Opinions on most recent indies games and possibly their documentaries.

[Foron]

I personally think most indies aren't really indie, and are mostly pretty bad.

One example is Depression Quest. By the name alone, it's not enjoyable, it's in fact the point. I'm aware that it's supposed to raise awareness for depression, but I don't it's needed. (not to mention it helped create the biggest battle in Gaming)

Most indie games follow this trope, either game that are sad for no real reason, game that parody others and aren't that good by themselves, or game that are pretty gimmicky (Like Crypt of The Necrodancer, it's a modern day Vib-Ribbon. Not that that's a bad thing, in fact I think it's a pretty cool idea. But it also looks like an RPG version of DDR.)and only introduce one thing to warrant purchasing it.

It also irks me how most accept these while bringing down RPG Maker. It brings back a great genre and can even be use in others!

But apparently emo-ish video games get more attention because they're different. I personally don't think that just because something's different, it's not automatically good.

Say I made a platformer that requires QTEs to defeat bosses. It's new, it's not done in the genre, right? But it wouldn't be a good mechanic. So why do people react like this with Indies?

I wish most became what it wads before: making a game that you personally like that you share to others. Not something with a bigger message or a parody. Just a good game worth playing.

SO what's YOUR opinion on this? Do you argee, disagree, or something else entirely?

 

[Lunarea]

I like that those types of indie games exist. I probably won't play them, but I like the fact that they exist. I think there's room in the video game world for games that are created for pure entertainment, games created to educate us about something, games created as a form of self-expression, and everything in between.

Just because something isn't my favorite style or concept doesn't mean it's immediately terrible and should go away. If it's somehow helping other people and becoming a footstep that leads to more people playing, making or sharing games, it's a positive thing.

 

[Foron]

I like that those types of indie games exist. I probably won't play them, but I like the fact that they exist. I think there's room in the video game world for games that are created for pure entertainment, games created to educate us about something, games created as a form of self-expression, and everything in between.

I'm saying that's a bad thing at all.

 But it looks like they're the only type of indies now, aside from RPG Maker games.

 

[Scythuz]

I see this new wave of indies as a set of games that bridge the gap between "obscure game made on a shoe string budget in a basement" and "triple A game made with a budget that rivals a hollywood movie".  

Some of the games within this category are really great and I think you're unfairly discrediting a lot of games by saying they rely on messages or gimmicks in order to make sales, because, there are so many out there that do that and are great fun to play.  There's also plenty of indie games that are just great to play without silly gimmicks or potentially pretentious artistic themes.

Perhaps this isn't what you mean though, could you name some more of the games that you think do things the wrong way?  It might clarify things a bit better.

 

[Lunarea]

But it looks like they're the only type of indies now, aside from RPG Maker games.

They're just the indies that get the most exposure at the moment, though.

There are a lot of indies that are fun, but they're not featured in the articles, big distribution portals and so on. That has less to do with the indies themselves and more with the audience is receptive to.

 

[Foron]

I see this new wave of indies as a set of games that bridge the gap between "obscure game made on a shoe string budget in a basement" and "triple A game made with a budget that rivals a hollywood movie".  

Some of the games within this category are really great and I think you're unfairly discrediting a lot of games by saying they rely on messages or gimmicks in order to make sales, because, there are so many out there that do that and are great fun to play.  There's also plenty of indie games that are just great to play without silly gimmicks or potentially pretentious artistic themes.That's not really what I mean. I mean that they have "gimmicks" and messages in general.

Perhaps this isn't what you mean though, could you name some more of the games that you think do things the wrong way?  It might clarify things a bit better. Certainly.

Pregnancy - I hope this won't be something I'll regret, but it just seems weird that this game exists. Why? Most are against pedophila (or you know...that word), so unles I'm missing something, it kind of has no reason to be here.

Social Justice Warriors - Basically the parody side of my argument. It's like a text based RPG where you play as a SJW against trolls. It pretty much parodies this, and according to reviews, that's about it.

Those are the only examples I can find/know about. Sorry.

There's also that documentary called "Gameloading: Rise of The Indies".

It's basically 34 interviews of people.

It also brings up another point others have that I agree with: They don't really seem to care about their games. From what I've seen from reviews, they basically talk about...things, then plugin their game in the movie. Thanks the info, but what about your game? Can you provide inspiration, advice, the backstory for why it's made?

 

[The Mighty Palm]

I hate when these indie games are edgy just for the sake of being edgy. Like when it's obvious that the story had about as much thought put into it as a death metal band name. Limbo is a great game, and is dark in a eerie, somber kind of way. Binding of Issac is a great game, but it's dark in a... subtle way.

 

[Seacliff]

For over the last three decades, low budget and rushed games were the part of the market everyone shunned, and it wasn't until early last decade when they had a place in the market that wasn't titled shovelware: 'indie'.

As for the most recent games you stated... I can partially agree, but I think it's just that you are looking in the wrong places. It's a given that 90% of the games on steam I wouldn't recommend anyone to buy and the people who praise them either have extremely strange tastes in games if any at all. It's always been that way, but it is getting worse now as casual gamers who 'play games to pass time' are getting more and more popular.

