When AAA is wobbling, and gamers are calling out for X genre or Y game to make a comeback, indie seems the space to go. There, you don't have to worry about seven-year development cycles and budgets so big you feel bad for not having $70 to spend, knowing your lack of purchase could lead to layoffs. According to Steam researcher and indie game advisor Chris Zukowski, this has led to a recent "golden age" for the medium, for a few key reasons.
In an interview at GDC with GamesRadar+, Zukowski recommended developers build their skills up through short, fast projects that can then get eyes on them, potentially leading to funding that can help them create the dream project somewhere down the line. Right now is a great time for that kind of development, according to Zukowski.
He explained: "It sounds like a bad thing, but it's almost like the player base was drinking and their inhibitions lowered. The whole player base who liked these Vampire Survivors-likes, they weren't so judgmental about a game. You didn't have to market as hard and all that stuff. If you hit that genre, you're like, 'This is Vampire Survivors,' people were like, 'Fine, let me try it. Oh, that was fun.' Or it wasn't, and they moved on. If you were in that, that was really great. But now this year, the reason I call it a golden age is, not only do we have Vampire Survivors, but we have all these other genres that are having the same thing, where the whole audience's inhibitions are lowered and they're willing to try more types of games."
Indies remain most successful on PC, where Zukowski argues players have a greater tolerance to "jank." Over the last 12 months, the "friendslop" fad has arisen, resulting in cheap games built on gimmicky premises selling millions of copies in some cases. At GDC, Peak co-developer Aggro Crab said indie developers should make a "friendslop" game before the trend dies.