Today we continue our series of Gameblog Interviews. Thus far, we’ve talked with MMO gamers with far reaching blogs (MMOggers?), mmoggers living the dream (and working in the industry), mmoggers with incredible energy and a zest for writing, mmogers that play other games, mmoggers that sing, aging mmoggers, mmoggers with families, mmoggers with jobs. And we’ve only done three interviews so far.

In this installment we talk to a man-who-has-trouble-counting-to-a-couple, bloggist (http://www.rampantgames.com/blog/), indie game developer and self-proclaimed indie-evangalist, Jay Barnson, also known as …

The Rampant Coyote

WorldIV: Who is The Rampant Coyote, aka Jay Barnson, and what is Rampant Games?

Rampant Coyote: Rumors abound concerning a masked man in spandex long-johns wearing a bath towel around his neck crying “Indie! Indie Games!” That man is not me. But if you find out who he is, let me know, because I think he’s the guy who keeps stealing my lunch from the fridge.

The REAL Rampant Coyote (accept no substitutes!) is actually a mild-mannered game developer by day, and a more rudely-mannered game developer and self-proclaimed “indie game evangelist” by night.

So let’s see… I was a loveable gaming looser through the the 80’s, hitting the arcades on weekends and spending weeknights trying to replicate those games or my favorite adventures and RPG titles on my Commodore 64.

I got my start as a pro game developer right out college in 1994, working for SingleTac as a programmer on Twisted Metal, Warhawk, Jet Moto, and a whole bunch of lesser-known games. At the end of 2000, I took a hiatus from the mainstream video game industry, and left for greener and presumably more stable and well-managed pastures of business application development (alas, my presumptions weren’t entirely correct). At the time, I had some vague notion that I could create the games I wanted to make on my own time once clear of entangling “we own everything you think” contracts.

It took me a couple of years to actually get off my can and get serious as a part-time “indie” game developer – though at the time I really had no clue what I was doing, or that there was an entire “indie game developer” community out there. I put together Rampant Games as my own studio, which basically consists of me, plus anybody I can rope into assisting on projects. In recent months, it has also become an affiliate sales channel for indie games, with something of an emphasis towards indie RPGs and adventure games (though I woefully under-represent the latter currently). Oh, yeah, and it’s where I sound off about indie games to anybody who will listen.

WorldIV: Please treat us, by the way, as someone who knows nothing about the world of indy games . which isn’t far from the truth, actually. For those of us who have very little experience with indy games, could you recommend a couple titles that might demonstrate what the indy world has to offer?

Rampant Coyote: One could argue that Valve, id, Popcap, and Stardock are also indie companies, which would include the Dooms, Quakes, Half-Lives, Team Fortresses, Bejeweleds, and Galactic Civilizations out there. Maybe they’d qualify as “Big Budget Indies.” Brad Wardell of Stardock really seems to embrace the indie ethic, and the Popcap guys… well, they join id as poster children for little indies gone big within their niche.

But amongst the little guys, there are some pretty awesome titles out there.

Depths of Peril, by Soldak Entertainment, is my current favorite indie game – it’s an RPG that blends the gameplay of Diablo with some higher-level strategy and a dynamic world with rival factions and quest / plot events that build up or expire over time if you don’t resolve them quickly.

Band of Bugs was done by friends of mine at NinjaBee – it was an XBLA title, and was just recently released for the PC. It’s an awesome turn-based tactics game.

Democracy, by Positech Games (with a barely-released sequel now available!), is a menu-driven simulation of being the president / P.M. of a major world democracy. You use policy and budget to improve your country, get yourself re-elected (with no term limits!), and try to avoid getting assassinated.

The Shivah, by Wadjet Eye Games, is a graphic adventure in the style of the old 90’s LucasArts / Sierra adventures. You play a rabbi undergoing a crisis of faith who gets embroiled into a murder mystery. How is THAT for off-beat?

I’d also recommend checking out Defcon by Introversion Software, Jets ‘n Guns by Rake In The Grass, the Sam & Max series by Telltale Games, Alien Homenid by The Behemoth, Desktop Tower Defense by Hand-Drawn Games, Slay by Sean O’Connor, and the indie MMO Minions of Mirth by Prairie Games.

You see what I did? I proved I can’t count to a couple! No wonder my time estimates of “a couple of weeks” are always off!

WorldIV: A year and a bit ago you defined an indy game on your site as “If a game couldn’t have been made or distributed without required APPROVAL (even if only a formality) from another party, then it’s not an indie game. This includes approval from publishers, a board of directors, a committee, one’s mother, whatever.” Indie, is just a label, we understand, but does your definition still work for you?

Rampant Coyote: It’s not perfect, but it works. That’s the ideal.

Naturally, when you get to distributing your game, you may have to deal with gatekeepers. For example, you aren’t going to be able to get your game out on XBLA without getting Microsoft’s approval at some point during development. The different game portals have their own criteria you may have to adhere to in order to be distributed through them.

