Aquiris Game Studio, a developer from Brazil, might not have the kind of setup you immediately think of when you hear the term "indie". The company has done a fair bit of contract work for publishers in the past and just recently started to self-publish. One of their creations, however, underwent an unusual and noteworthy transformation from Free-To-Play browser game to standalone indie shooter.
At the beginning of their career, Aquiris was working on tech demos for various companies. In 2010, they were approached by publisher Rumble Entertainment to develop one of their demos into a browser F2P game with a heavy "pay to win" slant. The game was called Ballistic, and it became an instant success, ending up with 5 million registered players participating in fast-paced firefights on portals such as Facebook and Kongregate.
When the game saw falling player numbers and further complications arose because of incompatibilities between Unity and modern browsers, the IP fell into Aquiris' laps. This was only fair - the studio developed all the code and art, and a contract clause ensured them the rights in the case of discontinuation.

However, it also left them wondering what exactly to do with the game. They certainly didn't want to continue with the existing F2P mechanics, which had been implemented at the publisher's request. Instead, they agreed to turn the game's business model on its head and make a premium game out of Ballistic.

This was ki...