The Big List: Independent Game Developers
by Moshboy
The long list: Indie Videogame Developers
I was first introduced to (what are now known as) 'indie games' by websites such as Home of the Underdogs and Gamehippo (both of which are long dead and buried). Back then, these weren't known as indie games but they were simply called freeware games.
Since this time, the freeware side of the independent videogame community has become a beautiful landscape. Videogames, developed by people of all ages, from all around the world, can be found in lots of little corners of the web.
This list serves as a taste of what is out there to be discovered. Consider it an introduction. I hope that someone finds it useful.
If you are interested in seeing some other indie game related stuff such as interviews or videos, please go to: Quote Unquote // C:\INDIE GAMES\ // Twitter.
Since this time, the freeware side of the independent videogame community has become a beautiful landscape. Videogames, developed by people of all ages, from all around the world, can be found in lots of little corners of the web.
This list serves as a taste of what is out there to be discovered. Consider it an introduction. I hope that someone finds it useful.
If you are interested in seeing some other indie game related stuff such as interviews or videos, please go to: Quote Unquote // C:\INDIE GAMES\ // Twitter.
Table of Contents
Indie Videogame Developers
A large list of indie developers, that use a mixture of tools and languages to create their games.
- Acoders [Dev Team]
- A team of Multimedia Fusion developers. Sometimes they work on their own games and other times they collaborate.
- Adam Saltsman / Adam Atomic
- Established indie game developer, responsible for various games, including the popular Gravity Hook and FATHOM.
Flixel // Twitter - Alastair John Jack
- Responsible for videogames such as Arvoesine and Final Vision.
Twitter - Alexis Andújar González
- Won the Experimental Gameplay Project art theme competition with And Everything Started to Fall.
- Alex van der Wijst
- Responsible for a few solid games, developed with Adventure Game Studio, including The Winter Rose and Besieged.
- Alillm
- Interesting flash developer, most well known for his arena shmups and collaborations with Cactus.
- Amanita Design
- Responsible for the popular and ridiculously quirky Samarost series.
- Andrew Brophy
- Andrew Brophy is an independent videogame developer, based in Melbourne, Australia.
- Andrew Morrish
- Responsible for a number of small videogames.
Twitter - Anna Anthropy / dessgeega
- Major release freeware games seemed to be developed with Game Maker, although has been known to use other tools.
Twitter
Interview with Anna Anthropy - Arthur Lee / Insignificant Studios
- A guy named Arthur Lee, responsible for the development of The Underside. Created with Multimedia Fusion.
Youtube // Twitter
Interview with Arthur Lee - Arvi Teikari / Reactor Products
- Responsible for the development of the lovely Once in Space. Develops his games using Multimedia Fusion.
Arvi Teikari's Blog
Once in Space // Bombing Room // FIG // BulletZORZ // Bulletsss // GENERIC // Addicsjon // FallOver! // Excavatorr // Paradise Fort // Jump, Copy, Paste - Beau Blyth
- Promising Game Maker developer, responsible for Armed Generator Doom Machine.
Youtube // Twitter
Action Fist // Fish Face // Armed Generator Doom Machine // Uberleben - Ben Chandler
- Respected AGS developer, responsible for a variety of games, including Man Boy vs Doctor Sock and Shoot, I Got Abducted!
Twitter - Ben Croshaw
- Popular AGS developer, responsible for games ranging from puzzle platformers to point'n'click adventures. Games developed include 1213 and 5 Days a Stranger.
- Ben Pettengill
- Small, little known indie game developer. Started receiving a tad more attention when he released his retro exploration platformer, The Moonkeeper.
Blog // Youtube - Binary Zoo [Dev Team]
- A team. Best known for the development of Mono and Echoes.
Echoes // DUO // DUOtris - Bouncing Fox Productions [Dev Team]
- Game Maker dev team, responsible for the development of Raptor.
- Brad Borne
- Shot to flash fame with his popular Fancy Pants Adventure series, which is a mixture of Sonic, Mario and his own unique stylings.
Youtube - Brian van Bruggen
- Relatively unknown game developer. Has created a couple of interesting games, such as Spees Kwalas and Free Ice Cream.
Twitter - Charlie Ngo / Kairos
- Responsible for the brilliant shmup, Varia. Develops in Game Maker.
