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[StueyDuck]

they have become so bland and just boring...

I use to love waiting for the next indie world style showcase or ID @ Xbox showing, but indie games now have honestly just become a Hodge podge of the same boring shit thrown together, oh look another quirky visual novel but you also serve tea to cats while doing it?!?!?! there seems to be very little imagination left in independent games . Sure like everything in life there is exceptions to the rule, Outer wilds is straight up one of the best games ever made and titles like valheim and Phasmaphobia wouldn't exist in the AAA realm, but boy oh boy do you have to wade through a sea of sludgy muted color shit with blue hair and probably anxiety issues before you find an actual great game.




As for Exceptions have a nice death looks rad, Rogue Legacy 2 is obviously great and dumb dumb Nintendo put all their good shit in the montage clip at the end which is insane to me.

Am i going crazy? are all these indie games super exciting to you?

 

[TheInfamousKira]

I think when it became hip to like indie titles and indie became more of a genre akin to music than it did an actual label denoting the budget and reach of a group of devs. This in turn leads to a bunch of lazy asset flips on one end of the spectrum and lots of trend chasing reskins of ideas that have already proven their merit on bigger IP's on the other.

Good news is there's ALWAYS a back facing side of anything. When something niche becomes popular, there cyclicaly comes a counter to it. There's innovative, visually arresting indie titles out there, I'm sure. Just need to know what you're into and where to find it.

 

[feynoob]

Developers arent in to the typical stereotypes of indie games anymore.

They like to make indie games, according to what they want. You will get hit indie games like fall guys, or among us.

 

[Guilhermegrg]

Yeah this Indie session was a lot of crap for me. A couple of games seemed nice, but fir most part not interested at all. But then again, I miss that bit be the target audience. Not everybody is supposed to like the same things.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

90% of anything is bad.

If all the indies you play were good in the past, it is because you were only accessing indies that already became famous and thus was filtered down to you. Trying to find good indie games that are obscure is like digging for gold. They are there, but expect to find a lot of plain rocks.

 

[ACESHIGH]

AA games is where is at.

 

[March Climber]

TheInfamousKira that might have been one of the best and most reasonable first post takes I’ve ever seen on this forum. Like stated above there’s a good and bad side to every genre and budget including indie, for any medium. We’ve seen plenty of times in movies, TV, music, books, etc. where someone will create something for the sole purpose of fast cash instead of creativity, and gaming is no different in that regard.

 

[jaysius]

Sports Story is going to be amazing, Golf Story was amazing.

Rogue Legacy 2 wasn't so fresh, the devs really showed how they didn't know how to expand the formula and really made something MEH, I played the shit out of it on Xbox, but it was ultimately disappointing, I was huge fan of the first one too.

 

[Guilty_AI]

I heard good things of World of Horror.

Either way, these showcases tend to be a really bad way to present indie games. The really good stuff almost never looks appealing. You can't really tell how good a VN is for example by just images or trailers, and naturally you won't just listen to whatever the devs say about their own work.

Word of mouth really is the best way to be introduced to indie games in the end.

 

[StueyDuck]

I think when it became hip to like indie titles and indie became more of a genre akin to music than it did an actual label denoting the budget and reach of a group of devs. This in turn leads to a bunch of lazy asset flips on end of the spectrum and lots of trend chasing reskins of ideas that have already proven their merit on bigger IP's.

Good news is there's ALWAYS a back facing side of anything. When something niche becomes popular, there cyclicaly comes a counter to it. There's innovative, visual arresting indie titles out there, I'm sure. Just need to know what you're into and where to find it.

yeah the cycle always moves on, but god are we in the worst version of that cycle right now, has me reminiscing of the wild days with world of goo and SMB and Braid and even Fez even though phil fish isn't the coolest cat in town.

i guess we can look forward to whatever is next but this current phase feels like it's lasting long now.

Developers arent in to the typical stereotypes of indie games anymore.

They like to make indie games, according to what they want. You will get hit indie games like fall guys, or among us.

There will always be beautiful corn amongst the smelly turd, but right now we are in some blood-filled diarrhea splatted on the wall so it's becoming harder and harder to even look for the corn cause the mess thats just there is so ungodly that no one wants to go see.

