Sony Praised for Indie Developer Support

[Tom Goldman]

Sony Praised for Indie Developer Support

Sony may not be selling as much content on PSN as Microsoft is on XBLA, but according to one developer it's not due to lack of effort or support.

Independent game studio Capy recently developed Critter Crunch for the PlayStation Network, a puzzle game where a cute creature eats and regurgitates other creatures to get them to drop jewels. There may have been a trailer at some point for the game that involved this creature puking out a rainbow [http://www.viddler.com/explore/sceablog/videos/347/27.184], but you'll have to discover that for yourself.

In an interview with Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25035], Capy's Nathan Vella praised Sony for the company's support of indie development on the PlayStation Network. Not only does Sony provide a free-to-developers engine called PhyreEngine, but Vella says Sony "[supports] the living shit out of it, and they support it really well." Whenever Capy had a spot of trouble, Sony would fix the problem within a day, or directly send a member of support staff to Capy's aid.

Sony was also very respectful in Vella's opinion, saying "Sony treated us super well, respected us, and treated us like we weren't a small nobody developer from Toronto." Sony put Critter Crunch on the PlayStation Blog, on Pulse, and gave the game E3 support. Content is selling better on XBLA, but to Vella: "that's okay for us because they let us do what we wanted to do." Happiness is often more important than money, after all.

The PlayStation Network has a lot of unique content on it, so Capy's experience likely wasn't a one-off. Sony seems to want to make the PSN a reason to come to the PlayStation brand, similar to how one might buy a PS3 because it is also a Blu-ray player, or a PSP because it can play music and movies. I have really enjoyed some of the PSN's exclusive content, such as the PixelJunk series and games like Trash Panic, and hope Sony keeps this attitude in the future so we'll see more of it.

(Via: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/20/critter-crunch-dev-praises-sonys-support-of-indie-games/])

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[phoenix352]

woooooo go sony \m/>.<\m/support those indies dev's

 

[j0z]

Awesome, I am glad that Sony is giving such support.

 

[SantoUno]

Awww well that is sweet. A free game engine to indie developers? Wow that is generous.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Chivalry isn't dead, and neither is the chance for indie game developers to make money.

 

[hansari]

I wonder why the PSN gets less traffic then XBLA. They must have nearly the same titles...

 

[Swaki]

i hope they will succeed in making PSN equally or perhaps better than XBLA, as XBLA is the one feature that made me consider getting an 360 over the ps3, damn XBLA is all kinds of awesome.

 

[theSovietConnection]

Well, it's good to know not everyone is siphoning all the money out of the indie developers that thet can get *glares at Tim Langdell*

 

[Ancientgamer]

diversity is what characterized sony in the PS2 era, it's nice to at least know they're still bucking for it.

 

[Pocotron]

Sony Praised for Indie Developer Support

puking out a rainbow, but you'll have to discover that for yourself.

I would love to see that thing puke out rainbows!
I wonder what happens when it craps?...SEQUEL!

 

[Pendragon9]

A step in the right direction, if I do say so myself.

 

[Simalacrum]

woop woop! as Games Radar says, PS3 is the console of choice for indie heaven

 

[RanD00M]

Listening to Barb O'Reily by The Who and reading this gives me a warm tingling in my stomach.A good tingling.

 

[can't-think]

I wonder why the PSN gets less traffic then XBLA. They must have nearly the same titles...

Probably because more people own Xboxes.

 

[PrimeSynergy]

This is one huge reason why I love Sony. I'm not a developer [yet lol], but I appreciate the fact they let developers do nearly whatever they want. Honestly, where else on earth would you see games like Flower, fLow, Critter Crunch, echohrome, Fat Princess, and many others. None of these games are mind-blowing by any means, but they are GOOD and UNIQUE. Hats off to Sony.

 

[Miral]

Honestly, where else on earth would you see games like Flower, fLow, Critter Crunch, echohrome, Fat Princess, and many others. None of these games are mind-blowing by any means, but they are GOOD and UNIQUE. Hats off to Sony.

PC. Just sayin'.

 

[Pingieking]

Honestly, where else on earth would you see games like Flower, fLow, Critter Crunch, echohrome, Fat Princess, and many others. None of these games are mind-blowing by any means, but they are GOOD and UNIQUE. Hats off to Sony.

PC. Just sayin'.

Um... PC doesn't support indie, PC users support indie. There's a slight difference between that and the PSN situation. Also, I thought Flowers was pretty awesome. It actually showcased better use of motion controls (well, motion-styled controls) than most Wii games.

 

[Miral]

Um... PC doesn't support indie, PC users support indie. There's a slight difference between that and the PSN situation. Also, I thought Flowers was pretty awesome. It actually showcased better use of motion controls (well, motion-styled controls) than most Wii games.

Right, but that's not what I was saying. I do commend Sony for their indie dev support as discussed in the article; I was just responding directly to PrimeSynergy's (admittedly rhetorical) question: you will find similarly unusual indie games (including some of those listed) on the PC as well.