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Indie incidents in the month of May
Partially as a rebuke to an earlier article on the subject of the sparsity of indie game releases and partially because they can, Gametunnel has posted an article featuring just over ten reviews of independent games released this month. The titles reviewed range from Lux, a Risk-type game that features several scenarios based on historical battles (if you're a Risk fan, drop everything and download this game immediately) to Eets, a "solid and original puzzle game."An fun little indie game that I discovered recently is Open Fire, a casual point-and-click shooter which was released a few days ago. What indie games have you discovered lately?[Thanks, Russell Carroll]
Homebrew support coming to the PS3
If Sony's support for previous homebrew endeavors (like the PSP) was any indication of their PlayStation 3 involvement, then indie coders out there would have something to worry about. Thankfully that's not the case.We've heard about their desire to get homebrew developers on board with the Linux system to create some unique and independent software for the next-gen console. Izumi Kawanishi spoke up about this recently saying that Sony would "like to see various individuals participate in content creation for the PS3."The idea here is to broaden their Linux strategy. Using Linux World, they plan on giving homebrew hackers all the freedom to build from the ground up. No SDK libraries or support. It's all you guys.This would be a huge step for independent game makers out there, especially if Sony would let them distribute it over their online platform too. There's still no word on the distribution part though, but hopefully we will see some integration on that end as well.
Yuji Naka confirmed to be leaving Sega to form Prope
Back in March, we heard rumblings that Sega stalwart Yuji Naka was planning to leave Sega to start his own studio. Today, that rumor's been confirmed. According to Next Generation, Naka's new company is called Prope, which means "'beside' and 'near' future." Prope's web site (not linked on Next Gen) apparently explains that the name was chosen "in the hopes of bringing game entertainment much closer to users, establishing closer ties between users and us, and creating near future entertainment." We're just happy that Naka is retaining some ties to his old corporate home thanks to a 10% contribution on Sega's part to prop up the emerging new independent studio (a concept which Sega seems to support with its developers). Unfortunately, as the firm "will commit to new IP," you shouldn't expect updates of Sega classic franchises from the old hand anytime soon. It will also be interesting to see who's guiding the new Sonic games as well. Prope will open for business on June 1st. [Thanks, Sense; via 8-bit Ninja] See also: Rumor: Yuji Naka set to leave Sega NiGHTS Into Dreams, onto Revolution? Next-gen Sonic to be "re-invented" for PS3 and Xbox 360
Who needs a record label? Submit your own music to the iTMS with Tunecore
Are you a musician with some tracks that deserve their time in the iTMS spotlight? No one's promising you'll make the Top Songs list, but Tunecore can at least help you take a shot.While Apple offers an online application through which you can ask them to 'consider your music for the iTMS,' Tunecore (notice the hip 'beta' marking) can actually submit your music to not only the iTMS, but Rhapsody, MusicNet and Napster too. They offer what I would consider a reasonable one-time fee structure (meaning: the don't take a % of each song/album sale), and they can add your music to a number of international stores (not just the U.S.) with 'more coming soon!' One last feature to note about their service which might be music to indie musicians' ears: you keep all the rights and ownership of your music, i.e. - Tunecore a middle-man who actually remains a middle-man.This sounds like a great service. I hope more musicians can use it to hop on the digital distribution bandwagon.[thanks Andre Dupont!]
