Ten Indie Game That Will Make You Feel Things, Andrian Chmielarz, 2012, [Article], Available on Ten Indie Games That Will Make You Feel Things – The Astronauts.
Adrian here has possibly mentioned games that I would never try, not because they are indie, but I have never heard of 7 out 10 games talked here. But then this is an article that was written in 2012 when I was barely getting introduced to the world of games, let alone get in the worlds of tags and genres.
I read the article and understood the excitement and interest Adrian must have had while he played the game and wrote about it to the world because that's my reaction to it right now. I will be playing possibly all these games in the coming time and use this article to refer my thoughts with Adrian., because why not!
The one thing I am very fascinated by in this article and from the 2012 era of indie games is that many of them were mods to already existing game. The rules were bent in ways to create an experience that are different from the base game. Example: The Call of The Fireflies, a mod to Crisis, a game about shooting enemies with super-human powers now converted into something that is more of a walking simulator. I genuinely am impressed!
(The Call of the Fireflies, a Crisis mod, Clem Corvin, 2010, [Game-Mod], Available on The Call of the Fireflies mod for Crysis - Mod DB)
Indie games to break the boundaries of the conventional perception of game, Dear Easter being the prime example. Hollow Moon, no sound, no color, survival on moon, find exit, Adrian, I am extremely interested in this, this was going to be the 1st game I played, but again, its a mod for UT2004. WTF is UT2004? It's difficult to engage and immerse a player with realistic graphic and sound, let alone without any of those. I wish I could experience this and be the judge myself.
(Hollow Mood, UT2004 Mod, 2004?, [Game-Mod])
Although there are some titles listed here that I have played and I agree with Adrian on those, "Every Day The Same Dream" & "The Graveyard" are some of the finest experiences for me in games. It's been years since these games came out and still I don't want to spoil it for the readers, you should once take a leap in these experiences. All I ask from you is, be patient, and if you are the "Gamer", kindly don't play!
(Every Day The Same Dream, Paolo Pedercini, MolleIndustria, 2009, [Flash - Game], Available on Every day the same dream | Molleindustria)
(The Graveyard, Tale of Tales, Valve & Apple, 2009, [Game], Available on The Graveyard by Tale of Tales (itch.io))
Looking at the list of these games from 2012, there has been an insane amount of growth in the tag "Indie" industry.
Analyzing Indie Game Marketing Trends, Lewis Denby, 2018, [Article], Available on Analysing indie game marketing trends: What you should know going into 2019 (gamedeveloper.com)
Here we look into Lewis Denby, who works with a micro-agency called "Game If You Are" that does PR and marketing campaigns for indie studio. He talks about the trends of the indie world for people looking forward to release their game or pitch their games next year (2019).
His 1st topic is something that I have confused feelings about: "First Impression Count More Than Ever:" I agree with this quote but at the same time I believe it leads to us missing out on masterpieces. From the perspective of a publisher that receives a lot of pitches on a daily basis to review and accept, yes it does make sense that the game needs to stand out. My problem is with the visual pleasing of the audience, a trailer with good audio and visual leads to having better engagement, but what are good visuals? If you say, hyper realistic, then let throw the whole category of "Indie" in a bin.
I personally feel that the audience needs to be educated to that hyper realistic visuals are not the only thing that make a game engaging, in-fact, there are more non-hyper realistic graphic game that deliver an immerse experience than the hyper realistic ones. Everything should make sense in it's own world, and "You Will (Not) Remain" is one of the best examples to this. I'll be fair, the game looks shit, but the game plays better then 80% of the AAA's out there.
So yes, First Impressions do count, but it needs an unbiased opinion of visual, audio and gameplay delivery. There cannot be a "standard" to any game because each game set's its own in its own world.
Then we move to: Indie news on the biggest sites? Forget it!
The reasoning for going to a PR agency is true, we developers want to put our games on the biggest informative platform possible and yes that is, "IGN, Gamespot & Kotaku." Frankly, I am never going to IGN because I single handedly hold them responsible for trying to manipulate the audience to feel that AAA is the way or those are the "GOOD" games.
Yes they are good, but that's 2 out of the 10 that gets released every year and that number is going down each year because now AAA studios are trying to do something different, taking time to make "Good" games and that is because of the Indie market.
Back to biggest sites, as I said above, somebody needs to educate the common player that games are not just about shooting and killing, and these biggest sites or organizations are the ones that can make that change happen, but they don't do that, instead they give a 8/10 to Mass Effect Andromeda.
Yes, there needs to exist a platform that gives voices to not just big games, but also small games and on an equal scale. Undertale is as good as Horizon, it's just nobody talks about it as much. It's the point of who controls the narrative, and for once, it needs to be controlled by designers, developers and not "GAMERS" & "BUSINESSMEN".
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