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So Net Yaroze occupies an interesting, conflicted place in gaming history. It launched at a time when hardware and publishers were pulling the ladder up on development, when the closed ecosystem of consoles was encroaching rapidly on the open PC. But it was also a progenitor of the talent-search programs we have now, of how console brands would eventually circle back around and clear room for independents in the mainstream. Just as Scott Cartier continues to work in commercial development, it's telling also that Matt James is releasing a collection of his work, called hermitgames LP, onto the PlayStation 4. What began as independent developers, gaining traction thanks to the well-placed faith of console makers, has come back again. And despite today's factories, where hundreds of employees is the standard, in the spirit of Net Yaroze, individually written games continue to gain ground.Follow Ed Smith on Twitter.On Motherboard: Are Big-Budget Games a Dying Breed?