Twitter // Youtube
Varia // Kairuga
Interview with Charlie Ngo - Chevy Ray Johnston
- Responsible for the popular game, Skullpogo and Ludum Dare winner, Beacon. Founder of popular flash game development tool, FlashPunk.
FlashPunk // Youtube // Twitter - Chris Allcock / Zolyx Games
- Indie developer, responsible for developing Poing! PC and Millenipede.
Twitter - Chris Nimmo
- Developer of A Mini Falafel Adventure and Uchuusen.
Twitter - Chris Roper / Pug Fugly Games
- A guy named Chris Roper, responsible for developing such games as his remake of The Pyramid and more recently, Return to Sector 9. He develops with Game Maker.
Super Blazing Vortex // Revenge of the Robot Cats from Mars // Destructivator // The Hordes // Orbit Racers // Attack of the Robot Cats from Mars
Interview with Chris Roper
Old Interview - Christoffer Hedborg
- Christoffer Hedborg is responsible for Toys and Cathode Rays.
- clysm
- Responsible for the influential Seiklus. Best known for the games he develops with Game Maker.
Interview with clysm - Connor Ullmann
- Responsible for a bunch of interesting games, more often then not, platformers.
Twitter - Craig Forrester / Ishisoft
- A guy named Craig Forrester, responsible for his beautiful remake of Pushover.
Twitter - Crystal Shard
- Responsible for the creation of a couple of rather popular AGS adventure games including A Tale of Two Kingdoms.
- Damian Sommer
- Damian Sommer is a cult independent videogame developer, who develops short-form games.
- Daniel Benmergui
- Game developer that creates small, cute, experimental games such as I Wish I Were the Moon.
Twitter
Interview with Daniel Benmergui - Daniel-David Guertin
- Responsible for Rebirth and Sunset Runner.
- Daniel Remar
- A popular Game Maker developer, responsible for gems such as Castle of Elite and Garden Gnome Carnage.
Youtube
Hero Core // Iji // Garden Gnome Carnage // Castle of Elite // Retrobattle // Hero
Interview with Daniel Remar - Dark Castle Software
- Responsible for retro-styled gems such as Gravitron and Prototype.
Twitter - Darshell
- Obscure Game Maker developer, responsible for a bunch of small, experimental games.
Twitter - Dave Fillion
- Most famously responsible for Hasslevania.
Youtube - David K Newton
- Primarily a game developer in Multimedia Fusion, David is most famously responsible for Treasure Tower.
Treasure Tower // Crystal Towers - David Scatliffe
- Responsible for some small games such as Xycle and Constellation Chaos.
Blog // Youtube // Twitter
Interview with David Scatliffe - Def-Logic [Dev Team]
- A developer of games that take heavy influence from arcade games of old. Games are made with DHTML but have also been ported to flash.
- Derek Yu
- Responsible for coding games in a range of languages from flash to C++, although his (second) most famous game to date, Eternal Daughter, was created with Multimedia Fusion.
Twitter
Interview with Derek Yu [Indygamer]
Interview with Derek Yu [4 Color Rebellion] - Droqen
- Responsible for Probability 0 and Fishbane.
Twitter - Edmund McMillen
- Responsible for the development of a wide variety of flash games, including some experimental releases.
Twitter
Interview with Edmund McMillen - Erin Robinson
- Responsible for Nanobots and Spooks, two popular AGS adventure games.
Twitter
Little Girl in Underland // Nanobots // Spooks
Interview with Erin Robinson - Fallen Angel Industries
- A former Multimedia Fusion development group, Fallen Angel built quite the reputation for themselves. Their members included Joakim Sandberg and Bernie.
- Farbs
- Responsible for developing the odd platform building platformer, Polychromatic Funk Monkey.
Twitter - Ferry Halim
- Well respected flash developer of many flash 'mini-games'.
- Francis Coulombe
- Relatively obscure Game Maker developer that makes small, quirky games with wierd sound effects.
Twitter // Youtube - Free Lunch Design
- Best known for Icy Tower.
- Gary J Lucken / Army of Trolls
- A pixel artist named Gary J Lucken, responsible for Push-Push Penguin as well as the Miniclip flash game, Acid Factory.
