Indie Fund

By: Derek Yu

On: March 3rd, 2010

A group of successful indie developers have started Indie Fund, a funding source for independent developers. The 7 backers of the fund (Ron Carmel, Kyle Gabler, Jonathan Blow, Kellee Santiago, Nathan Vella, Matthew Wegner, and Aaron Isaksen) are investing in indie games and supporting their development. The primary goal is to provide a way for indies to create and sell games without having to compromise their vision or legal rights to publishers. Of course, you’d also be getting the advice of some of the community’s most experienced and successful creators.

Currently, the Fund is investing in a few undisclosed indie titles, which happened “through word of mouth within the indie community”. Eventually, though, there will be a way for developers to submit their games. You can find out more about Indie Fund in this Gamasutra Q&A with Ron Carmel of 2D Boy.

IGS ’09: The Art of Independent Game Promotion

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: March 26th, 2009

Photo by Rebekah Thompson Saltsman, Official TIGS Photographer

Kyle Gabler of 2D Boy and Phil Fish of Polytron gave an excellent presentation at this year’s IGS on marketing and PR for indie developers called The Art of Independent Game Promotion—a top ten list of ways to gain publicity without losing your soul. At least, I heard it was excellent. I had to miss it.

Which is why I’m now linking you to Offworld’s thorough coverage of the talk.

True to point #7, Phil hooked TIGS up with the exclusive very first crack at the new Fez trailer a couple hours later. (Thanks again, Phil!)

Relay for Life – Indie Music Cancer Drive

By: Derek Yu

On: March 18th, 2009

Last year, Josh “TwiTerror” Whelchel and the independent game community raised over $800 for Relay for Life, a program sponsored by the American Cancer Society to help patients with cancer and to honor those who have died. Josh did this by selling copies of the very excellent Spirit Engine 2 soundtrack for $5.

For this year’s Relay for Life he’s hoping to raise even more by giving donors (of at least $10) a digital soundtrack that will contain music from a variety of talented musicians, including Kyle Gabler (World of Goo), Alec Holowka (Aquaria, Paper Moon), and my good buddy David Saulesco (Eternal Daughter). If you donate $25 or more, you’ll receive the soundtrack on disc. Not only that, but Josh will throw in a free copy of his upcoming album for anyone who donates $10+!

It’s a fantastic deal by itself. The fact that you get to beat up cancer at the same time makes it a must-have! Let’s try to blow Josh’s $1500 goal out of the water!

GDC: Oodles of Videos

By: Derek Yu

On: February 21st, 2008

Not sure when video of the award show in its entirety is going to be available, since G4 is covering it this year. It’ll be pretty awesome to see Phil Fish say “fucking” (or rather, “bleep!”) on national t.v. And they’ll undoubtedly blur out Petri’s amazing sign…

In the meantime, hit the jump for some indie-related vids:

Robot and the Cities that Built Him

By: Derek Yu

On: January 28th, 2008

Robot
and the Cities that Built Him is a 7-day prototype Flash game by Kyle Gabler of 2d Boy. In the game you play a deadly robot going on some kind of coke binge. The robot attacks automatically (LASERDEATH!), and the gameplay involves moving him about, and managing his laser charge and various upgrades.

It’s a neat concept – it just feels a little bit unfinished. Probably because it is! There are only two robot available for purchase in-game, currently.

In other 2d Boy news, World of Goo will be hitting PC and Wii first (soonish, I hear), followed shortly thereafter by Mac and Linux. You can pre-order the PC version now for $20.

Experimental Gameplay Workshop 2008

By: Derek Yu

On: December 18th, 2007

Jonathan Blow has called out for submissions for the Experimental Gameplay Workshop in 2008. The EGW is a series of live presentations about innovative or interesting game designs (both WIP and finished). It’s part of the Game Developer’s Conference that takes place in February.

Past games have included Katamari Damacy, Ragdoll Kung Fu, early versions of Braid and Everyday Shooter, Jim McGinley’s Jugglin’, Kyle Gabler’s Experimental Gameplay Project, and Masaya Matsuura’s visual-rhythm game Mojibribbon (depicted left).

Participants are expected to give a 10-15 minute live presentation about their game, including slides, and answer questions at the end of their presentation. The deadline for submissions is January 15th.

TIGER Sauce Interview: 2d Boy

By: Derek Yu

On: November 26th, 2007

2d Boy are actually two men – Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler. Together, they’re living the indie dream. You may recognize Kyle as the developer behind the Experimental Gameplay Project and Tower of Goo, the unique physics game that has you building structures out of little goo balls. World of Goo, the company’s first title, takes the basic idea behind Tower of Goo, and expands it into a living, breathing world.

Steve Cook got a chance to throw the dynamic duo a few questions about IGF (in which World of Goo is a competitor), the indie life, and how their goo balls are doing¹.

Read the full interview here.

¹They’re doing pretty goo… d. Good. Get it? I know, I’m sorry.