Does anyone else find the modern indie gaming scene extremely overrated?

[Obake]

I wish Ubisoft was still making AC games the old way

 

[Tom Cotten]

View attachment 139274

What the hell is AC Shadows? Is this new?

 

[PizzaW0lf]

Sonic Mania alone mogs any 2D indie platformer released in the last 8-10 years.

 

[Dead Star]

What the hell is AC Shadows? Is this new?

It's a copy of Yasuke Simulator.

 

[InsufferableCynic]

I was under the impression that indie horror is in the worst state it's ever been?

Maybe we've passed this particular era now, but last I checked, a lot of indie horrors were extremely badly put together, full of jumpscares, and just generally devoid of gameplay. Ever since Outlast and Five Nights at Freddie's killed horror games, I was under the impression they were still dead?

Recently people have been recommending me Lethal Company and it just looks like a game designed exclusively to generate "funny reactions" from twitch streamers, and nothing else.

But I don't really play horror games, so I don't really follow them.

 

[evenlymatched95]

Sonic Mania alone mogs any 2D indie platformer released in the last 8-10 years.

I really liked Pizza Tower.

 

[幽邃森林]

Indie games have always consisted of what feels like people's pet project or foray into game design so of course you're not going to get many home runs. But once in a while you do get an indie game that hits it out of the park, the quirk being that the genre of the game is niche and may not appeal to everyone. Every year there is a new indie game that everyone's talking about, but there's maybe one game that'd interest me every five years since I'm only interested in specific genres. Maybe it's the same for you. I don't think indie games are catering to the lowest common denominator like AAA, maybe you just need to wait a bit longer for an indie that matches your taste is released.

 

[Tom Cotten]

It's a copy of Yasuke Simulator.

Huh?

 

[Tom Cotten]

I was under the impression that indie horror is in the worst state it's ever been?

Maybe we've passed this particular era now, but last I checked, a lot of indie horrors were extremely badly put together, full of jumpscares, and just generally devoid of gameplay. Ever since Outlast and Five Nights at Freddie's killed horror games, I was under the impression they were still dead?

Recently people have been recommending me Lethal Company and it just looks like a game designed exclusively to generate "funny reactions" from twitch streamers, and nothing else.

But I don't really play horror games, so I don't really follow them.

I was thinking of things more like, as mentioned VotV, Iron Lung, those modern alien games. Like getting abducted and stuff. Alien horror is in a golden age right now, actually. Of course it's so easy to make a game that any old son can do it, and so a lot of games make that apparent, but there's so many people with good ideas who get to publish them.

 

[Yaroslav]

I think that indie scene still can provide some good games, only cause one developer can experiment more (quite the same thing with evolution, it's more likely to indies have more good "mutations" because they have more mutations in general). But I can't deny that with popularity money came to indie scene, so proportion of original games became less, than it was in the past. Then, Balatro and Vampire Survivors. Popularity doesn't really mean that game will be good. People have some desires and some random games randomly satisfy them.
Also RNG is a easiest way to add some replayability to your game and since a lot of indie developers don't have really much money, they usually stick with bunch of use of RNG in their games.

 

[BlackControlBoxer]

how dare you quote me i will have to smoke your ass

I think writing in general has dipped simply because there is no "new" books. All books are a pre selected genre where you can only refine the product and you will always compare it to the best in its class. Until we get a brand new technological advancement in writing all books are gonna be rehashes of what's been.

Absolutely retarded take.
1. Books are not videogames, your catgirl visual novels are not the same as a book.
2. Games and game technological advancement was congruent with what people would consider a good game


Atari > nes >sega > snes >(...)

Mario bros and zelda seemed really good compared to atari games , the nes future technology made those games possible, GTA 3 seemed really good compared to mario bros, that whole game was only possible due to the technological advancements, it wouldn't run on the nes.
Games are experiences the more technologically advanced the more experiences you can have, this is why people tried retarded shit like the virtual boy, just to see if it was a good experience. The average kid who never saw a 3d game before was mesmerized by the n64. Since the ps3 era gaming reached its peak of what can be done technologically(not graphically, technologically gameplay wise). People really don't remember the kinect the ps move, guitar hero guitars etc, all things that were made to be the next tech in gaming. Do you really think there is ever gonna be a better racing game than Midnight Club 3 dub remix that does not has some outside technological advancement? There are racing games nowadays, yet you always go back to that don't you?

