My Journey into Indie Games

As some of you may have read my post about My gaming history you will know that it’s only been about five years or so when I’ve gotten more serious about gaming as a whole. That being said, I’m a sucker for most anything Square Enix and other big companies create for me to consume most of my free time towards unlocking the secrets of those stories. I have very little experience with Indie Games, but last month I dived straight into that realm and I’m honestly glad that I did. I won’t go into very specific details since I’ll be making individual posts on all of these games, but I want to discuss key aspects that took me by surprise. I made a review on Transistor already, so give it a read if you’re interested! Now let’s just dive right in!

Art Games

Two out of four Indie Games that I played were a genre that I’ve actually never heard of which is art game. This is a genre where the game is looked upon as a work of art instead of an action pack game like the Call of Duty games or even an RPG. There is little fighting and more focus on narration and immersing yourself in the game.  I played two games, Everybody’s Gone to The Rapture and Dear Ester, from The Chinese Room, a Britain Game Company and they were so beautiful. Gameplay in these games involves you walking within these two beautiful words filled with narration. There’s no battle aspects so you can enjoy the music and the artwork on your screen for a relaxing adventure. But really all these games artwork were absolutely beautiful, they took my breath away on several occassion.

Soundtracks

If you have not realized by my history, music means a lot to me and I am a sucker to some good video game soundtracks. One that has been on repeat every time that I drive off to work is the soundtrack from Transistor. It also made me happy that all the soundtracks from Supergiant Games are composed by the same composer, Darren Korb. Let’s just say I’m a fan and cannot wait to try the other games by that Studio. Another thing I noticed was that the composer from Everybody’s Gone to The Rapture was composed by a woman! I’ll keep this brief since I’m planning a post all about this, but know that this makes me very excited!

Plot Development

All these games gave me moments that took me completely by surprise, but the one who took the feels flavored cake would have to be What Remains of Edith Finch. This game is so sad and so tragic in which you have no say over what happens. You end up playing out all these sad characters that all have a tragic ending. Most AAA games that I’ve played have some sort of pattern with their development but this wasn’t the case with the Indie Games. The same thing happened with all the games that I played. Most don’t fill in the dots with their explanations where you the player can analyze their endings. It was a different sense after completing an Indie Game. I didn’t feel triumphant after seeing the credits rolled, I was dazed and puzzled over what happened. The writing of these stories were absolutely wonderful and I can’t wait to try some more!

The writing of these stories were absolutely wonderful and I can’t wait to try some more! I never knew what kept me away from Indie Games before but I’m happy to be playing some now. There were other things that stood out, but these are the top 3 that spring to the top of the list. Do you have any Indie Game suggestions that I should try next? What do you like about Indie games? Let me know in the comments!