Unity is a mostly free game engine for independent developers, or at least it used to be. Photo courtesy of game engine Unity.

  With a rapid increase in video game popularity, budget and scope are also rapidly increasing. Students at San Luis Obispo High School who do play video games are bound to hear about these upcoming high-budget games. 

  While these games promise hundreds of hours worth of content and massive open worlds, they seemingly very rarely live up to their own unrealistic expectations, often falling flat and leaving consumers disappointed.

  While on the opposite side of things, an unexpected boom in games developed by much smaller teams, sometimes even only one person, slowly emerges. Without the expectations to appease higher-ups, these solo game developers have the opportunity to make far more unique and personal games that directly translate their artistic vision.

  “I’d have to say my favorite game I’ve played this year was Lisa the Painful: Definitive Edition,” said junior Charles Flores. 

  “Lisa the Painful” being an indie roleplaying game originally developed and published by developer Austin Jorgensen in 2014.

  There are also many hosts for these independently developed games such as Itch.io or Gamejolt that function as market places for indie games free or otherwise. Unfortunately for these developers, a popular game engine used by many of these developers Unity may not be a tangible choice anymore.

  Unity plans to charge a fee to developers every time their game is downloaded, including on completely free games, which could mean an overall loss of profit. According to PC magazine, Unity argues that every time a Unity game is installed, the Unity Runtime is also installed to execute the game on the player’s device and that warrants an additional fee.

  This fee threatens the majority of people who use this engine and will most likely force many to switch to and completely relearn another. It could also cause delays in several highly anticipated games, one of the most notable being Team Cherry’s “Hollow Knight: Silksong.”

  What might the future look like for indie games as a whole?

Source: pcmag.com