Indie Games

Over the last 3 years I have delved more and more into the world of indie gaming, and some friends of mine have lamented my absence from the AAA multiplayer games we played together.

They have repeated asked me why I don't come back so I thought I'd write a little thought piece discussing such things.

Firstly I find most of the AAA sphere to be quite boring currently, with many games feeling more like second jobs than any kind of real escapism. I have actually played simulation games like House Flipper, and Gas Station simulator that feel less like jobs than these games that Yahtzee from The Escapist Magazine coined as "Jiminy Cock Throat" games.



The ever presence of FOMO being pushed into games through battle pass systems, daily challenges, and timed events push people towards prioritising their game over others to get those sweet unlocks. The games that employ these strategies do so even against governments advice to stop before it becomes legislation. There is also the repeated use of DRM that actually punishes paying customers just to try and prevent pirates from cracking their game for 1 more day. DRM services like Denuvo that actively slow down any system they're installed on and make any game they're attached to run worse than it would without it.

And just to cap it off, they are charging $70 for new games now which makes it even less likely I'll be buying any games new for modern systems. It's not even like the teams making these games even see much benefit from massive sales. They don't see any bonus from these games selling in vast quantities. It's the execs and upper management that see those bonuses. And as we have seen with Activision/Blizzard and E.A. it is often those execs and upper management abusing their staff, and causing delays, crunch, and budget increases through their mismanagement or even their direct actions.

So with those things in mind let's take a look at these indie games. Smaller companies, more close nit teams - Often solo devs. Buying the games actively supports the developers as well as the publishers.

There is a far wider variety of games overall too with these smaller teams able to make games focussed on doing a single or a small few mechanics really well and making them primarily from passion than purely financial gain. Yes there are outliers to this but the overall mentality is there. 

You can see this in the graphical usage from these games too, ranging from 8bit pixel art, PS1 styled warpy graphics, PS2 era graphics, voxels, sprites, combined styles, and even in some cases similar kinds of visual fidelity seen in AAA games.



Companies like Running with Scissors being unafraid to push the boundries of taste. Hyperstrange making what I can only describe as a boomer shooter of dream logic. MDHR making Fleischer era hand drawn animations for a Run n Gun game, Witch Beam making a pixel art isometric game about moving house. Big Evil Corporation making a cute 16bit pixel art platformer where you play as a fox. Consumer Softproducts making a fantastic Immersive Sim hidden in a game that looks like it could be a meme produced while on psychedelics. 

The Sheer variety on show has rekindled my love of gaming after a couple of years where it was waning thanks to endless season passes, micro transactions, live service models, and copy paste game design. 
Amid Evil doesn't feel like Celeste, which doesn't feel like House Flipper, or Getting Over It, or Goat Simulator, or Disco Elysium, or Valheim. While on the flip side, Watch Dogs, Far Cry (Whatever), Ghost Recon, Destiny 2, Horizon Forbidden West, Ghost of Tsushima, and so many others feel very much alike. With differences feeling more superficial than at their core.



My love of Retro gaming has also helped with this as I often feel like a solid art style trumps graphical fidelity every time, and many of these games aping retro styles often have strong art styles to go with their game design. 

I think there is a slight shift towards this too with games like Raft, Astroneer, and Deep Rock Galactic getting good press, sales, and exposure through streamers has helped people move away from purely seeking the best visuals possible. And I like seeing this as more games with personality and a good core design need to come through to the main stream instead of the generic re-skinned open world game or standard modern shooter, or high fidelity racing sim.

What are your thoughts? Am I too bitter about modern games? There are some out there I still like, but they are significantly fewer and farther between than ever before.

Images sourced from google images for reference.

I will also be sorting out a curator list on steam of games I believe deserve your attention. I'll link that in the comments as I get it underway. Please come check out some of these games. You might just find your next gaming obsession.