But for an indie, the game comes first, and the distributors and publishers can take a number. It’s subtle, but it’s a shift in power. In the conventional model, the developers are commoditized and disposable, competing for contracts from gatekeepers – publishers, primarily. From the indie perspective, the distributors and publishers are commoditized. They can either become your partners to help you market and distribute your game, or they can get the hell out of the way. The indie doesn’t depend on them.

It can be a gut-wrenchingly risky way to do things. But sometimes it pays off in the long run.

WorldIV: Whenever we think indy, be that music, film or game, we not only think self-funded and self-directed but we expect an outcome that’s a little bit different. Is that not also an important part of “being indy” . the ability to be try something a little different?

Rampant Coyote: Well, I’d love to say that the indie games scene is a haven of really cool and innovative games, but it’s not like becoming indie suddenly invests you with the divine mantle of innovation and quality. So there’s a lot of clones and cruddy games out there too, which can be hard to dig through to find the real gems.

But that being said… the answer to your question is still “yes!” Being an indie means being able to make a game that no large publisher in their right mind would want to touch. I mentioned The Shivah – can you IMAGINE EA daring to publish a game with such an ethnic and religious theme to it? Not likely!

And really, that’s the only way to fly as an indie. If you are trying to compete directly with this year’s multi-million dollar, multi-console blockbuster with a couple of college buddies and $2500 between you, you are going to fail dismally. So instead, you handle topics, styles, and genres that the big studios can’t. A major publisher might not even break even on a title that sells less than a quarter-million units. But a tiny studio of two or three guys can survive or even thrive on the sale of a few thousand copies a year. They can target a niche audience that is underserved by the mainstream publishers (like, say, graphic adventure fans), and go to town.

So the successful indie games are, almost by definition, doing something different from the mainstream.

WorldIV: What can a player expect from indy games today (compare and contrast with top shelf games)? What is it that draws you to the world of indy games?

Rampant Coyote: Well, you can’t expect multi-million dollar production values and cinema-quality CGI cut-scenes. You probably shouldn’t expect voice-overs by A-list movie stars. You shouldn’t anticipate a game of absolutely gigantic scope – indie games tend to be more focused around a smaller number of elements.

Aside from that, all bets are off as to what you should expect. Indies break the rules all the time.

There are a few things that excite me, personally:

First of all, the games themselves. It’s really quite experience to find yourself hooked for hours to a little $20 game that was largely the product of one person, and then look at a box for some mainstream, $50 or $60 game that you got bored or frustrated with after only a couple of hours. Then it dawns on you that deep-pocketed mainstream publishers don’t have any kind of monopoly on “fun.”

The other thing that draws me in the personality you can find in these indie games. Modern mainstream games are typically made with huge teams of developers, and unless you have a famous designer behind it, most of the individuality and personality of team members get lost in the noise. But a game by small teams, I feel there’s more of a sense of… I don’t know. Authorship? Their voice? And a stronger connection between the creator(s) and the player.

Maybe that’s a too touchy-feely. But it’s usually kinda cool, if the developer isn’t taking you on too uncomfortable of a trip. But there are some indie games that won’t water down their content just to avoid offending people like a mass-marketed game might. That can be an exhillerating experience or downright offensive, depending upon your point of view.

WorldIV: “The indie computer role-playing scene is not only alive and well, but exploding.” — The Rampant Coyote. Can you expand on that? Is this just a short-term thing, or is it a good time to be an indy game developer? Why?

Rampant Coyote: Man, I hope it’s not just a short-term thing! These things always go in cycles, and while some might argue the best time might have been three years ago, or five years ago, or ten years ago, I figure there’s no good reason for hesitating. The best time might be right now, but you won’t know for at least a couple of years.

But every time I hear someone say, “Oh, it’s over, things need to be done THIS way now,” some indie breaks the new rule and makes a success out of it. You get someone like Amanda Fitch doing the impossible with Aveyond … “A fantasy role-playing game selling to the casual, `soccer mom’ audience? Yeah, RIGHT!” Guess what? Now between her and Cute Knight creator Georgina Bensley, they’ve created what some people are considering a whole sub-genre.

But then we also had one indie RPG developer pull up the stakes and quit rather dramatically this year after facing years of failure. So it can go either way. Making a commercial-quality game is crazy-hard, and making a success of it as a business is even harder. The only reason to try is if you just totally love what you do, and are a little bit crazy.

So I look at the impressive crop of indie RPGs that came out this year and think, “Wow, there are a LOT of RPG-loving crazy people out there!”

WorldIV: You’ve also developed games. Tell us a bit. Realistically, what kind of effort goes into a decent indy CRPG?

Rampant Coyote: I’m working on my first real CRPG now, after being in a ghetto of action games my whole career, so I’m learning as I go… (Okay, I’m kidding on the ghetto thing, quit throwing rocks at me!)

The challenging thing about CRPGs (from a developer standpoint) is that they are typically exploration-based and heavily scripted. This means a TON of content that the player is going to go through for every hour of gameplay compared to most other game genres, and a lot of possibilities for bugs. Just think of all those locations, monsters, items, and dialogs as compared to, say, a match-three casual game. That’s pretty daunting!

