After the “Dave the Diver” nomination for Best indie Game at the Game Awards, I’ve been struggling to draw a clear line here.

I feel like, yes, Dave the Diver feels very Indie to “me” but it’s hard to say that of the studio itself.

Is the “Indie feel” something bigger studios might look to imitate in the future?

I might get behind something like that.

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67h

Hi-Fi Rush has a kinda indie vibe. Tango Gameworks studio isn’t huge, but they’ve made fairly well known AAA survival horror games. HiFi is more narrowly focused but still published by Bethesda/Microsoft.

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814h

Dave the Diver

Björn Tantau
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4620h

To further muddy the water we had Baldur’s Gate 3, which was made by an independent studio with AAA budget.

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28h

Yeah 100% I was getting this thought.

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2920h

Little Bit Planet

Azrael
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420h

So GOOD!!! You are right…

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1217h

Grow and Grow Up by a studio owned by Ubisoft. Cool little games though.

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2620h

Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps?

Made by a smaller studio but published by Microsoft

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416h

That was my very first thought. It has all of the indie vibes, but was published by the OG evil tech company.

Azrael
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220h

Abso-fricking-lutely!

Auster
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515h

I think there has never been a proper line separating indies from other games, rather being a loose perception of games made to show what the developer wants. And the impression growing stronger as bigger projects more and more seek to go for the lowest common denominator or go by what who gives the orders demands.

Even if a game is from a bigger company, but the company gave the thumbs up for doing whatever the team wanted, without conditions, handholding, etc., then I’d say the game is indeed independent enough.

Though, on a more negative view, I wonder if Dave the Diver getting nominated was a case of that meme of the older man trying to act as a cool kid.

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1620h

Chimera Squad and Hi-Fi Rush jump to mind — is that the sort of thing you have in mind?

Azrael
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320h

Yeah! Exactly like those!

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1420h

A super old one, but Grow Home from Ubisoft was a really cute little game that felt like nothing else from them.

Azrael
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320h

Yeah! I can see that! Unravel comes to mind too (Out of nowhere)

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19h

Fe. It’s a small game by a small studio but was published by EA of all people.

Also, Child of Light by Ubisoft.

tabris
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1218h

All of the Ubi-art games were great, Rayman Legends, Valiant Hearts and Child of Light, all fantastic games. And then Ubisoft said they would only make open world games. Idiots.

Azrael
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219h

Forgot about Child of Light! Striking visuals on it, too!

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012h

Super Mario 64

Dizzy Devil Ducky
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An EA published game series for the first 2 entries, but Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 1 and 2. Still on entry 1, so I’d like to avoid spoilers, but they definitely feel indie compared to every single triple AAA game that’s come out in the past well over a decade due to the passion you can tell had to be out in for the game to have sold well.

Also learned the 4th game wasn’t even available on PS2 because of its’ 2015 launch, so if I ever get around to finishing the first 3, I gotta get it on PC because there ain’t no way I’m buying a copy for switch.

Edit:

Saw a trailer for the 4th game on Krome Studio’s website and I’m probably gonna skip it because it looked too much like a mobile game for my tastes.

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219h

Huh, I didn’t realize it was made by Nexon.

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019h

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