Indievision aims to protect indies from “the pitfalls and immoral business practices in the industry”
A new association has been established with a primary goal of offering free advice, support and information to independent developers.
Indievision, as the organisation is known, is the brainchild of Richard Hill-Whittall, who got the idea of a independent body for indies during the Langdell/Edge/Mobigame row.
“I thought enough is enough,” said Hill-Whittall, “why is there not a group helping Indies and offering free information, support and advice to help studio owners build up successful studios and avoid some of the pitfalls and immoral business practices in the industry?”
Speaking to Develop, Hill-Whittall likened Indievision to game industry bodies such as the IGDA or Tiga, though his new organisation is volunteer-based; no membership fees.
Hill-Whittall also revealed that a number of indie developers have joined the new group, from Relentless to Icon, Proper Games, Four Door Lemon, Digimask, and Mobigame.
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Membership to Indievision is open to any active indie developer.
More information, advice, ideas and registration can be found here: www.indievision.org
“We provide a place to talk to like minded professional developers and studio owners, to discuss development practices, business development, funding issues, and so on,” said the group.
“We have an extensive list of contacts at publishers, law firms, outsource companies, format holders, ratings and official organisations, and offer free help and advice with basic tax questions (such as withholding tax), age ratings, QA and the many other issues associated with self-funded development and publishing.”
Really? “the pitfalls and immoral business practices in the industry” - Rich - how are you going to change this?
and then you offer a list of publishers - isn't that who you are talking about?
With TIGA and IGDA, there are plenty of resources already available to anyone out there. This just adds more confusion.
But I wish you well.
The organisation was born from the whole deal of the IGDA not doing enough to protect small developers with the whole Langdell thing.
... and TIGA is British only, isn't it?
Plenty of reason for it to exist and many in the industry welcome it.
Well hopefully over the coming weeks you will see many different examples of why there is a need for this, and how we are here to help indies.
And although it is early days as yet; we have already added a fairly broad range of information & advice to the site, and we have a LOT more to come.
"The organisation was born from the whole deal of the IGDA not doing enough to protect small developers with the whole Langdell thing."
Yes, that was certainly one of the key reasons I started this (and Chaos Edge). To provide support & assistance in such cases as Mobigame/EDGE - an organisation that actually tries to help small developers.
"and then you offer a list of publishers - isn't that who you are talking about?"
No, not at all. Publishers are an essential part of the game development process for many, and while there are some out there that are less than honest, many are good. Our aim is to offer help & advice that will assist developers when dealing with publishers. And we will name and shame the bad ones.