I don’t know if it’s the hardest genre to develop, at least for single-player games, but it’s up there. Once upon a time, I’d say, “Yay! That means less competition for ME!” But seeing the quantity and quality of indie RPGs that came out this year, I guess that’s not the case, is it?

WorldIV: As outsiders to all indy arts, it seems to us that indy musicians, indy labels and indy films all have great economic (albeit uncertain) potential. And yet it doesn’t seem that this potential is there yet for indy game developers. Is indy game development solely synonymous with hobbyist game development? Is there room for a profit motive? Is the market capable of supporting an indy game studio? Will it (and should it) ever be a viable-if-risky career choice?

Rampant Coyote: It already is, for some. But just like those other industries, you rarely find true “overnight successes.”

The folks who are making a living at it have often been at it for a while, and are not only good game developers but also have a head for business and marketing. Sometimes they may just get lucky, too, but unless they are running some kind of MMO with recurring revenues, they also don’t do it all on a single game. They keep cranking out the games and hustling on the business side. It may be living the dream, but it’s a lot of work.

WorldIV: What can a really successful indie game expect in terms of market reaction?

Rampant Coyote: Well, if you have heard of Bejeweled, or Peggle, or … hey, Runescape!… Then I think you might be familiar with what kind of reception a really successful indie game might expect. Top casual games can make six or seven figures (or even more) in their product life-cycle.

However, most indie games – even the moderately successful ones – do a lot less than that. It’s still a hit-driven business. Cliff Harris released his info on Kudos Rock Legend recently – it’s not his best-seller, but it’s done really well by indie standards, earning over $5,000 a month for its first six months on sale. One of his earlier games, Asteroid Miner – which is getting pretty long in the tooth – was averaging about $20 a month. It’s a pretty big difference. (Source: http://www.gameproducer.net/category/sales-statistics/ )

WorldIV: Are you at all into MMO’s?

Rampant Coyote: I’m currently (well, when not in crunch mode) playing City of Heroes. It’s been my favorite. I also played D&D Online (which wore out its welcome quickly), and I was hooked on EverQuest for way too many years. I was in the beta for Eve Online, but it didn’t inspire me to sign up for the full game.

I haven’t played World of Warcraft mainly because I just don’t have the time. And maybe I’m afraid of losing my snobbery if I play the MMO that *everyone* is playing.

WorldIV: Have you followed any of the various indy MMO attempts (and successes)? What are your thoughts? Do you see a bright future? What are your thoughts, if any, on services like Raph Koster’s Metaplace, Multiverse or Kaneva?

Rampant Coyote: Amongst indie MMOs, I’ve enjoyed Kingdom of Loathing and Minions of Mirth. I played a little bit of Adventure Quest to scope it out, because my daughter heard about it and wanted to play. See, I’m a responsible parent and stuff.

Some local guys are working on a really interesting (and very sharp-looking) indie MMORPG called “LinkRealms”, which strikes me as kind of a combination of Second Life and Ultima Online. And while I haven’t played, I’ve been trying to keep an eye on what’s happening with Yo Ho Ho Puzzle Pirates and A Tale In the Desert. And then last year I was involved in the development of a Massively Multiplayer Real-Time Strategy Game called “Saga” (www.playsaga.com) which is now in beta.

I like the ideas of Areae’s (dang it’s hard to spell that name) Metaverse and Kaneva – enabling people to create their own worlds. I think in Raph’s case he’s just a die-hard MUDder who wants to take the text-based MU* concept kicking-and-screaming into the 21st century. I don’t really understand his business plan or how it will all pan out. I don’t really see people leaving WoW in droves to come play in Joe Bob’s world, but I wouldn’t have anticipated the success of Second Life or Habbo Hotel, either.

I do think that the place to be these days is in the “micro-MMOs” (does that even make sense?) All the big guys are trying to fight the 800 pound gorilla of WoW, but without any real killer competitive edge to take it on. Meanwhile, you’ve got these little tiny MMO’s that go after a different niche and style of gameplay entirely. They don’t tangle with the gorilla, they come up with some really different games with different pricing models that cater to different audiences, and some of them seem to be doing pretty well for themselves with tens of thousands of active – and sometimes even paying – players.

But hey, I still play City of Heroes, so what do I know?

WorldIV: For readers that might be interested in finding out a bit more about indy games, can you recommend a few of your favourite sites?

Rampant Coyote: Sure thing. Aside from my own humble efforts at rampantgames.com, I also regularly visit:

Game Tunnel: GameTunnel.com

TIG Source: TigSource.com

Independent Gaming: http://indygamer.blogspot.com/

Manifesto Games: manifestogames.com

Jay is Games: jayisgames.com – though that one really focuses more on casual, web-based games.

Those are some of the less developer-centric sites. Enjoy!

We’d like to thank The Rampant Coyote for taking the time to “speak” with us (and for all the excellent links and recommendations). We’ll be busy for weeks, no doubt.