SAN FRANCISCO--Independent games need to be easier for people to find for the niche sector to continue to survive, a group of panelists from the industry concluded today. Speaking at the final session of the Independent Games Summit, which is part of the Game Developers Conference, on Building the Future of Indie Games, a number of possibilities were tossed around.

　　Costikyan and Morris contemplate the future of the indies.

　　Bit Blot's Derek Yu believes that the independent games sector needs a developer-owned portal where every game would be of high quality to broaden its profile. He said, "Why can't developers do it themselves? The idea of a developer-owned portal to me sounds really nice because developers know what developers want. And with a publisher, it's a kind of a parasitic relationship."

　　Another problem is that people are interested in indie games, but they just don't know where to start, Manifesto's Greg Costikyan added. "There's a huge potential audience out there who could be interested."

　　The idea of a set of formal industry guidelines over such things as the maximum percentage a publisher would be allowed to take from the profit of an indie game was also suggested by Gamelab's Eric Zimmerman. "That would be a great start," he said.

　　Independent companies also increasingly need to be marketing savvy to survive, Introversion's Mark Morris has found. However, it's not been the uphill struggle that it might seem. "I think reviewers are really interested because they're bored of basically reviewing the same game. Like '[For my review of] Battlefield 8, see my review of Battlefield 1.'"

　　He had some wisdom to pass on for other indie companies. "Say interesting things and swear a lot," he advised. "That gets you coverage."