Sean Murray, the resident programmer for 2008 studio startup “Hello Games,” was on hand to represent his team and to tell us a bit about the team’s transition from working at a big studio to their current indie lifestyle.  The group of four friends, that includes David, Grant, Ryan and Sean, has collectively worked at studios like Criterion, EA, Kuju and more.  After working on titles like Burnout and Geometry Wars they felt comfortable leaving as what Murray described as “Young Industry Veterans.”  Today, they are working on launching their first title, Joe Danger! 

The “Wolfire Experiment” is what John Graham calls his public relations tactic.  I can only describe Graham as a PR pioneer within the indie developer community.  His role as PR Manager on Wolfire’s flagship title, “Overgrowth,” has allowed him to develop some refreshing strategies on how to get your game out there to the masses.

What makes this event so exciting are the new ideas being thrown out to the crowd, innovations, and completely honest commentary on what goes into creating an independent game.  You can feel the creative energy in the air and when you leave the summit – you’re possessed with some inherent indie verve.

What have I learned this year?  Here are my newly discovered indie principles...

Me

Evan Goncalo is a part-time writer and full video game virtuoso who lives and works in Massachusetts.  Evan is currently employed at Varolii Corporation as an Application Engineer in addition to lecturing on Game Design at Bristol Community College.

Evan started his career in the game industry as a Quality Assurance tester at Turbine Inc, working on Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.  From there, he went on to become Turbine’s Marketing Coordinator and worked on their suite of games that include Dungeons and Dragons Online and Asheron’s Call.

Evan left Turbine and joined the team at Blue Fang Games as a Senior Quality Assurance tester and began working on Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals as well as their new project that would later become World of Zoo.

After deciding school was where he wanted to be he left Blue Fang and set out to complete what he had started years earlier.  While Evan was finishing his degree in Game Design he worked as a Graphic Artist Technician at Gatehouse Media for a traditional print media outlet, The Herald News.

NBA 2K10's NBA Spokesman, Kobe Bryant. (Credit 2K Games/NBA 2K10)

In a world where gaming satisfaction is only a minute away with the advent of high-speed internet and next generation consoles, it makes me think back to the games of old, and what our new tech could have done to salvage them.  Hit the jump for more!