10 'Revolutionary' Gaming Features That Already Happened 20 Years Ago

7. Indie Gaming Development Kits

While homebrew development has been popular with players of home computers ever since the days of the ZX Spectrum, it wasn't until the likes of XBLA and PSN came along that console lovers could get in on the action and develop smaller indie titles that didn't require a major publisher or an enormous budgets. The likes of Braid, Limbo and Fez all demonstrate what can be done by a single person or a small team, and Indie developers have managed to craft some of the best gaming experiences of recent years. Each of the current major players could argue that they were the ones who brought Indie gaming on consoles to the masses. Or so you'd think. But, hang on a minute... Long before the advent of the online console age, Sony were the only company that was trying to get Indie gamers on board. They released a cut-price development kit for the PlayStation that was called Net Yaroze in 1997, with the aim being to encourage bedroom coders to create their own titles. Smaller developers soon got to work and many found their products ended up being distributed as part of magazine demo discs or special compilations. While the scene was by no means as large as it is now, the fact is that Indie game development on consoles goes a lot further back than it would appear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsTC_ogJ4mc