GameSpot: What are the three biggest challenges and the three most obvious benefits of being an independent shop?

Feargus Urquhart: The biggest challenges for any developer all revolve around funding. The toughest thing to do is to secure funding or get signed by a publisher to a deal that gives you the time and money you need to make a product successfully and that is in line with the longer-range plans for your company. The hardest thing for any developer to do is to turn down a contract while facing an empty bank account. That's something that you have to do sometimes, since, while some contracts will feed you for a while, you might end up in an even worse financial situation at the end of that contract.

The benefits are that you can do things your way; you reap the rewards of your own success, and you get to build something that is yours. It's weird to think, in some ways, that the stories you create, the models you make, and the code that gets written is owned by you.