Yeah this Indie session was a lot of crap for me. A couple of games seemed nice, but fir most part not interested at all. But then again, I miss that bit be the target audience. Not everybody is supposed to like the same things.

I regret every second, the great games there i already have on steam so this was an utter waste

 

[Wildebeest]

You have options.
1. Rogue-lite deck building game with 16 bit graphics.
2. Visual novel about lesbians struggling to make an indie game in a world that doesn't care about them and all they have is a generous trust fund and dream.
3. Minecraft/Animal Crossing chill out game for zoomers.

It used to be a choice between twin stick shooter and physics puzzle game.

 

[Crayon]

90% of anything is bad.

If all the indies you play were good in the past, it is because you were only accessing indies that already became famous and thus was filtered down to you. Trying to find good indie games that are obscure is like digging for gold. They are there, but expect to find a lot of plain rocks.

Precisely this.

 

[shiru]

The people making them are soy shitheads high on their own farts. You ocassionally get a gem or two (Cyber Shadow, Steel Assault), but vast majority of "indies" don't stand out in any way whatsoever.

 

[StueyDuck]

90% of anything is bad.

If all the indies you play were good in the past, it is because you were only accessing indies that already became famous and thus was filtered down to you. Trying to find good indie games that are obscure is like digging for gold. They are there, but expect to find a lot of plain rocks.

unless you are particularly saying the games were curated then yes you are right.

but you wouldn't catch any of these games back in the days of XBLA or when steam was treading ground in the indie space. and the sad thing is... These are games Nintendo hand picked themselves, can you imagine how shitty the rest of the games are

 

[TintoConCasera]

There are plenty cool indie games out there, but those might be not popular enough or not designed to appeal to the general public, so they wont be included in showcases.

Have a look at games like Factorio, Cultic or Crystal Project. Those are amazing indie games.

 

[touchfuzzy]

I would say the same about most AAA showcases that come out today, like the upcoming TGA will be exactly this: 90% garbage and 10% stuff that looks cool, 5% stuff I'll actually play. Well Geoff Keighley shows usually add 10-15% vaporware too. It's just how the industry is these days.

 

[Holammer]

Sure, there's a lot of award bait on display here and that's deliberate, but some look genuinely good. Have a nice Death, Pepper Grinder & Sports Story.

Sports Story in particular looks great, sadly Sidebar Games are born stupid and only release on Switch. Still waiting for Golf Story release on PC.

 

[Wildebeest]

It's like this because Brigador flopped, and Jonathan Blow only makes one game a decade because he insists on handcrafting every game from angel tears and unicorn placenta.

 

[StueyDuck]

There are plenty cool indie games out there, but those might be not popular enough or not designed to appeal to the general public, so they wont be included in showcases.

Have a look at games like Factorio, Cultic or Crystal Project. Those are amazing indie games.

im not saying there aren't good indie games, in fact i say there is exactly that in my OP

what i am saying though is look at this shit Nintendo (and these other big companies) are peddling, it's all an amalgamation of the worst type of video game. is this really the best of the best?

 

[SHA]

I don't really trust indie games , they're like many exclusive games with zero possibility for a sequel , I'm sorry but they can't earn my trust no matter what the content if they don't wanna continue supporting the idea cause without it it's fake shallow and has no real depth and value as a genuine ip , there's no place for who just wanna make something no matter how , they just do it anyway, I dislike this attitude, it's like a bad singer wanna sing knowing he s at singing.

 

[Fbh]

90% of anything is bad.

If all the indies you play were good in the past, it is because you were only accessing indies that already became famous and thus was filtered down to you. Trying to find good indie games that are obscure is like digging for gold. They are there, but expect to find a lot of plain rocks.

This.
Indies just got way more popular, there's more studios making indie games than ever before so of course the amount of boring derivative stuff is going to be higher too. But there's still a lot of good inde games being made, you just have to look a bit harder for them than before because there's way more mediocre stuff int he way.

 

[Guilty_AI]

im not saying there aren't good indie games, in fact i say there is exactly that in my OP

what i am saying though is look at this shit Nintendo (and these other big companies) are peddling, it's all an amalgamation of the worst type of video game. is this really the best of the best?

