Independent game dev/user portal(s)?

[Preston]

Hi,

are there some "really good" (tm) portal web sites for independent game developers and (potential) customers? (probably two different ones: one for devs, one for users...)

Some of you developers here in the forum name a few in your sigs but these are mostly not tied to each other.
So... is there some portal or such? Or "just" the "best" ones?


Well, just in the case I can't express in English what I mean... :)  For example in our country there are two main magazines for PC games (print version and their web site) and these are well known for developers and users. If any potential customer wants to buy a full price PC game the chance is very high they read one of those two magazines. (Web or paper doesn't matter)
Is there something similar to the independent game industry (r low-budget games industry) ?

[cfmdobbie]

I would guess that the core of the game development community is well represented on the two big sites, GameDev.net and Gamasutra.  I think this here JavaGaming.org is the definitive Java-specific game development site.

Naturally, different technologies have their own homes, and small communities tend to grow all over the place.  Dexterity Software has a good set of interesting articles and a lively forum.  I wouldn't say that OpenGL.org has a community as such, but it has a useful set of forums.

As for potential customers, the Association of Shareware Professionals should be a good place for users to find software, but it's woefully under-advertised.  The afore-mentioned Dexterity is a popular site, as are Download.com, Popcap and Real One Arcade.

And many, many others...

[Preston]

Thanks.
(Gamasutra I did know already but it's rather full price game orientated IMHO)