And thats the natural way of the world. Without shitty artists there would be no good artists, because every good artist was once a shitty artist.

I can respect a shitty indie game that has passion. You can tell a lot of people are ALMOST there on itch.io sometimes. And its just so close. Or just something that doesnt click with you. But thats ok.

I don't think the intended message is that all indie games are great. The message is that if you're frustrated with AAA-games and haven't considered indie games, you should.

there’s also hundreds of shitty and terrible indie games for every decent one.

I would skip those and play the good ones

Sturgeon's law

That's why the Indie side is a full ecosystem.

Shitty games die and fertilize the ground so that all the good ones can grow.

If a AAA game dies, it takes another 6 years for investors and executives to gain the balls to maybe risk spending the money to make another game, so it fertilizes nothing, just sits and rots on sand.

If you dont play a game for 2 hours and didnt buy it more than 2 weeks ago, you can refund it if you bought it on steam

Oh no I spent $3 on a game that could use some more polish.

Honestly even if the game ends up being kinda lame I won't ask for a refund.

There are more good indie games than ever. It doesn’t bother me that there are also more bad indie games than ever. We have a variety of ways to separate the wheat from the chaff. And I don’t think the ratio has ever been better than 1:100 in any genre in any time period. 🤷‍♂️

yes but more chances to be good. variance is expected ln chances. the choice is your's to pick which ones to play. no one said you absolutely had to play the shit ones. use your free will.

That is why indie gamer bloggers still exist, to write about which ones are bad and which are good.

All the old cool shit still exists even if its not "mainstream".

I'm genuinely upset at how miserable the mobile scene is compared to the rest.

I've got a phone that's orders of magnitude above a TurboGrafx or a Game Gear, but 95% of the games are GACHA crap or so ad bloated as to be unplayable.

Even if you only have a console, it's really not THAT bad especially if you're not a conscious consumer. Like my kids love their Switch 2 games because they don't really know any better yet. They see me playing different games on my PC or even indies on the Switch and look genuinely interested so I'll get them to play those soon enough to expand their horizons (and eventually let them know how shitty a company Nintendo truly is lol).

You can emulate tons of consoles and games on your phone though

A lot of great games have been ported to phones. Then you have emulation. I am playing games up until 3DS on a 6yr old phone with a blue tooth remote that sticks to the back of my phone.

if you only have a console

... then your an idiot in the first place.

If you spent $700+ on a gaming only device that you can't use for most "PC activities" (office, banking, browsing the web, etc), than you obviously set your priorities wrong.

Most indie games run on 10 year old budget laptops/PCs and you can get them definetly cheaper than a console.

To put it more accurately, they don't look. They don't seek. They wait for it to get served to them via an algorithmic feed.

I think this is a core issue with all of civilization, right now.

Sounds like a them problem

And there's also those, who will throw a hissyfit if they're forced to play something without modern AAA graphics, don't want to play "woke" games, etc.

I think it's still a bit of a fair critique.

There were always sequels and garbage 30 years ago but someone who maybe only saw a movie a year the chance that it would be a new IP were higher. Studios are allergic to risk so they would prefer a mediocre known quality.

That said you're right there's more media than ever and tones of interesting options in niche areas. That said discoverability is not free. You have to put in a decent amount of effort and even still you might end up watching a niche indie darling that was never for you and come out disappointed.

For someone who only periodically dips into a form of media I think the current landscape is undeniably worse than it was and I understand when they complain about it.

On the topic of indie films, can people in-the-known share some suggestions for what's worth watching?

Exactly. It's like when people complained that rock and roll died again at the end of the 90's. Sure, if you don't seek out better music and just take what's handed to you by MTV and the radio (or what Spotify shows on its Home screen these days), then music is terrible now. If you go digging, you can find all kinds of amazing stuff. Same goes for gaming. Good studios get too big or bought out and ruined by people who only care about money, but if you dig around you can find all kinds of good stuff.

The stuff that "lands in your lap" was actually shoved there by a multi-million dollar marketing budget. That almost certainly means the product itself is meant for mass consumption and may not be that compelling or interesting. If you're willing to spend the time and effort to look around and play some bad games along the way, you'll find the good ones.

That's what folks don't seem to realize, it's always been about money and the entire industry has always been toxic and what we have now is it's natural outcome. There's always been non mainstream content and more recently it's become more accessable which hurts the profits of the industry meaning they do less innovating because they worry about the ROI beyond anything. This drives more people to non mainstream which increases its quality. It just requires effort to find.

