Is it just me or do indies rock?

[deathknight1728]

Ive played baldurs gate series, and diablo 2 for many years. I loved those games. But after all that, i cant go back to those games even after bg might get an overhaul. Yet any of my favorite indie companies-Soldak, Basilisk, and Spiderweb Software, I can always go back to for a fun roleplaying experience.

Is it just me, or are indies the way to go for gaming?

I found out about indies from soldak entertainment, an action/rpg gaming company. I to this day think that depths of peril is one of the best action/rpgs that had as unique an idea for action/rpgs as you can get.

Its kind of funny, that im having so much fun playing eschalon book 1 (now that i know the game), ive restarted so many times i cant choose which class i want to beat the game with. The only other games ive done that for are bg series and diablo 2. Indies seem to have everything you could want, especially for a pc gamer.

[Rotnefson]

I think for each good indie game there must be a lot of bad ones, majority of which are never completed or realeased.

Even the ones that are good can seem unappealing first, until you scratch below the surface. I originally downloaded Book 1 demo when it was realeased and while I did enjoy the oldschool atmosphere, I did not buy the full game then. It was only now when I got infected with flu and had a lot of time to kill, I remembered this game, and I have been playing it for three days in row approximately 8 hours every day!

I was just thinking about it what is the appeal of old school games like this, compared to Skyrim for an example. I'm not sure if it's simply game design or presentation. If Bethesda would recreate Eschalon's every detail with their Skyrim engine, would it be a better game? And what about Skyrim made to look identical to Eschalon?

[Randomizer]

Indie games have a smaller market so you are less likely to hear about the bad ones.

The problem with bad AAA games is they have to meet payroll so they will put them out and hope they will still have enough customers to buy the upgrade or next one. With a larger market you will hear what's wrong with them even before release.

[KillingMoon]

I wonder if it isn't a case of more people developing the skills to make a game and the ease of download distribution?
I'm not sure, though, I only just started playing games 6 years ago, and I can't compare well with, say, the situation 10 years ago.

[MyGameCompany]

There certainly are a lot more indie developers nowadays (as opposed to 10 years ago). I think many are just dabblers or dreamers who think they're going to get rich. I've seen a lot of poor quality and/or half-finished games from such people. But there are a lot of gems too. And some indies do well enough to earn a living from their work. (I'm close to that goal, but not quite there yet - I'm hoping Dirk Dashing 2 will get me across that goal line when I release it in June.)

I can't remember the last AAA game I bought - it's been a long time. I got tired of first person shooters 15 years ago. And the last couple of AAA RPGs that I played were not that enjoyable. And though I like some casual games, it seems like there's no innovation there anymore - almost all new games are just rehashes of the same old hidden object, match-3, and time management formulas.

I play nothing but indie games now. Good indie games do indeed rock!

[sirdilznik]

I don't really separate AAA and indie games in my head, I buy games that appeal to me whether they're from big companies or small ones. Not surprisingly, a decent chunk of my games are AAA titles, and a decent chunk are indie titles. As far as games I've replayed the most, the number one game in that category is far and away Neverwinter Nights. I must have put 1000+ hours into that game and I still play it occasionally. Next up on the list... well not so much replayability, but sustainability would be more appropriate... are TES III: Morrowind, TES IV: Oblivion, (also soon to be TES V: Skyrim) and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Sandbox type games just lend themselves to almost infinite playing time, so while I may not have made new characters and redid the main quest too many times (I did a few), I've poured hundreds of hours into these games with a single character just exploring the world and dicking around. Back in the day I must have spent 10-15 hours just jumping around on the rooftops in New Sheoth, mostly in Crucible, in Oblivion (rooftop jumping is a hobby of mine in Elder Scrolls games). More recently I've spent hours upon hours just luring poor fools near cliffs in Skyrim, circling around them, then Fus-Ro-Dah-ing their asses off the cliff. Good times!

With that said, there is a disturbing trend among many (not all... yet) AAA developers and publishers of saddling their games with the most intrusive, invasive, and pain in the ass DRM and horrific "services" like GFWL. These kinds of thing turn me away from those games, regardless of how appealing the game may or may not be otherwise. Luckily the trend among indie games seems to be going the other way, lashing out against DRM. if these trends continue, I may be playing nothing but indie games in the near future.

[deathknight1728]

I agree to a point. I usually don't finish any game unless it really goes the extra mile. Thats part of the problem is that there are so many games out there nowadays that all look and function similarly. Part of the reason that i find indies so likable, at least to me, is because they try ideas that not many other companies can risk and are unique. The last main stream video game i played and barely got through was arcanum. It wasn't that it was a bad game, but to me, if you play it real time it can be very tedious and boring. If i went back and tried it turn based, it might prove to be different.

[sapientCrow]

Indie games imho are the future of games imho. At least for myself.

I am an old game designer and have follwed the industry since my old skool days of lands of lore, dm, eye of the beholder etc. etc.

As soon as games became a popular past time (hence not for nerds anymore, since of course no one really plays outside much anyway) then mainstream took hold of their flow and development and when that occured less risk and experimentation was taken and less thought about quality design was factored in. It became about pumping them out as fast as possible with as much eye candy as possible and making sure they had a large amount of their budget dedicated to drm and security measures.

I played arena, daggerfall, morrowind, oblivion, and then skyrim. each incarnation starting with morrowind shows the pace of the gaming industry in general. Skyrim concluded my following of bethesda games with its marriage to steam even though I purchased the game outright. In their moves to lock up everything they undermined the modding community as well.

I do not think games are bad or good I just think what is favored overall or fed to people mainstream is a lot of hand holding no dying or fps style eye candy.
Puzzles and exploration and that good ole feeling that the creator of the game you are playing loved it instead of half the time being forced to meet deadlines shines through for me in games today.

Of course there are more games today then there ever was back in the day. I for one am very happy there are a basilisk games and other indie developers that will experiment and build strong games from the heart not huge budgets and based on a demographic sheet.

The landscape with more powerful computing as well as open source dev kits has changed for game development too which I prefer as well. I look forward to finding more niche indie game developers into the future.

Now if only there was some really cool fund system so the indies could spend more time doing it indie style!
But not change the root... yanno