Started playing a few indie titles on PC, or at least titles that I would not normally be able to find without digging a bit (Sea of Stars, Hollow Knight, Garden Story, etc). Finding games that are made by smaller studios is a little (not much, but a little) harder than finding “Top Sellers” on Steam. I have tried Steam’s “niche” Recommender, which has helped find some cool titles.
However, I am wondering if there is something that would be equivalent to what E3 was, but for Indie titles? Either some online showcase that doesn’t rely on the Steam Curator system, or even something hosted in person with actual demos like E3. Does anything like this exist?
EDIT: Thank you for the answers! Steam Next Fest, the YouTubers listed below (thank you again!), gamescom, and itch.io all work great for what I was looking for.
Seriously? Hollow Knight is/was a huge hit. The other ones I’ve heard of before by word of mouth.
You can easily find indie games on Steam when you browse by any method. The ones of major devs will be obvious recognizable names. Even on the front page of the Steam store, it looks about a third of them are indie games.
Or you could look at other stores like GOG or Indiegala.
It is true, the gap between Hollow Knight and the other two is large (Steam Reviews as source, and general ease of finding it). But even finding something like Hollow Knight was something that conveniently popped up through either a Curator or in Specials at one point for me (can’t remember for certain).
Growing up, if a game was not something that showed up at E3 or was mentioned by a friend (and then later, showing up on Steam’s Specials or Top Selling), I never played or heard of it. And Steam is good, but I guess I was looking for something that targeted Indie games in particular, and if there existed a yearly showcase or event that was dedicated to Indies.
Hadn’t considered GOG or heard of Indiegala though, thank you for the reference!
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Rules
1. Submissions have to be related to games
Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.
This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.
2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.
We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.
3. No excessive self-promotion
Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.
This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.
4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you’re submitting before posting to see if it’s already been posted.
We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.
5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW
Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.
No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.
6. No linking to piracy
Don’t share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.
We don’t want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.
Seriously? Hollow Knight is/was a huge hit. The other ones I’ve heard of before by word of mouth.
You can easily find indie games on Steam when you browse by any method. The ones of major devs will be obvious recognizable names. Even on the front page of the Steam store, it looks about a third of them are indie games.
Or you could look at other stores like GOG or Indiegala.
It is true, the gap between Hollow Knight and the other two is large (Steam Reviews as source, and general ease of finding it). But even finding something like Hollow Knight was something that conveniently popped up through either a Curator or in Specials at one point for me (can’t remember for certain).
Growing up, if a game was not something that showed up at E3 or was mentioned by a friend (and then later, showing up on Steam’s Specials or Top Selling), I never played or heard of it. And Steam is good, but I guess I was looking for something that targeted Indie games in particular, and if there existed a yearly showcase or event that was dedicated to Indies.
Hadn’t considered GOG or heard of Indiegala though, thank you for the reference!
Oh yeah, curators is the other one I wanted to mention but couldn’t remember.
Steam does have indie events, but really you won’t find anything there you can’t find just by browsing the store pages.
You can also hear of a lot of games just by being in game communities like here on Lemmy.
And don’t forget about games outside the major stores.