Games that Esposito describes as having middle-tier budgets in the $2 million range - neither cheap to make, nor as expensive as the major studio franchises - could get sidelined. Talent gets concentrated into certain areas and then budgets change.” “When it comes to bigger budgets, it's a challenge because the industry feels like it's contracting a bit,” he said. Those include the French-made summer hit Stray, about a cute cat navigating the alleyways of a post-apocalyptic city another game about a cult led by a possessed lamb and the retro-looking Vampire Survivors that pits its hero against a constant stream of monsters.īut as the industry keeps consolidating, some developers including Esposito worry that a golden age for high-quality indie games could be threatened as a smaller group of distributors makes choices about what gets funded.

Thursday's Game Awards event in Los Angeles is showcasing several. Add friends, contractors and freelancers and it was still fewer than 20 people who touched the product, Esposito said.Īnd while there's no one formula for transforming an offbeat idea into a blockbuster hit found on computers, phones or a family's PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo Switch, there are plenty of indie studios that have managed to build an audience for their games. At the height of production, about five people worked full time on the game. and European regulators.Įsposito, the game's co-creator and director, and his wife, co-creator Geneva Hodgson, worked out of their home near Los Angeles to lead development of Neon White over the past three years. How long these “indie” studios can flourish is up for debate as the gaming industry undergoes increasing consolidation – symbolized by Xbox-maker Microsoft's pending $69 billion takeover of giant game publisher Activision Blizzard that awaits approval from U.S. “When I'm picking stuff, it's about trying to come up with that rare intersection of something that is offbeat and interesting to me, but if presented the right way, it could be financially successful.” “I have really odd taste,” said Esposito, 33.

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