Twitter - Georg Rottensteiner
- A developer of many and varied small games, including the popular Joe Gunn, playable via a Commodore 64 emulator.
- Glen Forrester
- MMF developer. Made a variety of games, including Kaiser Kitty.
Youtube // Twitter - Gregory Weir
- An interesting developer that makes some experimental games in Flash, including The Majesty of Colors and Babies Dream of Dead Worlds.
Twitter - Guilherme Martins
- Developer of Momodora.
- Hayo van Reek
- Multimedia Fusion developer and decent pixel artist, Hayo van Reek is responsible for Bernard & Hank and its sequel.
Santaman and His Iced Muffins // Lily // Bernard & Hank: Springtime Again // Santaman Got the Blues // Bernard & Hank - Herculean Effort Productions [Dev Team]
- Responsible for the lovely Apprentice series of games, developed in Adventure Game Studio.
- Jabberwock
- A relatively obscure but well respected Game Maker developer, responsible for The Wasteland.
- Jake Elliott
- Jake Elliott creates experimental, short-form videogames.
- James Gamble / Jayenkai
- Interesting Blitz developer that attempts to develop one game per week. Responsible for Alien Deathmatch among others.
Youtube // Twitter - James Whitehead
- A Multimedia Fusion developer, responsible for The New Satan Sam.
- Jan Willem Nijman
- Increasingly popular Game Maker developer, responsible for 10800 Zombies and Pro Killer Man.
Youtube // Twitter
Interview with Jan Willem Nijman - Jason Boyer
- Jason Boyer is an independent videogame developer. His games feature a strong dose of pixel art.
- Jasper Byrne
- Developer of Soul Brother and demake of Silent Hill 2, Soundless Mountain II.
Blog // Twitter - Jesse Venbrux
- Game Maker developer, responsible for the ever popular Karoshi series of games, in which you have to work out ways to kill yourself.
Blog
They Need To Be Fed // Maru // Focus // Super Karoshi // You Probably Won't Make It // Karoshi Factory // Torque // You Made It // Pazzon // Deaths // Karoshi 2.0 // Karoshi // Frozzd
Interview with Jesse Venbrux [Indie Games Blog]
Interview with Jesse Venbrux [auntie pixelante] - Jetro Lauha
- Jetro Lauha is responsible for various games, including the ever popular Dismount series and Pogo Sticker among others.
Twitter
Interview with Jetro Lauha [Gamers With Jobs]
Interview with Jetro Lauha [Gamasutra] - J. Kyle Pittman
- Released You Have to Win the Game in 2012.
- Joakim Sandberg / Konjak
- A guy named Joakim Sandberg, responsible for Chalk and Noitu Love. Develops with Multimedia Fusion.
Twitter
Legend of Princess // Chalk // Tripline // Noitu Love & the Army of Grinning Darns
Interview with Joakim Sandberg - Joep Aben / JaJ Productions
- A guy named Joep Aben, who is responsible for developing many games with his distinct graphical style. The games vary in quality. Develops with Game Maker.
Youtube
Abandoned // Theseus and the Maze // Cannibal Machine // Cavetrap! - John Cooney / jmtb02
- A one man flash development team, John Cooney is responsible for developing many flash games of varying quality.
- Jonatan Söderström / Cactus
- One of the most respected and popular Game Maker developers in existence to date. Responsible for churning out countless games in a short span of time. Many are shmups, although in recent times he has branched out into other genres such as first person puzzle games and platformers.
Blog // Youtube // Twitter
Interview with Jonatan Söderström - Jonathan Mak / Queasy Games
- Jonathan Mak. Responsible for Gate 88.
- Jonathan Whiting
- Has developed a number of small games, including Jed and crushd.
- Jonny Smeby
- Underrated MMF developer, responsible for Jonny RPG and Run Or Be Mechanically Separated.
- Joseph William Lesko
- Quirky game developer, responsible for Non-Stop Action Hero and Speed Thrasher.
Twitter
Non-Stop Action Hero // Speed Thrasher // Dead Man's 31 - Jph Wacheski / Iteration Games
- A (highly respected) guy named Jph Wacheski that is responsible for developing many and varied videogames with Game Maker.
