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So many of the indie games that come out are indistinguishable from each other, all pretentious iterative trash in the same easy to recreate genres with no real imagination or ingenuity to them. It's sad when I'm trying to think of a recent counter-example and Super Time Force is seriously the only thing I can think of. Here, let's just pick the most recent indie game released on Steam:  quote:Monochroma offers a deeply visual, intellectual and emotional experience. The game has a unique approach to storytelling without using any written or spoken words. Therefore it requires the player to be actively involved to understand the narrative. The story itself becomes part of the puzzle. Gameplay, visuals and the very limited color palette are used in an expressionist way to help telling the story. The player will find lots of references to other movies, books and games in the dystopian world of Monochroma. The challenge of the game is to make the player think about himself, his role in the society and the system we're living in. Oh look, it's every other loving indie game ever made! A black and white puzzle platformer with a pretentious story and a quirky main character. Alright, indie game designers, we get it, you liked Sin City and Portal, or Braid, or whatever. So did everyone else, but we've moved on. Let's just scroll through Steam's indie category and see how many we can find:  Closure  Limbo  The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom (ugh)  The Bridge Not enough examples? Let's expand our search to include games that aren't black and white, but just replace the white with one bright colour:  The Desolate Hope  Child of Light  A Walk in the Dark  Nihilumbra This was a very casual search. Expand the search to include pixel art, and there's way more. Expand the search to include 3D games that are still the exact same poo poo, and there's even way more than that. This is, of course, just one example of the few genres that indie games keep retreading over and over again. Every one of us could recite them in our sleep. There's action platformers, tower defense, bullet hell, Slender-style horror poo poo, lovely adventure games, and of course, my least favourite genre of all time, the "there's no gameplay but it's 'atmospheric' and 'narrative'" genre. Of course, it might sound like I'm blaming the developers, but I'm not. You see, tons of indie games come out every month, and tons of them aren't the exact same puzzle platformer poo poo, but people don't buy those, people don't share them with their friends, and they don't easily get on Steam, where they have a shot of getting noticed and purchased. The problem with indie games is the same problem with AAA games and the same problem with Hollywood. People want the same old poo poo, and if you're offering something new and different, let alone genuinely good, it's going to take a miracle to make it successful. And from then on, that'll get ripped off by everyone too. If gamers were the magical community of innovation loving, creativity starved individualists they pretended to be, more than two actually innovative indie games a year would be able to break away from the herd. Meanwhile, what's on the top of Steam's indie charts? Sequels. Spiritual successors. Clones. AAA, full priced games have more creativity in their popular releases in one off month than indie gaming has in their popular releases all year.
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May 29, 2014 05:34
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El Generico posted:AAA, full priced games have more creativity in their popular releases in one off month than indie gaming has in their popular releases all year.  By our own evidence, AAA is just as creatively bankrupt as indie games.But yea indie games have gotten pretty bad in the past year. Transistor was really good (albiet a bit flawed). I think there are still good indie games being made but they're obstructed by being 99% poo poo. It's all generic "INDIE PLATFORMER-PUZZLE WITH [X GIMMICK]" or lovely "point n click adventure" games. I wouldn't mind indie games of other genres but god drat gently caress those two genre. I seriously don't see the target audience for generic indie platformer #93224023423. They always just sit in everyone's backlog. And it's not god drat 1992 anymore, we don't need lovely boring point n click games that aren't made by DoubleFine (and even DF kinda sucks) Worst is when they throw in "RETRO PIXEL GRAPHICS!" as a feature because they're too cheap to hire a starving artist to make sprites or something. 8 bit graphics look like a gigantic turd is smeared on my screen, thanks devs Xaris fucked around with this message at 05:49 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 05:41
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indie is a marketing term that means you're not allowed to judge it by normal quality standards indie games have always been poo poo
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May 29, 2014 06:05
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Liquid Penguins posted:indie is a marketing term that means you're not allowed to judge it by normal quality standards
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May 29, 2014 06:10
