Many have feared recently that smaller game developers would be pushed out of the business; clearly, with better and better graphics expected out of games and d

Many have feared recently that smaller game developers would be pushed out of the business; clearly, with better and better graphics expected out of games and development costs shooting through the roof, they wouldn't have a chance, would they? But the irony of it all is that the exact opposite seems to be happening: sick of complicated, high-budget, high-price yet often low-quality games, gamers are looking for simpler but more innovative and interesting games to hold their attention. This is even happening in the non-indie scene; look how wildly popular Portal was, despite the fact that it was a 5-hour $20 game made by the small team behind Narbacular Drop, with some extra resources from Valve. If anything, its release far overshadowed the higher-profile and higher-budget Half-Life Episode 2. Of course, the biggest chance for indie developers to make their debut is in genres that are classically inexpensive to develop games for: strategy games, adventure games, old-fashioned RPGs, shooters, etc. One example of this is the wildly popular (at least in Japan) Touhou shmup series; a total of 7 PC shooter games (plus the 5 older PC-98 games) all made by a single developer, despite the fact that he has a day job, too. The games are so successful that there's an entire convention each year dedicated solely to products related to his games--and yet despite the success, the only ones involved in production are that single developer and his many, many beers. Xbox Live Arcade is a perfect ground for promoting such games; if you put a low-priced game that looks interesting in front of the eyes of tens of millions of people with points to spend, you're sure to get loads of sales.