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[Represent.]

Has to be something special for me to give it a shot, like Sifu.

Run of the mill indies are just as generic as the AAA games

 

[BennyBlanco]

Steam Deck + having a newborn means Ive been spending a lot of time going through my old steam games and playing indie stuff from bundles I never gave a shot before. Super Mega Baseball 3 might be the funnest baseball game ever made.

 

[Guilty_AI]

i say its better to just don't bother with labels and play what attracts you

 

[RoboFu]

99% of indies games are horrible and some are even just apparently used to pad gamerscores? But what is worse is those 99% greatly devalues the decent indies that are out.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Truth is there are far more garbage indie games to rummage through than there are AAA games due to the sheer quantity in which they release. People love pointing to the 10 or so stand out indie games a year and hold them above AAA games in terms of creativity and innovation but for every stand out good game there 1000 copy-cat low effort zelda and 8 bit metroidvania shovelware.

The 1000 low-effort copycats don’t cancel the 10 standouts. You can play the best and ignore the rest… exactly like you’re probably already doing with the major releases.

 

[ReBurn]

99% of indies games are horrible and some are even just apparently used to pad gamerscores? But what is worse is those 99% greatly devalues the decent indies that are out.

There's a distinction somewhere between indie and shovelware. I wish it were better defined.

 

[xiseerht]

I don't care if the game is $3 bucks or $69.99 . I just love playing all the games that are good. I have spent 50 cents on a trash game and I have spent 100 bucks on a trash game. Games can be great at any price point. Just don't limit yourself.

 

[remember_spinal]

Most people here don't play indies, even those that claim they do.
Because if you have a publisher backing your *development* (Devolver, Microsoft, Humble Bundle, tinyBuild, etc) then you're not "indie" at all.

I guess you could consider "indie developers" those that develop their own games without funding, and then get a pulishing deal.
But I would likely call those "semi-independent", because without the publisher doing the marketing, PR and localization they would probably not get as far.

I guess there are very few "true" indie developers in the world left, and they probably are the ones that make freeware games.

Same as the movie industry, there are indie movies that look like student projects and some of them end up being good (amazon is filled with low effort indepdenet films) then you have your Annapurna, A24, Bleeker Street, IFC stuff which is basically funded on multi-million dollar production and marketing budgets like The Whale, that literally everyone watches come award season

The latter is what most people pride themselves on being well versed in the video game landscape. Things like Dead cells, Hades, 12 minutes, Stray, Hotline Miami, Katana Zero, etc. Not the actual 1 man efforts that litter steam.

The stuff people post about here are usually the games that end up having representation at Keighly awards

 

[SmokedMeat]

Considering all the junk, unfinished AAA releases with apologies, road maps, and microtransactions - I don’t know how anyone can not want to play indies.

 

[gothmog]

Indie as a classification is almost meaningless these days.

 

[bender]

Harrison Ford killed my father.

 

[Killer8]

There are good games and there are bad games.

I make no distinction if they are AAA or indie.

 

[zcaa0g]

Most of the graphics suck for indie games. In the modern era with the engines and middleware available today, the statement of "gameplay > graphics" is stupid. A game should be good in both regards given what is available.

 

[22•22]

Harrison Ford killed my father.

 

[Danjin44]

I enjoy some of them but I'm much bigger fan of AA games, one thing I'm sick of is they keep making "roguelike", I havent really following vampire survivor but I bet that game is also roguelike, because of course it is, its seems most indie devs love to make roguelike for some reason.

 

[22•22]

Most of the graphics suck for indie games. In the modern era with the engines and middleware available today, the statement of "gameplay > graphics" is stupid. A game should be good in both regards given what is available.

 

[anthony2690]

A lot of indies, I really don't like the look off.

I got especially tired off the "8bit" wannabe look too.

But there bad been some genuinely incredible Indie games that I've absolutely loved in the last year or so, like Deaths Door & Olli Olli world

 

[Kilau]

IF YOU’RE NOT INDIE, FUCK YOU!

 

[I Master l]

I'd rather play older games instead, there are a wealth of good old games and generally they
are better quality than indies

 

[Bonsaibäumchen]

Been playing vampire survivor non stop and it's been genuinely one of the best games I ever played giving Elden Ring, my current favorite game of all time a run for its money as GOTY. But being an over head pixel indie I know while many people who will play it many more will skip it. So if you are someone who only plays games by major publishers do you ever feel like you are missing out on something or are you content with AAA games or games from major publishers only?

