GDC: Zynga bandwagon â??dangerous for devsâ??

Speaking yesterday morning at a GDC session entitled "The Best of Times The Worst of Times: Building an Independent Dev Studio in 2010," Ready At Dawn president Didier Malenfant warned against indie studios following industry trends.

Citing Zynga as an example, he criticised the desire to turn fast profits at the expense of creating interesting content.

"People look at Zynga as an example of how you can get a lot of money, but from a game development point of view, Zynga has nothing. They basically copied games from other people and are probably not the most fun company to work for," he said, as quoted by Gamasutra.

The panel for the discussion was headed by Attorney Jim Charne, and attended by several other influential industry proffessionals.

They discussed the newer oppourtunities available for indie studios, such as on the iPhone or social networking sites, and methods of attracting publisher attention.

AppStar Games CEO Garry Kitchen said that it is "critical" for developers to build up their own catalouges while working for others and seeking publishing deals at the same time.

“I firmly believe if you’re keeping your doors open you’re building IP," he said.