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[Ghost of Caelid]

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?

 

[SSfox]

I play indies, when they're good and appeal to me.

 

[theStartupSound]

I would not say, that I differentiate between indies and games with more production value.

It’s more between generic standard games and outstanding ones. On both sides we have more of the boring ones and few pretty good games. Like in every art form.

 

[Filben]

Love them. They are far more cheaper, offer gameplay and stories you see less frequent or nothing at all from AA(A) games.

I had a blast with SIGNALIS, Card Shark, Cleo a pirate's tale, Mundaun, Rise of the Third Power, Katana Zero, Industria this year.

 

[jshackles]

If you don't play indies, you're definitely missing out - even if you feel like you're not.

 

[NightmareFarm]

Indies >>> AAA most of the time.

 

[analog_future]

It reminds me of a friend that considers himself a huge movie buff, but literally refuses to watch anything outside of Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Doctor Who, or Star Trek.

Why limit yourself to like 10% of the hobby that you love?

 

[Alexios]

Everybody plays indie games, even those that think they hate them because they have some weird idea of what they are and think they're all shitty knock offs of 80s games with bad graphics or something, all while enjoying some game that is actually indie but they think is AAA or whatever instead.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Skipping out on indies is a bad move. You miss a lot of goodness and above all, creativity and fun.

 

[jshackles]

Everybody plays indie games

I think you're forgetting a massive segment of the population that only plays Call of Duty or Candy Crush.

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

I play indies, when they're good and appeal to me.

First post best post

 

[tmlDan]

Depends on the indie, i find the vast majority to be quite similar to each other with a new coat of paint.

People love vampire survivors but that's been done for 30 years, not sure i understand the hype for a lot of them. I try and watch people play them and get bored tbh.

 

[Hendrick's]

I mostly play indies. It's the only place where any innovation happens these days.

 

[Alexios]

I think you're forgetting a massive segment of the population that only plays Call of Duty or Candy Crush.

Well the real question to them would be why don't they play games in general rather than indie games in particular.

 

[DaGwaphics]

This thread brings forward the bigger question: Are people who don't play indies really people?

Seriously, there is a lot of shovelware in the indie space, but a lot of great games too. I'm not sure how you could enjoy games and not have a few favorite indie games.

 

[Rambone]

If indies are interesting and deep like Stardew Valley or Minecraft I get interested in as well as play them but most of the time I feel like there is an ocean of trash indie games cluttering storefronts which just become a nuisance to try and sift through.

 

[nial]

I'd say that most people play indies without thinking "WOW, I LOVE INDIES SO FUCKING MUCH".

 

[fart town usa]

Anytime I see a retro inspired indie that interests me, it always has some dumb modern hook that ruins it for me. Obviously that's a really shallow take but if I want to play a Zelda clone, I want it to be a Zelda clone. There is a new Zelda clone that released, can't remember the name but it's on my radar. Looks like a super-charged LTTP.

 

[ungalo]

People who don't play indies probably think indies are a kind of game.

 

[Haggard]

My gaming time is limited and I`m a graphics whore. Unless an Indi gets immense must-play hype I´m not even looking at it.

 

[LazyParrot]

If I played something other than AAAA+ blockbusters I wouldn't get to bitch about how boring and formulaic games are these days, and how developers aren't willing to take risks anymore.

 

[Ghost of Caelid]

Everybody plays indie games, even those that think they hate them because they have some weird idea of what they are and think they're all shitty knock offs of 80s games with bad graphics or something, all while enjoying some game that is actually indie but they think is AAA or whatever instead.

Sadly alot of people only play COD, Fortnite, or the single player lovers who will only play GOW, Resident Evil, Elden Ring etc...alot of people won't look at a game that is slightly outside of their comfort zone.

 

[drganon]

I'll play an indie game occasionally, but most of them don't interest me.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

If you don't play indies, you're definitely missing out - even if you feel like you're not.

Yeah, the AAA space is so repetitive and boring by comparison. There's great AAA games out there, no doubt but my favorites from the past decade or so are almost all indies.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

For me, they are a nice alternative to the big budget stuff.

