Free games and pay-to-play flash games get very little attention in the video game press, and as a fan of independent music and writing, this distresses me. It is my contention that while independent efforts in any medium may be unpolished, they allow for unhindered creative gusto.
Just look at Cave Story's imminent release on WiiWare. And its lack of coverage. It's sad to say, but free games and pay-to-play flash games exist in a sort of media coverage ghetto. I think this is because people perceive free games, flash games, and indie developed games as less valuable because of their price point.
If you live in a metropolitan area, and you are familiar with that lone music musician who is handing out his CD for free, you know what I mean. The safe assumption is that it's probably crap. And that assumption is probably right.
That Damned Little Indie Game is meant to be an ongoing series of a sporadic nature that refutes this holistic idea within the game developer indie scene.
It's important to say that it is going to be sporadic. I'm going to keep it intermittent for three reasons.
The first reason is because I don't want to cause too much of an overlap with Greg Ford's stellar, ongoing series, The Indie Scene: A to Z (which, by the way, all you fuckers out there in BitLand are not commenting on nearly enough). Also, I already have four pre-A-through-F titles lined up that, as of the date of this article's publication, backstep Greg Ford's posts by a few alphabetical letters.
The second reason is because I will only be highlighting titles of an especially exemplary nature. I play a ton of free games. But, in addition to my more mainstream schedule -- and for a guy who's constantly logged onto Kongregate, Newgrounds, and Armor Games -- I find very little to celebrate in either category.
Movies, music, or art – a deluge of crap comes with the indie territory in any medium. Most of it is shit, and I want to help you, fellow Bitmobbers, separate the wheat from the chaff.
I want you to see free games, cheap games, and flash games not as a degradation of value due to their inherent price, but as a group effort struggling, separate from us, but struggling just the same.
Bitmobbers, I think, read to get a fun and novel perspective outside of mainstream journalism. That Damned Little Indie Game is only meant to present something similar on the actual game-making side, something worth sinking your time and, sometimes, your money into.
The third and final reason is because, much like Bitmob writers, these people need as much exposure and support as they can get. It isn't fair for a Bitmobber to sit on this site and only comment on your game-journo-industry-hopeful contemporaries' writing. Get out there and do the same thing for those (much harder working) developers who are even more depressingly stymied by lack of coverage, and lack of attention. Out there continuing despite their months, if not years, of under-appreciated work!
As a last thought, the reason for the title is because I wanted to evoke a pop song that just gets stuck in your head. A song where, even if you don't like it, you've got to admit the craftsmanship is amazing.
It's like a great pop song; it's That Damned Little Indie Game.
~James D., The Sopshist
