Art Patronage in Games

It's always interesting what kind of market scenarios will induce innovation in a medium. Saturation, for example, means that in order to stand out you're going to have to do something new. As the FPS reaches an all-time glut, companies are trying to do more innovative content or game designs to stay distinct. Another example would be reducing the costs of production so that the barrier for the more eclectic artists is not quite so high. As the indie scene continues to expand and outpace AAA games, it's impressive that the only thing holding many folks back is simply motivation.

Which can be a very tricky thing to maintain. It's hard to justify the labor, particularly the massive amounts that go into games, when you're not getting paid. It's even harder when the thing you're making is strange and probably won't sell. And yet it's those kinds of games in particular that need to be made the most right now. You don't need thousands of people to think your game is awesome.

You just need the one person who can foot the bill.