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[Toma]

This thread is depressing. For some reason my impression was that GAF at large was the one place that celebrated indie games. Perhaps this comes from the fact that I started posting in GAF around the time I became more acquainted with a wide variety of indie games, and there is truly no causal relation, just temporal overlap.

In any case, nowadays I split my gaming time pretty much 50/50 between the indie and non-indie scene, and even in the latter's case, with games that have many indie traits (Mark of the Ninja, Dark Souls). In any case, at 100 hours, FTL is my most played game this year, and my most played game on Steam (on an account 4-5 years old with 300+ games including plenty of 'AAA' titles); this is just one among many.

It is true that separating the wheat from the chaff is harder in the case of indie games because the entry barrier is lower (meaning an intimidatingly enormous of games with no reference as to their quality), and also because the very proliferation of innumerable titles makes it hard to know if a game recommended to you is truly great or if it just happens to scratch a very particular niche of the recommender that you won't share. Perhaps we should make a "essential indie games" thread with votes and such much like the awesome "essential RPGs" one. I would so very much look forward to that, frankly, but I don't nearly have enough time to follow up on that, tally the votes, etc. Would someone be up to the task? Toma?

I actually considered something like that. The problem is that it doesnt seem like there are enough people that actually played these games to have a somewhat representative "Essential Indies" list. This thread would be smothered by the Indies that people have actually played, and I have a strong hunch that the games that most people played would come out on top, and not actually the best ones.

What I do plan on doing however, is building a small community around these Indie titles and then have a best of GAF Indie Games 2013, after december with only the games mentioned in these threads :
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=517647

I'd appreciate if you would pop in more often as well, btw But that still leaves the same issue that bigger games will have people voting for them that didnt necessarily play the other games people would recommend. Maybe one should make two lists from that. Top Indie Games and Top Overlooked Indie Games?

Grah, its hard. But btw, I think that this discussion fits better into the march thread If you reply, please post your reply in the March thread.

 

[DocSeuss]

I feel like every time I've raised my objection to what I see as a limited selection of games, the defenders pop up, yell, "nuh-uh, here are a bunch of games that totally prove you're wrong," even though the limited selection doesn't strike my fancy, which is my entire problem.

The kind of games I like are not really the kind of games that indie developers or AAA developers are making.

The kind of games I like are the kind of games we saw in the golden age of PC gaming, particularly from studios like Relic, Ensemble, Looking Glass, Irrational, and so on and so forth. The bigger the focus on immersion and simulation, the more interesting they are to me. I got way more out of Thirty Flights of Loving than any other indie game I've played this year.

By and large, most indie games I've seen are 2D-only games with a heavy emphasis on mechanics, generally deriving from console games, but not always. Now, there are exceptions: there are quite a few indie point and clicks, just as there are quite a few (7 or 8 now?) upcoming CRPGs that all look really exciting. Those games that are 3D tend to be things like, oh, Natural Selection, Primal Carnage, Chivalry... and... well, you see the common element, right? And, of course, there are the shitty horror games that all think not having a weapon makes things scarier (having a weapon is one of the main reasons System Shock 2 is the best horror game ever).

I'll go post the meagre selection of upcoming indie games that actually appeal to me in the other thread, since it doesn't seem like anyone's mentioned them, but I do wish people would see that what appears to be a wide selection of games kinda tends to focus on an extremely limited selection of specific kinds of fun.

 

[Weltall Zero]

I actually considered something like that. The problem is that it doesnt seem like there are enough people that actually played these games to have a somewhat representative "Essential Indies" list. This thread would be smothered by the Indies that people have actually played, and I have a strong hunch that the games that most people played would come out on top, and not actually the best ones.

What I do plan on doing however, is building a small community around these Indie titles and then have a best of GAF Indie Games 2013, after december with only the games mentioned in these threads :
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=517647

I'd appreciate if you would pop in more often as well, btw But that still leaves the same issue that bigger games will have people voting for them that didnt necessarily play the other games people would recommend. Maybe one should make two lists from that. Top Indie Games and Top Overlooked Indie Games?

Grah, its hard. But btw, I think that this discussion fits better into the march thread If you reply, please post your reply in the March thread.