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guacamelee is a good game
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May 29, 2014 06:18
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zen death robot posted:AAA = Garbage for idiots Indie = Fart
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May 29, 2014 06:18
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Liquid Penguins posted:indie is a marketing term that means you're not allowed to judge it by normal quality standards disagree i think there was a period around the time of early HIB, Steam Bundles, etc where indie games were pretty good. even up until a year ago be fore the flood gates, the quality:noise ratio was relatively high. Spelunky Binding of Isaac Super Meat Boy (i didnt like this but a lot did) Guacamelee Gone Home Hero Siege Marlow Briggs Don't Starve Monaco Rogue Legacy FTL Staney Parable Bastion Transistor Terraria Starbound Outlast Papers, Please Nidhogg Torchlight Chivalry Braid (yea despite being pretentious and one of the first indie platformers+twist to come out and it was kinda neat to play at the time) Expeditions: Conquistadors La Mulana Unholy Heights Super House of Dead Ninjas Valdis Story Papo & Yo Desktop Dungeons Dungeons of Dredmore One Way Heroics Risk of Rain Path of Exile Cave Story Banner Saga Intake Banished Escape Goat 2 Kentucky Route Zero Sir, You are being Hunted FEZ Van Helsing 1+2 Recettear SpaceChem The Swapper Miasmata Magrunner Dustforce Hotline Miami Gunpoint Sang Froid obvious some are better than others and i missed a lot/might have included a few non ones and some of them aren't everyones cup of tea but that's a pretty good list of generally well-done and acceptable fun indie games. Xaris fucked around with this message at 06:31 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 06:21
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Sir, You are being hunted
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May 29, 2014 06:25
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Gone Home (& to some extent Starbound) but no Dustforce what kind of list is this. Also you're right both AAA and indie games are trash play old games instead.
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May 29, 2014 06:25
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Falsum posted:Gone Home (& to some extent Starbound) but no Dustforce what kind of list is this. eh i forgot about dustforce. it was a well done indie game at the time even tho i don't really like platformers. yea gone homo was overrated and not worth the $25 but it was cool at typical indie game price of $5 to explore some 90s house.
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May 29, 2014 06:27
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Actually, OP, all games are good and should be treasured for what makes them unique.
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May 29, 2014 06:32
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Falsum posted:Gone Home (& to some extent Starbound) but no Dustforce what kind of list is this. something about showing your girl how to do a two minute facility in run in goldeneye while she's snuggled up to you on the couch and the transistor OST is pumping thru sonos really makes you appreciate coming back to "childish things" as an adult
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May 29, 2014 06:34
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Xaris posted:eh i forgot about dustforce. it was a well done indie game at the time even tho i don't really like platformers. yea gone homo was overrated and not worth the $25 but it was cool at typical indie game price of $5 to explore some 90s house. Tbh if you just ask nicely to the old lady down the street you can visit a house for free and learn about an actual family and not a fake one with lives full of ~shocking twists~ Also IMO Dustforce is pretty special in that it feels like the only recent platformer (indie at least; I get the same feeling with the new Rayman games) that's 'modern' and doesn't pay homage to the old platformers. I love SMB & all those other ones but I think Dustforce is really innovative and tried to push 2d platformer gameplay in a new direction. Falsum fucked around with this message at 06:41 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 06:38
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if you like a game call it a game calling something you like "indie" seems kinda insulting and pointless
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May 29, 2014 06:42
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Xaris posted:i think there was a period around the time of early HIB, Steam Bundles, etc where indie games were pretty good. Thus, "indie games have gone to poo poo", not "indie games were always poo poo". Xaris posted:Binding of Isaac gently caress this godawful game, lovely twin stick shooter style game, worst use of the term 'roguelike', awful gross-out psuedo-artsy bullshit, pretentious gently caress I HATE HTIS GAME I HAT EIT SO MUCH quote:Gone Home I mentioned this exact type of game as being godawful. This and Dear Esther can go gently caress themselves. quote:Terraria 2D Minecraft clones, the height of innovation. quote:FEZ Both exactly the kind of "puzzle platformer + gimmick" games I'm talking about.
