influential indie games, also contributing to the resurgence of the Metroidvania genre. Doujin games also got a strong interest in Western markets after some English-speaking groups translated various titles with permission for English release, most notably with Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale ,

3132-554: Is simply those with little to no experience in the games industry, although they may have computer-programming skills and experience, and they may come in with ideas and fresh perspectives for games, with ideas that are generally more personable and close to their hearts. These developers are usually self-taught and thus may not have certain disciplines of typical programmers, thereby allowing for more creative freedom and new ideas. However, some may see amateur work less favorably than those that have had experience, whether from school or from

3248-443: Is some debate as to whether independent game development started prior to the 1977 home computer revolution with games developed for mainframe computers at universities and other large institutions. 1962's Spacewar! was not commercially financed and was made by a small team, but there was no commercial sector of the video game industry at that time to distinguish from independent works. Joyce Weisbecker , who considers herself

3364-424: Is the business of making games without the support of publishers", but this does not cover all situations. Dan Pearce of IGN stated that the only consensus for what constitutes an indie game is a " I know it when I see it "-type assessment, since no single definition can capture what games are broadly considered indie. Indie games generally share certain common characteristics. One method to define an indie game

3480-744: Is the nature of independence, which can either be: Another means to evaluate a game as indie is to examine its development team, with indie games being developed by individuals, small teams, or small independent companies that are often specifically formed for the development of one specific game. Typically, indie games are smaller than mainstream titles. Indie game developers are generally not financially backed by video game publishers , who are risk-averse and prefer "big-budget games". Instead, indie game developers usually have smaller budgets, usually sourcing from personal funds or via crowdfunding . Being independent, developers do not have controlling interests or creative limitations, and do not require

3596-618: The Super Smash Bros. series. Yacht Club's artists originally explored skirted designs for male Shield Knight, but these did not make the cut. Certain ornamental aspects of Shield Knight's armor were removed or reduced in size in order to make the character look more masculine. Shovel Knight features a chiptune soundtrack in the style of older video games from the NES era composed by Jake Kaufman , with two contributions by Mega Man composer Manami Matsumae . The game's soundtrack

Celso Riva - Misplaced Pages Continue

3712-679: The Atari Program Exchange in 1981 to publish user-written software, including games, for Atari 8-bit computers . Print magazines such as SoftSide , Compute! , and Antic solicited games from hobbyists, written in BASIC or assembly language , to publish as type-in listings . In the United Kingdom, early microcomputers such as the ZX Spectrum were popular, launching a range of "bedroom coders" which initiated

3828-882: The ID@Xbox program or the iOS SDK . While most indie games lack a publisher with the developer serving in that role, a number of publishers geared towards indie games have been established since 2010, also known as boutique game publishers; these include Raw Fury , Devolver Digital , Annapurna Interactive , Finji, and Adult Swim Games . There also have been a number of indie developers that have grown large enough on their own to also support publishing for smaller developers, such as Chucklefish , Coffee Stain Studios , and Team17 . These boutique publishers, having experience in making indie games themselves, typically will provide necessary financial support and marketing but have little to no creative control on developers' product as to maintain

3944-783: The Internet , allowing game developers to sell directly to players and bypassing limitations of retail distribution and the need for a publisher. Software technologies used to drive the growth of the World Wide Web , like Adobe Flash , were available at low cost to developers, and provided another means for indie games to grow. The new interest in indie games led to middleware and game engine developers to offer their products at low or no cost for indie development, in addition to open source libraries and engines. Dedicated software like GameMaker Studio and tools for unified game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine removed much of

4060-727: The Nintendo Entertainment System . The game received critical acclaim, with critics considering it one of the greatest video games ever made . With the release of additional campaigns, the original story received the retronym Shovel of Hope . The full game was released in December 2019 as Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove , which includes three other campaigns Plague of Shadows , Specter of Torment , and King of Cards , along with multiplayer fighting game Shovel Knight Showdown . A spin-off dungeon crawler puzzle game , Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon ,

