A little follow-up to Parkers post about independent game development. Last week I attended the Dissecta talk at the State Library of Victoria. Damian Scott, founder and CEO of Primal Clarity, gave an insight into the scope and potential that the Australian independent game scene has to offer.
Primal Clarity are currently working on Imperial League, a violent first person sports game based on the Unreal engine. They're planing to release the game for free. Then after one year, once everyone is – hopefully – hooked they're going to introduce leagues and access to statistics. Charging for this feature is how they plan to make their money.
This move is inspired by the organisation of real-world sports: It only becomes real fun once your team beats the others. It's also a perfect example of how to utilise an add-on content model, in which the initial game experience is free but you can buy upgrades or customization for a price.
-Jens