In the second grade, James Silva didn't just play "Mario" and "Zelda" on his Nintendo but drew pictures of new levels and cooked up ideas for future games.

While other kids dreamed of becoming an astronaut or president, he felt destined to be a video game designer.

Conquering space or politics might have been easier.

Besides a good idea, game developers have needed a distribution deal to get their work on consoles like the Xbox or PlayStation.

And over the years, the industry has been shrinking to a handful of big players that use large teams of in-house programmers.

But Silva is a one-man game maker for the Xbox 360.

He's among a growing number of independents working to distribute their games to Internet-connected consoles with the help of game box makers seeking to meet demand for titles beyond the usual shoot-'em-ups or big-budget sequels.