Ex-Ubisoft staff goes indie and likes it

Interesting story of a person, Phil Fish who was working for an established game developer and developing a game, Fez during his own free time.

He quit when he received an IGF nomination for Excellence in Visual Art (which he later won in 2008) for Fez and his boss did not allow him to attend it.

Not bad for someone fired from Ubisoft, who still calls his experience at the publisher "the worst experience of my life." It was his first gig in games, and initially he was jazzed.

"The way these people make games, it's so horrible," he says. "Hundred of people on your team, you don't know any of their names. It's so big and impersonal." Some people find ways to persevere, to grow in that environment, Fish adds — like weeds pushing up through cracks in concrete.

"In my case it made me want to give up games altogether," he continues. "It was an extremely dark period of my life. Years and years thinking this was my dream only to realize it's a sweatshop."

Gaming was changing, the way games were being made was changing and with the rise of the video game blogs, the way gaming was covered was changing, too. Everything was in flux. Indie developers were saying "Screw the corporate ladder" and going off and making their own games — devs like World of Goo's Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler. Young developers, like Everyday Shooter's Jonathan Mak, weren't even climbing that ladder.

[Source: Kotaku.com]

Working in an established game developer is not for everyone. I am sure there are advantages too, but as it seems some people just prefer being indie.

Events like the Independent Games Festival held every March are slowly helping indies gain awareness and popularity, by listing finalist and winners of the event. One such winner was Portal in 2006, which became very famous and got snapped up by Valve.

Here's an IGF trailer... excuse the language.