I actually think it's perfectly OK for "more played" titles to be voted more. It's just nature. The RPG thread was exactly like that, and it didn't prevent it from listing a very coherent, amazing list of top-notch games.

The problem with listing your favorites and then having people vote is that you're skewing the vote. I'd actually rather have a list of "popular indie games" than a list of "latest games that caught XXX's attention, sorted by popularity". Let's democratize it and have a little faith on the rest of posters.

There's also another issue, and that is that the list you've posted is already intimidating for me (who am already into indie games); how much more so for people not into the scene? Having so many games (and just for the latest months) inevitably dilutes the average quality; I'm sure you loved each and every one of them for one reason or another, but I can't help think that many of them will appeal to a somewhat limited selection of people each, and the chances of any one "indie-virgin" poster stumbling into this thread, testing a couple and deciding indie is not for them, is practically 100%. I'd rather have a "top of all time" thread, where ANY gamer can download the top five and fall in love with at least 2-3 of them, then be motivated to work down the list.

In this sense, having the most visible indie games be the most voted actually works for it; these are the most visible for a reason, and most often this is mass appeal. To be the top voted indie game of all times, you have to be a visually attractive game with engaging mechanics; what better ambassador to get people hooked into the scene? There'll be time enough for them to dig for the hidden gems that appeal to their particular tastes afterwards.

This is my opinion, of course, but I'm actually pretty confident that this may be the way to go. I'm afraid reaching out to the "non-indie gamers" cannot be done from within a thread listing 50 indie games each month. I for one don't have time to even install a tenth of them, let alone play them; I doubt I'm alone in this. :/

Edit: Again, here it is. Let's hope it does take off even for a bit.

I feel like every time I've raised my objection to what I see as a limited selection of games, the defenders pop up, yell, "nuh-uh, here are a bunch of games that totally prove you're wrong," even though the limited selection doesn't strike my fancy, which is my entire problem.

The kind of games I like are not really the kind of games that indie developers or AAA developers are making.

The kind of games I like are the kind of games we saw in the golden age of PC gaming, particularly from studios like Relic, Ensemble, Looking Glass, Irrational, and so on and so forth. The bigger the focus on immersion and simulation, the more interesting they are to me. I got way more out of Thirty Flights of Loving than any other indie game I've played this year.

By and large, most indie games I've seen are 2D-only games with a heavy emphasis on mechanics, generally deriving from console games, but not always. Now, there are exceptions: there are quite a few indie point and clicks, just as there are quite a few (7 or 8 now?) upcoming CRPGs that all look really exciting. Those games that are 3D tend to be things like, oh, Natural Selection, Primal Carnage, Chivalry... and... well, you see the common element, right? And, of course, there are the shitty horror games that all think not having a weapon makes things scarier (having a weapon is one of the main reasons System Shock 2 is the best horror game ever).

I'll go post the meagre selection of upcoming indie games that actually appeal to me in the other thread, since it doesn't seem like anyone's mentioned them, but I do wish people would see that what appears to be a wide selection of games kinda tends to focus on an extremely limited selection of specific kinds of fun.

If you enumerate them like that, then yes, indie games only focus on two or three "kinds of fun". However, for me games are defined by gameplay, so in my opinion every single other kind of fun is ancillary (and often distracting) to this objective.

Of course, you are free to disagree, and indeed, if you're looking for complex stories and visually immersive experiences, then probably only a limited selection of indie games will appeal to you. You seem to feel "guilty" because of this, though, as if it was some kind of "failing" on your part that prevented you from enjoying this "healthy" scene, a "failing" you must overcome. This makes no sense; you will not enjoy something by wanting to like it. Play what you want, and enjoy it; that is exactly what it means to be a gamer. If this means no indie games for you, then so be it.

You can, still, of course, try some indie games from time to time, particularly those that are free or have free demos, as you never know when one might "click" with you. You seem to have put a lot of effort into it already (more than probably warranted, as I mentioned), so I won't recommend particular titles unless you really want me to.

 

[RedSwirl]

Man, the OP's assumptions are not at all what I feel GAF is like in regards to indie games. In fact most of the time I see GAF complaining about AAA games.

