BUSAN -- Along with long-awaited blockbuster game titles, independent, or indie, games are also entertaining visitors at the annual G-Star game trade show being held in Busan.

Indie games are created by individuals or a small team of developers without backing from big game publishers. The indie game segment is often said to serve as an important locomotive of the nation’s game industry as it is a hotbed of creativity born from pure passion and love for games.
 

Some indie game developers participating in Korea’s largest game expo said there is a need for the game industry to have a “virtuous cycle,” for big and small companies to grow together.

“Unlike in Korea, small game developers in Japan, one of the largest game markets in the world, can have a fair supply partnership with big game companies or publishers,” said Peter KB Chang, who works with Japanese indie game firm Dice Creative.

Such a partnership, which often leads to long-term business relationships, allows smaller counterparts to focus on making games appealing to users, explained Chang, who has a 15-year career in both Korean and Japanese game industries.

Small game developers in Korea, on the other hand, often have to seek ways to develop games that meet the tastes of the big game companies or publishers, not users.

Indie games are often considered outside the mainstream, as they are not confined to popular game genres -- such as fantasy role-playing games or massively multiplayer online role-playing games. They are more of a mixture of genres and themes.

Heo San, cofounder and chief technology officer of MAF Games, admitted tight finances is a main factor that often breaks indie game developers’ spirit and makes independent developers succumb to requests, sometimes unreasonable, from their partners with deep pockets.
 

“Small game developers need their own business model, for sure, so that they can make profit,” he said.

“They also have to be cautious of veering off course because of money and to keep their ‘indie spirit’ alive,” he added.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)