Hello everyone,

I just what to start a discussion on what I see as the next movement in the 'Indie' development field and explain to those why it is important and why we need to lose the 'Indie' title.

Indie developers, as we all know, are independent development studios that create a game that they either self publish, i.e. Capybara Games, or publish through a much smaller publisher, i.e. Screwattack Games. They are the most important game development studios in the industry.This due to the fact that are the few studios who are actually creating new ideas and expanding the boundary of what a video game is. While many will complain that they are only reinventing/copying 8-bit era games, this reinvention is extremely important because they is how all industries function. To preface my biases, I am an Art History Major and a large component of art is to return to an old styler and complete it in a better manner. This best seen in the Renaissance where artist focused on returning to the antique style of Rome but sought to build upon it. The best example of this in the Indie sphere is Shovel Knight. Shovel Knight, takes a mixture of top-tier 8-bit mechanics (Duck Tales, MegaMan, SMB 3)and repackages them in a better packager. While many will complain about this repackaging, this reinventing the wheel is what causes progress.

The point I would really get is that where the indie movement is moving. I believe that the many indies right now are recreating 8-Bit and 16-Bit games as this is what they grew up with. As we are seeing more Indies are becoming larger studios, new Indies will come along with their generation of reinvention. I believe the next movement of Indie development will focus on the 3d stage of game development and tackle collectable styles games. The first game which seems to follow this trend is A Hat in Time which emulates the Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie.

My question is where is this movement going? Is my prediction right? Do you like the reinvention or hate it?