I for one enjoy Indies, Early Access titles, Tripple A Cinematic Movies, Walking Simulators, old games and so on. Some games I enjoy for the gameplay and some for the storytelling.

Likewise with movies and so on. As long as it catches my interest I'll give it a try. Sure I've been burned more then once but I don't mind.

 

[Spyxos]

I play almost none. Only the 1-2 top indies for the year. I liked Hades and Cuphead, but I mostly wait until it's clear it's worth it. Otherwise I wouldn't try them at all.

 

[ValiantTraveler]

Some I watched on YouTube like Firewatch (I loved it). Some are really interesting for me but I missed out on them and I always have a backlog of AA games. Some I know are great but they're just not my thing: anyting roguelike or with procedural generation. Some are clearly well made but lack something to make them really worth my time. And some others are on my wishlist like Tunic.

Overall I want to see indies that replicate the vibe and game design styles of PS1/PS2 games.

 

[TintoConCasera]

I play almost none. Only the 1-2 top indies for the year. I liked Hades and Cuphead, but I mostly wait until it's clear it's worth it. Otherwise I wouldn't try them at all.

How do you know which are the top indies for the year if you have only played one or two?

Be careful with indies everyone. Of course that some of them are very cool (arguably cooler than AAA games) BUT there's also the fever of the month being constantly marketed
by the press, influencers and internet parrots, which might make the game look like the best shit ever because of popularity but end up being quite shit in the end.

 

[Ghost of Caelid]

Same as the movie industry, there are indie movies that look like student projects and some of them end up being good (amazon is filled with low effort indepdenet films) then you have your Annapurna, A24, Bleeker Street, IFC stuff which is basically funded on multi-million dollar production and marketing budgets like The Whale, that literally everyone watches come award season

The latter is what most people pride themselves on being well versed in the video game landscape. Things like Dead cells, Hades, 12 minutes, Stray, Hotline Miami, Katana Zero, etc. Not the actual 1 man efforts that litter steam.

The stuff people post about here are usually the games that end up having representation at Keighly awards

I think thats where you have the steamware games that are the solo projects of game enthusiast vs digital devolver, anapurna type games. You can find some genuinely great projects on the bottom of the barrel but curation for indies is important too. I appreciate the youtubers who will go through the bottom of the barrel to pick out the diamonds in the rough...that curation isn't easy. Same with film. i have alot more patience with indie films tho since on average they can take an hours and a half to watch. I've seen some horrible and superb student projects.

 

[Spyxos]

How do you know which are the top indies for the year if you have only played one or two?

Be careful with indies everyone. Of course that some of them are very cool (arguably cooler than AAA games) BUT there's also the fever of the month being constantly marketed
by the press, influencers and internet parrots, which might make the game look like the best shit ever because of popularity but end up being quite shit in the end.

I usually just ask friends or watch top10 indies of that year to get an idea what would interest me.

 

[TintoConCasera]

I usually just ask friends or watch top10 indies of that year to get an idea what would interest me.

Good on you for doing some research by asking your friends. I just can't trust the press anymore, so those top 10 lists are worthless to me.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

I for one enjoy Indies, Early Access titles, Tripple A Cinematic Movies, Walking Simulators, old games and so on. Some games I enjoy for the gameplay and some for the storytelling.

Likewise with movies and so on. As long as it catches my interest I'll give it a try. Sure I've been burned more then once but I don't mind.

Cute gatito

 

[dorkimoe]

I didn’t buy a $600 system to play some artsy fartsy 8bit indie game

 

[Spyxos]

Good on you for doing some research by asking your friends. I just can't trust the press anymore, so those top 10 lists are worthless to me.

Maybe the indies have the biggest innovations in gaming, but I've burned my fingers there a few times and since then most of them look very similar to me. And if I'm going to invest time in them, I want to be sure they're top games.

The ratings from the press have become less and less important. Especially sites like IGN and Gamespot.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Maybe the indies have the biggest innovations in gaming, but I've burned my fingers there a few times and since then most of them look very similar to me. And if I'm going to invest time in them, I want to be sure they're top games.