4176-427: The Shovel of Hope campaign. Plague of Shadows casts players as Plague Knight, who uses bombs to attack enemies and can use both a double jump and a powerful "burst jump" to launch himself through the air. Specter of Torment is centered around Specter Knight, who can run up walls, jump off of them, and use his scythe to slash enemies and obstacles. King of Cards puts players in control of King Knight, who has

4292-413: The seventh generation of consoles in 2005, each platform provided online services for players–namely Xbox Live , PlayStation Network , and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection –which included digital game distribution. Following the increased popularity of indie games on computers, these services started publishing them alongside larger releases. The Xbox 360 had launched in 2005 with Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA),

4408-567: The shareware distribution model and created the sports management video game Universal Soccer Manager using BlitzBasic . He moved to C/C++ language and published 10 more games under the Winter Wolves label, then opened a new company, Tycoon Games , on which he has published 6 games: the space war game Supernova 2: Spacewar , the dating sim game Summer Session , the visual novels Heileen and Bionic Heart , College Romance: Rise Of The Little Brother , and Spirited Heart . For

4524-674: The "indie" nature of the game. In some cases, the publisher may be more selective of the type of games it supports; Annapurna Interactive sought games that were "personal, emotional and original". The lack of a publisher requires an indie developer to find means to fund the game themselves. Existing studios may be able to rely on past funds and incoming revenue, but new studios may need to use their own personal funds ("bootstrapping"), personal or bank loans, or investments to cover development costs, or building community support while in development. More recently, crowd-funding campaigns, both reward-based and equity-based, have been used to obtain

4640-430: The 1978 rerelease of the book BASIC Computer Games by David H. Ahl that included the source code for over one hundred games, eventually surpassed over one million copies. The availability of BASIC inspired a number of people to start writing their own games. Many personal computer games written by individuals or two person teams were self-distributed in stores or sold through mail order . Atari, Inc. launched

4756-496: The 5 top Sports Games of the Year by the online magazine Gametunnel. In the 2011 Best Ofs from VNs Now!, Winter Wolves was named "Studio/EVN Circle of the Year". Indie game Indie game development bore out from the same concepts of amateur and hobbyist programming that grew with the introduction of the personal computer and the simple BASIC computer language in the 1970s and 1980s. So-called bedroom coders, particularly in

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4872-522: The NES limitations include camera shakes that only act on a single axis and a GUI that acts as a background layer instead of being overlaid on top of the gameplay. The game was originally slated for release in September 2013, but was delayed into early 2014. After various further delays, Yacht Club Games announced on June 5 that the game would be released on June 26, 2014. The game was eventually released on several additional platforms including both

4988-573: The NecroDancer , Enter the Gungeon , Katana Zero , and For Honor . Its music appears in Just Shapes & Beats and Voez . In February 2020, spinoff titled Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon , a dungeon crawler puzzle game was announced, and released on December 13, 2021, for macOS , Windows , Nintendo Switch , and PlayStation 4 . A prequel titled Shovel Knight Dig ,

5104-543: The Nintendo 3DS version's stereoscopic 3D and Battle Ghost Arena mode (formerly StreetPass Arena). Shovel Knight received universal acclaim, according to review aggregator Metacritic . Reception was "generally favorable" for Wii U, Xbox One and PC. IGN editor Colin Moriarty awarded the game a 9/10 rating, calling it "arguably the best game released so far in 2014." Infendo.com called it "a brilliant homage to

5220-640: The North American launch. 49,000 copies were sold on Wii U, 59,000 were sold on 3DS, and 66,000 were sold on Steam . By December 4, 2014, more than 300,000 copies had been sold across all platforms. As of June 30, 2015, more than 700,000 copies had been sold. By December 14, 2016, 1.5 million copies had been sold. Yacht Club Games wrote in April 2018 that 2 million copies of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove had been sold. By September 2019, 2.65 million copies had been sold. An Amiibo figure of Shovel Knight

5336-682: The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, featuring exclusive boss battles, with Kratos from God of War on PS4 and the Battletoads on Xbox One. Various platforms got a physical media release in October 2015. Prior to 2017, the game was sold with the name Shovel Knight , with various additional campaigns appearing as free downloadable content . An update in April 2017 made the original story campaign and additional downloadable campaigns available for standalone purchase on certain platforms, with