The second part is also bollocks, because no one stops you from making free games, here and now. It's just reality. If Newgrounds were still alive, I bet your mom they'd be paidwalled by now.

1) the quality of free games dipped
2)having to pay rent and groceries stops you from making free games if you are a grown adult with bills
3)new grounds its still alive people make games there all the time
4) "If this thing that didn't happen happened the way I hallucinated in my head, it would prove my point"

Or at least had an option for the creators to set a price for the games, just like itch.io, which, by the way, has plenty free games. Damn, even Steam has some free games. So the "free competition" is still out there.

Most of them suck, and are leagues below flashgames made in the 2007 - 2014 era. The quality dipped > indie competition its way lower quality > indie quality dip because they can do way less than what they would've had done.

In two words: don't blame the medium, blame the talentless devs, or market and economy, or whatever. But definitely not the medium.

Nobody is doing that you hallucinated that

Make of it whatever you want: once again, I do not really play enough anyhow modern games to be able to comment on the issue.

Yet you made a post where I can categorically see where everything goes wrong.

 

[punisheddead]

As gaming gets increasingly more shit indies are under more and more pressure to deliver but they're far from infallible, especially since anyone can pick up Slop Engine 5 and shit out an asset flip to put on Steam. Indies however are at a massive advantage to AAA simply because as a collective they'll have at least a few devs that listen to players and deliver the games they want. Now since gaming is so shit indies went from amazing breathtaking experiences to pretty good AA tier games and there's nothing really wrong with that. It's what people want, people brought up boomer shooters and they're good examples of it. Many of them are only step above or on par really good free doom engine mods but it's still decent and what people want.

It's foolish to expect indie masterpieces when their competition is struggling to not shoot both of their legs of at launch. People just want good games and the void that would have been fulfilled with eurojank and AA studios or hell even flash games is now filled with indies which leaves less devs that will potentially make a masterpiece. Gaming landscape has changed, AAA when it does rarely come out with a decent game is a 100 gorillion dollar Unreal 5 slop engine shit fest that requires 2 5090s to run at 30fps and people are kinda getting sick of it. Not only do players not want these "experiences", most gamers don't have 5k setups to play these glitchy mediocre messes, they just want a decently made fun game. Maybe after AAAs stop jerking themselves off about how they're saving the world they'll realize that, but I digress. Also there's the whole "I need to make a living" where every project is now a job and even mods these days need you to subscribe to the creators paymetons. Everyone wants to get paid for their time.

Games like balatro are your run of the mill this month's streamer bait, decent but really nothing more then timewasters that after their mandated social media posts will pull a few hundred players tops. It got big in spite of being decent because it got lucky. The same happened with all those mascot horror games, the same thing happened with that hazmat suit game idk the name I don't play these and the same thing will happen with whatever new game the internet decides to obsess over for 3 weeks.

But people, the consumer, want this. A lot of gamers now, especially younger ones, don't even particularly care about the quality of the game if it's a multiplayer game. They see it as a social event, something to have in the background and be vaguely engaged by as they hang out and chat with their friends. Among us has done irreparable damage to the indie and online gaming sphere in general, by eradicating standards and making every game "fun with friends" if it includes any social elements.

 

[PizzaW0lf]

But people, the consumer, want this. A lot of gamers now, especially younger ones, don't even particularly care about the quality of the game if it's a multiplayer game. They see it as a social event, something to have in the background and be vaguely engaged by as they hang out and chat with their friends. Among us has done irreparable damage to the indie and online gaming sphere in general, by eradicating standards and making every game "fun with friends" if it includes any social elements.

I hate that I have to use this image again KEK

 

[Alaska Palms]

Games stopped being good in 2008

 

[Babble Cowboy]

It is not merely the games of the computer, be assured. Verily, every time it is that I find myself seeking a game, be it one of strategy, one of cards or even one of role-playing, the people whom I meet are of the two: a queer hag trumpeting her praise of 'soul' or 'aesthetics', looking no further than at the art accompanying the game, or a disproportionate man of no labours shrieking the very similar in his quite as abhorrent voice.

