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.
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
PM a mod to add your own
Video games
Generic
Help and suggestions
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.
Little Bit Planet
So GOOD!!! You are right…
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.
Super Mario 64
A super old one, but Grow Home from Ubisoft was a really cute little game that felt like nothing else from them.
Yeah! I can see that! Unravel comes to mind too (Out of nowhere)
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.
To further muddy the water we had Baldur’s Gate 3, which was made by an independent studio with AAA budget.
Yeah 100% I was getting this thought.
Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps?
Made by a smaller studio but published by Microsoft
That was my very first thought. It has all of the indie vibes, but was published by the OG evil tech company.
Abso-fricking-lutely!
Chimera Squad and Hi-Fi Rush jump to mind — is that the sort of thing you have in mind?
Yeah! Exactly like those!
Fe. It’s a small game by a small studio but was published by EA of all people.
Also, Child of Light by Ubisoft.
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.
Forgot about Child of Light! Striking visuals on it, too!
deleted by creator
Huh, I didn’t realize it was made by Nexon.
Dave the Diver
Grow and Grow Up by a studio owned by Ubisoft. Cool little games though.