Shrapnel Games Blog

Genre indie gaming essentially is the art of keeping alive that which has been lost in the commercial marketplace, yes? So today I was thinking about two particular genres that have benefited (and really, survived!) because of the indie world: “classic style” CRPGs and wargames.

When both genres were viable mainstream products they were so due to certain recognizable associations. For CRPGs to thrive they needed either a strong, already established brand such as the Ultima series, or to be associated with The World’s Most Popular Role-Playing Game. Wargames pretty much needed to be WWII, with widely recognizable battles portrayed. I’m looking at you Battle of the Bulge.

When these genres were still found on the shelves we would bemoan these narrow choices, although deep down I think everyone realized that we were looking at a necessary evil. Publishers didn’t want to gamble with a game of small, obscure banana wars or a CRPG universe based on some pen and paper game that exists as ten Xeroxed copies floating around the con circuit. Once in a while the big publishers would throw the designers a bone and we’d get something original like Arcanum. Of course since there was never an Arcanum 2 I’m guessing that the public proved the publishers right and the original Arcanum didn’t sell that well. Remember, a person is smart, people are stupid.

Enter indie gaming, a world freed from the constraints of the big corporate machines! No silly ESRB, no bean counters, no need for hundred man teams or selling a million copies to break even! A designer’s utopia; if you design it, they will come.

So why are we still seeing the same ol’, same ol’?

Quick, name the last computer wargame on the Great Northern War! How many Thirty Years War games are there? In the CRPG scene how many aren’t fantasy?

Why is it that in the world of board wargames and pen and paper role-playing there is an absolutely stunning array of flavors covering ever conceivable topic, and yet in the world of indie computer gaming hardly anyone actually takes risk when it comes to game design? Are designers afraid that they’ll design the greatest King William’s War game and only fifteen people will buy it? Or are consumers really only interested in Tiger tanks and magic elven blades that glow in the dark?

I’m thinking it’s a little bit of both. Game design is a little bit like getting up before the class for show and tell and hoping no one laughs at what you think is the kewlest Victorian French ottoman you’ve ever seen. And when it turns out that maybe no one else appreciates that antique footstool you feel a little lonely standing there. Likewise, maybe the class doesn’t care about seeing furniture and would prefer the standard frog, or your dad’s handgun that he never locks up.

Designers: Damn the bottom line! Remember the SAS motto: Who Dares Wins. Go ahead and make some funky wargames and CRPGs that aren’t processed by a cookie-cutter.

Consumers: Embrace the new! Remember the old Life commercial. Be like Mikey.

C’mon, let’s start seeing games we haven’t already played a thousand times already!