The ability to analyse and dissect -- in those people -- is not present, and thence they find themselves unable to tell the passive pleasure delivered to their superficial minds from that finer one of exerting one's mental power over a medium so malleable -- as a good game is. Forsooth, it was Sid Meier who defined a game as a sequence of meaningful choices, and it was the same man, disillusioned, who found out the player was not able to rationally approach his lot of probabilities, the most basic building block of many a game. Moreover, even having clear tendencies to observe in his own preferences a player will too often elect to remain ignorant and instead hold someone else's assessment true of what it is that attracts him.

I lament how low the man has fallen in his understanding of his very self! Ye may deem it a jest, but it is a supposition I hold rather plausible that, given a thing, an enjoyable thing, related in no way to the game, while playing, many a man will not separate his pleasure derived therefrom from the pleasure of the game -- thusly conflating his external and often superficial merriment with the game's quality. It is only by this self-blindness, I believe, that games can rely on being found good by the virtues alone of their beauty, their music and other externalia, while advancing the art of game design per se not.

pic random

 

[Andy Kaufman]

I think Indie games are better than ever it's just that it's way harder to find them now that the market is more than just flooded.
Curating your experience yourself is more important than ever and requires way more effort nowadays.

 

[Nyappren]

Really, it's about expectations. I think indie gaming is the best its ever been but it's very much about what you're looking for and at. The sort of experiences you want, someone has likely made something pretty damn close if you look deep enough in steam, GoG, or itch.io.

Things that are 'popular' in the mainstream isn't really something you should judge an industry by fully. Indie or otherwise. If someone took a look at gaming from the outside, they'd probably just see fortnite and sports games then toss the entire medium to the side on the presumption. It's not particularly surprising.

You just gotta dig deep for things and try things that look appealing to you. The market is vast and deep with the various options you can pick.


Honestly I think eventually the indie masterpieces hidden away are usually found in the indie scene and brought to the mainstream in someway regardless whatever factors are in the way. For example, I think Fear & Hunger is a masterpiece in its own right. The type of gameplay experience it gives is unique and well thought out, challenging, with a unique world and atmosphere. Pretty scary too for your first experiences in every area with plenty of different options and ways to approach the challenges it presents to you. It might've taken a few years for it to get caught in the net of so called "popularity" but it eventually got there. Despite it being a game that, by all means would push away that sort of attention given the graphic sexual violence it presents at various points. Most people would very much get VERY upset over that sort of thing being depicted in the mainstream. It also is a pretty difficult and unforgiving game too, so people that actually play it need to actually put a lot of effort into beating it for the first time given how many things can screw you over.

Would a game like that be considered 'game of the year' by award shows and streamed by 100k+ viewers 'blahblah' garbage streamer? Hell no. Nor do I think it should be. It being acknowledge by even a fraction of the communities that actually cares about the genre of game that Fear & Hunger falls into? That's enough. Hell, even if it didn't get that recognition and kept its reputation as a little niche series only /v/ talked about. That'd be fine too. But the fact it exists as an indie game in the first place and could be found is proof enough the scene has damn worth while value and probably will keep on getting better and better in my opinion.

 

[PizzaW0lf]

You know what really grinds my gears? I hate that indie games for some reason get away with a "minimalist" art style. Why is it soulless when a AAA does it, yet perfectly fine for indies?? Here's what I mean:

It sure is "creative" to just copy the look of mega corps. Were the developers really not capable of at least using a "cool" minimalist aesthetic?? It's just so unappealing. Like why is this aspect seemingly unquestioned for indies?

 

[K0WLOON]

There is still good stuff coming but the scene has coalesced into it's own dinosaur system of publishers, studios and adjacent media (you kno, the things ones were trying to escape) so one has a bit of a hill to climb to locate the things. So, much like music, one is forced to sift through Indie™ and independent to find what it craves
(And, as ones know, this is a thing that happens in all cultural endeavors once the spice starts flowing; the parasites show up and suck the thing dry and turn it into easily digestible, inoffensively flavored paste that is delivered from the spigot on the wall)

 

[ControllerJunkieツ]

You know what really grinds my gears? I hate that indie games for some reason get away with a "minimalist" art style. Why is it soulless when a AAA does it, yet perfectly fine for indies?? Here's what I mean:
View attachment 140983

It sure is "creative" to just copy the look of mega corps. Were the developers really not capable of at least using a "cool" minimalist aesthetic?? It's just so unappealing. Like why is this aspect seemingly unquestioned for indies?

what's minimalist about it?