After three decades in the industry, Rebellion founder Jason Kingsley has seen a few things. “It's humbling to think we've come this far,” Kingsley said. “It's also a little scary to think that 30 years have gone by.”
As the lead of what he’s dubbed a “super-indie” studio, Kingsley has a lot of experiences in the games industry that are similar to those of a newer, independent outfit. On Rebellion's 30th anniversary, Game ZXC spoke with him about the things he has learned that can be applied to contemporary game devs, and the ongoing debate about the very fabric of "indies" as a genre.
Kingsley Offers Three Decades of Wisdom for Today’s Indie Devs
One of the most important hurdles Rebellion had to clear - and one that persists today - is the act of discovery, Kingsley said. “How do you get people to even know your game exists, let alone play it?”
When Rebellion was founded in 1992, that sort of thing was a lot harder, he said. The main way for a new developer to get its 15 minutes was through gaming magazines. The Internet was in its infancy, and websites were “not that important.” Beyond the effort required to get noticed by print media, working with magazines - which sometimes printed issues on months-long deadlines - meant indie studios had to plan marketing and game releases around publishing schedules, Kingsley said.
“Information flow has been democratized nowadays. There are fewer gatekeepers, like magazines.” Some of those gatekeepers still exist, but the Internet makes it much easier now for indie studios to get their message out to the world without having to rely on traditional media, Kingsley said.
“These days, it's all available to you if you're a bit clever, and if you're willing to work hard, and smart, and do a bit of a lot. “
A big piece of advice Kingsley was keen to impart on indie devs was not to underestimate the amount of time it takes to make a game the right way. He pointed to the growing popularity of Early Access content as a symptom of that phenomena. Once a developer has allowed players to see a game before it’s finished, they may sacrifice some of their motivation to keep going, Kingsley said. “How do you keep the energy up to actually get the game finished properly? You’ve already launched your game, in a way.”
Providing Early Access content also presents the danger of setting audience expectations too high ahead of a full release. “[S]ometimes, people can expect the moon on a stick with a game that isn't finished. They expect something big, and then you disappoint them.”
Kingsley pointed to Hello Games’ 2016 sci-fi adventure No Man’s Sky as an example. “That was a really interesting and clever game, but its release underwhelmed people because they promised more than they delivered,” he said. “That's always dangerous.” He cautioned against getting too excited about ideas and throwing them out in the public square before the actual game design is completely finished.
However, Kingsley was quick to say that he could see some benefits of the Early Access process for indie devs, particularly its financial benefits. He posed his criticism as more of a different perspective. “For some people, the idea of crowdfunding and Early Access is an essential part of their business,” he said. “They need it, because they've got to fund the thing.”
Early Access and crowdfunding are useful for building audience enthusiasm about a project, Kingsley said, adding that he thinks processes have become “a really important mechanism for all sorts of creative endeavors.” But, “it isn't all upside."
“Nobody makes a game wanting it to be anything other than brilliant,” Kingsley said “But not all games can be brilliant. Managing people's expectations about that is an important thing, I think. If you merely promise a great game, and it is a great game, then everybody's going to be happy.”
‘Indie’ vs. ‘Super-Indie’: Rebellion’s Place in an Ever-Changing Genre
As a studio steeped in three decades of history, it might be tempting to look at Rebellion as part of the pantheon of longstanding AAA developers. However, Kingsley doesn’t share that perspective - a contention that points toward a larger debate. “I still claim the right to call us indie, because we genuinely are independent,” Kingsley said. “Chris [Kingsley, brother and co-founder] and I own the company. We're games makers.”
Even though Rebellion’s staff numbers higher than 500, the studio still develops its games “100% our own,” and “definitely” should still be considered an independent developer. However, Kingsley acknowledged that many people consider ‘indie’ devs to be studios that operate on a smaller scale. “Perhaps we need to come up with a different term, maybe ‘super-indie.’” What ‘indie’ actually means in the games industry is “in the eye of the beholder."
“There are gray areas when it comes to indie. It can be an attitude, but can also literally be whether you're owned by a multinational corporation or not. A game style could be indie, perhaps.”
For some of his colleagues, indie games are characterized as “great ideas that are lacking on the delivery side of things.” Kingsley said indie devs might have ambitious ideas for games, but lack the team or resources to build complex environments or detailed graphics. They might rely on procedural generation or simplified imagery to bring their concepts to fruition, he said. “[Y]ou’re using what you’ve got to your best advantage.”
Overall though, the debate about what ‘indie’ means in the games industry is a productive one, Kingsley said - and a conversation that can be had without vitriol. “It’s one of those arguments that you can have with your friends, where you sit down and argue for hours about what indie is or isn’t,” he said. “Everybody's right. And everybody's wrong. It's just a viewpoint.”
Such a debate isn’t unique to video games either, according to the Rebellion lead, as the same can be said for music - and it’s just up to the people in that industry to work out the answer for themselves. “There are huge arguments over genres of music as well,” Kingsley said. “What's an indie band? And when does a band stop being indie? What is metal? What's rock? What's country? It’s up to those specialists to tell me.”