Indie Game Designers Impacted by Corporate Greed

Game development has never been a very accessible “hobby.” Creating a complete video game often requires working knowledge of dozens of skills. Despite the complexity, small groups of passionate developers still manage to follow their dreams of crafting powerful experiences with limited resources.

At Santa Clara, Maximilian White, a senior computer engineering major and president of Santa Clara’s Video Game Design Club, co-founded the club after enjoying video game development from a young age.

“I loved making games as a kid,” said White. “I used Scratch, which simplifies programming by enabling programmers to code with little blocks. And once I entered college, I realized it was time to start pursuing game development.”

With members spanning the disciplines of sound, art and programming, the club is a close collaborative effort, chasing their singular vision with a mixture of creative zeal and a lot of essential free software.

But with the recent erratic messaging of Unity Technologies, indie developers such as White now must determine how to ensure the survival of their passion.

Since its release in 2005, the Unity game engine has served as a core pillar of the indie game development space. The plethora of online tutorials and relative lack of fees have made the software an ideal initial tool for many rising talents. However, on Sept. 12, the company posted a statement detailing plans for a new “runtime” fee; a sudden shift in their model which would charge developers per install–essentially on the success of their titles.

The charges would apply not only to future installations, but also retroactively, meaning that relatively small developers of past breakout hits would suddenly be threatened with bankruptcy. Unity revised its runtime free terms after meeting universal criticism, particularly from smaller developers.

But the muddled communication of the last two weeks has diminished the reputation of a once trusted company. And now veteran developers will have to choose between staying with a company that may overhaul its pricing model and starting anew.

“With their new guidelines, the whole point is to try and extract money from the big heavy hitters,” said Chaz Acheronti, a developer based out of the Bay Area. “They're not really caring about the majority of the developers that don't make money.”

He has spent the last decade mastering Unity and applying his knowledge to a variety of passion projects–such as the gleefully stylized horror game, 1 Bit Survivor. Through his experience creating 1 Bit Survivor, Acheronti knows the precarious nature of mobile game earnings.

“You can't get any organic growth so you have to offset that amount that you’re paying to advertise with either your own advertising budget or the monetization,” said Acheronti.

While Unity’s policy change was motivated by a desire to capitalize on major studio productions, like Pokemon Go and Hearthstone, the few groups that managed to craft breakout indie darlings also would have been impacted.

White finds Unity’s muddled decision making concerning, especially as someone interested in indie game development. He, however, retains his excitement to enter the industry post-graduation.

“Sometimes it's hard to look at the end goal and think “oh, this might not pan out. This might not pay out,” said White. “But, if you're able to make the process as the main reward, then I think you can do anything in regards to, well, any space.”