Old Interview - Kenta Cho
- Popular Japanese game developer, most well known for his shmups such as TUMIKI Fighters and Mu-cade.
Interview with Kenta Cho - Kevin Oke
- Promising Game Maker developer, responsible for De Toren and Lightmare.
- Kian Bashiri
- Developer of the humorous but controversial, You Have To Burn The Rope.
Blog // Youtube - Krimelo
- A small, experimental, relatively unknown game developer that currently makes small, experimental games with Game Maker.
Interview with Krimelo - Kyle Pulver
- Responsible for the development of popular MMF game, Bonesaw.
Twitter - Lazy Brain Games
- A developer, focusing his efforts on rapid prototyping some oldschool-styled games.
- Leonardo Millan
- Most famously responsible for Fate of Mankind.
- Leon Arnott
- Leon Arnott is a cult independent videogame developer. He regularly participates in events held by Glorious Trainwrecks.
- Linley Henzell
- Best known for his vertically scrolling shmups such as Garden of Coloured Lights.
- Locomalito
- Responsible for the recently popular retro-styled first person shooter, 8-Bit Killer.
Twitter
Hydorah // 8bit Killer
Interview with Locomalito - Loren Schmidt
- Responsible for the popular Star Guard.
Interview with Loren Schmidt - Marina Siu-Chong / MashPotato
- Responsible for AGS adventure, A Cure for the Common Cold.
Twitter - Mark Essen / Messhof
- A popular, well respected and influential Game Maker developer, responsible for such gems as Punishment.
Youtube // Twitter
Bool // Booloid // Punishment // Flywrench // You Found the Grappling Hook! // Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist // Party Boat
Interview with Mark Essen
Old Interview - Mark Johns / Doomlaser
- Responsible for the wonderful Multimedia Fusion platforming gem, Space Barnacle.
Youtube // Twitter
Interview with Mark Johns - Matthew Thorson
- A guy responsible for the development of various Game Maker games, including Dim and the Jumper series.
Blog // Twitter
Interview with Matthew Thorson [Indie Games Blog]
Old Interview - Michael J. Moffitt
- Independent videogame developer. Used to develop small games with Multimedia Fusion.
- Michael Molinari
- Developer of the critically acclaimed %u2026But That Was [Yesterday].
- Mordalles
- An experienced and well known AGS developer, responsible for the popular Duty and Beyond.
- Nathan Ostgard
- Responsible for some charming little games, including Deathbeam and Queens.
- Natomic Studios [Dev Team]
- Popular Multimedia Fusion development team, responsible for The Spirit Engine, ROM and Super Stun N'Run.
- Nenad Jalsovec
- Nenad Jalsovec's most popular creation to date is Rescue: The Beagles.
- Nic Destefano
- Responsible for the ever popular and influential Lyle in Cube Sector.
Lyle in Cube Sector // Peetoo's Revenge - Nicklas Nygren / Nifflas
- The guy responsible for developing such gems as Within a Deep Forest, Knytt and its sequels.
Knytt Stories // Knytt // Within a Deep Forest
Interview with Nicklas Nygren - Nigoro [Dev Team]
- Responsible for one of the most popular and iconic indie games of all time, LA-MULANA as well as other smaller titles such as Death Village.
- Nitrome [Dev Team]
- Ever popular, Nitrome have built a reputation for developing some quality flash games with really nice pixel art.
Interview with Matthew Annal from Nitrome [Free Games News]
Interview with Matthew Annal from Nitrome [Mochiland]
Interview with Matthew Annal from Nitrome [Casual Gameplay] - Origami Hero
- A guy named Bernhard, best known for the development of A Game With a Kitty and its sequel. Uses Multimedia Fusion to create his games.
- OUEO Factory [Dev Team]
- Highlight: Debrysis. Other works include Beltality.
Debrysis // Mujeo - Paul Schneider
- Developer of Gungirl and Gundude.
Youtube - Perfect Run [Dev Team]
- A couple of guys that are responsible for developing free videogames with Game Maker such as GoldenEye 2D.
- Petri Purho
- An indie developer that attempts (and has succeeded on many occasions) to produce one quickly prototyped game per month.
Youtube // Twitter
Interview with Petri Purho - P.H.F.
- Responsible for a stylish arena shmup called Globot Wars.
