Top Indie Games Of 2003 Discussed 46
Mr.Wiggin writes "Specialist indie site
GameTunnel recently announced its top ten indie games of 2003. Each game was scored by its regular review panel, and the list highlights the growing craftsmanship and quality being brought to the niche low budget independent games scene. There are also awards for specific genres, such as best graphics, best sound, most original concept, best adventure, etc. Why should we be concerned by low budget offerings like this - isn't it just the usual cliched crop of puzzle games? Thankfully, no, since these are the elite cream of the indie crop. Some say indie games are the home of innovation and the birthplace of future star developers (remember id, anyone?). It is also one of the few remaining mediums where we (the gaming public) actually get listened to and can often make a difference."
Puzzle Pirates (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Puzzle Pirates (Score:1, Insightful)
Notrium (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Notrium (Score:3, Informative)
The best freeware game I've ever played is in much the same style, though there's also a first-person adventure element reminiscent of ICOM games (e.g. Deja Vu, Shadowgate). It's called Starfight VI: Gatekeepers [jpproduction.fi], and the fact that such a small development group created it for free is nothing short of amazing.
Rob
Re:Notrium (Score:1, Informative)
Uh (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe it was just me, but seemed as though a good number of those games were just "shooters" of some sort, concerned with kill-or-be-killed gaming. Not that that's not fun...I like blowing the snot out of my enemies as much as the next alpha male...but I mean, how much are we going to trumpet the originality of games that are basically Xevious/Raiden or Robotron/Smash TV with lots of added stuff or a different perspective?
Sure, I'm generalizing, but these games aren't "novel" like that "falling down the stairs" game was a while back. If this is the "best of 2003", then sounds like a pretty hum-drum year.
Feel free to flame. I'm sure you've already started typing your angry reply.
Re: Stairs? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Uh (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Uh (Score:4, Insightful)
disagreement in terms (Score:5, Insightful)
in general, there is genre innovation and gameplay innovation. genre innovation is something like stair dismount, or tetris (when it was released). this is very difficult and very rare. if this is your sole qualification for 'innovation', you're going to be disappointed an awful lot.
gameplay innovation is more like the sims, pikmin, or gta. it's the refinement of a fairly well-known genre with a fresh focus. the sims is just an isometric sim in your abstraction. but the -play- is so wildly different from any other previous title in the genre, you can't help but hail it as a great innovative achievement.
Of course, I haven't played half of those games, and the ones I am familiar with i'd be dubious about calling 'innovative', I just think you're being a little overly strict in your definition of game innovation.
and frankly, at this point in the indy game industry, just getting a fun game finished and out there is deserving of an award, even if it is inappropriately titled for the achievement
Re:disagreement in terms (Score:4, Insightful)
Probably true. But their attitude seems to be that they're making games that are better than the "mainstream" and we're all fools for not taking notice. Pretty silly.
Re:disagreement in terms (Score:3, Interesting)
Because their market is smaller, the costs and therefore the risk is lower - indy artists can afford to vary more. Furthermore, they get most of their attention for 'new' ideas. Even if the ideas aren't very good, their community and market celebrates 'new', and so innovation itself (despite actual resultant value) is the goal.
mainstream publishers put too much cash in
Interesting coincidence - Small Rockets (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, I say went down the pan - what actually happened was that three days after the team finished the PC Sinbad game (having spent many months working their arses off on it) they were rewarded by all being laid off. The two Directors are now the only remaining employees, presumably keeping the profits for the continuing sales o the games we all worked so hard on for themselves. Of course, they claim that Small Rockets is still alive and well, so as not to damage relations with any of their business partners despite the fact that they only have the MD (who can program) and the other director, the MD's girlfriend. Yup, that's no art, no sound, no mission design...
I'm not entirely sure how they're offering support to all their new customers either, now that they have no offices and nobody who actually worked on the games left...
Ah well. The games are good.
http://www.smallrockets.com/
Re:Interesting coincidence - Small Rockets (Score:1, Interesting)
Spewtris! (Score:4, Interesting)
I included the source code and a windows binary (compiled using perl2exe).
Give Spewtris [bengarvey.com] a try!
Don't mind my redundant sig...
Re:Spewtris! (Score:1)
Re:Spewtris! (Score:2)
Even if the game is free?
Re:Spewtris! (Score:1)
Variety? (Score:3, Insightful)
How about Live For Speed [liveforspeed.net]? It's a great independent race sim game.
Re:Variety? (Score:1)
The "indie" intangible (Score:3, Insightful)
If I were itching to play a FPS, would I rather play Half-Life 2 (hypothetically) or a indie FPS created by a 3-man team? Personally, I'd choose to play HL2, and I think 9 out of 10 people would make the same choice.
Likewise, if I were itching to listen to some rock, would I rather listen to some Led Zeppelin or some indie band that sounds a little bit like Led Zeppelin? Again, the mainstream choice would probably win.
What I'm getting at is, indie developers should strive to innovate like the previously mentioned Puzzle Pirates and Stair Dismount. The same goes with indie music where bands who do something interesting get recognition. The band Cursive comes to mind for including a cello along with their guitar rock.
It's circular logic, but indie games that copy mainstream games have a problem. A new twist on the game concept is added, which may be very cool, however the entire package doesn't stack up to the original material. But if the entire package was/is great, the chances of being bought and published by a large company goes up.
I'm not even considering the presence of indie snobs who define themselves by being "indie", and automatically assume a game published by EA is the worst thing ever.
What is Indie really anyway? (Score:1, Interesting)
Independent means free of the studios influence, but that does not necessarily mean that the game is innovative.
What independent games do typically offer is game play that is easy to pick up and games that are something you can play for an hour, but not have to devote your life to in order to be any good at the game or figure out what you are doing.
Independent is really a niche market, perhaps it is t
Interesting (Score:1)
Then the new GIAA will sue grannies for downloading ISOs off Kazaa. Or am I too late in noticing this is already in place?
Fucked up reviewing system (Score:1)
Ouch.
Don't expect low scores from reviews the game's developper directly bought, no matter how shitty it is.
And we thought IGN and Gamespy were biased...
Re:Fucked up reviewing system (Score:1)
Indie Games (Score:1)
The problem with indie games is they don't get that much coverage even though it might be a good game.
Kris Holland [mailto]