The ratings from the press have become less and less important. Especially sites like IGN and Gamespot.

Yeah I get you. I'm kinda burn out of roguelites, metroidvanias, deck builders, etc... Each time an indie has success it also seems to spawn a dozen clones that end up burning down any interest I have left in whatever genre it belongs.

Thankfully there's still enough variety.

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

indie games are cool i think too many of them fall into the obscure art house barely games category and some of them are just proof of concept without any hard thought out ideas but as a whole indie games are cool.

 

[lachesis]

Unfortunately I rarely play Indy games. Mostly because I'm short of time in my life to explore everything out there... and as I get older and older, I follow very limited franchise and trusted publishers (RE series, and some long RPGs, Zeldas) - and get my enjoyment enough from them already.

Game pass did allow me to try out a few though - but not long enough to really dive into most of them, unfortunately.

 

[hemo memo]

I try to play everything even the games I know that I will dislike like sport and cars games just to check if they can hook me.

The only thing that I try to actively avoid is tense and scary games. My anxiety is enough.

 

[zcaa0g]

Ah, a Nintendo fan that knows all about bad graphics.

 

[22•22]

Ah, a Nintendo fan that knows all about bad graphics.

Ahh a gaming fan since 1986.

Define graphics

 

[Thabass]

I play a few, but I mostly just forget indies exist lol

 

[MAtgS]

I play some indies here & there but probably not as many as I could given the size of my AAA backlog.

(If Switch had an achievement system I'd play more of them)

 

[The Stig]

What kind of moron would refuse to play a game purely based on its price?

 

[MastAndo]

It seems a lot of the Indie games that have an aesthetic I like end up being a roguelike or roguelite, and with few exceptions (i.e. Hades), I'm just not into that. That puts me off a bit.

 

[BossLackey]

I used to play a lot of indie games. Recently I've felt quite burned out on them as the vast majority of them are quite derivative of other indies.

There are of course plenty of indies that have new and fresh ideas and they are absolutely worth playing. They can take risks that larger devs/publishers can't make and sometimes that pays off.

The 2D pixel art/low poly isometric dungeon crawler hack and slash with lite puzzle games are getting a bit ridiculous though. There are far too many of them and even the good ones that rise to the top of the pack are still just more of the same.

I'll still play them in the future, but I'm pumping my brakes hard.

 

[Dthomp]

I play a wide wide range of games, but honestly it very rarely consists of indy games. The biggest one and one of my all time favs is the Binding of Isaac, other then Isaac I could count on both hands the number of indie titles I enjoyed. When you grew up with an atari and an NES 8 bit crap isn't really innovative or something I'm looking for anymore. There are enough AAA/AA games in my backlog to tide me over until I die, so I have no interest in a 3 dollar indie game that is all the rage.

 

[AncientOrigin]

Indies >>> AAA most of the time.

Never no indie on this planet comes close to play a uncharted a Resident Evil a gran Turismo a metal gear solid never

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

I’ve always liked indie games. I have actually been playing a lot more indie and AA games lately and having more fun with them than many AAA games.

 

[NightmareFarm]

Never no indie on this planet comes close to play a uncharted a Resident Evil a gran Turismo a metal gear solid never

I mean it really depends whether you want to play an actual game or a soulless interactive movie. Apples and oranges.

 

[AncientOrigin]

I mean it really depends whether you want to play an actual game or a soulless interactive movie. Apples and oranges.

Why all those games I mentioned are actual real games amazing games with amazing story gameplay graphics content and so on.Of course Indies are also great two of my favorite games ever are both A games both tower defense games pixel monsters and savage moon

 

[sncvsrtoip]

Rarely any good. Often super hard as its all have to offer. Also playing 25 years ago 2d games on sega saturn that sh&* on modern pixel art is not helping ;d

 

[remember_spinal]

I mean it really depends whether you want to play an actual game or a soulless interactive movie. Apples and oranges.

We’re not talking about immortality here though

 

[The_Mike]

Indies were the big hit last gen until the first party ps games arrived then no one gave a fuck.

Fuck I'm feeling old for remember that resogun circle jerking on this forum lol.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Most of the graphics suck for indie games

Play more indies.

 

[Duchess]

Play more indies.

1. ???
2. Hades
3. ???
4. ???
5. Blasphemous (also, ew!)