- Phil Hassey
- Responsible for various small indie videogame projects, including Barbie Seahorse Adventures.
Twitter - Piste Gamez [Dev Team]
- Responsible for Pekka Kana 2 and Q-Lat 2.
- Pixel
- Arguably the most celebrated indie developer ever to have existed, almost entirely due to his masterpiece, Cave Story (which took Pixel around five years to develop). Cave Story has had a wide and long lasting influence in the indie community.
- Pixeljam Games [Dev Team]
- A small team, responsible for flash favourites like Gamma Bros and Ratmaze.
Twitter
Interview with Pixeljam [Game Dev]
Interview with Pixeljam [Mochiland]
Interview with Pixeljam [Gamer Limit]
Interview with Pixeljam [Gamasutra] - Plaid Notion [Dev Team]
- Responsible for Project: Savior, previously known as Savior of Lapratan.
- Pondwater
- Most popular release: The Jeluvian Project.
- Richard E. Flanagan
- Developer of Fract
- RjB Software
- Responsible for Afterlife and its sequel Afterlife 2.
- Robbert Prins / Foppy Games
- A guy that develops various games using Blitz Basic.
Youtube - Robert Edward Hoani Bryson
- Underrated indie Game Maker developer. Developed gems Seraphim Flame and The Hanrahan Game.
The Hanrahan Game - Final Mix // Seraphim Flame - Robert Fearon
- Responsible for the awesome War Twat and G-Force.
Twitter - Robert Lupinek
- Responsible for The Cleaner, Airdoo and Winter's Heart among others.
- RPG Creations [Dev Team]
- Develop in Game Maker along with Official Hamster Republic RPG Creation Engine. You can find Missing and Fedora Spade here for your playing pleasure.
- Ruari O'Sullivan
- He made this kinda cool game called Beacon and is working on other stuff.
- Sebastian Janisz
- Responsible for a bunch of small games, including Conquer The Shadow World.
- Sergio Cornaga
- Sergio Cornaga is a cult independent videogame developer, who regularly participates in events held by Glorious Trainwrecks. He games are generally quirky and short-form.
- Shane Stevens / ProgZmax
- Experienced AGS developer, responsible for Mind's Eye and Limey Lizard: Waste Wizard!
Interview with Shane Stevens - Shawn Noel
- Popular and well respected Game Maker developer, who took his own life at the age of 17. He was responsible for the Jetz series. His final release was Street Bike Fury.
Old Interview - Sir Realism
- Sir Realism is a two man independent videogame development team, featuring Maxim Schoemaker and Ingmar.
- Sophie Houlden
- Responsible for a variety of small but well made games such as Ramuh-Shmoo.
Blog // Youtube // Twitter - Spydog
- A independent videogame developer, making small videogames with GameMaker.
- Stephen Orlando
- Responsible for Treasure Adventure Game, which received a certain level of acclaim.
- Ted Lauterbach
- Responsible for the popular Visit series of games.
Blog // Youtube // Twitter - Terry Cavanagh
- Indie game dev, responsible for Squish, a 2d 'de-make' of a game called Crush.
Blog // Youtube // Twitter
Interview with Terry Cavanagh - The Games Page [Dev Team]
- Small MMF development team, responsible for Hurdler and Click Copter.
Youtube - Theta Games
- Responsible for Ceramic Shooter and its sequel as well as the abstract dream-like puzzle platformer, Mr. Jones' Dream.
- tijital-games
- Small time indie developer, relatively unknown, responsible for an excellent and underrated game called Trials.
- Tim Winsky
- Mainly develops his games with Multimedia Fusion. Responsible for Mysterious Floating Something.
- Tomas Pettersson
- Interesting developer, responsible for a wide variety of small games from Ludum Dare entries to flash games.
Twitter - Tom Beaumont
- Game developer, responsible for Staroid and Ropor.
- Tom Sennett / Coolmoose
- Responsible for a wide variety of small, quirky games created with Game Maker and more recently, flash.
Youtube // Twitter
Old Interview - Tõnu Paldra / Tonypa
- A respected flash game developer, responsible for various flash games including Geartaker.
Interview with Tõnu Paldra - Tyler Glaiel
- Respected flash game developer, responsible for Closure and Aether.
