The Indie Games Discussion Thread

I dunno how CAG went so long without a dedicated general discussion thread for indie games (that isn't centered around deals, Steam, Steam deals, etc.), so I decided to make one. Don't know how popular it'll be, but guess we'll see!

What indie games have you all be playing lately? If it's Into the Breach, color me jealous.

My main indie priority right now is playing through the Tale of Tales Experience, a set of six games by now-defunct studio Tale of Tales. I've been going through them in chronological order and now only have Sunset left. The experience has been mixed so far, with Luxuria Superbia being the best title. Every single game has been unique and ambitious, though. It's been interesting seeing what ideas this studio has come up with over the years.

Another recent indie game I played was NotCoD, the run-and-gun shooter follow-up to NotGTAV. NotCoD is a bit longer and cruder than its predecessor, but still quite funny in bits. I think I liked NotGTAV a little more, though... maybe because of its simplicity.

In addition to what you've been playing, feel free to share news, make recommendations, and just talk about anything indie game-related. Looking forward to some good discussion!

Just out of curiosity, I think it's best to define what an 'indie' game is. Is it self-published only or do we include ones with small time publishers? An example of the latter would be Stardew Valley for example. Their publisher, Chucklefish, has published a number of smaller indie type games that are done by a small team of developers or a solo developer. However the console ports of Stardew Valley are contracted to a different company I believe.

If that can be established, I'll go through and list some that I can remember which I consider pretty decent.

Others may feel differently, but games put out by small, independent publishers (Devolver, Chucklefish, Nicalis, etc.) can be considered "indie" in my book. Self-publishing seems to be increasingly rare for "Triple I" indie games anyway.

On a related note, it might be best to avoid small-scale games put out by big companies, either under a separate label (Square Enix Collective, Adult Swim Games, etc.) or not, because that's when the "indie" label gets really murky.

Here's a few games I've played that I can recommend:

CrossCode
Store Link | Official Site

It's an Action RPG that's made entirely in HTML5. Currently it's in early access, but it should be fairly close to actually being released (Summer or Fall of this year). I've only played a couple hours of it to make sure I enjoy it and have been waiting for the game to release for me to actually blow through the entire thing. The game itself is has some really tight controls and plays extremely well. The dialogue isn't bad from what I've played and since I haven't played much I can't really comment on the story. You can find a browser based HTML5 demo on their official site or through the store link. There's a chance we might see it on the Switch if the console plays HTML5 like the Wii U does, but it won't be on major consoles unless it gets entirely recoded into a different engine. So I wouldn't count on ever seeing it on the PS4 of XB1.

Opus Magnum
Store Link
This is a puzzle game that's a bit more logical in that it can be viewed similar to a programming language. This is one of Zachtronics easier games, but I recommend any of their stuff. This is also from the company that made infiniminer, which is what Minecraft spawned from. There's not a whole lot to say about it as the games trailer pretty much shows you how it works. It should appeal to the more programming/logic oriented people.

Tales of Maj'Eyal
Store Link | Official Site
One of the best roguelikes out there. The difficulty is quite brutal and you'll die and have to start over more than a few times for sure, although donators get an exploration mode which doesn't have permadeath. The base game is free on the official site whereas on Steam you pay, but get a few extra bonuses out of it. Such as use of the item vault that can carry over a couple items to new playthroughs should you make use of it. The game itself has a ton a different character creation possibilities that allow you to tackle the games story in a number of ways that makes playthroughs quite unique if you create a character that's wildly different than your last. Not to mention there are a ton of things you can unlock through playing the game as well. It has a couple of premium only expansions and is still adding more content over time as well. I still have yet to beat the base game even after six years.

Factorio
Store Link
Still in early access, but the game is pretty comprehensive gameplay wise. This is a game where you're an engineer stranded on an alien planet and in order to survive you will build a factory that pollutes the area and attracts alien bugs which will attack you after feeding on your pollution. There isn't a whole lot of point to the game itself, but from a logic puzzle perspective, building an optimal factory can be extremely satisfying. It supports online co-op, which makes the game more enjoyable in my opinion. Plus it allows for modding and there are a few rather complex mods out there that increase replayability and complexity of the gameplay. I really like it, but I lack people who I can play with, so I don't touch it much anymore.

Particle Fleet: Emergence
Store Link
A very interesting take on the strategy/tower defense combination. There are multiple games from this developer that are very similar to this game called Creeper World, but this is the latest one from the developer. The story itself is fairly barebones, but the gameplay is quite competent and the game progresses at a good difficulty curve. It's quite different than most other games of its genre, so it's worth checking out in my opinion.


And two games I haven't played yet, but own:

Ghost of a Tale
Store Link
An Action RPG that's pretty much solo developed I believe as well as recently leaving early access. The creator is an animator/animation director for quite a few movies that you may have seen like The Lorax and Despicable Me. The art direction of the game is really nice and will probably remind people of Redwall. From what I've seen you don't have any real combat abilities, but can occasionally make use of items to kill enemies. Mostly it's an exploration/narrative driven game that has a very basic stealth system that you'll make use of frequently.

Starsector
Official Site
A space combat RPG. There are quite a few of these and this one has been in development for a long time. It seems to be more in-depth than pretty much all of the others on the market. Unfortunately who knows when it will release as the updates are slow, but it's still being worked on. It should be fairly far along in development, although there are probably a couple more years left. Where it's at now it has a lot under its belt already.

There are a ton more, but figured I'd mention a few and try and cover a decent variety of genres. It's a shame that CAG doesn't have much discussion focus these days anymore. Feel free to ask any questions on ones I've played. I'll probably post more as time allows since finding them again takes up most of the time.

Don't know if I'll get to any at the moment. In about a month hopefully I'll get around to Ghost of a Tale.

thanks for the info! I played Factorio once, quite entertaining

I tried 'My Time at Portia' a few weeks ago. The game itself is alright, but it relies too heavily on its stamina gauge I think as I'm out of stamina far too quickly. There's also too much emphasis on digging artifacts out of dungeons. It's still in early access, so I'm hoping for some tweaks as I think it'd make it a better experience. Otherwise it's a fairly basic/decent open world simulation RPG with a decent amount of character.

Never did get around to playing a Ghost of a Tale though. I'm still really itching to play a decent simulation game though. Whether it's like Theme Hospital, Animal Crossing or Sim City. I think the 2.0 update for War of the Overworld out that overhauls a bunch of stuff is out, so I may try that out again. Although I'd like the latest DLC for it, but the Steam Summer Sale isn't for another month.

I was looking for somebody opinion to try with this one: Tales of Maj´Eyal.

Did you try it?

Into the Breach

 Maps are small, load fast, and only have to be protected for a few turns, so it feels worthwhile even if you've only got minutes. With hours to spare you can play a full run, save the day, then take your favorite pilot and leap back into a different timeline to do it all again.

Frostpunk

It feels strange to play a city-builder that's not open-ended and doesn't let you tinker with your city forever. Also strange is that no matter how efficiently you design your city, your residents may kick your ass out of it due to events that take place elsewhere. But that Frostpunk does things differently is one of the things that makes it great.

Rain World

You're going to hate Rain World if you approach it with the wrong attitude. Firstly, it looks like a platformer, but it's not: it's a punishing survival game. The first hour or so spent in the game also lacks promise: the controls are slightly fiddly because (by necessity—this is a survival game) they aren't as intuitive as most 2D games. You have to learn them (Rain World is all about learning, but you'll still sometimes get unlucky).