My Blog About Indie Games

Alternatively called: Why I End Up Buying Every Humble Indie Bundle

So on one of these past episodes of 8-Bit Banter, The Internet and Gaming, the subject of indie games was brought up.  Now, I have a small reputation among the people I know as being a little of a Gaming Hippie, in that I support indie gaming a lot.  I make a post every time that the Humble Indie Bundle comes around, and the HIB is about as hippie as gaming tends to get outside of games like Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing.

But in an attempt to not be the Gaming Hipster among my friends (Oh, you haven't heard of this game?), I want to clarify something about my stance on Indie Games.  Being a game developed by a small developer is not an automatic way to get more points from me.  Occasionally, I worry that I send that message.

I like Indie games that are GOOD.  Now to decrease the douchiness of that sentence, I have enjoyed a great number of indie games.  As I have stated, VVVVVV is one of my favorite games ever.  I loved the gameplay mechanic, the style of the game, the humor, and especially the music.

Oh look the title is all over the walls

I liked some other indie games from this current wave, too; Super Meat Boy is infuriatingly difficult, but absolutely satisfying.  Cthulhu Saves the World is one of my favorite JRPGs, too, with it's bringing back a huge amount of nostalgia for the older Final Fantasy games as well as having some of the most ridiculous writing in any game I have ever played.

But that is not to say that there are no bad indie games.  I won't list any, because that would be a little rude towards people who have put a lot of love in their projects.  I will say, though, that they exist.  

Importantly, this is just as true for big-name games.  It's a tragedy to see any game do poorly, because there is a genuine desire to make a good game on some level, even if it gets lost in the hype machine and the desire to spite competitors (Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, I'm looking at both of you.).

So I think this is what I have been trying to say.  I like indie games, and whenever I see one become a great success, it feels great because you know that it was not the result of a multi-million dollar ad campaign or the result of yearly releases.  It's a genuine win for a genuinely great game.  And I buy every Humble Indie Bundle because I want to be a part of every great success that I can be.