Joseph Tkach is the co-founder of Fishbeat, a business that operates out of the basement of his Bellevue home.
It’s a small company that specializes in music-based video games.
Independent design firms like this often start with humble beginnings, but there’s no lack of potential.
Digital distribution and the Internet have allowed companies to spread their products across an increasingly-connected globe, making it easier for them to establish equity.
“There’s a really good channel for distributing these days,” said Jeep Barnett, a software developer for Bellevue-based Valve Corporation. “If a game you make is great, a million people can download it today.”
Video games have revolutionized entertainment much the way motion pictures once did when they combined music, storytelling, and visual arts. The catch is that this newer medium is interactive.
Americans are on board, having spent around $9.7 billion on video games last year.
Much of that money goes to console makers like Sony and Nintendo, but an increasing number of independent development firms are cashing in.
The result is more exploration and artistic creativity for sovereign designers.
Fishbeat’s newly-expanded six-member crew has steered clear of the corporate sphere, where they risk becoming just another number on a monolithic staff.
The company has been making headway, having signed a contract to develop a new product for an established publisher.
Valve Corporation first met with success as an independent firm after releasing “Half-Life,” a game that sold more than 16 million copies and set a new standard for action games when it came out in 1998.
The company has since developed other blockbusters, like “Team Fortress” and “Day of Defeat.”
Valve also created “Portal,” which changed the way players interact with a given environment by allowing them to manipulate space.
Barnett laid the foundations for that game while working on his senior project at Redmond’s DigiPen Institute of Technology in 2005.
The former grocery-store janitor took his prototype to Valve for a critique before submitting it for school, and the owners liked what they saw. They ended up hiring his team to create an enhanced version of the game for their company.
Most independent development companies are striving to match Valve’s success.
Fishbeat experienced some recent success when its first project, “Synaesthete,” won the Student Showcase Award at the 2008 Independent Games Festival in Bellevue this month.
“Synaesthete” is a sort of hybrid between “Galaga” and “Guitar Hero.” It requires players to match musical beats while dodging enemy objects.
An increasing number of designers are bending genres in this way. They’re also challenging notions about what sells, as games like “Guitar Hero” begin to rival past favorites like “Madden NFL.”
“One thing that’s going to be increasingly important in the future is making games that evoke other emotions and feelings besides violence and obsessive-compulsive coin collecting,” Tkach said.
Proof of that was on display at the Independent Games Festival this year, where one of the finalists was “Fatherhood,” a game that challenges players to protect their children while facing a flood.
“There is a lot of potential for art in the way that interactive media can make you feel,” Tkach said. “That’s really what differentiates games.”
Game making is becoming rampant these days with the advent of new software that allows amateurs to develop products without having the knowledge to do programming.
“The tools that are available are starting to approach a level where even amateurs can create something that resembles a game,” Tkach said.
Those who’ve been in the game for awhile aren’t sweating the competition.
“The great thing about digital distribution is that there is no shelf space,” Barnett said. “If one game does well, everybody else isn’t hurt. You can distribute to whoever your audience is, and as long as your audience can connect, then everything’s good.”