I love deltarune and I enjoyed the ultrakill demo, never tried Celeste though

Most games I play are indie ones cause those are the best imo

Depends on how you define indie. By my definition, Deltarune is still indie but made by a quintillionaire so like, meh. Celeste was indie when it was just a fantasy console bs thing.

not played those but deltarune, undertale, and celeste are on my planned list, and might check ultrakill out

i rlly like hollow knight and hollow knight silksong, which are 2 very good indie games

the main non indie ones i play are minecraft and the legend of zelda series

both ultrakill and dusk look like arse, and that might turn people away

We always have and I've often ignored big corp.

https://store.steampowered.com/...

A fun puzzle game with lots of layers to it. There's the original, stated goal. But as you work towards it, you discover lore that points you towards other puzzles.

No way Undertale/Deltarune fans haven't shown up yet

1. Jazzpunk https://store.steampowered.com/... - Everyone should play Jazzpunk. Watch the trailer, and read no other reviews, just play it.

2. Far: Lone Sails https://store.steampowered.com/... - a gorgeous art piece, a good story that develops through the gameplay, worth your time.

3. Void War https://store.steampowered.com/... - Void War is FTL crossed with Warhammer 40k, but it's not just a reskin. If you ever wanted more FTL gameplay, Void War is it.

4. The Red Strings Club https://store.steampowered.com/... - a great story with beautifully written characters, everything that digital storytelling should be.

5. Songs of Syx https://store.steampowered.com/... - this has been eating my brain recently. If you enjoy colony builders like Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress, Songs of Syx is potentially dangerous in that where did the last eight hours go kind of way. It's still got some rough spots, but the developer is actively working on it.

*Bonus - Fatum Betula https://store.steampowered.com/... - a strange experience, like nothing else that I know of. I also recommend going into this one blind, just watch the developer's trailer.

• Star Valor is one of my all time favourites - i always come back to this one, it never gets boring.
• Dead Cells doesn't need much introduction i think.
• Pathogenic is the newest addition to my library, and it's a really fun and innovative twin stick shooter with a great soundtrack and a very polished design.
• Look Outside Is a horror survival game. Lots of body horror, for those who like that. Great atmosphere, i love playing it at night on my steam deck.

There are some NSFW games I've had a lot of fun with that are contenders for a space in your library:

The Flipwitch series is a fun Metroidvania that asks "what if changing gender at will was a gameplay mechanic?"

Scarlet Maiden was my first 2d platformer roguelike I've ever sunk hours into and really turned me on to the genre, pun intended.

Spirit Valley is "what if Pokemon but with sexy monster girls?" There are even shinies to hunt!

Elf Girl Pinball is a lot of fun!

Tower/Sword of Succubus are two entirely different genres. Tower is more puzzle based, Sword is essentially sexy Zelda. Even comes with the free Castlevania throwback: Succubus Hunter. The series even expands further into search-action with Midnight Castle Succubus DX and Castle in the Clouds DX. Seriously, check these out while you wait for Belmont's Curse.

Smash Girls looks fun if you can get it to run without crashing and rebooting your PC. Basically Smash Bros with Hentai.

Outer wilds a fun little mystery game about exploring a small alient solar system

Don't look up anything about it and go in as blind as you can for the best experience

I've been enjoying My Little Puppy. It's a cute little game about finding your human. Not for kids though.

Edit: I've finished the game, here is my Steam review.

Voices of the Void is great and free! It’s a game set in a government facility in the woods where you monitor satellites to try to detect aliens.

!VoicesOfTheVoid@indie-ver.se

I mean c'mon you gotta at least acknoledge that these are wildly different genres from the AAA games people complain about

I have to use every opportunity to recommend vivid/stasis. Its amazing, my favorite game

catgirl is another cool game

Both games are free and have a cool story, the second took me 5 hours to finish, in the first one i have spent 117 hours

https://store.steampowered.com/...

I really enjoyed most games by Knuckle Cracker. They're very unique and different.

if you’re looking for a fun couch coop game, towerfall is really awesome! it’s a 2D vertical fighting game with bows, the controls are very easy to pick up and the rounds are fast, so anyone can join in and it’s really fun!

Right now I am hitting endgame in SolarPunk. I fucking love it.

Im the type, if a game hands you a gun, and says go kill the bad guys, Ill pass. It's very clear in this game, it will not be for everyone, I however, have sunk 60 hours into it in the last few weeks. It's for me, and I love it.

Indie games aren't capitalism?

A bunch of Indiana Jones fighting against techno-feudalists seeking to hoarde proprietary

Shut up and take my money!

For real though, casual and chill-out games are so cathartic. Sure, I love my edgy soulsborne action adventures... But a couple of edibles and some Slime Rancher and I'm happy as a clam.

Watching Paradox Interactive transition from AA into a AAA studio has been painful. They fill a niche that nobody else is really paying attention to, but they've become so entrenched that the games are really starting to feel like reskins of each other, and while I wouldn't call their DLC strategy predatory, they feel just a hair below that point.

"Historical strategy simulator" is a pretty tough genre to attack as an indie dev, though.

you always play Assassin’s Creed with extra decorations.

