Local indie seeks to help others

Indie gaming is a tough industry. Beyond the struggle to taking an idea to fruition, it can be difficult to get your game published, and get it noticed. A local indie developer wants to help.

Kobus Kleynhans is the human behind RareMeatGames, a local indie based in Centurion. He has released a retro classic arcade game, Lab Panic, on the Google Play store. First things first, go support his game. Now, beyond the awesomeness of developing and publishing a game, Kleynhans wants to help other indies get exposure.

He has started an initiative called Play it Forward, based on the Pay it Forward phenomenon. The idea is for small studios and first-time publishers to work together, promoting each other’s games. You can check it out on his website, here. What is it all about?

I believe that the little guys, working together, have a better chance of getting noticed in a market currently headed by publishers with thousands of dollars to spend on promotion and advertising. […] I constantly promote my game by doing targeted tweets, joining gaming forums and communities and I make sure that my site, www.raremeatgames.co.za, and Play It Forward initiative gets noticed so that not only me, but also all the new indie games featured on my site gets some well deserved exposure. It’s by no means a guaranteed ride to the top but I am sure that every little helps.

I really like this idea. It’s similar to some stuff that Make Games SA does – the more exposure we can give to these local indies the better. I’m excited about some of the prototypes and games that have been coming out of local studios, and two local games launch on Steam this week: Broforce and Viscera Cleanup Detail. The South African indie scene is thriving, but it still needs our help. Let’s work towards making it as strong as possible so that we can proudly play loads of awesome, local games.

Last Updated: April 8, 2014