Indie devs: Make noise, get noticed, says Velocity 2X dev

- James Marsden, head of Velocity 2X developer FuturLab Indie games generate a tremendous amount of buzz online -- but only a handful are true hits with the press and players. Getting noticed is hard, and James Marsden, head of Velocity 2X developer FuturLab advises that developers make their own noise to stand out from the crowd. In a new interview with MCV, he talks about his decision to write a blog post for Sony's PlayStation Blog in which he argues the game is "Game of the Year" material -- just to generate controversy and get noticed. "Velocity 2X is a game-of-the-year winner. How can I be so sure? Think about what game-of-the-year means: best-in-class for audio, graphics, gameplay quality & production value," Marsden wrote, with what he calls "Scrappy Doo overconfidence." "There’s not a lot you can do as an indie dev. The Holy Grail is making something that goes viral. We just focus on the strength of what we’ve got, which is the quality of the art style," says Marsden, after commissioning portraits of Sony execs and popular YouTuber PewDiePie in his game's style and seeding them on Twitter to call attention to his game. For more from Marsden, read his tips for indies on his Gamasutra blog.