I wish indie games had the chops to be more than shallow NES or arcade type games in most cases. I'm not sure if some of these kickstarter RPGs like Wasteland 2 and Dead State count (not sure why they wouldn't) but I'm looking forward to those a lot more than what I'm assuming most people on this board are hyped for as far as indie stuff goes, because those will have some production values and depth behind them. Then again most of them were funded with money in the range of $350k-$3 million so I guess they have more of an advantage.

This is generally where my position, but the problem I'm seeing is that most of the indie stuff I've seen on consoles kinda is stuck in the NES/Arcade phase.

We're seeing a lot of cool stuff showing up on the PC now, much of it even with pretty impressive graphics. First person adventure and horror games are starting to show up. You've got people trying to make space combat games again. Some good RPGs are also starting to show up. The problem is that most of these games like Amnesia, Strike Suit Zero, FTL, Underrail, or Legend of Grimrock, are nowhere to be found on consoles. To me it seems like almost all of the really unique indie stuff is only happening on the PC right now. I'd like to see some more of that variety show up on next gen consoles. I'm hoping Sony and Microsoft ease up on software certification requirements enough for this to happen.

Ultimately I don't care about whether each individual game is indie or AAA. I'll buy it if I enjoy it enough. However, you can't admit that there's more creativity coming out of the indie space these days, even if it's sort of held-back tech-wise. What I'd like to see happen is for indie games (perhaps game-making tools) to evolve to a point where they're "advanced enough." I'd like to see indie studios commonly put out the kinds of games you saw mid-sized studios release back during the PS2 era.

 

[Scrabble]

I'm sorry but indie games have become just as derivative and cliche as any AAA game. There's only so many pixel art or 2d puzzle platformers you can make without it becoming a joke.

 

[Toma]

I'm sorry but indie games have become just as derivative and cliche as any AAA game. There's only so many pixel art or 2d puzzle platformers you can make without it becoming a joke.

Not sure whether I should cry or laugh at you.

Man, the OP's assumptions are not at all what I feel GAF is like in regards to indie games. In fact most of the time I see GAF complaining about AAA games.

See that post below yours?
Yeah.

 

[platypotamus]

I don't really want to chug through a -judging from the first posts- thoroughly depressing 300 posts, so I'll just come in here and say that, while I enjoy both immensely, I would sacrifice the AAA industry games to save indie games industry any day of the week.

Same, despite the fact that it would cost me my job.

Anecdotal and all that, but working in the game industry, it seems like many of my colleagues enjoy indie games more than AAA games. This is more true among designers than other parts of the industry (especially art, fancy that), but there's pretty good numbers of indie-lovers throughout, in my experience. Also, when it comes to the AAA games, we tend to enjoy the more cult hit games over the bigger names too (Dragon's Dogma probably would have won more GOTY awards from my design buddies than any other AAA game last year). Personally, I only play most of the AAA games that I do play as "homework" to keep up with what the competition is doing, and I only end up playing them for a couple hours because meh. That's even true about some of the ones that I like.

The problem with most "AAA" games is that they play it too safe and feel way too focus-tested. They feel more like checklists and the result of heavy influence from the publisher's marketing department, instead of the developer's creative vision.

There's a reason that they feel that way. I bet you can guess it

 

[Weltall Zero]

I'm sorry but indie games have become just as derivative and cliche as any AAA game. There's only so many pixel art or 2d puzzle platformers you can make without it becoming a joke.

I don't even understand what you're talking about; what do these have to do with any of the examples regularly posted in GAF indie threads?

Unless, of course, you're judging the indie scene by its worst and most derivative, in which case the AAA scene should be judged on the likes of Aliens Colonial Marines.

 

[Mavromatis]

Damn, a wild wall of text appeared right before I'm leaving. I'll read it, so I'm marking it here. Thanks Toma.

Okay I read it now, I agree with all points.

The definition of AAA nor indie is not so well-cut so the discussions about which is which will never be resolved. So we basically need more games released and more discussions about games that we aren't discussing about. And we necessarily need more different games, every game becoming a clone of each other is forcing us to get a new FPS new year just to keep up with the community playing it, even yearly releases of sports games aren't that enforcing about this issue. We need more concepts, also more indie strategy games since the rest is asleep except Paradox and some small developments in 4X games.

 

[Corto]

I dont' really care if a game is indie or not. If it is a game that looks like it will interest me, I will pick it up if the price is right. Unfortunately, 2d platformers and adventure games do not interest me. Indie's need to develop some space sims or strategy games for me to get interested.

