Ron Gilbrt discusses indie games, big budgets, and art during PAX keynote

Ron Gilbert delivered a keynote at PAX yesterday which focused on his path to becoming a game developer and his opinion on the game industry as it stands today.

Toting the benefits of being an independent developer, after mentioning that the original Monkey Island was created by seven people for $135,000, Gilbert chastised large companies with "big-budget" business only mentalities, and went on to discuss the "games as art" debate and the Hollywood cutscene mentality.

"The games industry [has become] just that.. an industry," said Gilbert. "Big companies need to be safe. This is why indie games excite me. They have the freedom to fail.

"Games are art that is meant to be lived, not viewed. What Hollywood fails to understand is that games are an art form; they are not toys. The worst way to tell a story in games is by a series of cutscenes interspersed between action [scenes]."

He was really all over the place in expressing his thoughts on gaming. Shack has the rest, and it's a rather good read.