With the triple-A portion of the video game industry reeling from layoffs, a lack of funding, and a series of high-profile flops, some fans, pundits, and even developers have begun looking to indies to save the day. But we’ve also arrived at a point in time where, more so than ever, “indie” means a lot of different things to different people. As it turns out, many games we refer to as “indie” now cost hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to make. And as big companies struggle to find funding, it’s not like small developers are suddenly flush with cash. Where does this disconnect come from? Why do so many fans – knowledgeable and engaged ones, no less – still view indies as solo operations running on passion, a pocketful of pennies, and a dream? And did independent game development ever truly work that way? Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell, one of the original “solo” indie devs (who has for quite some time run an entire studio), joins us to demystify the time, resources, and manpower it takes to make even a small commercial game these days.

Credits

- Host: Nathan Grayson

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

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About The Show

You Are Error is Aftermath’s podcast about common misconceptions in and around video games. Each episode interviews a different guest about something that either games or the people who play them frequently get wrong: It could be something mechanical, like climbing. It could be something born of narrative and world building, like Cyberpunk 2077’s obsession with artificial limbs and exoskeletons, as opposed to what disabled people in the real world actually want and need. A topic could be fairly lighthearted in nature, like horses, or it could be heavier, like an exploration of how arms manufacturers use games as advertisements. Regardless, the goal is not to chide or condescend, but to explain how we got here and what it all means – both for games themselves and for culture more broadly. Games matter. Let’s start treating them that way.

The Solo Indie Dev (With Mike Bithell)