At the Gates Kickstarter just ended a few days ago, it's a 4X game from Jon Shafer director of Civ V.

Starsector is a great open-world single-player 4xish space-combat, roleplaying epic.

Drox Operative is also an really interesting take on the action RPG (à la Diablo) with Spaceships.

Endless Space is a fantastic game of Space 4X from a completely new team.

Battle of the Bulge is getting raving reviews from all the right people, and it alone is making me take into serious consideration the buy of an iPad (unfortunately it's an iPad exclusive).

The guys behind Men of War, and MoW Assault Squad, Digitalmindsoft have a crowdfunding campaign to fund their next game (Call to Arms) that seems a modern take on the Men of War formula and it is depressingly failing miserably. I created a thread here on GAF it quickly fell to the limbo of the backpages, another gaffer created a new one a few days latter and I contributed there with a post to see if a new effort could be more effective and it quickly disappeared again.

I won't bore you with more examples but whatever is your preferred genre, an independent developer will have a game good enough for you to consider. And this is why I have to agree wholeheartedly with Toma that the greatest difficulty is to overcome the invisibility barrier.

edit: I know i said I wouldn't bore you more, but I have to post Unity of Command. My LTTP GOTY 2011. Is that good.

 

[Weltall Zero]

At the Gates Kickstarter just ended a few days ago, it's a 4X game from Jon Shafer director of Civ V.

Starsector is a great open-world single-player 4xish space-combat, roleplaying epic.

Drox Operative is also an really interesting take on the action RPG (à la Diablo) with Spaceships.

Endless Space is a fantastic game of Space 4X from a completely new team.

Battle of the Bulge is getting raving reviews from all the right people, and it alone is making me take into serious consideration the buy of an iPad (unfortunately it's an iPad exclusive).

The guys behind Men of War, and MoW Assault Squad, Digitalmindsoft have a crowdfunding campaign to fund their next game (Call to Arms) that seems a modern take on the Men of War formula and it is depressingly failing miserably. I created a thread here on GAF it quickly fell to the limbo of the backpages, another gaffer created a new one a few days latter and I contributed there with a post to see if a new effort could be more effective and it quickly disappeared again.

I won't bore you with more examples but whatever is your preferred genre, an independent developer will have a game good enough for you to consider. And this is why I have to agree wholeheartedly with Toma that the greatest difficulty is to overcome the invisibility barrier.

edit: I know i said I wouldn't bore you more, but I have to post Unity of Command. My LTTP GOTY 2011. Is that good.

The scary thing is that in my mind, the indie scene is SATURATED with 4x games! Aside from the ones mentioned above, in a few months, Stardrive will be released, which looks pretty amazing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lw9h_5hOiyY

Outside the 4X genre, you have my aforementioned most played indie game of late, the amazing FTL:
http://www.destructoid.com/review-ftl-faster-than-light-235221.phtml
http://www.pcgamer.com/review/ftl-faster-than-light-review/

Mixing that gameplay with XCOM gives us the upcoming and great-looking Star Command:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmGivVlOZq0

If Terraria/Minecraft is more your thing, there's Starbound:
http://playstarbound.com/media/

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Saying that the indie scene doesn't have enough space/strategy games is insane to me. It has MORE of them than the "AAA" scene!

 

[RedSwirl]

See that post below yours?
Yeah.

I'm sorry but indie games have become just as derivative and cliche as any AAA game. There's only so many pixel art or 2d puzzle platformers you can make without it becoming a joke.

Again, this is actually what I feel is happening on consoles. All the really interesting indie stuff going on right now is mostly on PC. Hopefully next gen console manufacturers can ease up their certification process to the point where more varied indie projects can appear on consoles.

 

[thesuperfunk]

Without all the indies and bedroom coders there would never have been any 'AAA' titles.

 

[Hofmann]

I'm sorry but indie games have become just as derivative and cliche as any AAA game. There's only so many pixel art or 2d puzzle platformers you can make without it becoming a joke.

I actually agree with your statement, but the point is, the amount of groundbreaking indie games is still much much bigger than AAAs. Thats why we have this thread to pick up the good ones.

 

[Snapshot King]

Go play Noitu Love 2.

