"Why wouldn't you" go indie, ex-BioWare dev asks

After working at one of the most respected and successful developers in the world, the three ex-BioWare staffers at Stoic Games are happy to be independent.

"Why wouldn’t you want to get into indie development?" creative director Alex Thomas asked The Indie Game Magazine.

"Working at BioWare was a great experience for all three of us and being part of one of the biggest games ever made was pretty incredible, but I can’t think of a single developer out there who doesn’t dream of making their own games."

Thomas said choosing to self-fund rather than find a backer was easy.

"We’ve all been around the industry for a while and know that if somebody is paying you they call the shots, you may as well stay at a company," he said.

"Plus, convincing a publisher to fund a 2D turn-based strategy game just wasn’t going to happen."

The developer reiterated that Stoic just wants to make the kinds of games it wants to play.

"You’d be surprised how many companies sit down and go 'What game should we make? What do the kids like these days? Ok, a shooter.' A lot of companies are formed before they even know what they want to make," he said.

"Shooters, MMOs, big sandbox games and casual little games are all great but there are plenty of amazing options already out there. Nobody is begging for another game on that pile. We definitely think there is a hole forming around the role-playing genre and strategy games are drying up.

"Publishers would say that there aren’t enough people to support it, but unlike a huge development team we don’t need to sell tens of millions and we think there are plenty of people who want what we’re making, including us."

Stoic's debut title, The Banner Saga, will release in two parts, first in northern spring as as a free, multiplayer-combat game, and then as a full, paid RPG in northern autumn.