Small IndieBox delivers freedom to gamers
Raider Times photo / Courtesy IndieBox
The packaging for the limited edition retail version of Super Win the Game, available via IndieBox.
April 12, 2015
IndieBox is a upcoming and unique company whose goal is to provide gamers with monthly boxes of games and gaming paraphernalia.
IndieBox is all about having physical copies of the game because everything is digitized now as technology is beginning to take hold of the modern world. The company ships games that are made by small developers, promoting those small developers and having them gain popularity. IndieBox wants to promote the small tight-knit community that can be formed between the gamers and developers.
In the main lobby of the Boston Convention and Exposition Center on the night before Pax East was to open, we met with one of the company’s full-time employee, Liv Sagan, who is known as the “marketing overlord.” She described how the company got started and how it works.
IndieBox recently partnered with Image & Form to release a special edition of the steam-driven robot platform adventure SteamWorld Dig.
Because of the convention, it was a very busy week so we were lucky to get some one-on-one time with her. We all sat on the floor underneath one of the escalators in the Convention Center’s main lobby and we had a very casual conversation about IndieBox and what they stood for.
We asked about the size of the company, and she responded with laughter.
“We really only have four full-time employees at the moment,’’ she said. “But don’t worry, we’re in the process for hiring more.”
All around us, people were rushing around setting up booths and moving inventory. According to Liv, IndieBox is very meticulous when it is picking out games and shipping them. IndieBox deals directly with the developer and then all of the boxes are handmade and personally packed before they are shipped.
IndieBox has high standards as to what games makes the cut. The most important thing about the game is that it has to appeal to the employees of IndieBox themselves. Liv stresses this to us, without that, there is no way the game will be shipped.
Another unique thing about IndieBox is that it ships games DRM free. DRM — Digital Rights Management — allows players to share the game with as many people as they want. It can be downloaded physically onto a computer and then a person can head over to a friend’s house to give it to them as well.
IndieBox gets many of its new subscribers from events such as Pax East and from Youtubers who make “unboxing” videos. After events such as Pax East, the company see more than a 50 percent increase in box orders.
The company has many interns, but getting a paying job at IndieBox can be difficult because it is still a small company.
The contents of the collector’s edition of Rogue Legacy from Cellar Door Games, recently available via IndieBox.
IndieBox was excited for Pax East because the employees love meeting fans and making friends with other people who have booths at the event. The people at IndieBox believe in the values of family and want to pay it forward to smaller companies.
Liv and the rest of the IndieBox team were really excited to add an artist to their tight-knit family because the company was in need of someone else to work full time who has artistic ability and a creative mind to grow and spread their family.
She said that “IndieBox is more than just a company, it’s a family, and families fight, but at the end of the day we all still love each other and work together.”
IndieBox is headed places and, with companies like Twitch helping them out, it’s only a matter of time before they make it to the top.
(If you want to hear what the fans are saying, go to IndieBox’s website (https://theindiebox.com/), search the hashtag #bringbackthebox on Twitter, or check out Liv’s twitter @Indieboxliv.)
–April 12, 2015–
