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Thread: Pretentious indie games- worst of the worst?

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    Default Pretentious indie games- worst of the worst?

    Come on, we all know about these. Games that are bad even if you put aside their creators and hatedoms. I still think the biggest gaming-related mistake I have ever made was buying Gone Home.

    Most immature, pretentious, unfun, preachy, anti-game "game" with a script that would be laughed out of any writer's room even in Hollywood that I have possibly played. Its winning of awards just proved that gaming "journalism" is a joke and that people are desperate for their hobby to be art in the same way that movies are.

    And I swear, half of these games are "retro" simply because these developers don't want to try to make something in 3D. Fez is another example of one of these indie games that I couldn't stand.

    Is the industry really becoming nothing but Molyneux-esque hodgepodges of "games" that are just a glorified visual novel or Mountain Dewrito fueled AAA brown shooters? You either deal with egotists telling you that you're a shitty person or faceless corporations getting away with always-online or on-disc DLC. Every once in a while a game comes out that actually is worth the full price, but most of the time I'd rather wait until a price drop.

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    You're probably onto something, and good job calling out Fez. I got that one free with PS+ and man I'd have been pissed if I paid the $10 or whatever it went for when it was new. At first it seems ok, but as you go more than 30min or so into it, it's just very disjointed, the map is a hot mess, and it just gets fairly boring exploring it yet people spooge all over its greatness and I just don't see it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tanooki View Post
    You're probably onto something, and good job calling out Fez. I got that one free with PS+ and man I'd have been pissed if I paid the $10 or whatever it went for when it was new. At first it seems ok, but as you go more than 30min or so into it, it's just very disjointed, the map is a hot mess, and it just gets fairly boring exploring it yet people spooge all over its greatness and I just don't see it.
    "Suck my dick and choke on it"- Phil Fish, creator of Fez

    Nothing of value was lost by its sequel being canceled. All of these one-hit wonders suddenly acting like they can tell their customers what they want is disgusting.

    If nothing in actuality comes from all of this industry BS currently going on, and gaming five years from now is nothing but those two extremes I mentioned, we can't say we didn't try and say we wanted something different.

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    This thread is super pretentious. Stick your nose up higher.
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Adventurer View Post
    This thread is super pretentious. Stick your nose up higher.
    You just don't get what I'm trying to do with it. I don't want you reading my thread, you shitlord misogynistic manchild. Check your privilege, you neckbearded fedora wearer.

    (Joking in case you can't tell)
    Last edited by Tupin; 10-18-2014 at 12:40 AM.

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    The difference between indie and homebrew. Slapping together a game and charging money for it when it's the same quality as other games released for free. Besides a few exceptions, most indie games feel this way.

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    I can understand your complaints. My most hated are the so-called 'art games' and 'politi-games'. People will use subjectivism to tell you that you can't claim games are not art or deserve to be taken seriously. Considering the mechanics of games have been used in therapeutic scientific simulations, there is some truth to it having some merit outside of entertainment. However, in terms of games as a competitive avenue, I do not care for story-driven cinematic stuff. I don't mind pulp-level stories at all, but I don't play the games for that specifically. I generally avoid the cut scene-fueled games of today. I also don't care for the surrealist/dada or postmodern aesthetic which is overused by art elitists. It cheats by not trying in any regard to establish an objective or interpretable meaning and could send the observer on a wild goose chase, looking for some kind of message behind it when it could just as easily been random garbage thrown together. This is often observed in the very pretentious so-called 'literary fiction' genre. I used to dabble in that kind of writing years ago but quit when I realized how tedious it was. Obscure trash like Tenderenda the Fantast and The Eater of Darkness were dropped once I got around to reading Animal Farm. Because of the hipster culture, the ideologies of these works are infiltrating indie games. I have no control over it or ability to predict how it could influence someone in a positive way. I simply choose not to play them and move on.

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    If you don't care for art games. Don't buy them. Thread over. The end.

    The existence of these games does not preclude the existence of others. If these games were not made, you would not get different games to fill the void. Just less games. Which would be terrible.



    And I swear, half of these games are "retro" simply because these developers don't want to try to make something in 3D. Fez is another example of one of these indie games that I couldn't stand.
    Also, this is pure ignorance. Anyone who knows anything about art assets in video games knows 2D sprites (and especially stylistically lower res looking sprites) are harder to work with then Polygons. Once you have a 3D model you can put it at any angle you want and scipt its rigging to give you your movement cycles. With a sprites, you have to draw every angle, and every movement from scratch. PS. If you played FEZ for any period of time, you'd know it does actually use 3D models for all world geometry. Its viewing angle just makes everything look 2D. You know... since that's the premise behind all its gameplay.
    Last edited by The Adventurer; 10-18-2014 at 06:54 AM.
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    I was mentioning Fez as an aside. I was talking more that "indie retro inspired platformer" is now about as unique and "artistic" as any AAA brown military FPS.

