Gamecareerguide has posted a new Ask the Experts feature post: Ask the Experts: Console vs. PC Development[^] that I find very informative for anyone who wants to start developing indie games.

Consoles might be a nice platform to develop for, when it comes to possible profits, but as Jill Duffy points out, it’s usually alot more expensive to develop for them. In addition, you need to get access to the development ki, which means another money sink AND a meeting with the company making the console; Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft.

Our [Kybernesis] games will be made primarily on PC, and maybe ported to consoles when we can afford it. Cause I have the same philosophy as the panelists mentioned in the feature points out in the end. Keep costs to the minimum… At least in the start-up phase!

Gamasutra has also posted a Postmortem: How Puzzle Quest Saved Infinite Interactive[^] which gives some very good insights into developing Indie games, specifically a casual puzzle game. But their experiences could very well fit any kind of Indie developed game.

There’s an essay @ Gamasutra about gameplay patents[^] by Ernest Adams. Well worth the read!

I agree on the points he make, the US patent-system just don’t work as it is today.. It restricts freedom of creativity which in my opinion is synonymous with restricting creativity. Cause there can’t be any *real* creativity without freedom!

Imagine if everyone and their cat patented all the innovative parts of their game…. On one side, it would demand innovation in games, no matter what! On the other side, it would kill all indie-developers, since only the big companies would be able to afford the extra cost from using someone else’s patent.
Or it would kill all innovation whatsoever! Cause all the big companies would patent their innovations and stick to them, never straying from the patented path. It would be even worse than it is today…

I’m glad it isn’t like this though, and I sure hope they will remove the possibility to patent gameplay in the future.

Oh, and don’t forget programming code!! As Ernest points out, if the creators of all the sorting algorithms that we programmers use today, had patented them.. There would be no effective programming. I shudder at the mere thought…