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Hello 2008! A look back at 2007.

This article is part of the ProBlogger group writing project "Reviews and Predictions". Instead of predicting the future directly, I decided to predict things in the form of a retrospective of 2007. Talk about forward planning…

As 2007 draws to a close, it's time to pour a glass of brandy and take a look at what the year brought us.

1 - A surge in online game sales

With the PS3, XBox 360 and Wii becoming more integrated into homes around the World, there was a surge in the amount of people buying games online. New gamers who wouldn't normally buy online were more confident with the idea of downloading games instead of buying them in a regular store.

2 - Indies experimenting with subscription services

None of the big three consoles display prices in a regular currency, but use "points" instead. Several large indie publishers experimented with this method with varying degrees of success.

3 - More success for indie developers

Despite the continuing myth that indie developers can't be as successful as they once were, the full time indie club had plenty of new additions. There are still plenty of developers that don't quite make the cut, but the overall picture was much more positive.

4 - More diverse games

Although clones were still produced by the bucket-load, there was a glimmer of hope as more original games were high sellers. Games like Grimm's Hatchery helped to show that developers could follow their creativity and still be rewarded for it.

5 - Production values rise

This has always been the case, but thankfully it's nowhere near the commercial scene of million dollar titles.

Developers started to realise that they could no longer rely on "programmer art" for their projects, and 2007 saw a large increase in developers outsourcing their art. The overall standard of indie games rose as indies moved away from the programming mindset and towards a more general "game producer" one.

Consequently, it was a good year for freelance artists.

6 - Less programming, more design

Game development toolkits such as Ogre, RPG Maker start to become more popular as developers realise they must move away from re-inventing the wheel. This rise in toolkits really springs from the need to spend more time on production and less time on coding the perfect 3D engine.

7 - The World didn't end

Vista was released to the public, using consoles to purchase games online became more popular and development costs continued to rise. Despite all of this, the indie game scene failed to die the horrible death that has been predicted since time began…

Here's to an even more prosperous 2008!

This article is part of the ProBlogger group writing project "Reviews and Predictions".

21 Comments

Thanks for dropping by everyone!

Ashish: You're right, presentation is very important these days. It's hard to keep up if you're an indie developer, but if you can let some of your passion shine through people will see it.

Madhur: Thanks! There are some good lessons in your post, especially about how blogging is hard but rewarding.

Tim: I tried to think of a different way of doing things, as I wanted to stand out a little bit. I'm not sure most of ProBlogger's audience are into game development, but I felt like experimenting :)

tigerfish: I have been told I'm from another planet sometimes…

— December 22, 2006 at 12:30AM

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