Support NeoGAF

[wilflare]

I think the stereotype for indies is they are usually 2D games or games that aren't really that fun, and not everyone likes 2D games, but if you look in the right place, I believe you will find it.

Here are some upcoming 3D indie games.

And tons of others I missed.

I want that last one on my Vita :O

 

[Meelow]

Is there are a release date for any of these, or anywhere I can find out more about them?

No release dates yet, but the first picture is from "Anima Gates of Memories", the second picture is from "Project Y2K" and the third picture is from "A Hat in Time".

Thanks! By and large I'd say I'm not the greatest fan of the indie games I've experienced, but some look quite intriguing. I'll look into these

No problem

 

[Shahed]

No release dates yet, but the first picture is from "Anima Gates of Memories", the second picture is from "Project Y2K" and the third picture is from "A Hat in Time".

Thanks! By and large I'd say I'm not the greatest fan of the indie games I've experienced, but some look quite intriguing. I'll look into these

 

[chubigans]

I'm honestly more shocked at how hard Nintendo is going after the indies. They've turned everything around in just a few months. Good on them.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

How many games do Sony and Nintendo have on their dedicated indie games services? This many?.....

I'm not going to say Microsoft hasn't done good things for indies in the past, but XBLA has been hijacked by large publishers. XBLIG is a nightmare to navigate.

That Anima game looks great, I hope it's better than the Wiiware games, that one let me down. I thought it was going to be something like Castlevania.

 

[Game Guru]

I like to think that people at the top of both companies were people who made (or wanted to make) games independently, even if the corporate sides of both have gotten in the way of that.

Those are great alternative summaries though.

True, mine is just slightly more cynical, but hey, if they really do love independent games, that's even better. A great game is a great game, no matter how big or small their developers are.

 

[surly]

I'm not going to say Microsoft hasn't done good things for indies in the past, but XBLA has been hijacked by large publishers.

I dunno. Look at the top 2 speakers on the list in the OP and the games they've made.

Mark of the Ninja = 360 & Windows
Skulls of the Shogun = 360, Windows & Windows Phone

Even Space Channel 5 was released on the 360 and not the PS3.

XBLIG is a nightmare to navigate.

How so? The games are split into 15 genres which you can browse individually. You can sort by release date, best selling (all time), best selling (today), alphabetically and by user rating. How is that a "nightmare"?

The UK PSN store doesn't even have a section for Minis. The US one does, but not here. The only way to find them is if you randomly come across them or you know what you want and you search by name. That's more of a "nightmare" IMO.

 

[Miles X]

MS hasn't announced Durango and yes that is why we're not hearing from them about indies (along with all other SW for the console)

People act like MS don't give a shit, they've done too much this gen to prove otherwise, and when they do finally reveal Durango I'm sure Indies will have a place (again)

 

[Melchiah]

Microsoft showed support of the indie developers years before Sony and Nintendo did?

PS1 had Net Yaroze.

 

[lamaroo]

I dunno. Look at the top 2 speakers on the list in the OP and the games they've made.

Mark of the Ninja = 360 & Windows
Skulls of the Shogun = 360, Windows & Windows Phone

Even Space Channel 5 was released on the 360 and not the PS3.


How so? The games are split into 15 genres which you can browse individually. You can sort by release date, best selling (all time), best selling (today), alphabetically and by user rating. How is that a "nightmare"?

The UK PSN store doesn't even have a section for Minis. The US one does, but not here. The only way to find them is if you randomly come across them or you know what you want and you search by name. That's more of a "nightmare" IMO.

Those games are only on the 360 because Microsoft forces exclusivity on them.

 

[Quasar]

I'm not going to say Microsoft hasn't done good things for indies in the past, but XBLA has been hijacked by large publishers. XBLIG is a nightmare to navigate.

At least you had XBLIG.

 

[surly]

Those games are only on the 360 because Microsoft forces exclusivity on them.

I don't see what relevance that has. It's just goalpost shifting.

"360 has no indies!"
"It has nearly 3,000 games on the Indie Games service!"
"But MS buried that!"
"No they didn't - look here!"
"Those indie games don't count! All 3,000 of them are shit!"
"OK, what about games like Mark of the Ninja and Skulls of the Shogun?"
"But MS paid for those to be exclusive!"
"Why does that matter?"
"Because it does!!!!!"