5452-612: The UK's video game industry. During this period, the idea that indie games could provide experimental gameplay concepts or demonstrate niche arthouse appeal had been established. Many games from the bedroom coders of the United Kingdom, such as Manic Miner (1983), incorporated the quirkiness of British humour and made them highly experimental games. Other games like Alien Garden (1982) showed highly-experimental gameplay. Infocom itself advertised its text-based interactive fiction games by emphasizing their lack of graphics in lieu of

5568-481: The United Kingdom and other parts of Europe, made their own games and used mail order to distribute their products, although they later shifted to other software distribution methods with the onset of the Internet in the 1990s, such as shareware and other file sharing distribution methods. However, by this time, interest in hobbyist programming had waned due to rising costs of development and competition from video game publishers and home consoles. The modern take on

5684-399: The Western regions, bringing more interest to doujin games as legitimate titles. The Tokyo Game Show first offered a special area for doujin games in 2013 with support from Sony Interactive Entertainment who had been a promoter of Western indie games in prior years, and has expanded that since. The distinction between Japanese-developed doujin games and indie games is ambiguous - the use of

5800-422: The Year . Several other indie games were released during this period to critical and/or commercial success. Minecraft (2011), the best-selling video game of all time as of 2024, was originally released as an indie game before its developer Mojang Studios was acquired by Microsoft in 2014 and brought into Xbox Game Studios . Another indie game, Terraria , was released that same year and has become

5916-433: The antithesis of mainstream games and which highlighted the independence of how these games were made compared to the collective of mainstream titles. Many of them took a retro-style approach to their design, art, or other factors in development, such as Cave Story in 2004, which proved popular with players. Social and political changes also led to the use of indie games not only for entertainment purposes but to also tell

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6032-449: The approval of a publisher, as mainstream game developers usually do. Design decisions are thus also not limited by an allocated budget. Furthermore, smaller team sizes increase individual involvement. However, this view is not all-encompassing, as there are numerous cases of games where development is not independent of a major publisher but still considered indie. Some notable instances of games include: Yet another angle to evaluate

6148-406: The collapsing tower, lying next to Shovel Knight as he sleeps. Designer Nick Wozniak stated that the idea for the game started out as "sort of as a joke conversation over lunch that kind of got too serious". The team had already planned to make a game in the style of the NES classics that they grew up on, and eventually the sword-thrust move from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was brought up as

6264-443: The console manufacturers as well as mobile device operating system providers released special software-based SDKs to build and test games first on personal computers and then on these consoles or mobile devices. These SDKs were still offered at commercial rates to larger developers, but reduced pricing was provided to those who would generally self-publish via digital distribution on the console or mobile device's storefront, such as with

6380-482: The console's respective storefronts following approval processes. A number of "boutique" indie game publishers were founded in this period to support funding, technical support, and publishing of indie games across various digital and retail platforms. In 2012, Journey became the first Indie game to win the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year and D.I.C.E. Award for Game of

6496-484: The cost risk associated with indie game development, and created more opportunities for indie developers to take chances on new titles. With more indie titles emerging during this period, larger publishers and the industry as a whole started taking notice of indie games as a significant movement within the field. One of the first examples of this was World of Goo (2008), whose developers 2D Boy had tried but failed to gain any publisher support prior to release. On release,

6612-523: The doujin soft community has generally been treated as a hobbyist activity up through the 2010s. Computers and bedroom coding had taken off similarly in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but the computer market was quickly overwhelmed by consoles. Still, hobbyist programmers continued to develop games. One area that Japan had focused on were game development kits , specialized software that would allow users to create their own games. A key line of these were produced by ASCII Corporation , which published ASCII ,

6728-451: The early 1990s, notably with the releases of Wolfenstein 3D and ZZT , "indie" games from fledgling developers id Software and Tim Sweeney (later founder of Epic Games ), respectively. Game magazines started to include shareware games on pack-in demo discs with each issue, and as with mail-order, companies arose that provided shareware sampler discs and served to help with shareware payment and redemption processing. Shareware remained

