I read an article over at the DesignFallout Blog about the widening appeal and yet low attention given to puzzle games. One of the links in that article was for an Indie MMO called Puzzle Pirates. I was at the Game Developer Conference a few year’s ago when the game was first being presented by the folks at 3 Rings. It was such an inspiration to see that what was once considered impossible, that is development of an MMO by an indie team, had been done and done very well. I played the game and really enjoyed it.
At the 2008 GDC conference I learned of another MMO that was completely designed, published, and operated by an indie… and I mean 1 indie, 1 person! – Gene Endrody. Check out Sherwood Dungeon by Maid Marian Entertainment, Inc, its a free online browser based game. At Gene’s talk at the conference he told us that not only had he succeeded in publishing the game but it was a financial success using an advertising based model. He was at that time just starting to think about taking on employees to continue the game expansion. Talk about an inspiration to indies!
Overall I agree with the pundits who say that an Indie developer shouldn’t take on an MMO as their first game, or perhaps even their second, or third. Most of the time the challenges will be too great to overcome. But to see a few successes despite that advice is still a wonderful thing.
Back to puzzles… We have all seen that the simplest of casual games can change the world when done with quality and endowed with a great distribution channel, eg.Window’s solitaire and its children. Whether embeded in larger game systems as mini-games (Puzzle Pirates, Myst, etc.) or simple stand alone like Tetris, puzzle games are definitely a genre for Indie game developers to pursue with gusto.