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May 29, 2014 06:45
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I hate FEZ so much gently caress you goons who were all over that game it's the biggest waste of 2.50$ I ever bought.
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May 29, 2014 06:46
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El Generico posted:Both exactly the kind of "puzzle platformer + gimmick" games I'm talking about. i thought the op was a copy paste lol
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May 29, 2014 06:49
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euro truck simulator 2 it's good
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May 29, 2014 06:49
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i am lost and somehow ended up on the first page of the steam thread
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May 29, 2014 06:50
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Euro Truck Simulator feels like an elaborate prank by goons.
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May 29, 2014 06:50
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Falsum posted:Euro Truck Simulator feels like an elaborate prank by goons. 
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May 29, 2014 06:57
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Was there a moody black and white platformer before limbo?
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May 29, 2014 07:18
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Abandon posted:Was there a moody black and white platformer before limbo? Canabalt?
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May 29, 2014 07:24
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no one will remember fez, they will only remember how crazy phil fish was
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May 29, 2014 07:34
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That wasn't moody I got this poo poo piece called "badland" for iphone recently because it had won some design award (lol) and I was pretty steamed, it mindlessly ripped off the limbo graphics and was based on a single stupid gameplay mechanic and completely failed to be fun to play Then again limbo wasn't that fun to play either but at least it had ambience I think what I'm trying to say is gently caress all this poo poo and piss
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May 29, 2014 07:37
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is that super time force game actually good?
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May 29, 2014 20:44
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:is that super time force game actually good? El Generico posted:gently caress this godawful game, lovely twin stick shooter style game, worst use of the term 'roguelike', awful gross-out psuedo-artsy bullshit, pretentious gently caress I HATE HTIS GAME I HAT EIT SO MUCH
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May 29, 2014 21:48
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I'm just mad that Xaris called Nidhogg a good game
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May 29, 2014 21:54
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Nidhogg was a pretty good game. its like mount your friends - its a good party game
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May 29, 2014 21:57
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Fez had some nice sound and aesthetics and if it was more of a exploratory metroidvania than an obtuse puzzler/cryptogram game it would be a lot better.
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May 29, 2014 21:57
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a multiplayer-only game with unplayable netcode is totally insane in 2014. it's basically not playable for the majority of the people who would be interested in it, and if you have close by who you can regularly get together with to play something as niche as Nidhogg your life deserves to be made into a documentary because some weird things have happened in it
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May 29, 2014 22:09
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if the netcode blows that sucks but everyone i've ever shown the game loved it and wanted to try it a bunch of times. maybe make friends with similar interests to you IronicDongz? :shobban:
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May 29, 2014 22:12
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I dunno man I've not been able to get anyone to play 'norse mythos read based fighting-game-esque 2d tug of war fencing game' for any amount of time, it's kind of a niche thing? it's not smash bros or an FPS. and either way 'multiplayer only game with god-awful netcode' is still insane
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May 29, 2014 22:19
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At least it has netcode I guess. Looking at you, towerfall.
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May 29, 2014 22:22
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heh looks like someone doesn't get art.
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May 29, 2014 22:34
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Liquid Penguins posted:indie is a marketing term that means you're not allowed to judge it by normal quality standards Get this goon a PhD in the truth
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May 29, 2014 22:50
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IronicDongz posted:I dunno man I've not been able to get anyone to play 'norse mythos read based fighting-game-esque 2d tug of war fencing game' for any amount of time, it's kind of a niche thing? it's not smash bros or an FPS. I just tell them its a fun fighty game thing kinda like fencing, then give them a controller. most people are down pretty quick after they see you do the manatee hops
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May 29, 2014 23:04
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indie game devs are the retards who play games for the story so obviously their idea of a good game is to make a gay side scroller they also make a lot of half-tested strategy games
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May 29, 2014 23:44
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May 29, 2014 23:47
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Indie games are good, as are all games.
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May 29, 2014 23:51
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