Hey guys what are you top 5 indie games (you could order them if you want or not).
Each of these games are pretty hardcore they are not going to hold your hand and play the game for you and maybe thats refreshing after playing so many IOS games. I guess we might as well add some recommendations.
Mine are:
->Binding of issac.
->Rogue legacy
->Hotline miami - just listen to the title track if you are bit buzzed - i bet it would be better if you were high
Minecraft for pushing voxels into mainstream.
Dwarf Fortress for amazing depths and no damn given about graphics.
KerbalSP for amazing gameplay. Love building stuff and using it afterwards.
Don’t Starve for amazing graphics and survival gameplay.
Super Meat Boy for snappy controls.
People have a billion definitions for indie, if you go by the sole fact that they are not associated with a publisher then the list of indies is huge and will eventually probably encompass 100% of game developers since the box model will eventually disappear soon, I think.
So for me, I associate being indie more with name recognition/budget than with the lack of a publisher. For example I believe Notch even said himself that he no longer considers himself or Minecraft indie titles. Same goes for something like Braid and Journey, that while they were indies once, they have “Made it” and may perhaps no longer really be indies going by my personal definition.
But like I said, these are my definitions, I know people have their own, but to me piling people who have had movies made about them, with a guy who’s making a game out of their garage with a shoestring ramen budget, seems like an apples to oranges comparison. Maybe we need another category for devs? Garage devs? Heh.
A fair point and does go to show how bad/redundant the term indie is when different people can have different definitions for the word. At what point does someone cross over for you to no longer being indie? You said when they’ve “made it” but is that monetary or critical acclaim?
Sure Team Meat might be well known now but when Indie Game The Movie was being filmed they were still struggling with money and all sorts of other shit so I don’t think its fair to compare it to how they are now. Rather you’d have to compare it to when the movie was being filmed.
My definition: It’s about being independent in your execution and consequences. Nobody has the power to make you accountable for something. The dev and the dev only makes the game in his own personal way. At the moment there are people (publisher, investors etc.) who give you , first of all, money, you’re not independent anymore. You can’t work with 100% passion, at least I couldn’t, because of the pressure. @Rico
You mentioned Notch, he told that he’s not indie anymore. I think he is. Even if he has a company with workers. But this company is making games the way they see fit, not the way other entities want them to. The reason for that is their independent style.
Oh and about indie and stuff yeah, like I said, to me its very much my personal definition, I totally understand saying a studio is independent and thus technically “indie”, I don’t argue that. But you have such a wide range of developers who fit that definition that it almost seems pointless to me, its just a label that denotes their business model, not really a “culture” which is often what is associated with the term.
When someone tells me they’re an indie developer I personally expect a few things:
A small team. Maybe less than 10 or 20 people
Small budget, usually numbering in less than 100k, maybe more if they do something like Kickstarter
Team members who wear many hats
No ties to major companies, contractual or otherwise (there’s a lot of ways you can be coerced into doing things, not just contractually)
Take something like Braid or Journey for example. When I think those titles, I think PS3 and Xbox, Sony and Microsoft. If I know your name, then I probably don’t think you’re indie, is sort of how I see it
I won’t lie and tell you that this isn’t some totally subjective classification of indie vs not indie on my part. That’s just sort of how I personally view things, I can totally relate to all the different views people have on the term. I’m just really sort of making conversation to see what others think, its very interesting to see how people view indies in general to me.
I doubt minecraft can be called indie now with all the deals they have! If you want to get independent on some of the definitions given until recently blizzard would of been indie. Also bungie would be called independent too!!!
I can’t believe super hexagon has only be mentioned 4 times so far! lol
Super Hexagon
Pivvot
Gone Home
Hotline Miami
ElectronicSuperJoy
And MineCraft is still “Indie”… it’s simply fallen out of what most people would like to classify as such due to its success. And I agree to a point since I always like to root for the underdog
