They say that the epoch of the independent game studio is done with. As games become a more gigantic market every year, leapfrogging things like movies, and selling a huge number of units with each new big game, the industry has found itself gravitating towards a kind of blockbuster mentality.

Grand Theft Auto Takes a Long Time to Make

To find once again the stunning experiences and 30 hours worth of shockingly good gameplay inside a game like Grand Theft Auto 4, squads of tons of developers are obligatory. Budgets are gargantuan, and profits are expected to be big, too. While games like this are great, they take a distortedly big part of the market, as Hollywood blockbusters do, and they often pervert the rest of the industry in weird ways.

Films are a helpful comparison here, because it is essentially the same thing: a great movie is a excellent movie, quite separate from budget, and the same works for games. There are thousands of little top games out there that just don't have a way into the right distribution channels. And how many crappy movies or crappy games—from big studios—have you seen or bought in the last several years?

The Danger of Applying the Hollywood Style to Big Video Games

One of the fundamental concerns with creating videogames on the Hollywood scale is that a vision of good, enjoyable gameplay gets lost under all the other things that have to go into a major property—just like the story of a huge Hollywood film can often be hidden underneath layers of special effects. With a small development group, this doesn't happen—it's all about the game itself, the quality of it all—whether or not it's fun to play, made well, and gives gamers repeated enjoyment is fundamentally all that counts.

The truth is that just because it's widely hyped up in the store doesn't automatically imply it's quality. And so the question becomes: how do we get to those independent titles, those not-gigantic publishers publishing solid, tried-and-true titles that aren't being publicized on the internet or constantly linked and discussed?

Can Indie Games be Found Online?

Looking online remains the top choice. You can find publishers selling great games that are built on real values: like classic gameplay that keeps you coming back for more. Lacking the massive amounts of money, storied histories, and big development teams that the conglomerates have, little game designers are coding titles that don't have the privilege of thrilling the gamer through flashy visuals alone: they need to be wonderful games above all else.

Although a few big game publishers have come to this realization, and have started fostering small developers to go crazy with their crazy dreams, most of the best, small, classic games are being put out by designers you've never noticed before.

Sure, Distribution is Changing, but the Old Methods Continue to Work Great

While everyone chatters on new ways of sending out material, the ones that are already established are still very much useful: many of the best, most under-appreciated indie classic films can still be found at your neighborhood DVD shop, and many of the most enjoyable, independent games can be found online, coming to you at extremely low prices—you get all the great advantages of a box, a manual, something aesthetic to hold, but you aren't paying insane prices.

Next time you're searching for a truly great game, don't just look at the big names. Remember that the big conglomerates churn out their portion of high-priced junk, and that little designer you've never heard of might have just developed your next top game.