Indie development scene is totally punk rock, says dev

The independent development scene is totally punk rock, Rami Ismail of Ridiculous Fishing developer Vlambeer told GameIndustry International in a new interview.

"What's happening is so close to punk rock or hip-hop," he said. "What's happening in the games industry is so similar."

Continuing the punk metaphor, Ismail said the indie scene in 2014 is closer to the Sex Pistols part of the punk timeline than Green Day, meaning it's still in its infancy. At the same time, however, he argued that the indie space already has a long list of creators that people can identify with--showing that what was once niche is now gaining traction.

"We've got our Jonathan Blow, our Phil Fish, those names," Ismail said. "But we've got this really divided industry at the moment, where a large part of the people who play games just know FIFA and Madden, or racing and shooting games. And that's fine. There's no problem with that. But more and more, they'll start to realize that there is more. That's the biggest change that's happening right now."

Ismail went as far to say that "there's no way to go around" indie development any longer. Indie games are featured in top 10 lists, on podcasts, and on major websites, he said. "It's everywhere."

Part of the reason the indie scene has grown so significantly of late is because of the mobile gaming phenomenon, which allows essentially anyone to become a game creator, Ismail said.

"Video games started with just mathematicians being able to play games. Then they made tools that made it accessible enough for people to make more games that were more accessible to more people, and this just keeps happening over and over," he said. "And now we're at a point where gaming is starting to get everywhere."