GRcade

Welcome to the GRcade Indie discussion thread!

‘Indie games’ are growing in popularity, Nintendo have Direct-Style presentations regularly showcasing the best Indie development teams as does Microsoft with its ID@XBOX brand.

Sadly, a lot of these games can often get overlooked when compared to the big AAA releases. Most won’t get their own discussion threads which is a shame as I have probably had more enjoyment from them than the big AAA games recently.

I thought it would be good to have a thread where we can discuss said games so that we can shine a light on some great titles that people may not be familer with (Case in point, the recent Baba is You thread)

In this topic we can

- Discuss our favourite indie games/developers
- Recommend games
- Showcase upcoming games that a lot of people might not know about.
- General chit chat on the indie game scene

*Karl*

Indie games are gooseberry fool.

One I have been playing recently is Ape Out from Devolver Digital

It’s like Hotline Miami but you play as an Ape who escapes his cage and your trying to get out of this building, kicking ass along the way



It’s got a cool visual style and great soundtrack. Worth giving the demo a try at the very least.

Great idea for a thread, Milner! As you say, there are plenty of smaller games around that probably wouldn't get their own thread, but could find a home and provoke discussion here.

Right off the bat, this has reminded me I gotta return to Baba is You. I'm *still* stuck on "2 - Solitary Island - 06 - Research Facilty" .

Made a banner:

Ape Out is good fun.

OrangeRKN wrote:Made a banner:

Code: Select all

[img]https://i.imgur.com/SWVKkB5.png[/img]

annnnnnnnd added to the OP!

OrangeRKN wrote:Made a banner...

... . Maybe this thread could encourage Karl to venture out onto new pixelised paths?

On that note, what are some great looking indie games? I'll start with Owlboy - I played it through to completion, and while I was never besotted with the gameplay, the art is on another level. It has some absolutely beautiful animation and pixel work in it that you really need to see it in motion:



Check out this animated scenery gallery on the official site for the real good stuff.

The concept/character art outside the game is lovely too:

Its a few years old now but I've recently started playing Stardew Valley and haven't been able to tear myself away from it after 100+ hours.

If you enjoyed either Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing than you'll love it.

OrangeRKN wrote:Made a banner...

Thanks, I hate it.

Ironhide wrote:Its a few years old now but I've recently started playing Stardew Valley and haven't been able to tear myself away from it after 100+ hours.

If you enjoyed either Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing than you'll love it.

Definitely not guaranteed to love it, I love Animal Crossing (never played Harvest Moon) but just couldn’t get into Stardew Valley, tried starting it 3 times, each with different locations but I just couldn’t get into it so left it alone after that.

OrangeRKN wrote:On that note, what are some great looking indie games? I'll start with Owlboy

Owlboy sure is a great looking game, I fired it up briefly on Switch when I picked it up in a sale and it looks fantastic.

I really like the look of Night in the Woods it’s got a great art design that really sells the atmosphere and tone the game is going for.

Night in the Woods is really good on the whole, I felt it got a little slow towards the end. The art style, music, story and characters are all great though.

I'm a huge fan of Night in the Woods, making it my GOTY for 2018 and getting a little emotional about it.

I love Undertale, Shovel Knight and A Hat in Time.

Have not played as many indie games as I expected or would have liked to I guess. I know there are a ton of good ones that wouldn't take too much of my time or money. Even have some bought which I'm not doing anything with.

Wanna play Celeste, and maybe Statdew Valley and Iconoclasts at some point.

Oh and Freedom Planet is really damn good too. (And Spark the Jester - similar genre but not quite as good)

I should play Night in the Woods, those visuals do look lovely. That bike part is as striking as a silhouette level but more interesting.

Karl_ wrote:

OrangeRKN wrote:Made a banner...

Thanks, I hate it.

Ironhide wrote:Its a few years old now but I've recently started playing Stardew Valley and haven't been able to tear myself away from it after 100+ hours.

If you enjoyed either Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing than you'll love it.

I keep meaning to get this but I'm too afraid

Some notable indie titles that I've really enjoyed over the last few years.

Celeste
The Guacamelee games
Shovel Knight
Mark of the Ninja
Stealth Bastard games
Hotline Miami
Downwell
Momodora Reverie Under the Moonlight


One that fell under most people's radar at the time was Apple Jack 2. It's got a lovely atmosphere to it and it's a brutally difficult 2d platformer with clever level design. Another one is Abyss, you can buy it on Switch, originally it came out on Wii U. It's a Solar Jetman kind of game, it's really solid at what it does. Can be picked up for next to nothing.

Ironhide wrote:Its a few years old now but I've recently started playing Stardew Valley and haven't been able to tear myself away from it after 100+ hours.

If you enjoyed either Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing than you'll love it.

Yeah, it's ace, loved it to bits. I think it's better than Harvest Moon. Not quite as comparable to Animal Crossing in my opinion.

I think this thread does raise a question though: how would one define an "indie game"? If, for example, a game is published by EA, Sony or Microsoft, could it ever be considered as an indie title?

Octoroc wrote:I think this thread does raise a question though: how would one define an "indie game"? If, for example, a game is published by EA, Sony or Microsoft, could it ever be considered as an indie title?

This is a good point, some of these publishers have indie labels of their own (The likes of Unravel and FE were published through EA)

Games that get spotlighted via Nindie game showcases or ID@XBOX obviously count. Basically it’s could be anything that’s not got the massive AAA budgets and tons of marketing.