6844-479: The early 2000s, aligning with the popularity of indie games in the West. Like other Japanese fan-created works in other media, doujin games were often built from existing assets and did not receive much respect or interest from consumers, and instead were generally made to be played and shared with other interested players and at conventions. Around 2013, market forces began to shift with the popularity of indie games in

6960-469: The early 2000s. Until the 2000s, other terms like amateur, enthusiast, and hobbyist software or games were used to describe such software. Today, terms like amateur and hobbyist development are more reflective of those that create mods for existing games, or work with specific technologies or game parts rather than the development of full games. Such hobbyists usually produce non-commercial products and may range from novices to industry veterans. There

7076-487: The eighth best selling video game of all time, as well the highest rated game on Steam as of 2022. Other successful indie games released during this time include Hotline Miami (2012), Shovel Knight (2014), and Five Nights at Freddy's (2014). Hotline Miami inspired many to begin developing games and contributed to the rise in indie game released during this time period, while Shovel Knight and Five Nights at Freddy's spawned successful media franchises, with

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7192-520: The entire market unprofitable. Although the market did not collapse, discoverability remains an issue for most indie developers, with many games not being financially profitable. Examples of successful indie games include Cave Story , Braid , Super Meat Boy , Terraria , Minecraft , Fez , Hotline Miami , Shovel Knight , the Five Nights at Freddy's series, Undertale , Cuphead , and Among Us . The term "indie game" itself

7308-411: The final game. This can provide funding midway though development, but like with crowd-funding, consumers expect a game that is near completion, so significant development and costs will likely need to have been invested already. Minecraft was considered an indie game during its original development, and was one of the first titles to successfully demonstrate this approach to funding. More recently,

7424-438: The first body swap concepts Yacht Club explored, and his creation process led to many of the design rules Yacht Club's artists subsequently imposed on themselves. The Enchantress' design was inspired by traditional Japanese attire, so Yacht Club initially experimented with kimono and robes for her male counterpart as well. When this did not work out, artists moved on to a samurai -inspired design, similar to that of Ganondorf in

7540-559: The first indie designer, created several games for the RCA Studio II home console in 1976 as an independent contractor for RCA . When the first personal computers were released in 1977, they each included a pre-installed version of the BASIC computer language along with example programs, including games, to show what users could do with these systems. The availability of BASIC led to people trying to make their own programs. Sales of

7656-493: The first such doujin to be published on Steam in 2010. Mikhail Fiadotau, a lecturer in video game studies at Tallinn University , identified three primary distinctions between the established doujin culture and the Western idea of indie games. From a conceptual view, indie games generally promote independence and novelty in thought, while doujin games tend to be ideas shared by a common group of people and tend to not veer from established concepts (such as strong favoritism towards

7772-539: The franchise. The game includes a single-player story mode which can be completed to unlock new fighters and playable level. Shovel Knight has several version-exclusive features such as unique boss battles; a boss version of Kratos from God of War appears in the PlayStation ports, while Rare 's Battletoads are included as enemies in the Xbox One and Windows versions. The Nintendo 3DS version features

7888-452: The full game from the vendor after trying it. As such demos were generally free to distribute, shareware demo compilations would frequently be included in gaming magazines at that time, providing an easy means for amateur and hobbyist developers to be recognized. The ability to produce numerous copies of games, even if just shareware/demo versions, at a low cost helped to propel the idea as the PC as

8004-432: The funds from interested consumers before development begins in earnest. While using crowd-funding for video games took off in 2012, its practice has significantly waned as consumers became wary of campaigns that failed to deliver on promised goods. A successful crowd-funded campaign now typically requires significant development work and costs associated with this before the campaign is launched, in order to demonstrate that

8120-516: The game was recognized at various award events including the Independent Games Festival , leading to publishers that had previously rejected World of Goo to offer to publish it. The success of indie video games on crowdfunding platforms also inspired a wave of indie tabletop role-playing game developers to follow the same business model. Console manufacturers also helped increase recognition of indie games in this period. By

8236-400: The game will likely be completed in a timely manner and draw in funds. Another mechanism offered through digital distribution is the early access model, in which interested players can buy playable beta versions of the game to provide software testing and gameplay feedback. Those consumers become entitled to the full game for free on release, while others may have to pay a higher price for