Seems interesting, but it's really not what I'm looking for. Mouse controls? Bleh. Doesn't help that it bizarrely runs like shit on my PC.

 

[D3RANG3D]

Seems interesting, but it's really not what I'm looking for. Mouse controls? Bleh. Doesn't help that it bizarrely runs like shit on my PC.

Streets of Rage Remake?

 

[gryz]

plenty of AAA games are shit, plenty of indie games are shit. some of both are good. many games fall somewhere in between these 2 extremes and are good. this is dumb.

 

[Snapshot King]

Streets of Rage Remake?

I think you're missing my point when I say character action. Streets of Rage is a brawler through and through, so's Noitu love. Character action is Godhand/DMC/Bayo/Rising/Ninja Gaiden etc.

 

[D3RANG3D]

I think you're missing my point when I say character action. Streets of Rage is a brawler through and through, so's Noitu love. Character action is Godhand/DMC/Bayo/Rising/Ninja Gaiden etc.

You mean what Streets of Rage is but 2D lol.

 

[Snapshot King]

You mean what Streets of Rage is but 2D lol.

No, because Streets of Rage, Final Fight, etc are brawlers. There's obvious genre differences between Brawlers and Character action. Yes, one of those is 2d/3d, but character action also has a focus on much larger movesets, varied enemy attacks, combos, etc. They're close to fighters than they are brawlers.

 

[D3RANG3D]

No, because Streets of Rage, Final Fight, etc are brawlers. There's obvious genre differences between Brawlers and Character action. Yes, one of those is 2d/3d, but character action also has a focus on much larger movesets, varied enemy attacks, combos, etc. They're close to fighters than they are brawlers.

Character action games are the natural evolution of the brawler genre... made possible by 3D graphics, physics etc. (better hardware)

 

[Snapshot King]

Character action games are the natural evolution of the brawler genre... made possible by 3D graphics, physics etc.

Yeah. Exactly. So when I say, where are the non terrible character action games from the indie scene, I'm not exactly filled with confidence when I'm shown brawlers.

 

[D3RANG3D]

Yeah. Exactly. So when I say, where are the non terrible character action games from the indie scene, I'm not exactly filled with confidence when I'm shown brawlers.

Yeah I don't have confidence in the indie scene either when it comes to action games, come on Doujin game devs!

Spoiler

So it will be a Touhou action game teehee!

 

[AcceptableGhost]

Pfft, puzzle platformers are old hat. The new bandwagon for indies are roguelike influenced games. The days of having to actually design your own levels for games is over. Leave it all to RNG!

 

[NervousXtian]

TRUTH-BOMB.

Preach on brother!


ALSO:

How the living fuck is Journey an indie game? Money holed by a huge corporation and from a moderate sized team.

You can't just claim shit as indie because it's not Dude-Bro in your eyes.

 

[UrbanRats]

Indie: self published.
AAA: big budget game(i would say above 15-20 millions?).

I think Journey is in the middle, so an AA game.

 

[NervousXtian]

Indie: self published.
AAA: big budget game(i would say above 15-20 millions?).

I think Journey is in the middle, so an AA game.

Journey was published by Sony, and funded by Sony.

It's anything but Indie.

Also, at what point do you consider someone like Telltale no longer Indie. They got 100+ employees at this point and enough money to shelf publish and buy pretty spendy licenses.

 

[electricpirate]

Man, there aren't enough hours in the day . I really want to dig more into this stuff, but I still feel like I have this huge backlog.

Just tried Papers Please, that is really excellent. The setting/gameplay tensions are great.

 

[Haunted]

Pfft, puzzle platformers are old hat. The new bandwagon for indies are roguelike influenced games. The days of having to actually design your own levels for games is over. Leave it all to RNG!

I love it. Isaac, Spelunky, FTL, Teleglitch, Towerclimb, Super House of Dead Ninjas. Excellent, excellent shit.

And those are just the highly visible ones! Tip of the iceberg, I'm telling you.

 

[AcceptableGhost]

I love it. Isaac, Spelunky, FTL, Teleglitch, Towerclimb, Super House of Dead Ninjas. Excellent, excellent shit.

And those are just the highly visible ones! Tip of the iceberg, I'm telling you.

Do realize I was being sarcastic. I hate pretty much all of those games. "Fully Randomized Levels" = avoid at all costs, to me.

