What are indie games, why are they interesting, and how to find them

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If blockbusters from major publishers seem monotonous, take a look at the independent market. They are not afraid to surprise.

What are indie games

Indie games are those projects that are created by independent authors. That is, people who work not for large publishers like Activision, Ubisoft or EA, but for themselves. As a rule, indie studios consist of only a few people (rarely more than ten). There are also lone developers.

The gaming industry is one of the richest markets in the world, but that money rarely reaches independent teams. Due to the availability of training courses and the gradual simplification of the development process, there are more and more indie studios every year. But only a few achieve financial success - most often those who are just lucky.

On the one hand, this means that most of the indie developers are wasting money and energy almost in vain. On the other hand, that these studios have to look for innovative ideas and new ways to make games. After all, limitations, as you know, force you to be inventive.

So, the first version of the SUPERHOT slow-motion shooter was created in just a week as part of the 7 Day FPS Challenge. Over the years, this prototype has grown into one of the most successful indie games in history.

Why indie games are interesting

High quality of individual aspects

Independent studios rarely take on large-scale projects. This allows developers to focus on the features of the game - be it beautiful graphics, unusual gameplay mechanics, or a compelling storyline - and polish them up.

For example, in the platformer GRIS, the first thing that catches your eye is the stunning visual style. In Octodad - the funny behavior of the protagonist. The rest of these games are not so outstanding, and they pass quickly, but still leave a pleasant impression.

It is clear that not all indie games are of a high standard. There are a lot of projects on the market that are almost impossible to play, because they were created by inexperienced developers. But if an indie title has achieved at least some popularity, then you can be sure that at least something in it will definitely catch on.

Unusual ideas

Indie studios are the main source of experimental projects in the gaming industry. Major publishers carefully weigh each step and figure out which concepts will make them the most money. Independent developers, on the other hand, create the games they want and are not afraid to explore crazy ideas.

For example, in Downwell, the protagonist is constantly falling. When the button is pressed, he jumps, interrupting the flight, and at the same time shoots. The number of cartridges in the clip is limited, and you can reload only by landing somewhere.

Because of this, the player constantly has to make decisions. Jump away from the enemy or not waste ammo and try to dodge? Shoot or land on the enemy?

Another example of a game with an unusual idea is Getting Over It. In it, you need to climb a mountain of garbage, controlling a half-naked man with a hammer. The game is very difficult, it has inconvenient controls, and the physics is set up in such a way that any wrong movement can cost tens of minutes of progress.

All this is done on purpose. Getting Over It is a mock game. It was created to torment the less patient players and show them that defeat is an integral part of the gameplay. Such a project would hardly be possible anywhere else, except in the independent segment of the gaming industry.

Fast response to feedback

Indie studios are almost always small. Therefore, it is easier for them to respond to complaints and suggestions from players. It is not uncommon for developers to fix bugs within hours of reporting a bug. In addition, independent teams are adding new content more readily and faster than major studios.

The point is that in large companies, user suggestions and bug reports have to go a long way through several people from different departments before changes are made to the game. In the case of indie studios, this time is reduced by several times.

Many indie developers in general enjoy interacting with their game community. Like all people, they are pleased when their creations come to someone's liking.

What are the disadvantages of indie games

Lack of developer experience

Very often, indie developers lack the skills and experience to create a really high-quality game. In some projects, the gameplay is poorly thought out, because of which the player begins to get bored after a few minutes. In others, the interface is not intuitive. Third, there is little content and so on.

Any aspect may be unfinished. Therefore, finding a good project on the indie market is not an easy task.

Bad marketing

One of the main reasons most indie games fail is that the developers didn't have the money, time, or skills to run an effective PR campaign.

The importance of marketing cannot be overemphasized. Major publishers spend tens of millions of dollars on it, but some of their titles still flop. So, a project from a little-known independent developer has practically no chances to shoot without a promotion campaign.

Oversaturated market

Indie games have always existed in some form, but they only achieved real popularity in 2011. The success of The Binding of Isaac, Terraria, Frozen Synapse and other projects has shown that you can release games without a publisher and still make money.

From that moment on, the number of indie releases per year began to grow almost exponentially. Most of them were released on the Steam store, because new games are hardly checked in any way. The site was flooded with the first works of novice developers, low-quality projects, clones of famous games and even fraudulent programs that, for example, mined cryptocurrency without the knowledge of the player.

Currently, about 20-40 games are released on Steam a day, almost all of them are indie. For the players, this means that most of these projects, even very good ones, will never be known. Even if they are actively interested in this part of the industry.

How to follow indie games

Steam

Indie games are available on all platforms: consoles, mobile devices, PCs and even Dendy. But the main platform for such projects is the largest digital store for PC games, Steam. Most independent developers release their work there due to the lack of quality control and the relatively low cost of publishing.

The only problem with Steam is that it's easy to find indie games on it, but it's hard to single out the good ones. But Lifehacker just has detailed instructions for this. Just add the tag "indie" when searching.

Social networks and media

You can search for indie games not only for PC, but also for other platforms using social networks and thematic Internet publications. So, on Twitter you can find accounts that make regular collections of interesting indie games. For example, Notable Releases or Oliver Snyders. You can also learn about high-quality projects from the thematic section of Reddit.

And if you know English and are ready to help developers, then take a look at the PlayMyGame sub-site. There indie studios share trailers, screenshots and prototypes of their new games.

Among the game titles, Destructoid and Rock Paper Shotgun are worth noting. They keep a close eye on the market and often write about promising projects.

You can also learn about new indie games by subscribing to VKontakte pages like World of Indie or Ducat.