Indievania
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Indievania doesn't want your dirty, stinkin' money, but its indie devs might
Indie-game developer Lee Vermeulen began Indievania with a dream, a dog and a 9 percent rate for hosting indie games -- now his dream is coming true, the 9 percent rate has transformed to 0 percent and the dog has mutated into a dashing young prince (OK, maybe we lied about the dog). Just as magical though, Indievania doesn't keep any of the money developers charge for their games, which is exactly how Vermeulen wanted his site to operate. "The original plan for Indievania was always to take 0 percent commission; that's the reason I started developing it," Vermeulen told Joystiq. "I wanted it to be a completely developer-focused marketplace. The beta version of the site was initially released with a 9% commission because we weren't sure the costs to run the site -- bandwidth, maintenance -- but after launching that we decided the costs were low enough to go back to our original plan." Indievania now hosts dozens of indie titles, DRM-free and cross-platform, including high-profile titles such as 2011's Dream Build Play winner Blocks that Matter and Vermeulen's indie gem Capsized. Developers set their own prices and retain complete control over their games, able to build packs with other devs and change their rates at will, with all money streaming directly into their own PayPal accounts -- in case all these numbers and words have been confusing, Indievania devs keep 100 percent of the profit.
Indievania makes a comfy home for indie developers and their games
Independent development can be a long and laborious road, but Capsized creator Lee Vermeulen is hoping to make it a little smoother with Indievania, a new open platform where developers can sell and promote their indie darlings. Indievania is a direct-to-fan, DRM-free platform, where developers will interact directly with potential players, eliminating any middle-men and their exorbitant fees. In beta, Indievania is currently offering four games, BEEP, Steel Storm, and two of Vermeulen's Alientrap creations, Capsized and Nexuiz Classic. Indievania will host alpha, beta and prototype game versions for developers to raise title awareness, and asks only 9 percent for hosting a game, much lower than the industry-standard 30 percent. Payments are only accepted through PayPal now, but Vermeulen plans to add Google Checkout and Amazon Payments later. Developers can submit a game and have it selling within one day, with complete control over their store page and price. Games will be featured, front-page style, according to popularity or overall quality. Indievania sounds like a wonderful opportunity for independent developers -- at least, unlike Dracula's -vania, we don't think it will completely suck.