 

[fabricated backlash]

I don't see what relevance that has. It's just goalpost shifting.

"360 has no indies!"
"It has nearly 3,000 games on the Indie Games service!"
"But MS buried that!"
"No they didn't - look here!"
"Those indie games don't count! All 3,000 of them are shit!"
"OK, what about games like Mark of the Ninja and Skulls of the Shogun?"
"But MS paid for those to be exclusive!"
"Why does that matter?"
"Because it does!!!!!"

There's no XBLIG in Austria for example.

 

[lamaroo]

I don't see what relevance that has. It's just goalpost shifting.

"360 has no indies!"
"It has nearly 3,000 games on the Indie Games service!"
"But MS buried that!"
"No they didn't - look here!"
"Those indie games don't count! All 3,000 of them are shit!"
"OK, what about games like Mark of the Ninja and Skulls of the Shogun?"
"But MS paid for those to be exclusive!"
"Why does that matter?"
"Because it does!!!!!"

I'm not saying those games would skip the 360 otherwise. I'm saying if Microsoft didn't force them into exclusivity to release it on 360, they would have hit the PS3 too.

Quit being so defensive.

 

[surly]

There's no XBLIG in Austria for example.

You can make a UK or USA account and access them.

I'm saying if Microsoft didn't force them into exclusivity to release it on 360, they would have hit the PS3 too.

But what point are you trying to make? Why does that even matter? There are games on PS3 that are tied to that platform because of contracts, but that doesn't matter either. It's still a Sony exclusive. Why it's a Sony exclusive is irrelevant. The devs still chose to take that exclusivity contract over putting their games on any, or all of the other available services.

 

[Kenshin001]

I don't see what relevance that has. It's just goalpost shifting.

"360 has no indies!"
"It has nearly 3,000 games on the Indie Games service!"
"But MS buried that!"
"No they didn't - look here!"
"Those indie games don't count! All 3,000 of them are shit!"
"OK, what about games like Mark of the Ninja and Skulls of the Shogun?"
"But MS paid for those to be exclusive!"
"Why does that matter?"
"Because it does!!!!!"

You are doing the same thing though. You conveniently forget XBLIG had no visibility until about a year ago when the dash was updated because a lot of devs were complaining and then talk about Minis not having a tab on the UK store, ignoring that XBLIG is not even available in a lot of stores.

"But you can make a UK account!"

 

[lamaroo]

You can make a UK or USA account and access them.


But what point are you trying to make? Why does that even matter? There are games on PS3 that are tied to that platform because of contracts, but that doesn't matter either. It's still a Sony exclusive. Why it's a Sony exclusive is irrelevant. The devs still chose to take that exclusivity contract over putting their games on any, or all of the other available services.

The point of the thread, Sony and Nintendo have been reaching out to indies much more than Microsoft lately.

 

[Swifty]

Space Channel 5 is indie? The hell?

 

[Kazuma Kiryu]

Space Channel 5 is indie? The hell?

Those are games that those people have worked on.

 

[surly]

You conveniently forget XBLIG had no visibility until about a year ago when the dash was updated

You're conveniently exaggerating, but let's look at the facts: -

Indie Games originally had its own section on the dashboard in the same spot as the other game types. When MS updated the dashboard in December 2011 they created a section called Speciality Shops and moved Indie Games there. Devs complained, so in February 2012 they moved Indie Games back to where the other games were. So that's a 3 month period where that section was less visible. MS fucked up, but they listened to devs and moved the section back to where it was. On Xbox.com, there was always a dedicated Indie Games section.

And making a UK account is easy. What's the big deal about that? At least I'm not telling lies.

The point of the thread, Sony and Nintendo have been reaching out to indies much more than Microsoft lately.

I don't see what that has to do with MS paying for exclusivity on those titles.

 

[Swifty]

Those are games that those people have worked on.

Yes but to argue that Space Channel 5 being on XBLA because Microsoft just loves indie games is patently false. Space Channel 5 was developed by and published by Sega first party. That lends more credence to the notion that you can't get on XBLA unless you're a big publisher.

 

[Kazuma Kiryu]

Yes but to argue that Space Channel 5 being on XBLA because Microsoft just loves indie games is patently false. Space Channel 5 was developed by and published by Sega first party. That lends more credence to the notion that you can't get on XBLA unless you're a big publisher.

oh nvm, i thought you were "complaining" about the press release, didn't really notice this whole xbla talk a few posts above. carry on!

