Did you know that the bestselling video game of all time is Tetris? Yes, that tile-matching game was created by a Russian software engineer back in the 80s. The game’s rise to fame is very impressive. It started out as in independent game credited to Alexey Pajitnov, but a dispute about the game’s rights eventually led to it being owned by Nintendo. However, in the 90s, the rights went back to Pajitnov, and, ever since then, it has been downloaded and played by over 400 million people (and counting).
What is especially interesting about the game is that it was created by an indie game developer. Pajitnov was not employed by a big videogame developer like Nintendo or Sega. Instead, he started out as a speech recognition researcher and was tasked with testing his company’s new hardware. He designed the game simply because he wanted to make people happy. The simplicity of the game appeals to young and old audiences alike. Suffice to say, he achieved his dream.
The Rise of Indie Game Development
Indie gaming is enjoying a current upward trend, thanks to guys like Pajitnov. If you’re looking for a role model for your indie game-development dreams, you can’t do worse than this little-known Russian software engineer.
Now, more than ever, it is also easier for game developers to be independent, what with the rise of mobile gaming and the current trend of cloud gaming. Both these routes don’t need a lot of seed money to get started. It’s easy enough to put up a game on the Android Marketplace for free, while having an Amazon Web Services (AWS) promo code entitles you to some big discounts so you can use a content delivery network (CDN) to store and stream your games.
What Is Cloud Gaming?
Simply put, cloud gaming is a convenient way for consumers to play video games as it allows them to stream the game when they’re playing, as opposed to downloading it and storing it on their PC, phone, or game consoles. CDNs such as Amazon’s GameLift and Lumberyard are two prime examples of this method of video gaming.
One advantage of this way of gaming is that you won’t run into compatibility issues since you’re not using your system’s internal hardware to power the game. As a game developer, you’d want your game to reach more audiences and across different platforms. Cloud gaming does that easily.
Is It the Future of Gaming?
Many developers believe so. For one, it’s flexible. Users wouldn’t need to have a particular system or another to play. A strong internet connection is enough for them to be able to play on any system. It can seamlessly be integrated with their TVs, if they want to. It’s that simple.
From a developer’s point of view, having your game hosted in the cloud means you can fine-tune the game anytime. It’ll be easy to fix bugs since you could also get immediate feedback from gamers.
Lower Latency Rates
If you’re an avid gamer, then you’ve come across games with lagging issues (and we’re sure you remember just how frustrating that was). With cloud gaming, latency rates are greatly reduced, especially if you use a multi-location CDN. Take a look at their cloud locations. If they have carriers in strategic spots all over the world, your indie game could potentially reach billions of people, without any delays in streaming.
The number of gamers worldwide is expected to rise as high as 2.7 billion by 2021. Imagine if you created the next big hit to reach that big of an audience. Not only would you have brought joy and entertainment to many people, but you would also have fulfilled your dreams of becoming the next best thing in video game development.