    Indies have hit a wall and hit it hard.

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    I definitely disagree with OP over Gone Home's merits. I love a story-driven game, and even though some have boiled it down to a "walking simulator", labeling it as such is just too simplistic. It excels at creating an atmosphere, and you can really get a sense of each family member's personality and internal/external struggles and triumphs if you nose around the house and take stock of your surroundings. While it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, I loved the 4 or 5 hours I spent with it.

    While there have always been a wealth of uninspired 2d platformers, there are also a ton of great, newer ones. Have you checked out Battleblock Theater? Freedom Planet? Dust? VVVVVV? Mercenary Kings? I don't think any of those would call themselves "art games", but they all have a great aesthetic and solid gameplay. I'd go out on a limb and say as long as people are making 2d platformers, there's going to be at least 10 generic and/or dull ones to every great one. It's simply been that way since the 8-bit days.

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    Quote Originally Posted by old_skoolin_jim View Post
    I definitely disagree with OP over Gone Home's merits. I love a story-driven game, and even though some have boiled it down to a "walking simulator", labeling it as such is just too simplistic. It excels at creating an atmosphere, and you can really get a sense of each family member's personality and internal/external struggles and triumphs if you nose around the house and take stock of your surroundings. While it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, I loved the 4 or 5 hours I spent with it.

    While there have always been a wealth of uninspired 2d platformers, there are also a ton of great, newer ones. Have you checked out Battleblock Theater? Freedom Planet? Dust? VVVVVV? Mercenary Kings? I don't think any of those would call themselves "art games", but they all have a great aesthetic and solid gameplay. I'd go out on a limb and say as long as people are making 2d platformers, there's going to be at least 10 generic and/or dull ones to every great one. It's simply been that way since the 8-bit days.
    It did not deserve the praise it got. The story, while clearly trying to be serious and like something Hollywood would make, would probably be laughed out of any writing room in Hollywood. It was juvenile and one level above fanfiction. It's the epitome of the immature gaming industry trying desperately to justify themselves to the believers in traditional mediums. The fact that it won so many awards only proves the people who are talking about how out-of-touch games "journalists" are right and shows the very people they wish to impress how unprepared for the "big leagues" that they are.

    The fact that American indies are usually corrupt and egotistical as all hell does not help the genre. That they think of their audience as a bunch of misogynistic manchildren that are worse than ISIS and Ebola combined hurts them even more. Why the hell would I give people who hate me money? If anything, this just made me want to look for more Japanese indies, thanks for the Freedom Planet recommendation.

    Thanks for the suggestions, though.
    Last edited by Tupin; 10-18-2014 at 03:25 PM.

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    I would say Towerfall if I had to pick one. I read an article in Edge, which is a British games magazine, that said that the creator, Matt Thorson, would have never launched on Ouya had he known that exclusivity would have killed the games' sales, but at $14.99, the game was the most expensive Ouya game on the store for nearly a year, rivaled only by Final Fantasy III, which regularly for $15.99. I recently bought it at $9.99 when it was on sale since I had some leftover Ouya credit on the store, but I don't see what the hype is all about. I have a few freemium games on the system such as Busted and Knightmare Tower that I have enjoyed a heck of a lot more than Towerfall without even buying any of the DLC. Also, he had to have known that he wasn't going to get rich overnight on a brand new system that had a relatively small install base. I would venture to say that he probably hasn't done that much better on PS4 with Ascension since that one was a free PS Plus game a couple of months ago.
    Currently catching up on PSN, WiiWare, Wii U E-Shop and Xbox Live Arcade exclusives I missed.

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    99.9% of all indie games I've played aren't very good. There are a few great ones, but very very few. The reason I feel people praise these games are that they're cheap so people are apologetic about their overall quality. Whether a game is $15 or $60 shouldn't change your guidelines on how you rate it, but that's not how it seems to work. It seems that if a game launches at $15, people rate it better than a $60 game because it's cheaper.

    I'm not saying all indie games suck as there are some definite good ones, but the majority of them, including the super popular ones, range from shit to meh.
    Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.

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    Quote Originally Posted by kupomogli View Post
    99.9% of all indie games I've played aren't very good. There are a few great ones, but very very few. The reason I feel people praise these games are that they're cheap so people are apologetic about their overall quality. Whether a game is $15 or $60 shouldn't change your guidelines on how you rate it, but that's not how it seems to work. It seems that if a game launches at $15, people rate it better than a $60 game because it's cheaper.

    I'm not saying all indie games suck as there are some definite good ones, but the majority of them, including the super popular ones, range from shit to meh.
    With Steam sales, prices have become irrelevant.

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    I've played a ton of indie games, and I can't think of one that was actually bad.