8352-539: The games Summer Session and Heileen , he moved away from C/C++ to embrace Python programming language and in particular the tool Ren'Py . The stories of The Flower Shop: Summer In Fairbrook and The Flower Shop: Winter in Fairbrook were written by Ayu Sakata from sakevisual . Starting from 2020, some of his games were ported and published to consoles by Ratalaika Games. In 2004, both his games The Goalkeeper and Universal Boxing Manager were nominated among

8468-520: The games anywhere, with the storefront otherwise handling the distribution and sales factors. While Steam itself initially began heavy curation, it eventually allowed for indie publishing with its Steam Greenlight and Steam Direct programs, vastly increasing the number of games available. Further indie game growth in this period came from the departure of large publishers like Electronic Arts and Activision from their smaller, one-off titles to focus on their larger, more successful properties, leaving

8584-457: The ground. There are also low-cost and open-source development tools available for smaller teams across all gaming platforms, boutique indie game publishers that leave creative freedom to the developers, and industry recognition of indie games alongside mainstream ones at major game award events. Around 2015, the increasing number of indie games being published led to fears of an "indiepocalypse", referring to an oversupply of games that would make

8700-504: The indie game field since 2015, there are concerns that the market is far too large for many developers to get noticed. Very few selected indie titles get wide coverage in the media, and are typically referred to as "indie darlings". In some cases, indie darlings are identified through consumer reactions that praise the game rather than direct industry influence, leading to further coverage; examples of such games include Celeste and Untitled Goose Game . However, there are also times where

8816-579: The indie game scene resulted from a combination of numerous factors in the early 2000s, including technical, economic, and social concepts that made indie games less expensive to make and distribute but more visible to larger audiences and offered non-traditional gameplay from the current mainstream games. A number of indie games at that time became success stories that drove more interest in the area. New industry opportunities have arisen since then, including new digital storefronts, crowdfunding, and other indie funding mechanisms to help new teams get their games off

8932-599: The indie game space to provide shorter and more experimental titles as alternatives. Costs of developing AAA games had risen greatly, to an average cost of tens of millions of dollars in 2007–2008 per title, and there was little room for risks in gameplay experimentation. Another driver came from discussions related to whether video games could be seen as an art form ; movie critic Roger Ebert postulated in open debates that video games could not be art in 2005 and 2006, leading to developers creating indie games to specifically challenge that notion. Indie video game development saw

9048-465: The individual knights of the Order of No Quarter, feature several checkpoints, and end with a boss fight against one of the order's eight members. Each section of the world map contains three knights, and the player must defeat all of them to progress to the next area. Aside from the main quest, players are encouraged to collect treasure inside levels to improve Shovel Knight's abilities. By finding

9164-664: The industry, relying on game development toolkits rather than programming languages, and they may associate such titles as amateur or hobbyist. Some such amateur-developed games have found great success. Examples of these include Braid , Super Meat Boy , Dwarf Fortress , and Undertale . Typically, a starting indie-game studio will be primarily programmers and developers. Art assets including artwork and music may be outsourced to work-for-hire artists and composers. For development of personal computer games, indie games typically rely on existing game engines , middleware and game development kits to build their titles, lacking

9280-417: The labeling of a game as "indie" still can be highly subjective and no single rule helps delineate indie games from non-indie ones. Games that are not as large as most triple-A games, but are developed by larger independent studios with or without publisher backing and that can apply triple-A design principles and polish due to the experience of the team, have sometimes been called "triple-I" games, reflecting

9396-422: The largest fan convention in the world, have allowed independent developers to sell and promote their physical products since its inauguration in 1975, allowing game series like Touhou Project and Fate to spread in popularity and dominate the convention for years. As the media shifted to higher-capacity formats and with the ability for users to make their own copies of programs, the simple mail order method

9512-447: The late 2010s. Several indie developers have found it critical to have a good public relations campaign across social media and to interact with the press to make sure a game is noticed early on in its development cycle to get interest and maintain that interest through release, which adds to costs of development. Several games during this time have still seen success, including games that were referred to as "indie darlings." Some of