Or if there are guns and vehicles, it's all Far Cry :-)

They used to have good writing though. How's Avatar's story?

Or you have great writing and then the developer turns stark raving mad (Mardek RPG).

That's always been a risk though.

Noita is great value if you can get around the unforgiving nature of the game.

Now share your secrets with us, give us your go-to wand configuration.

Noita can be such a time sink. I never felt like I properly understood wand crafting. The different ways effects interact is wild.

785 hours, 6 wins. I am perfectly capable of dying to dirt a world over and not need The Works help.

I still need to play that one. I played Reverie a few years ago and that was an amazing game that is still in my top recommendations.

But then nobody knows about the game, it won't sell well, and there's no money to make the next one

too much of a “guided experience” for my taste.

This shit drives me crazy, and Sony games are far and away the worst offenders - Spider-man, GoW, Death Stranding 2, etc. Otherwise great and enjoyable games damn near ruined by constant nagging and pointers for the most obvious things, like "helpful" reminders to get to the objective you're already going towards. I have other problems with Death Stranding 2, but that was one of the bigger ones. Stupid doll man wouldn't. shut. up.

God of war Ragnarok gets even worse with the backseating

While there is some truth to this, as an almost exclusive console gamer, I play hella indie games. SolarPunk this month, Ive also 300 hours in stardew valley, Indika was a cool story game, inKONBINI was really nice too, Im trying to think of others, The Long Dark, Limbo, (just downloaded Inside yesterday) but Ive played so many smaller indie games on console.

I recognize the monopoly/issues, I dont pay for gamepass, but I do have access. I have played so many smaller/indie games, I might not have tried because it is on gamepass. Ive even bought some after trying them there first, like HouseFlipper 1&2.

Yes Ive heard people say I play videogames all the time, and Ill be like, oh yeah what do you play? and they say, Call of Duty, and I know to exit the conversation. But, we out here, I activley try the smaller games, all the time.

The only games I have on steam (we have a Lonovo Leigon Go) is Civ 6, Paralives and Rust. It's kind of a shitty set up I have, with a tiny tiny bluetooth keyboard. It hurts my hands so I dont play it as much. And Rust hasnt worked since the jungle update anyway, I get like 25fps. Its stupid

There is something to be said for the fact that consumers always want more of the same. Any time something new and good is made, the first question people ask is “why arent there any sequels.” Almost by necessity, companies will provide an increasingly diluted product to hock at these insatiable individuals. Just ask McDonalds why they never change their fries.

Your troll needs work.

Saying that 50% of the indie games are side scrollers is like saying that 50% of the AAA games are FPS... No wait, that is actually true.

Fine, but with that said saying side-scrollers is incredibly broad. Cuphead is very different to Pentiment which is nothing like Pizza Tower and that doesn't share much with Replaced, and so on. There are plenty of genres represin Indie circles from FPS's to rpgs, point and clicks, simulation, platformers, Metroidvania's, open world adventures and far more that I can't be fucked to think of. The point being if indie games aren't for you then that's cool but at least be honest and not just dismiss wiith sweeping generalisations.

Side scrollers is very generic, what type of side scrollers?

You're thinking of a different time; there's a deluge of indie and "AA" games with graphical fidelity that puts most AAAs to shame; and that's if you set aside their art direction.

This isn't 2005. Devs have access to some fantastic off-the-shelf engines. And honestly many AAAs footgun themselves trying to wrangle in-house engines.

Now, the sheer scale of something like RDR2 or an AssCreed; that's still in the realm of AAAs. But that's getting cheaper too, and I would cite Kingdom Come Deliverance 2/BG3 as prime examples: those are big studios, but they're absolutely microscropic compared to (say) Ubisoft or BGS. Yet they made stupendously large, dense, refined worlds.

It is trivially easy on steam or gog to simply filter for indie games and just click through each ones that are well reviewed. Especially on steam it's brain-dead simple browse these. If you're having too much a problem with it just tell me your taste and I'll give you a game that's objectively good.

As if all indie-games look like 1990s. I'm over 50 and went more and more indie over the years as AAA just does the same grey-washed boring pc-crap over and over again. Also sloppy, shitty and buggy. Rare exceptions may apply.

Name 3 really(!) Good AAA since January? Not good by sales, but good. And then try to find ONE that was also creative and dared to bring something fresh. Yeah exactly. Fresh doesn't appease investors.

It's not just the graphics that improved in the last 20 years. Modern game engines created a floor of quality where input just works, basic configuration just works, autosave just works. All these little conveniences around the game itself that you barely think about, until you play a shooter from 20 years ago and the buttons are mapped weirdly and there's no way to remap.

Yeah, right. I think the place for being useless and unproductive is not here. At least I hope it is.