 

[Haunted]

Do realize I was being sarcastic. I hate pretty much all of those games. "Fully Randomized Levels" = avoid at all costs, to me.

I was trying to subvert your negativity by professing my love for these games.

I think they all have excellent design. Systemic games are the shit when done well. Minecraft!

 

[AcceptableGhost]

I was trying to subvert your negativity by professing my love for these games.

I think they all have excellent design. Systemic games are the shit when done well. Minecraft!

My Personal Minecraft Review Score:
0/10

 

[Gotchaye]

Over the past few years I've been getting less and less out of the big 'AAA'/$50 games. I don't know if it's me or the games. Probably the last one that I had an absolute blast with was Xenoblade, and before that the original Borderlands, and neither of those had a publisher backing them to the hilt. Other games that I was really looking forward to turned out to be a little to a lot disappointing - for example Civ 5, Diablo 3, and Borderlands 2, recently, and these were the subject of a lot more publisher scrutiny.

Meanwhile, I've been having more and more fun with much cheaper games. I don't think you'd call them all 'indie', but they're shorter and simpler, with less of an emphasis on story and graphics, typically. Recettear and Spacechem were phenomenal, and I really liked FTL and Binding of Isaac, to name the unambiguously 'indie' candidates. I also easily got my money's worth out of non-indie games like Sonic Generations and the King's Bounty series. Lots of DS titles hold up really well, and I'm planning to go out and pick up a 3DS next week to get started on that.

Maybe the mechanics and flow of big-budget releases have suffered as publishers have gotten smarter and smarter about how to sell millions of copies. This came up in all the SimCity discussion - clearly lots of features are included for the sake of being bullet points rather than for the sake of making a compelling game over dozens of hours. The goal of a 'AAA' developer is to make a game that reviews well and which lends itself to 30-second tv spots and 2-minute youtube videos. Studios and individuals that are under a lot less pressure to move product have more freedom to try to make a game fun in the long-run, perhaps. Lots of them fail, and there's a lot of crap out there, but the best ones are a whole lot better than what too-cautious major studios are putting out, even if they can't stack up graphically.

 

[Hofmann]

ALSO:

How the living fuck is Journey an indie game? Money holed by a huge corporation and from a moderate sized team.

You can't just claim shit as indie because it's not Dude-Bro in your eyes.

Journey is not an indie game. Not only it was funded by Sony, Sony employees were involved in the creation process of the game as well, but that doesn't mean that the game is not great.
It looks like Sony is the ''weird' one among the big publishers, they're smart enough to encourage risky ideas and they give much more creative freedom than other companies, so it may look like something only independent studio could do.

 

[Warm Machine]

The GAF indie visibility thing is strange. We have sold 20k copies of Arcadecraft on Xbox but the OT thread isn't even 3 pages.

 

[AcceptableGhost]

The GAF indie visibility thing is strange. We have sold 20k copies of Arcadecraft on Xbox but the OT thread isn't even 3 pages.

Probably be a lot bigger if you managed to get on Steam. XBLIG has near zero visibility here.

 

[Gotchaye]

The GAF indie visibility thing is strange. We have sold 20k copies of Arcadecraft on Xbox but the OT thread isn't even 3 pages.

This is an issue for me. Toma's indie games thread is a nice idea, but it has too many games. I just don't buy that many. For big games, I rely on GAF going crazy over something and keeping a few big threads on the front page long enough for me to notice. For smaller games I basically rely on Steam sales threads, for lack of better options. If a game goes on sale and everyone freaks out about how great it is, I pick it up.

 

[Haunted]

The GAF indie visibility thing is strange. We have sold 20k copies of Arcadecraft on Xbox but the OT thread isn't even 3 pages.

Your indie game has an OT on GAF? You are the 1%.

And yes, I think your best shot at more visibility in the current market is an eventual Steam release. Lots of people have moved on (or were never into) XBLIG that much. Not being available worldwide can also be a factor, I think XBLIG is only available in a handful of countries, Steam is available everywhere. It's not a sure thing, but outside of a marketing/publishing agreement with a manufacturer itself, it's probably your best shot at further sales.

 

[Warm Machine]

Probably be a lot bigger if you managed to get on Steam. XBLIG has near zero visibility here.

