Will 2015 Be the Year of the Indie?

[RaychelSnr]

With 2015 looking to start a bit slow in terms of games, especially with big AAA titles, there is a window for some indie developers to steal the spotlight. This is especially true in the sports space, as some industrious indie folks could come along and make a big impact in either an established sport or a fringe one. As both the Xbox One and PS4 start to gain market share — and with the WiiU, mobile and Steam providing other opportunities — there are lots of potential users for almost any sport. The proverbial brass ring is there if a developer wants to grab it.

What sort of games could we see? Frankly, I think almost every sport is up for consideration.

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[jpollack34]

Nothing would be greater than to see the rise of the indies. It would provide much needed juice to a lagging genre. More than anything I would like to see the growth of customization. The sports genre is lagging behind and you can sense it. Not sure if it's fear but one senses the developer's lack of providing the users with any real options. It's palpable, and runs contrary to what's happening pretty much every where else - providing users with more power.

Let's end the nonsense of ever increasing licensing costs (passed on to the consumers) and barrier to entry for competitors. Hand over power to the users - that birth can only come from the indie scene.

[tarek]

Whilst licensing is a massive issue which limits authenticity with indie games I personally believe it provides a very interesting opportunity in the area of customization and community content.
Whilst a product can be released in a generic sense, if the community is allowed to mod and customize, then the experience becomes far greater. I mean, most people want to use real life sports teams, players, personalities, etc but they also want depth and gameplay.
An indie can provide great gameplay and depth, but often not the realism of licensed products. But there are no rules against community content, and so a community that creates the realism just adds to the experience.

I love my text sims, and I think OOTP, Beyond the Sideline football, Pro Strategy Football on iOS, Dynasty Manager on iOS and others are just proof of how awesome indie games can really be.

[Hulksavage]

I would be all over a non-license wrestling game, if it played well. To me, those games are all about created content. My friends and I always made a stable of our own wrestlers and came up with wacky back stories for them. I think wrestling games really have the ability to let people be creative and have fun with crazy characters. I have had friends that were so straight laced, they hardly cracked a smile, but put them in front of No Mercy, and they'd become their creation. I mean, I don't care about playing with John Cena; the Great Canadian Beast would break him!

[Dubsonic]

If OOTP gets a 3D front end ala Sega's Football Manager series it would put it over the top. Something lacking with text sims for a long time. #bridgethegap

[Simple Mathematics]

Please, somebody make a new hockey game.

[H to the Oza]

Dont forget, Rocket League has been announced for PS4 (maybe XB1?) - an arcade style mix between soccer and racing

[Fresh Tendrils]

I don't really care in what form it comes, but I really need something similar to NBA Street and NBA Jam in my life. Hell, even the NFL Street game was entertaining. Maybe some independent companies can hammer out some skating and snowboarding games while we're daydreaming here.

[rspencer86]

Re: Will 2015 Be the Year of the Indie?

Some great responses in here so far.

Nothing would be greater than to see the rise of the indies. It would provide much needed juice to a lagging genre. More than anything I would like to see the growth of customization. The sports genre is lagging behind and you can sense it. Not sure if it's fear but one senses the developer's lack of providing the users with any real options. It's palpable, and runs contrary to what's happening pretty much every where else - providing users with more power.

Agreed. Essentially what creating a "closed" game with few options does is limit the number of people it can truly connect with and appeal to.

Whilst licensing is a massive issue which limits authenticity with indie games I personally believe it provides a very interesting opportunity in the area of customization and community content.

A lack of licensing can be overcome if robust editing options are provided. Moreover, a lack of licensing offers some very intriguing possibilities. Think of all of the things that get left out of sports games due to the tight leash the leagues have on the content:

• Fighting/suspensions
• Drug use, steroid use, and other forms of "cheating" (could make for a fun and strategic risk/reward system)
• Realistic injuries (leagues want to create the image that their sport is relatively safe)
• Trash talking

I don't really care in what form it comes, but I really need something similar to NBA Street and NBA Jam in my life. Hell, even the NFL Street game was entertaining. Maybe some independent companies can hammer out some skating and snowboarding games while we're daydreaming here.

YES. Really am missing the pick-up-and-play type games. Not sure why those went away, as they would seem to appeal to a wider base than the hardcore simulation titles that are left standing.

I love the realistic sim games, but they require a lot of time to learn controls, games take between 45-90 minutes to complete, etc. It would be nice to play a friend in NBA Jam, have the skill level be mostly level (not such a huge barrier to entry for beginners in arcade titles), and be able to get a few games in all in a 15-30 minute time frame. And best of all, there's no worrying about accurate stats, fiddling with sliders, and all of that.

[tarek]

Some great responses in here so far.



Agreed. Essentially what creating a "closed" game with few options does is limit the number of people it can truly connect with and appeal to.



A lack of licensing can be overcome if robust editing options are provided. Moreover, a lack of licensing offers some very intriguing possibilities. Think of all of the things that get left out of sports games due to the tight leash the leagues have on the content:

• Fighting/suspensions
• Drug use, steroid use, and other forms of "cheating" (could make for a fun and strategic risk/reward system)
• Realistic injuries (leagues want to create the image that their sport is relatively safe)
• Trash talking

YES. Really am missing the pick-up-and-play type games. Not sure why those went away, as they would seem to appeal to a wider base than the hardcore simulation titles that are left standing.

I love the realistic sim games, but they require a lot of time to learn controls, games take between 45-90 minutes to complete, etc. It would be nice to play a friend in NBA Jam, have the skill level be mostly level (not such a huge barrier to entry for beginners in arcade titles), and be able to get a few games in all in a 15-30 minute time frame. And best of all, there's no worrying about accurate stats, fiddling with sliders, and all of that.

@rspencer86

I totally agree with the additions that can't be added due to licensing including suspensions, etc.

OOTP currently does this quite well with their storylines and having players sometimes retire unexpectedly, or take a few days off for a personal problem, or get suspended.

The other text sim which does something like this is Bowl Bound College Football and Draft Day Sports College Basketball which tracks academics and student athletes can be suspended for bad grades and you have to provide tutoring or encouragement, and even in DDS:CB you have the issue that recruits list their current GPA and then get an SAT score later down the track, so if your school has a minimum academic entry requirement, and you have a top recruit who loves your school but has borderline grades, you have to decide whether to pursue and risk him not meeting the minimum academic score, or move onto a student who might not be as good but looks like he will have no problem meeting the academic requirement.

I totally agree that these additional intangibles add much more to the experience of these games.

[GOBLUE_08]

Re: Will 2015 Be the Year of the Indie?

@tarek

How is the support for Bowl Bound and Draft Day? Like do they have a decent following/community.

I've always been interested in trying them out but I was kinda sketchy about dropping the money for them. I've bought a couple different ones on steam and they were just terrible