Crowded out: the plight of indies on mobile

http://media.edge-online.com/wp-cont.../01/iPhone.jpgIncreasingly, all indies can do is release the best mobile game they can and hope for the best.

Monday’s Big Indie Pitch event in London felt like a microcosm of the mobile games market right now. It was chaotic, overcrowded and hosted over 50 indies, all of whom lined up to present their game to judges in the hope of winning that most rare of prizes, greater visibility. Only a few would succeed, with the majority destined to be left undiscovered and uncompensated.Among some derivative fare there were several intriguing and well-executed ideas. Schrodinger’s Cat was turned into a caped superhero for a puzzle platformer, and an adventure game described by its creator as a “mildly xenophobic space satire” raised a smile. Some former Ubisoft developers pitched Sleep Attack, a tower defence game with a neat twist and a cute art style. Tap Happy Sabotage, a party game riff on Snap played with several friends on the same iPad, also caught the eye. But taken as a snapshot of the creativity on show in the mobile games market, it wasn’t fantastically inspiring.Maybe those devs complaining about discoverability in the market are the same people flooding app stores with low quality games, hoping one will somehow catch on. And for those not relying on hope and luck alone, there are plenty of companies offering indies a way of getting greater traction in these marketplaces, selling their games across networks or monetising them by stitching ads into their output.Speaking to developers and service providers at the event, there seemed to be a fundamental tension between those interested in art of making games and the science of making money from them. There’s a reason we’ve yet to see too many critically-acclaimed free-to-play games, Plants Vs Zombies 2 being one of those rare specimens. Though it is the prevailing model right now, the mechanics of free-to-play simply don’t lend themselves to fluid and satisfying play and cannot be effectively supported by a small indie alone.

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