ABSTRACT
Pixel art and low production values have become the de facto aesthetic standards for contemporary-independent games. Contrary to this, VR technologies are typically associated with technological progress. For this reason, at least on the surface, VR games and indie aesthetics could not be further apart. It is thus very surprising that VR technology attracted a substantial number of independent developers. The chapter tries to resolve this apparent clash of expectations. It identifies three reasons why independent developers were attracted to VR platforms and argues that all of these reasons help us understand the phenomenon of game independence better. The first reason is purely pragmatic. It argues that VR became an established niche that enabled independent developers to escape the oversaturated independent games market. The second reason is that VR enabled indie developers to embrace the spirit of innovation and experimentation which was always very characteristic to the movement and utilize the newly established low-poly aesthetics. The third, arguably, most intriguing factor is the economic void which resulted from the lack of so-called “AAA” games being developed specifically for VR. This allowed indie developers to break from the constraining dichotomy of “indie” and “AAA”.