 

[sunnz]

You're conveniently exaggerating, but let's look at the facts: -

Indie Games originally had its own section on the dashboard in the same spot as the other game types. When MS updated the dashboard in December 2011 they created a section called Speciality Shops and moved Indie Games there. Devs complained, so in February 2012 they moved Indie Games back to where the other games were. So that's a 3 month period where that section was less visible. MS fucked up, but they listened to devs and moved the section back to where it was. On Xbox.com, there was always a dedicated Indie Games section.

And making a UK account is easy. What's the big deal about that?

An actual question, are indie games region locked?

 

[prwxv3]

They used to. They don't give a shit any more.

This

 

[wsippel]

Sony needs to talk more about unity

There isn't much to talk about yet. Unity Technologies just started working on the port and even a beta is still several months off. The Wii U version on the other hand was apparently developed inhouse at NCL.

 

[lamaroo]

I don't see what that has to do with MS paying for exclusivity on those titles.

Well I think I misread your first post, I thought you were arguing in favour of Microsoft treating indies better because of those games you mentioned skipping the other platforms. If that wasn't your intention I apologize, carry on.

 

[ChosenPredator]

I'm not going to say Microsoft hasn't done good things for indies in the past, but XBLA has been hijacked by large publishers. XBLIG is a nightmare to navigate.

That Anima game looks great, I hope it's better than the Wiiware games, that one let me down. I thought it was going to be something like Castlevania.

not really i find what i want from there pretty easily

 

[Dead Prince]

There isn't much to talk about yet. Unity Technologies just started working on the port and even a beta is still several months off. The Wii U version on the other hand was apparently developed inhouse at NCL.

was thinking give us free license ;P

 

[DaBoss]

Well damn. MS were the ones that had indies brought to prominence on consoles, and now they don't seem to give a shit about them...

 

[surly]

Well I think I misread your first post, I thought you were arguing in favour of Microsoft treating indies better because of those games you mentioned skipping the other platforms. If that wasn't your intention I apologize, carry on.

Ah, OK. No worries. I was talking about the existence of games on the platform.

@sunnz - I'm pretty sure that the games themselves are not, but the MSP you need to use to buy them are. If you made a US or UK account you would need to buy some MSP off eBay or one of those other instant delivery online stores that sells the codes. If you're going to try it, make a US or UK account and download a couple of indie game demos (they all have demos) first just to make sure they work OK wherever you are.

 

[sunnz]

Ah, OK. No worries. I was talking about the existence of games on the platform.

@sunnz - I'm pretty sure that the games themselves are not, but the MSP you need to use to buy them are. If you made a US or UK account you would need to buy some MSP off eBay or one of those other instant delivery online stores that sells the codes. If you're going to try it, make a US or UK account and download a couple of indie game demos (they all have demos) first just to make sure they work OK wherever you are.

Ah, I see.

 

[Platy]

Is "The Rio" not like the city of Rio de Janeiro, is it ?

 

[wsippel]

By the way, Nintendo's European indie conference is this coming weekend, and Dan Adelman will be one of the speakers, talking about Unity and the new Nintendo Web Framework. Guys from Gaijin, Nicalis, Frontier, Slightly Mad, Frozenbyte and other studios will attend as well. I don't speak Spanish or I would have made a thread already.

was thinking give us free license ;P

I don't think Unity on PS4 and Vita will be free. As I said, those versions are apparently by Unity, so I don't think they'll be any different from Unity on 360 or PS3. The Wii U version on the other hand is supposedly developed and supported by Nintendo, so they can get a very different deal.

 

[spannicus]

Indies will come in hand when the big publisher drought hits, and it always does.

 

[Kenshin001]

You're conveniently exaggerating, but let's look at the facts: -

Indie Games originally had its own section on the dashboard in the same spot as the other game types. When MS updated the dashboard in December 2011 they created a section called Speciality Shops and moved Indie Games there. Devs complained, so in February 2012 they moved Indie Games back to where the other games were. So that's a 3 month period where that section was less visible. MS fucked up, but they listened to devs and moved the section back to where it was. On Xbox.com, there was always a dedicated Indie Games section.

And making a UK account is easy. What's the big deal about that? At least I'm not telling lies.


I don't see what that has to do with MS paying for exclusivity on those titles.