Some comitee who barely touches a controller will never be able to make a proper selection between hundreds of titles being released. Or rather, doubt they're even interested in the first place.
These shows might be a good place to hear names, but you're unlikely to be immediatly infatuated with anything.

 

[Soodanim]

What I don't get is who the video is for. The people that might buy most of the games on show seem like the people who wouldn't be watching Nintendo Direct: Indie Edition to keep up with the latest and... I can't say greatest.

The difference in quality for some of these is astounding. Some look AAA in comparison to the rest

 

[MagiusNecros]

The more games you play the easier it is to identify garbage not worth bothering with.

If you are a gaming enthusiast and play games all the time you'll know when a game worth playing comes out and it all comes down to personal taste.

There are a few great indie games but if you see certain trends like Among Us or Vampire Survivors you see all the copycats out there that paint a red flag on what to avoid.

Trust your own gaming tastes not the cacophony of voices telling you what to play and how you you should play it.

 

[Kikorin]

As of today the concept of "indie" is very questionable, since lot of indie games have producers with decent budget behind. Because of that, lot of indie studios try to make something that could become a banger and post COVID and post Animal Crossing, everyone want to try to have a slice of the "cozy-farm" simulation cake, especially on Switch.

I think Switch is among all the big three the console with the widest public (females/younger) and probably these kind of indie games have sense to exist. But yes, I'd like to see more variety in indie spaces, I found the today presentation pretty boring.

 

[64bitmodels]

I feel like you're really only saying this because a lot of them are just genres that don't appeal to you. You cite Rogue Legacy and have a nice death in your post indicating that you like more action focused titles and this indie selection was filled with more relaxed, laid back titles.

The simple fact of the matter is that a lot of indies exist to fulfill a certain niche. These people often want to recreate or improve on an experience from their childhood or tell a story through the form of video game. Not everybody played Contra 3 or Zelda ALTTP growing up. Some people played monkey island. Others played Minecraft. a few played Sonic Spinball. these types have always existed too, just look at this destructoid article detailing 2009 indies

The best indie games of '09 (that I forgot to mention)

www.destructoid.com

I personally think the existence of these titles are fine though if I'm completely honest a lot of them look fucking boring

there are some in that direct that i honestly feel don't need to be an indie game, like "a space for the unbound"... Like why not just make an animated series? the gameplay is literally 'eating popcorn' like smh
"desta, the memories between" looks quite unique from a gameplay standpoint but the art is so laughably bad, it's the damn corporate style all over again. The story looks to be some story about confronting mental issues and shit which would be fine if they handled it in a fun way like OMORI or Celeste... But it looks terrible in graphics, animation, and art so my expectations are not very high. Not to mention the PS1 tier voice acting. It's on the line between indie and shovelware only seperated by the unique gameplay which looks to be extremely fun

Honestly i feel like if you want more engaging exciting indie games you should look somewhere that's not the switch.

 

[Shits_McGiggles]

Indie Games have become a daycare for wannabe screenwriters of the obnoxiously left-leaning variety.

 

[Gambit2483]

Blame Gen Z and the rise of "cozy games". There's a huge section of girl gamers that eat this shit up.

 

[64bitmodels]

Blame Gen Z and the rise of "cozy games". There's a huge section of girl gamers that eat this shit up.

every game showcased here was made by millennials.
yall need to fuckin calm down with the constant Gen Z hate

 

[anthony2690]

I just watched the event, whilst most the games don't interest me in the slightest, I hope pepper grinder comes to Xbox, I think that looks great fun

I'm also still patiently waiting for bomb rush cyberpunk, bad sadly it didn't make a showing, I guess it isn't coming this year anymore?

 

[Zannegan]

Really? I thought there was a lot more good stuff than usual in here.

Granted, I wouldn't touch about half of it with a 10-foot pole, but that goes for most gaming showcases and double for indie ones, which are more niche almost by definition. This one had a fair few that went into my (mental) wishlist and even more that I'm thinking about gifting on one platform or another.

I agree though that I would have liked to see more about some of the games in the montage and a great deal less about any game that focuses on the subconscious and/or struggling artists.

 

[skyfall]

Indie games will save us!