9628-568: The latter becoming a cultural phenomenon. Mobile games also became popular with indie developers, with inexpensive development tools and low-barrier storefronts with the App Store and Google Play opening in the late 2000s. In 2012, a documentary, Indie Game: The Movie , was created that covers several successful games from this period. Leading into 2015, there was concern that the rise of easy-to-use tools to create and distribute video games could lead to an oversupply of video games, which

9744-449: The location of death, and the player can return to this location to recover their lost gold. However, if the player dies again before claiming this treasure, it is lost forever. As an optional challenge, players have the choice of destroying checkpoints to be awarded treasure, at the risk of being sent back to an earlier location in the level should they die. Completing the game unlocks a more difficult New Game Plus mode, which reduces

9860-502: The market in indie games is more competitive than ever but continues to appear healthy with no signs of faltering. Gamasutra said that by the end of 2016, while there had not be any type of catastrophic collapse of the indie game market, there were signs that the growth of the market had significantly slowed and that it has entered a "post-indiepocalypse" phase as business models related to indie games adjust to these new market conditions. While there has not been any type of collapse of

9976-428: The members of the Order of No Quarter, a group of knights serving the Enchantress. Along his journey towards the Tower of Fate, Shovel Knight continuously battles with his old rival Black Knight. After he defeats Black Knight for a final time at the outskirts of the tower, Black Knight reveals that the Enchantress is actually Shield Knight, who is possessed by an evil spirit that inhabits the amulet. Shovel Knight ascends

10092-471: The middle ground between these extremes. Ninja Theory 's Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is considered a prime example of a triple-I game. A further distinction from indie games are those considered double-A ("AA"), tending to be from mid to large-size studios ranging from 50 to 100 team members and larger than typically associated with indie games, that often work under similar practices as triple-A studios but still retain creative control of their titles from

10208-400: The most played games of 2023. More commercially successful games from this time include Stardew Valley , Hollow Knight , and Cuphead . Indie games are generally associated with Western regions, specifically with North American, European, and Oceanic areas. However, other countries have had similar expansions of indie games that have intersected with the global industry. In Japan,

10324-486: The most popular indie games from this time were primarily popularized over social media and spawned cultural phenomena, such as Undertale (2015) and Among Us (2018), with the later being one of the most popular games during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 with half a billion players. A similar example is Lethal Company , which released in 2023 and was popularized through internet culture, becoming one of

10440-423: The name "Plummet Knight" being the only other suggestion. The game was announced on March 17, 2013, alongside the launch of a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund development, with a minimum goal of US$ 75,000 . The campaign reached its objective in late March and went on to collect a total of $ 311,502 , fulfilling all announced "stretch goals" for additional features, by its end on April 13. Those goals included

10556-431: The number of available checkpoints and increases the damage Shovel Knight takes. Free downloadable content (DLC) updates add new features to the game, including a "Challenge Mode" where the player can complete difficult tasks such as speedrunning or repeat battles with the game's bosses. A local cooperative multiplayer DLC allows for two players to complete the main campaign in tandem, and co-op on Nintendo platforms

10672-683: The original campaign being subtitled Shovel of Hope . A compilation containing all three campaigns was released as Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove , with all previous purchases being updated to the Treasure Trove edition. An enhanced edition titled Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope DX was announced in June 2024, and will be releasing on Steam . The new edition will feature 20 different playable characters, online multiplayer, rewind and save state features, in-game cheats, and additional content and features previously exclusive to specific platforms, such as

10788-470: The players' imagination, at a time that graphics-heavy action games were commonplace. By the mid-1990s, the recognition of the personal computer as a viable gaming option, and advances in technology that led to 3D gaming created many commercial opportunities for video games. During the last part of the 1990s, visibility of games from these single or small team studios scene waned, since a small team could not readily compete in costs, speed and distribution as

10904-435: The prevalence of video game consoles, which required expensive or difficult-to-acquire game development kits typically reserved for larger developers and publishers. There were still significant developments from smaller teams that laid the basis of indie games going forward. Shareware games became a popular means to distribute demos or partially complete games in the 1980s and into the 1990s, where players could purchase