Anyways, I think there are at least a handful of really promising indie games coming in the next year. Mighty No. 9, A Hat in Time, and Touhou 14.5 are games I'm willing to blow my money on... of course all those games are being created by people who have a lot of experience in game design.

 

[Foron]

I hate when these indie games are edgy just for the sake of being edgy. Like when it's obvious that the story had about as much thought put into it as a death metal band name. Limbo is a great game, and is dark in a eerie, somber kind of way. Binding of Issac is a great game, but it's dark in a... subtle way.

Exactly how I feel right there.

 

[Ralpf]

Ok, I'm not the audience for the darker type of Indie games you are talking about, though Darkest Dungeon looks cool. So I can't really say anything about that.

But on a hunch (I kinda knew one of them would fall somewhere in there) I looked through Steam to see my longest played games, they are, in order: Civilization V, Skyrim, Fallout Out:NV, Dungeons of Dredmor, and Eador: Masters of the Broken World. Now, obviously the first three on that list are about as for from "indie" as you can get, but that last 2 are indie, 2 out of 5 being indie with all the negatives attached (smaller budget, especially when it comes to advertising) is pretty good. I would also say probably my most played (non-MMO) game ever might be Mount and Blade: Warband (I don't have it on Steam), Mount and Blade started indie, though I wouldn't label it indie because they have a publisher now.

Actually I'm not sure where this is going...except to say that there are some indie games out there that are very enjoyable to me, along with all the crap. But "the crap" is not an exclusive problem to indies, not by a long shot. A good game is good, no matter the budget behind it, the plus for indies to go with the negative of a smaller budget is creative freedom, when a game has a multi-million dollar budget it MUST reach a large audience, so experimentation is generally kept to a minimum, when a budget is smaller that is less of a worry.

Also, honorable mention to The Banner Saga, I wish the campaign was longer.

 

[optimum45]

My entire purpose for purchasing the RPG Maker was to tell a good story using a medium I've always loved.  It is my first priority, above all other things, when I'm working on my project.  Fancy doo-dads and pretty lights and colors aside, it's as if some of these "games" are trying to "sell" you something else as you play them.  I consider that to be dirty pool.

I might end up selling this.  It does embody three of my published works.  But my intention isn't to make money.  My only intention is to tell this story, in a way that makes sense, in a game world that is (hopefully) fun.  I don't need a gimmick or to pull on already written material to do that.  If I ever release a game for sale, it will only be because I worked on it for thousands of hours.  You will get a story that I can only hope you'd enjoy.  Like the old days were.

As such, it is easy to tell when a game is developed with "impure motives".  They generally suck, lack creativity, and are very easy to just rip to shreds in a variety of different ways.  If the developer cares more about proving a point than telling a story, they will almost certainly fail.

Much like with books, we'll have to root through the bad ones to find the gems.

 

[Foron]

Actually I'm not sure where this is going...except to say that there are some indie games out there that are very enjoyable to me, along with all the crap. But "the crap" is not an exclusive problem to indies, not by a long shot. A good game is good, no matter the budget behind it, 

I agree. I started playing Minecraft again (though I guess it's not indie anymore I guess), and it was OK.

 

[hian]

There are so many different kinds of indie-games it's impossible to have one opinion on the whole lot of them. Some of them are good, others are bad.

What worries me though, is that the term "indie" will get diluted like it was in the music industry for a while, and not just denote whether the makers of the media are actually indpendent or not, but start to become synonymous with a certain kind of style or vibe.

You see that a lot these days in indie-gaming with all these artsy-fartsy games, and not-really-8-bit-but-it-kinda-looks-retro games with

old-school synth soundtracks and "original"(see : contrived) gameplay just for the sake of having it.

Salt and Sancuary, Mighty Nr.9, and a couple of others do look good to me though, and they look good to me because they're essentially trying to excel in much the same way as regular, and AAA -, games do, but with the added pluss of being made by real dedicated gamers and fans of the medium.

When indie-games loose their appeal to me, is when they are only really games as tokens made for the purpose of giving this new movement of hipster-doucebags some "street-cred", and for a quick profit, or made with the sole purpose of ****ting all over gaming history and traditional gaming conventions for the sake of cheap attention.

I see that a lot lately.

It's not "I really want to tell this story/I really want to make this kind of game that people will enjoy", and more "I really want to make this

political/artistic statement, and I just happened to pick the medium of games because its in vogue at the moment, and whatever I end up

making will conform to these strange unspoken roles of what the San Francisco hipster-crowd find the most appealing at the moment

so they can all lift me up at a pedestal within their inbread little cultural clique."

By all means, use gaming to express any and all kind of poltiical/artistic messages - but at least do so because you have a sincere love

for the format - not just because its a shortcut to publicity and a quick buck.

 

[Clord]

It seems that indie games are starting to become known more as non-AAA budget games than actually being self-published.


People don't tend to call high budget games as indie games even though they technically are when certain conditions are met.