this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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Indie games deserve far more attention than AAA games. (atomicpoet.org)
submitted 2 days ago by atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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Indie games deserve far more attention than AAA games.

Last year, there was only one new AAA that I considered top quality, and that was Black Myth: Wukong. Apart from that, all other AAA games ranged from “yuck” (Concorde) to “cromulent” (Indiana Jones and the Great Circle).

In contrast, when we look at indie games, we got Balatro, Nightmare Kart, MiSide, Mullet Madjack, and Crow Country. That’s just the top of my head because I know there are hundreds, if not thousands more.

This isn’t to say that AA gaming doesn’t exist. We all know about the success of PalWorld and Helldivers 2.

And this isn’t to say you have terrible taste in games if you only like big budget titles.

But it is to say that when it comes to sheer volume, there are more good indie games than AAA games. And this just makes sense: 20K games were released on Steam last year, and almost all of them are indies.

Now previously, I’ve asked, “Why, despite being beloved, do indie games receive so little attention in the gaming press?”

And the conclusion I always come back to is that you can’t expect the gaming press to cover indie because indies aren’t paying the gaming press. Sad but true.

So how do we solve the problem of good indie games going unnoticed? Well, it’s up to us to talk about them.

For one thing, I think it’s important to talk about PC gaming itself as the indie platform—because that’s what it is. When we move away from GPUs and RGB lighting, most PC gamers are playing indie games. More to the point, most indies aren’t released for PC first—and often stay on PC. Entire platforms, like itch.io, exist to serve indie developers—and most of those games are made for PC.

Indie gaming is PC gaming. And almost all PC gaming is indie gaming.

So why do we pretend that PC gaming is about face-melting GPU-pushing graphics when it’s clearly not? That’s just a tiny—though lucrative—portion of the PC gaming market.

I, for one, want to talk about new indie game releases on PC—they’re worth talking about.

@pcgaming@lemmy.ca

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[–] luciole 7 points 2 days ago

20K games were released on Steam last year, and almost all of them are indies

That's your problem right there. I can't possibly pay attention to 20K games a year. By a mix of luck, quality and marketing, some indies absolutely manage to be in the spotlight. "Have you heard of the hidden gem Stardew Valley?" Or maybe the joke should go Balatro instead in 2025.

[–] Dil@is.hardlywork.ing 3 points 2 days ago

If they're good they typically get attention, I like many genres and I try indie games constantly I can not think of any "hidden gems" that arent also just niche games that most ppl wouldnt enjoy

[–] novacomets@lemmy.myserv.one 1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Can you recommend an indie FPS singe player campaign made within the past 6 years?

[–] AlmightyTritan 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not fully complete, but theres Ultrakill. Its very good.

Theres also Trepang².

These are both pretty fast paced indie FPS tho, so if your looking for something a bit slower you might like GTFO. Its primarily coop but has bits to play with and a bunch of content.

[–] novacomets@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 2 days ago

I bought Trepang from GOG, I've only played 10 minutes into it.

For Ultrakill and GTFO, I don't like any kind of space creatures or sci-fi. I've never liked the DOOM games because of that.

[–] ahal@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

Selaco

[–] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

Itch.io is also open-source!

[–] WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com 1 points 2 days ago

Given my consumption of video games tends to be through small twitch streams and the streams I watch tend to play lots of indie stuff, I at least get the impression that Indie games are what I hear and know most about. Like, I didn't even know Astro Boy was a 3d platformer until I saw it being speedrun at GDQ this winter.

I feel like the huge success of games like Balatro shows how indies already have a lot of peer to peer spread. That said, I suspect there is a luck component to going viral and that other solid indie games are being ignored for mediocre AAA games. But it's hard for me to tell how popular games like Uncle Chop's or Cobalt Core are because I see far more people playing them than I do people playing games like Star Citizen or even Black Myth Wukong.

That said, there certainly are some indies that are hardware intensive, but I don't think I've seen any that are GPU intensive. But simulation games like Dyson Sphere Program and Stonehearth certainly can benefit from a beefier CPU or extra RAM (the latter partly due to a memory leak).