11020-409: The programming barriers needed for a prospective indie developer to create these games. The commercial possibilities for indie games at this point helped to distinguish these games from any prior amateur game. There were other shifts in the commercial environment that were seen as drivers for the rise of indie games in the 2000s. Many of the games to be indie games of this period were considered to be

11136-701: The resources to build custom engines. Common game engines include Unreal Engine and Unity , but there are numerous others as well. Small studios that do not anticipate large sales are generally afforded reduced prices for mainstream game engines and middleware. These products may be offered free, or be offered at a substantial royalty discount that only increases if their sales exceed certain numbers. Indie developers may also use open source software (such as Godot ) or by taking advantage of homebrew libraries, which are freely available but may lack technically-advanced features compared to equivalent commercial engines. Prior to 2010, development of indie games on consoles

11252-579: The same basic concepts behind video game development for mainstream titles also apply to indie game development, particularly around the software development aspects. Key differences lie in how the development of the game ties in with the publisher or lack thereof. There is no definitive size for how big an independent game development studio might be. Several successful indie games, such as the Touhou Project series, Axiom Verge , Cave Story , Papers, Please , and Spelunky , were developed by

11368-454: The school demanded rights to the game. Another route for indie development teams comes from experienced developers in the industry who either voluntarily leave to pursue indie projects, typically due to creative burnout from the corporate process, or resulting from termination from the company. Examples of games from such groups include FTL: Faster Than Light , Papers, Please , Darkest Dungeon , and Gone Home . Yet another route

11484-430: The sealed tower. Grieving for his friend, Shovel Knight gives up adventuring and goes into self-imposed exile. During his absence, a powerful being known as the Enchantress rises to power, spreading evil across the land. Upon hearing that the Enchantress has unsealed the Tower of Fate, Shovel Knight resolves to journey back to it, hoping to find and rescue Shield Knight. To reach the tower, Shovel Knight confronts and defeats

11600-477: The shovel allows it to shoot out damaging projectiles whenever Shovel Knight is at maximum health. Some levels contain hidden music sheets that the player can grant to a non-player character called the bard; trading these sheets awards the player treasure and the ability to sound test each of the game's music tracks. Dying in Shovel Knight will cause the player to lose a portion of their treasure at

11716-429: The students then take into a commercial opportunity after graduating from school. Examples of such games are And Yet It Moves , Octodad: Dadliest Catch , Risk of Rain , and Outer Wilds . In some cases, students may drop out of school to pursue the commercial opportunity or for other reasons; Vlambeer 's founders, for example, had started to develop a commercial game while still in school and dropped out when

11832-422: The term usually refers to if their popularity formed in Western or Eastern markets before the mid-2010s, and if they are made with the aim of selling large copies or just as a passion project; the long-running bullet hell Touhou Project series , developed entirely by one-man independent developer ZUN since 1995, has been called both indie and doujinshi. Meanwhile, despite being Japanese-developed, Cave Story

11948-601: The tower and defeats the Order of No Quarter again, before battling the Enchantress. He manages to exorcise the evil spirit, turning her back into Shield Knight. The amulet transforms into a powerful monster known as the Remnant of Fate, which Shovel Knight and Shield Knight defeat together. Shield Knight holds back the Remnant of Fate as the tower collapses, while Black Knight carries an unconscious Shovel Knight to safety. He leaves Shovel Knight by his campfire and departs. A post-credits scene shows Shield Knight, who managed to escape

12064-469: The video game industry and the rest of the world starting around 2005. A key driver was the transition into new digital distribution methods with storefronts like Steam that offered indie games alongside traditional AAA titles, as well as specialized storefronts for indie games. While direct online distribution helped indie games to reach players, these storefronts allowed developers to publish, update, and advertise their games directly, and players to download

12180-574: The video game market, wrote in his book Handmade Pixels that the definition of an indie game is vague, and depends on different subjective considerations. Juul classified three ways games can be considered indie: those that are financially independent of large publishers, those that are aesthetically independent of and significantly different from the mainstream art and visual styles used in AAA games, and those that present cultural ideas that are independent from mainstream games. Juul however wrote that ultimately