Yeah. Interestingly our actual sales and trials blow away our Greenlight stats.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

I love it. Isaac, Spelunky, FTL, Teleglitch, Towerclimb, Super House of Dead Ninjas. Excellent, excellent shit.

And those are just the highly visible ones! Tip of the iceberg, I'm telling you.

Just wait until you see the Japanese take on that new genre!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux57lalo7-o&feature=player_embedded

If GAF doesn't fall in love with this game when it comes out in English I lose all hope in the forum. lol

 

[D3RANG3D]

Just wait until you see the Japanese take on that new genre!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux57lalo7-o&feature=player_embedded

If GAF doesn't fall in love with this game when it comes out in English I lose all hope in the forum. lol

 

[Haunted]

Just wait until you see the Japanese take on that new genre!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux57l...layer_embedded

If GAF doesn't fall in love with this game when it comes out in English I lose all hope in the forum. lol

Man, if you think indie games have it rough here, Japanese indie games are even worse off. >_>

If you or thetrin aren't allowed to make the OT, I'm sure we can arrange someone from the Indie thread taking care of that.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Man, if you think indie games have it rough here, Japanese indie games are even worse off. >_>

If you or thetrin aren't allowed to make the OT, I'm sure we can arrange someone from the Indie thread taking care of that.

Yeah I will probably be asking for some help on that front once the game is ready.

Going to go in full-blown testing/editing mode once I am back from GDC.

I haven't fallen this in love with a game in years. Even FTL pales in comparison for me.

 

[Zukuu]

Mid Budget > AAA > Indie

there you go. Honestly, I enjoy games that aren't streamlined beyond any complexity, but HAVE a budget the most. Demon Souls, NieR etc

I'm not very much interested in AAA games since they seem to be the same game with a different protagonist. Doesn't matter if CoD, Tomb Raider, RE 6 or Uncharted. Everything feels the same. Action-bombast-hallway-QTE-script-fest-deluxe. *yawn*
On the opposite, Indie games tend to do the same, just in a different direction. I can't see any 8bit jump and runs anymore... Granted, they way more unique games as well, but the majority of indie games just follow the "current trend" as well.

 

[I NEED SCISSORS]

Part of the problem is that it's difficult to really define indie outside of the obvious enough garage made, self-published titles. I mean, are oft mentioned games like Flower, Costume Quest, Bastion, PixelJunk, or Mark of the Ninja still indie, even though they are published by other companies and some very big names at that? Many of these titles seem more like games that are still part of the 'AAA culture' (I guess you could call it that for lack of a better name?), albeit they are on a much smaller scale.

Another issue is that from that point, where exactly do we define where games stop being 'indie' and start being AAA? I think it's too much of a progressive scale to really proclaim one as being absolutely superior to the other, although I guess I would say that the trend over the last few years has been that the smaller budget titles have been way more inventive and unique, while increasing budgets has inversely affected quality.

 

[Spinluck]

Its supposed to stand for quality, like a hotel may have a AAA rating so it is considered really popular.

Funny thing is when it comes to videogames publishers consider anything that costs a shit load a money AAA no matter the quality. EA said Deadspace 3 would be AAAA lol.. when lets be honest it was shit.

I see I see.

And yes, compared to DS2 I would considered it pretty bad.

 

[Risette]

Indie: self published.
AAA: big budget game(i would say above 15-20 millions?).

I think Journey is in the middle, so an AA game.

Valve and Nintendo, my favorite indie developers

 

[Guess Who]

I was trying to subvert your negativity by professing my love for these games.

I think they all have excellent design. Systemic games are the shit when done well. Minecraft!

If a AAA game shipped as completely unfinished and broken as Minecraft did when it hit "1.0" GAF would've taken a giant feces all over it.

 

[Warm Machine]

We are getting hung up on the distinction. To me, this thread is more about the overall visibility of games not AAA or immediate media darlings on this forum. Even when an Indie is succesful it still isn't a game the forum or this player base talks about often.

 

[BomberMouse]

Just wait until you see the Japanese take on that new genre!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux57lalo7-o&feature=player_embedded

If GAF doesn't fall in love with this game when it comes out in English I lose all hope in the forum. lol

ffffff I swear I've been toying with that exact same idea for the last two years D: