I’m not shocked that The Sport Awards has put video games like Dave the Diver and Dredge on their listing of nominations for the “Finest Impartial Sport” award, however I’m very, very dissatisfied.

That’s to not say that Dave the Diver is a foul recreation undeserving of an award. It’s simply not indie. Its developer and writer, Mintrocket, is a direct subsidiary of Nexon. The South Korean recreation writer has an annual income within the billions of {dollars}. That’s not indie.

Dredge has extra declare to the class of indie. Its writer, Team17, considers itself an “indie writer,” a label not unique to them. Nevertheless, Team17 is a publicly traded firm that raked in over 137 million kilos in 2022. At what level is a writer now not thought of an indie writer? That’s exhausting to say.

As an award, “Finest Impartial Sport” needs to be a spot the place smaller builders who finance their video games with out the monetary backing of a significant firm can discover some recognition. Nevertheless, with Dave the Diver on the listing of nominees, The Sport Awards is signaling that any main company can produce a recreation with pixel artwork graphics to purchase away that recognition.

Splashed proper throughout The Sport Awards’ nominees web page for “Finest Impartial Sport” is the definition, “For excellent artistic and technical achievement in a recreation made outdoors the normal writer system.” The “conventional writer system” isn’t fully outlined, but when we go by the definition that the majority industries go by, it means works printed with out these outdoors agreements in any respect. From artist to market, primarily.

4 of the 5 video games nominated contain a writer. Solely one among them doesn’t, which is Sea of Stars. That type of makes it sound like profitable video games with out publishers are a rarity, which is fully false. There are many fashionable and profitable video games that distinguish themselves on their very own. Even this 12 months, with out having to dig too deep, El Paso, Elsewhere and Slay the Princess have been each unbiased video games which have acquired acclaim. They’re truly made outdoors the “conventional writer system.”

Nevertheless, it could be acceptable and even prudent to contemplate video games that undergo an “indie recreation writer” to really be “outdoors the normal writer system.” It’s because a few of these publishers don’t truly present monetary backing to the studios underneath their label. Typically, unbiased builders will undergo them to get their video games printed on storefronts just like the PlayStation Retailer, the Nintendo eShop, and even Steam. Different instances, the writer will simply assist with PR.

However that’s precisely the place issues get murky. Publishers and builders not often disclose what their relationships entail. It’s additionally unusual for these offers to disclose budgets behind their video games, particularly if that writer is privately owned. It will be extraordinarily troublesome for publications to gatekeep and permit the highlight to fall on precise unbiased builders who want it.

It will assist if publications and the general public, usually, pushed for higher categorization of video games. Proper now, the 2 massive catch-alls we’ve are AAA and indie. Whereas AAA video games are higher outlined by the scale of their finances and indie video games by their crew’s independence, there’s no true in-between. The place does RoboCop: Rogue Metropolis fall? 

Some check with that type of recreation as a “AA recreation” or perhaps a “B recreation,” however I don’t know why we’d need to categorize video games like they’re cuts of meat. Past that, good luck getting a writer or PR agency to explain a recreation as “AA.” It implies that they’re inferior merchandise. I personally use the time period “smaller finances” as a result of it sounds extra like a doable level of satisfaction.

In the meantime, how do you outline a recreation that’s made by an unbiased or solo developer who has monetary backing from a writer? There’s a fairly clear line there, however we don’t have separate phrases, which is vexing. Although, it’s vexing in a manner that isn’t distinctive to video video games. Music and movie have each struggled with a agency categorization for unbiased productions. Options in these spheres have additionally been argued for years with no decision. Video video games could also be doomed to the identical.

What actually irks me concerning the state of affairs is the truth that the precise unbiased sphere of video games is completely huge. The issue is that really getting the phrase out is immensely troublesome; maybe probably the most troublesome a part of unbiased recreation improvement. Even probably the most promising ideas with the perfect execution can have lots of bother getting the ear of content material creators or journalists.

That’s form of why one thing like an indie class in an award manufacturing is so essential to small builders. Profitable an award, particularly in one thing as massive as The Sport Awards, generally is a enormous increase for a small crew. Not solely does it get lots of eyes on the sport itself, however having the ability to promote the win on a recreation’s retailer web page may also help promote it.

In the meantime, Nexon has extra money than the Gods of Lucre. The corporate can afford adverts, a giant PR agency, and the attain to simply get the eyes of the press and content material creators alike. It doesn’t want “Finest Impartial Sport Award 2023” on its retailer pages to promote video games. Nexon’s advertising and marketing finances alone is one thing small, unbiased studios can’t compete with.

With Nexon copping an aesthetic we generally affiliate with unbiased video games, Dave the Diver will get to compete with builders far beneath its monetary weight class. Whether or not intentional or not, it offers Dave the look of a plucky underdog you possibly can root for, however actually, he’s a big-league participant batting in a little-league recreation.

It’s the identical factor we see in movie awards — a widely known actor with no shot at any “greatest lead” wins can simply run house with the “greatest supporting” title. In music, artists hop between genres and accumulate accolades they’ve obtained no enterprise competing for. However once more, that’s nothing in opposition to Dave the Diver particularly. It’s a worthwhile recreation.

I’m not going to let you know all of this with out a minimum of throwing out some concepts on the best way to repair it. Now, earlier than I define it, I need to emphasize that I’m simply brainstorming right here. I’m pulling the “there are not any dangerous concepts” card. Though I’ve been pondering the topic for a very long time now, this isn’t one thing that I’ve been fastidiously contemplating and revising.

With that stated, I believe we must always take a web page from the music trade. Listed here are my proposed classes:

• Impartial – No writer
• Different – Small finances with writer
• Mainstream – Huge finances

There. Team17 can name themselves an alt-publisher, which sounds fashionable. Dave the Diver can compete with the choice crowd. Indie builders who spent their life financial savings simply to feed themselves throughout improvement would possibly truly get some recognition. We are able to say that 5 Nights at Freddy’s was an indie recreation that broke into the mainstream area. Ideally, we’d have a fourth class, however child steps right here. No must frighten Geoff Keighley.

There isn’t going to be a single resolution that makes everybody glad, and I get that. But when there’s one factor that I hope most individuals can agree with, it’s that Dave the Diver shouldn’t be anyplace close to the unbiased class. Builders who need to pay their payments with the gross sales of their video games shouldn’t need to compete with a multi-billion greenback company.

Not that I sometimes ever agree with The Sport Awards within the first place, however that’s a distinct matter fully.