 

[remember_spinal]

i hate when people talk as if they’re somehow more open minded or have better taste because they “play indies”. Gamers are becoming like movie snobs that think watching foreign movies or A24 films make them movie connoisseurs.

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.

It doesn’t make you a better, more sophisticated gamer because you play the 5 major publisher backed indies a year that end up in all the award shows.

 

[JimmyRustler]

I dig cinematic games and Indie do not deliver in this regard. And since AAA games get more and more grindy and time consuming I’m sitting here and playing…. nothing. Miss the old PS2 and early 360/PS3 days. That was, for me, the best time in gaming.

 

[AJUMP23]

I like Corporations and I want to step on the little guy.

 

[Punished Miku]

i hate when people talk as if they’re somehow more open minded or have better taste because they “play indies”. Gamers are becoming like movie snobs that think watching foreign movies or A24 films make them movie connoisseurs.

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.

It doesn’t make you a better, more sophisticated gamer because you play the 5 major publisher backed indies a year that end up in all the award shows.

No point making it some kind of attack on people's character.

If you play a wide variety of genres, you have a wider, broader, richer understanding of gaming. I think most people can also acknowledge that these days, AAA is becoming more homogenous. Doesn't mean there are zero good AAA games, and I don't think anyone would really claim that. But playing a more varied collection of games makes your opinions and perspective more varied. It is just the truth, whether insecure people feel that is snobbish or not.

 

[sigmaZ]

I love indies when done right like Celeste. Thing I don't like about a large amount of indies games is that they focus too much on aesthetic and often don't iron out gameplay aspects.

 

[Alexios]

i hate when people talk as if they’re somehow more open minded or have better taste because they “play indies”. Gamers are becoming like movie snobs that think watching foreign movies or A24 films make them movie connoisseurs.

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.

It doesn’t make you a better, more sophisticated gamer because you play the 5 major publisher backed indies a year that end up in all the award shows.

Lol @ thinking you know what's up cos you follow shitty award shows. Lol @ following shitty award shows. Lol @ thinking "there are bad (indie) games" is some amazing revelation.

Ow, there aren't as many bad AAA games, cos there aren't as many AAA games (of course pubs don't only do AAA games). Amazing knock against some imaginary enemy of yours.

 

[remember_spinal]

Lol @ thinking you know what's up cos you follow shitty award shows. Lol @ following shitty award shows. Lol @ thinking "there are bad (indie) games" is some amazing revelation.

Ow, there aren't as many bad AAA games, cos there aren't as many AAA games (of course pubs don't only do AAA games). Amazing knock against some imaginary enemy of yours.

Tell me more about vampire survivors and why the casual gamer just doesn’t understand what they’re missing

 

[Alexios]

Tell me more about vampire survivors and why the casual gamer just doesn’t understand what they’re missing

I mean, lots of casual gamers play that, it's not for me but they do their thing and that's fine, maybe they heard about it in some award show or other mainstream outlet.

 

[Topher]

I won't say "indies", but I'm becoming more attracted to smaller games in general, most of which happen to be indies. I'm playing Triangle Strategy and loving it and that game is made by Square Enix. Good to change pace every once in a while, I think, and not be drawn entirely to the trappings of AAA gaming all the time.

 

[Punished Miku]

I won't say "indies", but I'm becoming more attracted to smaller games in general, most of which happen to be indies. I'm playing Triangle Strategy and loving it and that game is made by Square Enix. Good to change pace every once in a while, I think, and not be drawn entirely to the trappings of AAA gaming all the time.

AA is great too, for sure. Less and less games are technically "indie." The terms are pretty vague at this point.

 

[tommib]

The AAA bloatfests with endless cutscenes of mind-numbing dialogue are pushing people to look at everything else with a different pair of eyes. And that’s good. You’re missing out on amazing games if you only want pretty graphics for photo mode.

Signalis, as a recent good example of a game made by 2 people.

 

[Topher]

AA is great too, for sure. Less and less games are technically "indie." The terms are pretty vague at this point.