The indie games:

 

[64bitmodels]

Indie games will save us!


The indie games:

what game even is that

 

[Woopah]

Not all the games looked good but I don't think we can say there are "same boring shit". Even in just that showcase there was quite a wife variety in terms of art styles and genres. I feel that's an improvement on earlier days when a large chunk of indie games were 2D sidescrollers.

 

[Gambit2483]

every game showcased here was made by millennials.
yall need to fuckin calm down with the constant Gen Z hate

What does that have to do wuth the audience that continues to buy these types of games thus making them popular to develop?

and I'm not "hating" on gen Z, I'm just pointing out the fact they make up a large portion of these game's sales.

Just search "cozy switch games" on YouTube if you need evidence.

 

[TrebleShot]

A couple of years ago I went down the rabbit hole of indie games and got into a few but almost everything I’ve played since has been utter crap guised as revolutionary or amazing innovation.

I’ve seen the very same pixel style graphics on a rogue lite metroidvania a thousand times and I’m done with it, you pay 15-20 for them now and play it for 5 mins and bounce hard.

AA is a better space for unique experiences.

 

[Captain Toad]

Just wait until Volcano High.

 

[64bitmodels]

Just wait until Volcano High.

yup. gonna be the game that revolutionizes the indie industry and brings everything back to the glory days of 2004-2018

 

[Fake]

Never get any indie since Journey.

 

[DragoonWalker]

You have options.
1. Rogue-lite deck building game with 16 bit graphics.
2. Visual novel about lesbians struggling to make an indie game in a world that doesn't care about them and all they have is a generous trust fund and dream.
3. Minecraft/Animal Crossing chill out game for zoomers.

It used to be a choice between twin stick shooter and physics puzzle game.

Can't love this post enough. No sarcasm. I dig for indie games on steam and there are some real underexposed gems there but there's also a large chunk that falls into the broad categorizations you paint.

 

[Ribi]

nintendo needs games so they'll take these college student devry university style games and slap them on the shop and promote.

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

There are plenty cool indie games out there, but those might be not popular enough or not designed to appeal to the general public, so they wont be included in showcases.

Have a look at games like Factorio, Cultic or Crystal Project. Those are amazing indie games.

Agreed about Crystal Project. It's amazing!
Let's not forget Tunic as well!

 

[SmokedMeat]

There’s about 4-5 games that looked good to me. There’s quite a variety with some pretty cool art styles.

You have to realize there’s thousands of indies hitting, and they’re not all going to appeal to you.

 

[Rhazkul]

I take a Cat-Management Simulator game over the nth CoD ANYTIME!

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

Can you stop click bait title and put the end please. Thanks.

 

[Danjin44]

there are fun indie games out there like this one....

 

[bender]

That black and white co-op game looked neat but I really didn't care for much else.

 

[remember_spinal]

AA are the new Indie

 

[Tumle]

they have become so bland and just boring...

I use to love waiting for the next indie world style showcase or ID @ Xbox showing, but indie games now have honestly just become a Hodge podge of the same boring shit thrown together, oh look another quirky visual novel but you also serve tea to cats while doing it?!?!?! there seems to be very little imagination left in independent games . Sure like everything in life there is exceptions to the rule, Outer wilds is straight up one of the best games ever made and titles like valheim and Phasmaphobia wouldn't exist in the AAA realm, but boy oh boy do you have to wade through a sea of sludgy muted color shit with blue hair and probably anxiety issues before you find an actual great game.




As for Exceptions have a nice death looks rad, Rogue Legacy 2 is obviously great and dumb dumb Nintendo put all their good shit in the montage clip at the end which is insane to me.

Am i going crazy? are all these indie games super exciting to you?

I really love indie games, but I do agree with you in some ways. It's kind of ironic really, but the fact that it's so easy and accessible nowadays for a solo developer to make and release games means that more games than ever before are getting made, but they're often kind of soulless and lack a certain vision. We need small groups of people who can collaborate with one another and bring a certain creativity and spark to each other's work.

 

[64bitmodels]

AA are the new Indie

AA have existed for longer than indie. it just came back thanks to Sony and MS funding smaller developers. i'm all for this btw. indie ideas + AA/AAA budget = instant masterpieces.