    Battleblock Theater
    Cave Story
    FEZ
    Guacamelee!
    LIMBO
    Mark of the Ninja
    Rouge Legacy
    Shovel Knight
    Splunky
    Super Meat Boy
    They Bleed Pixels
    Volgarr the Viking
    Gemini Rue
    Gone Home
    Machinarium
    Primordia
    To the Moon
    Awesomenaughts
    Skullgirls
    League of Legends
    Bastion
    Cthulhu Saves the World
    Legend of Grimrock
    Shadowrun Returns
    FTL: Faster the Light
    Papers, Please
    World of Goo

    All legit radical.
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Adventurer View Post
    I've played a ton of indie games, and I can't think of one that was actually bad.

    Battleblock Theater
    Cave Story
    FEZ
    Guacamelee!
    LIMBO
    Mark of the Ninja
    Rouge Legacy
    Shovel Knight
    Splunky
    Super Meat Boy
    They Bleed Pixels
    Volgarr the Viking
    Gemini Rue
    Gone Home
    Machinarium
    Primordia
    To the Moon
    Awesomenaughts
    Skullgirls
    League of Legends
    Bastion
    Cthulhu Saves the World
    Legend of Grimrock
    Shadowrun Returns
    FTL: Faster the Light
    Papers, Please
    World of Goo

    All legit radical.
    I second Cave Story and Spelunky. Very influential titles for indie gaming as well. I also must give a nod to E. Hashimoto's games, such as Guardian of Paradise and Akuji the Demon.

    In addition, would you consider Pier Solar to be 'indie'?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Manhattan Sports Club View Post

    In addition, would you consider Pier Solar to be 'indie'?
    That's really the question, isn't it? Valve and Riot make money hand over fist. But they self-publish. And are privately owned. So I concider them 'independent'. Especially of the corporate structure of the big publishers.
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    Fez, Super Meat Boy, and Gone Home are the most famous/infamous indie games and that is depressing.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tupin View Post
    Fez, Super Meat Boy, and Gone Home are the most famous/infamous indie games and that is depressing.
    That's hugely debatable (Braid, Cave Story, and Limbo definitely are huge. Oh, and Minecraft of course)

    And they are only 'famous' amount people who care about video games.

    And it's not depressing. It's up lifting that our hobby gives us such varity of experiences.
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Adventurer View Post
    I've played a ton of indie games, and I can't think of one that was actually bad.

    Battleblock Theater
    Cave Story
    FEZ
    Guacamelee!
    LIMBO
    Mark of the Ninja
    Rouge Legacy
    Shovel Knight
    Splunky
    Super Meat Boy
    They Bleed Pixels
    Volgarr the Viking
    Gemini Rue
    Gone Home
    Machinarium
    Primordia
    To the Moon
    Awesomenaughts
    Skullgirls
    League of Legends
    Bastion
    Cthulhu Saves the World
    Legend of Grimrock
    Shadowrun Returns
    FTL: Faster the Light
    Papers, Please
    World of Goo

    All legit radical.
    You know how many indie games there are? Yet you listed many of the most popular highly praised ones? From your list though, Super Meat Boy isn't very good. Cheap level designs built around mass repetition. Legend of Grimrock is unique, but after the first 30 minutes it gets really old really quick. Combat turns very repetitive while the map turns into a whole bunch of trial and error the further you get into the game.

    I did like Fez, Cthulu Saves the World, Spelunky(which is based on Spelunker anyways,) and Cave Story.

    If you liked Cthulu Saves the World play Breath of Death 7. You may or may not like it, or like it as much. It's basically a much shorter version of Cthulu Saves the World since it predates the game. It's about three to four hours long with four characters only. I liked Cthulu Saves the World, but I didn't like it as much as I probably would have since I played Breath of Death 7 first and gameplay is pretty much identical.

    Also, if you like rogue likes, then another good indie game to play is One Way Heroics. Each world is preset, but the worlds themselves are a series of randomized maps. It's a rogue like game where the only way you can save the world is to defeat the demon lord. You start at the castle and darkness comes from the left, so you have to use the number keys to advance to the right("One Way,") killing enemies and gaining experience, picking up weapons, armor, and items, etc. The game feels different from most rogue likes as it feels you're playing through a full RPG in a short amount of time since there are mini towns and mini dungeons you come across as you progress. You can get extra party members to come along with you depending if they're on the map you're on and you have enough charisma when you find them. You can also customize your character prior to starting each world with a myriad of classes and special abilities. Each time you win or lose, you gain points to purchase new classes and purchase new abilities. You can complete the game in less than an hour on the normal difficulty if you're good at roguelikes(I finished in about 30 minutes after I got how to play the game,) but the amount of content it does have a lot of replay value and it's a unique experience compared to literally any other rogue like you've probably played. While I finished it in 30 minutes, I put 10 hours into it before I quit playing. I'll eventually go back to it, just haven't.
    Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.

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