Yeah, all those As are becoming more and more meaningless. Look at A Plague Tale: R. Isn't Asobo technically an "indie"? I don't know if Plague Tale had the budget of an AAA game but it sure has the look of one.

 

[ungalo]

i hate when people talk as if they’re somehow more open minded or have better taste because they “play indies”. Gamers are becoming like movie snobs that think watching foreign movies or A24 films make them movie connoisseurs.

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.

It doesn’t make you a better, more sophisticated gamer because you play the 5 major publisher backed indies a year that end up in all the award shows.

You make it look like a pose while it's really not about that. You think of it that way from an outside point of view but perhaps you'll come to think the same in a few years.

I'm a sucker for AAA and like most people i didn't start to "hate" most of them just for fun. Started playing indie games "by default" and then understood their value.

The fact there is a lot of garbage is of course true, it's due to the very nature of distribution that allows indies to exist in the first place. But it's not like you pick a random game blindly. People talk about those games and usually they're famous because of mouth to ear rather than marketing hype train. What matters is the amount of good games not bad ones.

 

[Tams]

People who don't play indies...why?​

 

[Markio128]

My taste in gaming is a little limited when it comes to Indie games, but I have enjoyed my fair share over the years. Stand outs for me are Super Stardust HD, Resogun and Geometry Wars (can you spot the link). Vampire Survivors sounds like my cup of tea, so I’ll probably give it a go at some point. However, having already gamed my way through the 80’s and 90’s, I‘m not attracted to those games that try to mimic that retro feel. Been there and done that, if you know what I mean.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

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.

 

[Jack Videogames]

I don't mind indies. I do not buy games according to their production budget. But indies have the same issues with lack of imagination and follow-the-leader-ism than AAA games.

I like stuff like Hades or Teardown, but I will not play an Earthbound-inspired RPG which is secretely a metaphor for depression or suicide, the umpteenth roguelite RPG with survival mechanics or the wAckY Visual Novel about boinking single dads or toasters or monsters that tries to be Hatoful Boyfriend without being funny.

I loved Vampire Survivors though, great fun for an insane price. But I won't buy any of the 500 clones you can already find in the Steam store.

 

[Hendrick's]

Vampire Survivors is GOTY imo, but I imagine most people simply see it and dismiss it. A shame really, it's truly fantastic.

 

[begotten]

Bit weird to start this thread and ask this question after playing a Twitch Streamer game that doesn't really embody the "indie" creative & ambition that you're thinking of.

Kharons' Crypt and Fhtagn Sim might have been recent examples you were looking for.

 

[Azurro]

I don't care about 99.9% of all indie games. Except for a good Metroidvania game.

 

[Party McHardy]

I really enjoyed my time with Celeste, that’s the pinnacle imo but I don’t play nearly enough indie.

 

[MatrixReloaded101]

The main reason I don't play a lot of indie games is because of TIME. These days I barely have time to play AAA games so if I was to play indies also it would just be cutting my AAA game time.

Also very few indie games appeal to me.

 

[Banjo64]

Has to be something special for me, I don’t care if that means indie, AA or AAA. Stuff like Hades, A Hat in Time, Yooka Laylee, Stray, Tinykin, Tunic, A Plague Tale, Ori, Vampire Survivors - those games capture my imagination and slap hard. I can’t imagine anyone on here limiting themselves to AAA only.

 

[LostDonkey]

Best one I ever played was Fez.

Gaf told me to play Undertale. I don't play Indies anymore.

 

[MatrixReloaded101]

Has to be something special for me, I don’t care if that means indie, AA or AAA. Stuff like Hades, A Hat in Time, Yooka Laylee, Stray, Tinykin, Tunic, A Plague Tale, Ori, Vampire Survivors - those games capture my imagination and slap hard. I can’t imagine anyone on here limiting themselves to AAA only.

I don't think its a matter of limiting ones self but more so just knowing what types of experiences your looking to get out of gaming. I don't think Stray or A Plague Tale would be considered indie, those games are basically AA games.

When I see a game like Vampire Survivors my immediate thought is I played this type of game like 10 years ago on my GBA lol. Its not the type of experience I am looking for out of my Series X or PS5.