Indie Profile: The Indie Stone

Andy Hodgetts of The Indie Stone – the studio behind undead online hit Project Zomboid – has said that the sheer volume of people developing games for iOS pushed the studio towards making PC games.

“iOS seems like a great market, but one thing we noticed was the sheer number of mobile developers out there,” he said.

“With a single store to get noticed on, using technology unfamiliar to us, it seemed like it would be difficult.

"PC has been around forever, and there is already a large community of indie game fans, popular websites, twitter, forums and everything else that means your game is a click away from potential customers.

“It’s a platform that’s been successfully explored by indie devs for years, and is a safe bet for the foreseeable future.”

And Hodgetts is a committed advocate of the indie community that has established itself around the PC.

“It’s wonderful to be able to make games that you love – if you’re able to fund this then it’s the best thing ever,” he says.

“For anyone who’s worked in the commercial industry and has then gone indie, it’s also wonderfully liberating.

"You’re suddenly able to say what you like, announce when you like, do interviews whenever you’re asked.”

Hodgetts is also enthused by the success stories emerging from PC indie development at the moment, however, and foresees a strong sector future in that direction.

“The ‘Minecraft model’ is a spectacularly good way of getting funds to make your game, but if you go that route, for the love of God, don’t screw it up,” he says.

“It only needs one or two high profile games to collapse horribly with the promised game not delivered, and gamers will quickly lose any faith they may have in the system.

“It’s a good system, that would be a tragedy.”