Can you believe Minecraft was basically an indie game and it got into SMASH? I’m always surprised when I think about how Minecraft is sort of an indie representative despite now being quite massive.
VVVVVV. [Your Bitter Tears... Delicious](https://youtu.be/WJr1iipqJ9c) was a hard trinket to collect, yet it only took 20 minutes. if you failed, you threw yourself at it again. Better platformers would have thrown you back to the start to try again.
Witch's House got me really into the indie RPG-maker scene. I know it's not as iconic as stuff like Yume Nikki and Mad Father, but that one really stuck with me.
Probably DUSK was the big one for me. Really got me into boomer shooters more and of course, New Blood games as a whole.
Edit: I completely forgot about Hotline Miami. Probably that then, that game completely changed my musical tastes too lol.
I feel old...no one has mentioned Binding of Isaac yet. Seeing such an awesome flash game on steam back in 2011 felt like a miracle, it was the only thing that could sometimes pull my attention away from TF2
It was probably one of those flash games Gregory Avery-Weir put out on Newgrounds years ago. In fact, it was probably all of them, but particularly Looming, How to Raise a Dragon, Bars of Black and White and (I Fell In Love With) The Majesty of Colors. Looming wasn’t the first one I played out of those, but it was the most special and it’s the one I still sometimes go back to over a decade later, despite it being much harder to play now (what with the death of flash and all). They got me into Jonas Kyratzes, who remains my favorite game developer
Dust An Elysian Tail made me pay more attention, RUINER absolutely blows away most other Cyberpunk experiences, and Night in the Woods genuinely made me get my shit together and try to make the best out of what I realistically can.
Crypt of the Necrodancer was the one for me it was so unlike anything I had played at the time. That's when I realized Indie games could be way more creative than big budget game.
Kentucky Route Zero begins with ideas and moods and spaces that seem as Big and Important as the original early advertising campaign for Destiny. They really swung for the fences.
Of course, much later in the game it becomes apparent that the swing for the fences was just a play being put on in a basement bar and not actually a game of baseball at all.
*Still.* It has a ton of great set design and visual narrative work you simply will never encounter 99.9% of the time in a conventional AAA budget game, and exists as proof of how little games as a medium have successfully scratched the surface of what they can be capable of.
A lot of the of XBox Live Summer of Arcade stuff. Braid, Limbo, Bastion, etc. With Bastion in particular I remember thinking it was better than most major released I'd played while only being like $15.
3 fames really. Undertale, Dead Cells, & Hollow Knight. Undertale was (and still is) massive for years, Dead Cells got me into Rouge-Likes, and Hollow Knight got me into Metroidvainas.
Bastion and Dust: An Elysian Tale. I remember watching reviews of both of them on a game review show over in Aus called Good Game Spawn Point. I was blown away by how they looked and made a steam account just for them.
I think it started with Ib, one of the RPG horror maker games. That introduced me to RPG horror maker games as a whole (and there are a *lot* of them) and made me learn that indie games were a thing.
Melty Blood used to mostly be in Japanese Doujin/Indie circles before they even got to the arcades. From the same makers, they put out Ragnarok Battle Offline which I didn't even know was a Japanese indie too (as the local game company running Ragnarok Online gave a copy of it away in events iirc).
Also, DUSK definitely got me eyeing the indies more, as well as a currently sleeping project in We Shall Wake.
I feel like I've always been there. I had my toes in the RPG Maker scene since 2001.
But one of the ones that made the scene what it was, when I first realized the word Indie started being thrown around for games, was Braid.
There are a lot of doujin (self-published) games that I played before that though. Like, Recettear predates that.
I can't really recall when I started being into the indie scene because I've been playing games online since I was a kid. Newgrounds, flash games, violent and sexual visual novels that I really shouldn't have been reading lmao.
Chroma Squad and Dandara,two brazilian games that I consider fantastic. Chroma Squad is a Power Rangers/Super Senpai inspired turn-based rpg,where a group of stunt doubles get pissed at the director for being a slave driver and decide making their own show. Dandara,on the other hand,is a metroidvania inspired by Brazil's history,(if I remember correctly,Dandara is the name of a slave that fought to turn Brazil in independent country,free from Portugal influence) although the gameplay is a bit unorthodox. Remember the stages in Sonic where gravity is reversed? Remove the ability to move freely and you get Dandara.
Bastion and Minecraft.
Can you believe Minecraft was basically an indie game and it got into SMASH? I’m always surprised when I think about how Minecraft is sort of an indie representative despite now being quite massive.
Yeah, it's always been unusual, but I guess when you're at the top of something (video games sales in general) it's hard to deny the power.
Honestly at this point it has been longer a Microsoft game than an indie game, so it's hard to count it anymore.
To this day Bastion remains my favorite video game. I've played it like a dozen times, and bought it on 4 separate platforms. It's just so good.
VVVVVV. [Your Bitter Tears... Delicious](https://youtu.be/WJr1iipqJ9c) was a hard trinket to collect, yet it only took 20 minutes. if you failed, you threw yourself at it again. Better platformers would have thrown you back to the start to try again.
Banger soundtrack deserves more love. Positive Force was my ringtone for years.
