Hobbiest Coders

[Sage Tech]

Do you reckon it's still possible for hobbiest/bedroom coders to write a game that is commercially successful and can you think of any examples.

[Sean]

The first name that springs to mind is Introversion, who've had some success with Uplink (a hacking game) and Darwinia. Their current project is Defcon, which is like the end scene of the movie WarGames. You have a nuclear arsenal at your disposal and the "winner" is the player who wipes out the most of their opponents civilians. A very un-PC (politically correct) PC (personal computer) game!

There's also Behemoth who did Alien Hominid, which started life as a flash game.

That's the closest you'd probably get to bedroom coders that I can think of.

[Sean]

And as soon as he clicks the post reply button another name comes to him...

Jeff Minter from Llamasoft. He's probably the most successful bedroom coder of all time! He did the cool "Neon" visualiser thing on XBox 360.

[Sage Tech]

Thanks for that, I remember Llamasoft, never realised they were still going. Do you reckon it's possible for a team of people with no industry knowledge to produce a successful game?

[Sean]

Yeah, though it's pretty near impossible if you want to get something published and available in the shops.

The Internet is great though, since it potentially allows anyone to get a game out there if they're willing to put in the work. Just don't expect to start raking in the money straight away, that's all!

[Gwen]

Not sure about commercially successful: all I have to do is look at the modding communities for any list of games (Neverwinter Nights and Unreal Tournament are the first that spring to mind) and I see rather strong success from people who have manipulated those 3D engines. The success, howver, is not just because the games are great, but because they are free.

I would imagine that if you wanted a commercial game, you'd have to have some sort of name or reputation, if not within the industry so to say, at least among the consumers (hence, modding communities). I know more than one person who publishes their work (gaming and otherwise) freely online where I wouldn't hesitate to buy from if they work were for sale.