Devs have been complaining about visiblity for years:

"I think our games could sell a lot better than they did with a better platform and more visibility," Zeboyd's Robert Boyd told Ars. "The sales for Cthulhu Saves the World were particularly disappointing—we put a lot of heart and soul into the game over a significantly longer period of development time and yet that extra effort didn't result in a similar increase in revenue."

That was from July 2011.

You are still ignoring that XBLIG isn't even available on some stores. Where is the visibility there? Oh so you have to set up a UK/US account and buy points off eBay and the games may be region locked. No problems.

 

[antonz]

Its good to see Nintendo and Sony be so aggressive with Indies. Sure Microsoft started the party but in typical fashion they let the fact they started the party go to their head.

Unless things radically change there is little reason to develop anything for MS as an indie developer short of it being part of a multiplatform release and with the way Sony and Nintendo are giving so much control to the developers themselves could even begin to leave MS out of the picture.

 

[lamaroo]

By the way, Nintendo's European indie conference is this coming weekend, and Dan Adelman will be one of the speakers, talking about Unity and the new Nintendo Web Framework. Guys from Gaijin, Nicalis, Frontier, Slightly Mad, Frozenbyte and other studios will attend as well. I don't speak Spanish or I would have made a thread already.



I don't think Unity on PS4 and Vita will be free. As I said, those versions are apparently by Unity, so I don't think they'll be any different from Unity on 360 or PS3. The Wii U version on the other hand is supposedly developed and supported by Nintendo, so they can get a very different deal.

Are we ever going to get more LostWinds?

 

[BY2K]

I think the stereotype for indies is they are usually 2D games or games that aren't really that fun, and not everyone likes 2D games, but if you look in the right place, I believe you will find it.

Here are some upcoming 3D indie games.

And tons of others I missed.

Was the last one made on the Wind Waker engine or something?

 

[wsippel]

Are we ever going to get more LostWinds?

That would be nice, but I believe the second game bombed hard, and I don't think the dude responsible for the series is still with Frontier. I'm afraid they'll only announce a 3DS version of their rollercoaster iOS game.

Was the last one made on the Wind Waker engine or something?

It was made to look like Windwaker, but all three games run on Unity. And as far as I know, all three of them are coming to Wii U.

 

[Meelow]

Was the last one made on the Wind Waker engine or something?

From what I read, it's inspired by Wind Waker.

 

[Yagharek]

Good. The number of mindbogglingly good indie games even on wiiware ans psn was a pleasant surprise last gen. More original stuff is most welcome.

 

[DaBoss]

Was the last one made on the Wind Waker engine or something?

It was inspired by Wind Waker. Turned into something a bit different.

 

[antonz]

Yeah those are all examples of Unity. Unity is really a fantastic engine that can stand its own with UDK even. Unity is tougher to work with as its more of a total blank slate versus UDK which has a lot of prepackaged stuff you can work with.

 

[mugurumakensei]

I don't think Unity on PS4 and Vita will be free. As I said, those versions are apparently by Unity, so I don't think they'll be any different from Unity on 360 or PS3. The Wii U version on the other hand is supposedly developed and supported by Nintendo, so they can get a very different deal.

Depends, Sony certainly could work out a deal where a low cost Vita and PS4 PSN devkit comes with a unity license given they know Sony could buy a decent volume of licenses.

 

[wildfire]

I wish I could go to this.

 

[wsippel]

Depends, Sony certainly could work out a deal where a low cost Vita and PS4 PSN devkit comes with a unity license given they know Sony could buy a decent volume of licenses.

They could, sure - but will they do it? They didn't even hint at it, and Unity on consoles normally isn't exactly cheap ($15k per game and platform, supposedly). And support isn't exactly cheap, either.

 

[frankie_baby]

They could, sure - but will they do it? They didn't even hint at it, and Unity on consoles normally isn't exactly cheap ($15k per game and platform, supposedly). And support isn't exactly cheap, either.

wow that much seriously? i'd been thinking unity was a relatively cheap engine (just a few grand one off)

 

[Nilaul]

. And as far as I know, all three of them are coming to Wii U.

Source Dont wont to be hyped for nothing

 

[Dr.Hadji]

Anyone got names for those three games everyone keeps quoting?

 

[DaBoss]

Anyone got names for those three games everyone keeps quoting?

I only know the last one, it's called 'A Hat In Time'.