Twitter - Ultimate Nerds
- Virtually unknown Game Maker developer. Made Dadaists Gone Wild and Onwards Jetpack.
Twitter - Vertigo Games [Dev Team]
- Game Maker team responsible for gems such as Liquisity and Vivid Conceptions.
Twitter
Liquisity // Vivid Conceptions // The Winter Solstice
Interview with Vertigo Games
Old Interview - Virtanen [Dev Team]
- Responsible for a variety of games, developed in Game Maker, including Seven Minutes and The Manipulator.
- Vlambeer [Dev Team]
- Creators of the popular Super Crate Box.
Twitter - Wiebo de Wit / White Noise
- Wiebo de Wit. Responsible for the development of Thrust Xtreme and Grid Assault.
- William James Dyce
- Interesting little developer, responsible for games such as Abomination and Supersoldat.
Twitter - Yoshio Ishii
- Responsible for a large number of inventive flash games, some of which have gained considerable popularity and respect within the indie community.
- Zack Banack
- Responsible for a number of games, including the clever platform puzzler, Timestill.
Twitter - Zi-Xiao Liang
- A decent developer of the Klik variety, responsible for the controversial Scientology Pwned.
Where to find Indie Game Developers
It might be interesting to note that the above list of developers does not even come close to covering everyone that has made an impact on the scene. Many developers do not have a website or an official place to showcase their games. Ever since the independent gaming scene has existed, various communities have sprung up and sometimes various developers will choose one or more to hang out in and discuss the development of some of their works.
This particular section is an attempt to collate at least some of the places that you can find these guys hanging out in.
TIGSource // Indie Gamer // Ludum Dare // No More Sweden // Game Jolt // 64 Digits // The Poppenkast // Yoyo Games // EO Game Development Community // Robosquid // Braingale // The Daily Click
This particular section is an attempt to collate at least some of the places that you can find these guys hanging out in.
TIGSource // Indie Gamer // Ludum Dare // No More Sweden // Game Jolt // 64 Digits // The Poppenkast // Yoyo Games // EO Game Development Community // Robosquid // Braingale // The Daily Click
You could also try...
Here are some one-off videogames by various developers that might be worth a look.
Alex Adventure by Alexandre Szybiak.
Between Heaven and Hell by Matt Dabrowski.
Coldgearz by Andy Hamm.
Emily Enough by Anarcho.
Escape The Red Giant by ooPixel.
Glum Buster by Justin Leingang.
In 60 Seconds by William Broom.
Kumoon by Mikko Oksalahti.
Lost in Eldritch by Joachim Despland-Lichtert.
Mountainer by Amidos
N by Metanet Software
NaaC by Bloody Monkey.
Purple by Stanislav Stoyanov.
Rocky Memphis and the Temple of Ophuxoff by Trevor Storey and Stuart Collier.[Interview]
Small Worlds by David Shute.
Strange Attractors by Ominous Development. [Interview]
TAGAP by Jouni Lahtinen.
Tetroid 2012 by Entity.
The Indie Game Legend by Paul Hubans.
Tiltor by AH!
Tower of Greed by Epic Shadow.
Tuper Tario Tros by Swing Swing Submarine.
Twister by Gray Poyda.
Alex Adventure by Alexandre Szybiak.
Between Heaven and Hell by Matt Dabrowski.
Coldgearz by Andy Hamm.
Emily Enough by Anarcho.
Escape The Red Giant by ooPixel.
Glum Buster by Justin Leingang.
In 60 Seconds by William Broom.
Kumoon by Mikko Oksalahti.
Lost in Eldritch by Joachim Despland-Lichtert.
Mountainer by Amidos
N by Metanet Software
NaaC by Bloody Monkey.
Purple by Stanislav Stoyanov.
Rocky Memphis and the Temple of Ophuxoff by Trevor Storey and Stuart Collier.[Interview]
Small Worlds by David Shute.
Strange Attractors by Ominous Development. [Interview]
TAGAP by Jouni Lahtinen.
Tetroid 2012 by Entity.
The Indie Game Legend by Paul Hubans.
Tiltor by AH!
Tower of Greed by Epic Shadow.
Tuper Tario Tros by Swing Swing Submarine.
Twister by Gray Poyda.
