Quick — think of a wildly successful indie developer. Chances are, you probably just named one of the people behind the Indie Fund, whose ranks include the likes of Jon Blow (Braid), and the guys from 2DBoy (World of Goo).
Described as “a brand new source of funding for independent developers,” the Indie Fund seeks to work around the traditional publisher/developer relationship in favor of a more realistic and mutually beneficial funding model between the indies themselves.
As Jon Blow writes on his blog,
[…]it seems like some kind of strange synchronicity that we’re revealing our existence just as all this trouble is happening at Infinity Ward. When you’re a mainstream developer, and you’ve made one of the most successful and profitable games of all time, and then just a few months later your publisher and parent company is willing to so bald-facedly mutilate your company, well, what conclusions can be drawn from that?
[…] If Infinity Ward can’t be treated with respect, then who can?
Independent developers can. That’s one answer, at least. Indie Fund is here to help make that independent existence a reality for as many talented developers as we can.
Sounds good to me. The backers haven’t announced any of the games they’re funding yet, but 2DBoy co-founder Ron Carmel will explain more about the Indie Fund at his GDC talk, “Indies and Publishers: Fixing a System that Never Worked.” We’ll be there to cover it.