12296-904: The video game media may see a future title as a success and position it as an indie darling before its release, only to have the game fail to make a strong impression on players, such as in the case of No Man's Sky and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine . Discoverability has become an issue for indie developers as well. With the Steam distribution service allowing any developer to offer their game with minimal cost to them, there are thousands of games being added each year, and developers have come to rely heavily on Steam's discovery tools – methods to tailor catalog pages to customers based on past purchases – to help sell their titles. Mobile app stores have had similar problems with large volumes of offers but poor means for discovery by consumers in

12412-436: The well-established RPG genre). From a genealogical standpoint, the nature of doujin dates back as far as the 19th century, while the indie phenomena is relatively new. Finally, only until recently, doujin games tended to only be talked about in the same circles as other doujin culture (fan artwork and writing) and rarely mixed with commercial productions, whereas indie games have shared the same stage with AAA games. Many of

12528-410: Was co-developed with Vine and released on December 13, 2021, for macOS, Windows, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4. Another spin-off, the roguelike Shovel Knight Dig , was co-developed with Nitrome and released on September 23, 2022, for Windows, Nintendo Switch, and Apple Arcade . A remake of the first game called Shovel of Hope DX is planned to be released at a future date. Shovel Knight

12644-451: Was crowdfunded and the game was released for Nintendo 3DS , Wii U , and Windows in June 2014. It was ported to OS X and Linux in September 2014, PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation Vita , and Xbox One in April 2015, Amazon Fire TV in September 2015, and Nintendo Switch in March 2017. Shovel Knight is inspired by gameplay and graphics of platformer games developed for

12760-528: Was highly restrictive due to costly access to software development kits (SDKs), typically a version of the console with added debugging features that would cost several thousands of dollars and come with numerous restrictions on its use to prevent trade secrets related to the console from being leaked. Console manufacturers may have also restricted sales of SDKs to only certain developers that met specific criteria, leaving potential indie developers unable to acquire them. When indie games became more popular by 2010,

12876-404: Was originally supposed to be a princess , as the creators were using NES era damsel-in-distress characters like Roll , Peach , and Zelda as inspirations. Originally, due to her lack of character, she was referred to as "Princess MacGuffin " within the development team. For the "Body Swap" mode, Yacht Club created male versions of Shield Knight and the Enchantress. The "Enchanter" was one of

12992-465: Was received, fulfill orders by hand, making copies of their game to cassette tape, floppy disc, or CD-ROM along with documentation. Others would provide copies to their local computer store to sell. In the United Kingdom, where personal computer game development took off in the early 1980s, a market developed for game distributors that handled the copying and distribution of games for these hobbyist programmers. In Japan, doujinshi conventions like Comiket ,

13108-431: Was released for download via Bandcamp on the same day as the game, as was a rearrangement album. Shovel Knight ' s graphics and music mimic the style of video games from the NES era and shares the NES's limits of color palette (plus four colors) and sprite count. This means that larger sprites are superimposed on a black background to limit the onscreen colors to a realistic maximum. Other trickery to properly honor

13224-411: Was released in 2015, as the first Amiibo toy produced by a third party. An Amiibo 3-pack containing Plague Knight, Specter Knight, and King Knight was released in 2019 along with a gold variant of the previously released Shovel Knight figure. Shovel Knight collaborated with Arby's in March 2021 to release a set of toys, which included Arby's themed cheat codes for the game. Shovel Knight appears as

13340-476: Was termed the "indiepocalypse". This perception of an indiepocalypse is not unanimous; Jeff Vogel stated in a talk at GDC 2016 that any downturn was just part of the standard business cycle . The size of the indie game market was estimated in March 2016 to be at least $ 1 billion per year for just those games offered through Steam . Mike Wilson, Graeme Struthers and Harry Miller, the co-founders of indie publisher Devolver Digital , stated in April 2016 that

13456-405: Was threatened since one person could buy the game and then make copies for their friends. The shareware model of distribution emerged in the 1980s accepting that users would likely make copies freely and share these around. The shareware version of the software would be limited, and require payment to the developer to unlock the remaining features. This approach became popular with hobbyist games in

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