Indie Gaming

I’ve written a few posts about gaming in general and why I feel that they’re the ultimate expression of postmodern art and design in the digital realm. But I haven’t talked much about the indie gaming space and the amazing things happening there. There are some truly incredible indie gaming experiences being made by really small and extremely dedicated teams from all around the world.

Playdead”s Inside and Limbo are truly cerebral, dark experiences that make the player question the nature of reality itself. Not only are the games excellently designed and fun to play, but they contain deep, thought-provoking narratives that can only be told through the medium of a video game. Passively watching it or reading about it will do absolutely nothing to convey the impact of actually playing through it and experiencing it.

Supergiant Games’ Bastion and Transistor are groundbreaking examples of what highly specialized, focused teams can pull off with a great idea. The games are insanely fun to play and combine the right amount of strategic planning and combat with a well-thought-out progression and upgrade system. Bastion thrives on its unique handpainted art style and the overworld narrator, whereas Transistor focuses on turn-based combat and chaining abilities together to experiment with different combinations of your powers and upgrades. They work fantastically well and definitely made an impact on the indie gaming scene when they released.

Then there’s the choice-based narrative games like Life is Strange and Oxenfree. Both games have different endings depending on your choices throughout the game and the decisions you make end up affecting your relationships with the other characters in the game, sometimes completely flipping character arcs in the sub-narratives. Life is Strange relies on a time-rewind mechanic to manipulate the world around the player while forcing the player to make somewhat tough decisions. It plays out as a lighthearted yet cosmically intertwined tale of destiny and chaos theory. Oxenfree is a more relaxed story about a group of teenage friends who discover some eerie paranormal activity on a tourist island. The atmosphere in Oxenfree feels very reminiscent of 80’s supernatural films and pop culture. Both games are a blast to play with the player gaining full control over the character’s choices and actions.

Let’s not forget the more “casual” indie games which some like to categorize as “walking simulators”, such as Journey and Firewatch. Journey was heralded as the best indie game of all time upon its release, and for good reason. It blended smooth gameplay with an amazing art style and PvP features. It didn’t overcomplicate its core features beyond what was absolutely necessary and simply focused on making traversal through the environment as fun as possible. Firewatch is mostly walking and talking into a radio, but it too, focuses just on that as its core gameplay element and it works oh so well. There’s this overlying sense of mystery throughout the game as the player is walking by, snapping pictures and sharing memories with a fellow lookout. They’re both very chill, laid-back, and casual experiences that are very enjoyable to play.

And finally, there’s the genre of experimental indie games which I’ve been more and more of lately. These include games like Gone Home, The Stanley Parable, Braid, The Witness, Papers Please, Undertale, Risk of Rain, The Binding of Isaac, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and so many more. There’s tons of simulator games and even more do-what-you-want Garry’s Mod style games coming out. The genre is ever-expanding and I see no limit to the bounds of possibilities to exploit the creativity of game devs. Games like Undertale have become extremely popular, taking the indie game world by storm with its unique RPG elements and immensely memorable boss fights. The Stanley Parable is the literal definition of mindfuck (I won’t ruin it for you), while Braid experimented and succeeded with a time-rewind gameplay mechanic in a 2D sidescrolling platformer.

As more and more indie games come out, the market and demand for them are rising quickly. A niche group of players, especially on the PC, are finding more value shelling out $5 or $20 for a high-quality indie game than forking over $60 for a AAA-first-person-shooter that’s overly generic and afraid to take risks with its gameplay mechanics. As a result, the quality of indie games is rising. We’re seeing a huge step-up in the art direction of indie games, as evident in Ori and the Blind Forest as well as the recently released Song of the Deep (these games are literally a sequence of paintings…seriously). Other games like Papers Please and Undertale like to stick to the pixel-art 8-bit style as their unique differentiators.

I personally love indie games because you can see the amount of hard work and passion that its creators put into it. Every little detail is overly polished and the whole game feels like a cohesive whole. No extra fluff is added. The creators set out to tell a certain story and they do it damn well. A beautiful visual style and a unique atmosphere adds even more immersion into the game world. These are people who go into the games industry not to make money, but to really tell stories or explore new forms of gameplay with the most powerful and immersive medium available today: gaming. I hope we continue to see the rise of high-quality indie games well into the future, because it’s sure as hell more interesting than the repeat sequels of generic AAA-titles every year.