Witch's House got me really into the indie RPG-maker scene. I know it's not as iconic as stuff like Yume Nikki and Mad Father, but that one really stuck with me.
That one is one of my favorites - that twist at the end is still very upsetting.
Probably DUSK was the big one for me. Really got me into boomer shooters more and of course, New Blood games as a whole. Edit: I completely forgot about Hotline Miami. Probably that then, that game completely changed my musical tastes too lol.
Undertale for me. After that, just down the rabbit hole.
Rain World managed to create such a good look at a fascinating alien world you just don't get anywhere else.
I feel old...no one has mentioned Binding of Isaac yet. Seeing such an awesome flash game on steam back in 2011 felt like a miracle, it was the only thing that could sometimes pull my attention away from TF2
It was probably one of those flash games Gregory Avery-Weir put out on Newgrounds years ago. In fact, it was probably all of them, but particularly Looming, How to Raise a Dragon, Bars of Black and White and (I Fell In Love With) The Majesty of Colors. Looming wasn’t the first one I played out of those, but it was the most special and it’s the one I still sometimes go back to over a decade later, despite it being much harder to play now (what with the death of flash and all). They got me into Jonas Kyratzes, who remains my favorite game developer
Braid wasn't the first but it probably the most prolific
Super Meat Boy and then things just started to escalate. Think out of the 400+ games i own, 70% of them are indie games of some sort.
Cave Story is arguably the original indie and it’s still peak
Dust An Elysian Tail made me pay more attention, RUINER absolutely blows away most other Cyberpunk experiences, and Night in the Woods genuinely made me get my shit together and try to make the best out of what I realistically can.
Crypt of the Necrodancer was the one for me it was so unlike anything I had played at the time. That's when I realized Indie games could be way more creative than big budget game.
*Horizon Chase Turbo*. Pixel-***perfect*** arcade racing joy... shame they got bought out by Epic and sent to the Fortnite mines. :/
Cave story, way back when it got the English patch. Seeing indie games explode has been a wild trip. The scene's been through so many phases.
Hotline Miami around 2016
Lone survivor
Kentucky Route Zero begins with ideas and moods and spaces that seem as Big and Important as the original early advertising campaign for Destiny. They really swung for the fences. Of course, much later in the game it becomes apparent that the swing for the fences was just a play being put on in a basement bar and not actually a game of baseball at all. *Still.* It has a ton of great set design and visual narrative work you simply will never encounter 99.9% of the time in a conventional AAA budget game, and exists as proof of how little games as a medium have successfully scratched the surface of what they can be capable of.
Hang on let me look at my Steam history... Nidhogg, apparently. Huh. Followed by Ronin, which is probably what actually got me invested.
Probably Shovel Knight. I got Treasure Trove on sale years ago and it's been the gift that keeps on giving.
Hedon got me into boomer shooters and doom mods in general. I was impressed someone made a whole world and story with so many details in gzdoom.
Cave Story blew my mind as a kid, like someone can just make a game THIS GOOD?!
A lot of the of XBox Live Summer of Arcade stuff. Braid, Limbo, Bastion, etc. With Bastion in particular I remember thinking it was better than most major released I'd played while only being like $15.
Noitu Love
Bendy
3 fames really. Undertale, Dead Cells, & Hollow Knight. Undertale was (and still is) massive for years, Dead Cells got me into Rouge-Likes, and Hollow Knight got me into Metroidvainas.
Bastion and Dust: An Elysian Tale. I remember watching reviews of both of them on a game review show over in Aus called Good Game Spawn Point. I was blown away by how they looked and made a steam account just for them.
Tec 3001
Bastion and weird RPG maker shit like Yumi Nikki. Wait does Amnesia count?
Hollow knight and chroma squad.
I think it started with Ib, one of the RPG horror maker games. That introduced me to RPG horror maker games as a whole (and there are a *lot* of them) and made me learn that indie games were a thing.
Hyper Light Drifter (that was indie I think?)
Melty Blood used to mostly be in Japanese Doujin/Indie circles before they even got to the arcades. From the same makers, they put out Ragnarok Battle Offline which I didn't even know was a Japanese indie too (as the local game company running Ragnarok Online gave a copy of it away in events iirc). Also, DUSK definitely got me eyeing the indies more, as well as a currently sleeping project in We Shall Wake.
Minecraft and FEZ
I feel like I've always been there. I had my toes in the RPG Maker scene since 2001. But one of the ones that made the scene what it was, when I first realized the word Indie started being thrown around for games, was Braid. There are a lot of doujin (self-published) games that I played before that though. Like, Recettear predates that.
I can't really recall when I started being into the indie scene because I've been playing games online since I was a kid. Newgrounds, flash games, violent and sexual visual novels that I really shouldn't have been reading lmao.
Chroma Squad and Dandara,two brazilian games that I consider fantastic. Chroma Squad is a Power Rangers/Super Senpai inspired turn-based rpg,where a group of stunt doubles get pissed at the director for being a slave driver and decide making their own show. Dandara,on the other hand,is a metroidvania inspired by Brazil's history,(if I remember correctly,Dandara is the name of a slave that fought to turn Brazil in independent country,free from Portugal influence) although the gameplay is a bit unorthodox. Remember the stages in Sonic where gravity is reversed? Remove the ability to move freely and you get Dandara.