ISV

TheTrap here again. Hello.

Let's talk about Micro ISV.
Independant Software Vendors.
People like me, because that's what I do.

ISV is a fairly new term, we used to be called Indies. But I guess I haven't been in the market long enough to call myself an indie. I've been at it for a little over a year and a half right now. Here is how I see the progression of the indie scene since the 386:

There was a time far far away when a complete game could be programmed by a single guy. All of it: story, art, music, programming. Could take a few months or a year. It was possible.

Than computers became a little faster, memory became cheaper, and videos cards started to support more than 256 colors. So games became bigger and better. Read: more complex and a lot more work to create. I remember when King's Quest IV came out, I though it was lame, but a best seller anyway, and it required a team of 10+ to make, with a million dollar budget. 1 mil? That was insane. It was clear that a single guy could not produce video games anymore, at least not make a living off it.

So time passes. And as we enter the 21st century, something new happens: hot shit starts coming out of people's garages. OpenGL and Direct-X give a thumbs up to developers. Garage Games and ID Software (and others) give away their hot game engines to indies. The Counter Strike (indy made) mod hits the street, giving indies much south after attention. Software E-business sites go online, affiliate programs appear. Download sites standarize the PAD distribution format and pop up everywhere. Suddenly it becomes possible again for indies to actually make money from their software.

inhumangames.com is basically 2 guys. They made Trash (That's the game's name). It took something like 4-5 years. This game fucking rulez. They had no deadline and could tune it as long as they wanted, making it perfect. No marketing shit, no compromises, no boss limiting your creative freedom because of some hiearchical nonsense reason or administrative/marketing evil plot.

Do we need indies? Yeah.

So there I am, an independant software developer, with a puny motion detection program. I just wanted to survive, maybe eat a little. But now I'm dealing with fortune 500s. Can a MIcro ISV survive now a days? I think so. Is it hard? Yeah, sometimes, I guess. Maybe you just need some luck. I don't really know how, but it is possible, beleive that.

Here is the cheesy part: Anything is possible. You should at least try. Am I inspiring you? Come on. Get inspired, you lazy dork.