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How to make the best indie game ever: Lessons from J-Force Games
When J-Force Games released Avatar Massage Online in 2010, they were clear about their intentions -- they wanted to make money. Avatar Massage wasn't a genre-shattering revelation of graphics or gameplay; it was a mindless yet entertaining time-waster, or a clever way to buy a vibrator without worrying your mom would come over and find your secret stash. The J-Force team had dreams of developing the "best indie game ever," and to do that they needed money. What better way to fund an indie game, than with an indie game? "We just saw a bunch of mini-games and little apps in the top-sellers on XBLIG and said hey, we could do that too," Jeremy Eden of J-Force said. "Since we needed money it was a no-brainer." The 16,000 people who bought Avatar Massage seemed to agree with this sentiment. But a slew of other people did not -- many argued that releasing a "crappy" game to make quick money and fund a more ambitious project was "immoral" on a deep level, according to the (very secret) Rules of Gaming Ethics and Morality. J-Force didn't expect a violent backlash, but they were prepared with a response regardless. "The nutshell argument is this: There's no difference in making a game for the money versus working any other job for the money -- most people hate their jobs, but they put up with them just for that paycheck," Eden said. "People then argue, 'But you're releasing crap for money!' And by 'crap' they mean basically any type of game that doesn't suit their superior taste. If Avatar Massage Online was crap, why have 16,000 people bought it?"
J Force Games promises "Best Indie Game Ever"
You may be asking yourself, "Self, who the hell is J Force Games." To tell you the truth, we don't really know. All we do know is that J Force Games has released a developer documentary video in which the developer claims it is working on "The Best Indie Game Ever." What is this game, you ask? Well, we don't know. The weird thing is that J Force doesn't know either, as a name hasn't been chosen yet. All we do know is that it's a shooter with an overhead perspective, as you can see in the concept art above. Also, the description notes that it has a lot of interesting characters such as "a modern soldier, a robot centipede, a ninja made of sand & glass, a spider-vampire hybrid, a ball-n-chain wielding samurai, a living black hole, an evil wizard, a super hero flower man, monster aliens, giant bugs, stampeding wildebeests, and zombies ... all in the same game." Well alright then.Oh, and J Force Games assures us that the game (whatever it will be called), is indeed headed to the 360 (presumably on XBLA). Find the video documentary after the break.
