The slides from my talk at Sweden game conference 2017. Abstract: 10 years ago, indie had not yet become a force to reckon with, and the stories that the game industry told were mostly about big dudes with machine guns. Having this talk then would have been much easier. If someone had told you back then that a big console launch would have two lesbian teenagers as the focus of their story, you wouldn’t have believed them. But a decade later indie has influenced and broadened the kind of stories that both big and small games studios are telling. This talk will give some ideas to how that happened, but also on an overview on what areas are still left unexplored by the AAA industry, the areas where indie can still break new ground and stand out amongst their more well-financed competitors.

1. Writing Indie
-Telling the stories that AAA can’t

2. Todays Talk
 Why does AAA matter?
 USP:s & Innovation
 In defence of the idea guy
 A decade of stories in games
 When did indie take over narrative?
 What has changed in AAA storytelling?
 Aiming for the edge
 Find new stories to tell
 Find new ways to tell them
 A theory of what indie does best
 Some advice about advice
 Questions

3. Why does AAA matter?
 A lumbering hulk of content
 Indie-cates the direction the industry is moving
 Indies are laying the tracks far ahead
 Indies act as risk takers and data points for AAA
 ”If they did it, we can do it bigger and better”

4. What are ideas worth?
By themselves
This does not mean they are unimportant
USP:s are the most important thing
Ideas are multipliers
 Hard work * great idea > Hard work * average idea
 There is more to the formula
 The Blizzard busines model

5. A decade of stories in games: 2007
 Bioshock
 Assasin’s Creed
 Call of Duty 4 – Modern Warfare
 Uncharted

6. A decade of stories in games: 2008
 Fallout 3
 Braid
 Left 4 Dead
 Metal Gear Solid 4

7. A decade of stories in games: 2009
 Dragon Age: Origins
 Borderlands
 Batman: Arkham Asylum
 Mirror’s Edge

8. A decade of stories in games: 2010
 Mass Effect 2
 Fallout: New Vegas
 Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands
 Metro 2033

9. A decade of stories in games: 2011
 Skyrim
 Portal 2
 Bastion
 To the Moon

10. A decade of stories in games: 2012
 The Walking Dead
 Journey
 Far Cry 3
 Spec Ops: The Line
 Dear Esther

11. A decade of stories in games: 2013
 Gone Home
 Bioshock: Infinite
 The Last of Us
 Brothers: A Tale of two sons
 Stanley Parable
 Papers, please

12. A decade of stories in games: 2014
 This War of Mine
 Year walk
 Divinity: Original Sin
 Child of Light

13. A decade of stories in games: 2015
 Undertale
 Pillars of Eternity
 SOMA
 Her Story
 Beginner’s Guide

14. A decade of stories in games: 2016
 Firewatch
 Inside
 1979 Revolution: Black Friday
 That Dragon, Cancer
 Rise of the Tomb Raider

15. A decade of stories in games: 2017
 What Remains of Edith Finch
 Tacoma
 Prey
 Divinity: Original Sin II

16. A decade of stories in games: 2007-2017

17. A theory of what indies do best
 Don’t try to compete on scale, scope or polish
 Misstakes were made: Magnetic
 An old story in a (somewhat) new way
 Find new stories to tell, in new ways
 Personal stories
 People like us
 Use new tools/frameworks to tell them

18. Some advice about advice

19. Questions?
@Cardanai
Email: Daniel.strom@gurugames.se