E3: IndieCade

The day of the independent game developer is back -- and 19 of them are showing their stuff at the E3 summit in Santa Monica this week. The Indie Games Showcase has been put together by a team from independent developer collective IndieCade and the International Game Designers' Association, and it is yet another testimony to the creative inspiration found in a garage.

When Mare Sheppard and Raigan Burns sat down to make their game, N, they didn't sit in a corporate headquarters or even a studio. They sat in an apartment they shared with two other friends. Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago's flOw was a thesis project, otherwise known as 'homework.' Where did you do most of your homework?

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There was a time when the garage designer ruled the games industry, when one person or a small team could change the way we thought about and played games. But recently it seemed impossible for those small teams to rise above the costs necessary to produce games for a home console.

N, flOw, and solo developer Jon Mak's beautiful Everyday Shooter, prove garage designers are not lost forever; on the contrary, the Indie Games Showcase suggests they're here just in time to re-inject passion and innovation into the creation and enjoyment of videogames.

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Alien Hominid, from The Behemoth, with its unique artwork and updated classic gameplay is just one example of indie innovation. Then there's Guitar Hero, from Harmonix, a game embraced by many who once sneered at videogames and have even dragged it into indie-obsessed bars on Manhattan's Lower East Side. These are games made without a committee's input. They weren't dreamed up by a marketing team. They were made by small teams creating the games they wanted to play.

Now anyone with a PS3 can download flOw and enjoy Chen and Santiago's relaxing "flow state" while they control an aquatic microbe. Soon anyone with an Xbox 360 can download and play the updated version of a classic arcade platformer with N (or you could wait for the DS and PSP versions of the game).

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We'll see how much attention these games grab amid the glare of E3's big-publisher demonstrations. But if indie developers' newfound success in going from the developer's garage into fans' living rooms is any guide, there may be worn carpets at the Indie Games Showcase this year.

If you're not lucky enough to be at E3 Summit 2007, check out the scene at www.AreYouIndie.com