Breaking the Hegemonic Taste Barrier to Save Indie Games

Publishing indie games is not an exact science. As much as we hear about mitigating risk and focusing on established genres and studios with a track record, the games that constantly blow up often come seemingly from nowhere, either as unknown teams, or wild out there ideas. And yet the current wisdom around games business is finding games that match established metrics with an unreasonably deep level of development already invested in the game to prove its viability. And this is killing our industry. This is creating unrealistic expectations, draining small teams of whatever funds they have while chasing an unreachable carrot, and churning many creatives who may just have the next big thing. This talk is an appeal to re-evaluate sourcing games, general games investment and how bringing in more voices to help with these conversations and evaluations could very well save the industry.