10 Exciting Indie Games We Can't Wait to Play
To date, more than $110 million has been pledged to independent gaming projects on Kickstarter. While that might be pocket change to the $67 billion per year gaming industry, it does signal a sea change. Players want thoughtful, creative, envelope-pushing games, and they're willing to throw down serious cash to see great ideas come to life.
We've been following the development of many indie projects over the last few years. Here are a few more promising titles we're keeping an eye on.
1. Starbound
Infinite sandbox universes are all the rage, but few games have delivered a compelling experience on that premise (*cough* Spore *cough*). But an ambitious indie project called Starbound shows promise. Its secret sauce might be the 2D retro graphics, a style — we assume — is easily scalabe.
After escaping the destruction of your homeworld, strike out on a quest to explore an endless universe full of procedurally generated worlds, technology and biodiversity.
"We went into the planet generation with one simple goal: No two planets should be the same," the studio Chucklefish writes. Build a base on a cozy new world, or traverse the distant reaches in search of alien flora and fauna. Play co-operatively or competitively on multi-player servers.
The graphics are charming and the gameplay appears to have great depth, as illustrated by the building demo below. It feels a bit like Terraria in space, and we're just fine with that. Chucklefish promises a release some time in 2013.
2. Planetary Annihilation
More than 44,000 backers have pledged $2.2 million on Kickstarter in the hope of seeing this "next generation RTS" come to fruition. Planetary Annihilation is among the most-funded games the platform has ever seen, and it's no mystery why. The developers in the ask video (notably, Uber Entertainment's head honcho Jon Mavor) exude excitement over what they hope will be an "RTS done on a grand scale."
The title is a nod to 1997's Total Annihilation, the first 3D RTS. This project re-imagines the gameplay on a galactic scale, with punchy Pixar-style animation, massive robot armies, sprawling interplanetary bases and really, really big explosions. You can even smash planets together, causing ... well, planetary annihilation.
As John Comes, one of the game's designers says in the video, "We're not shooting for realism; we're shooting for awesome."
You had us at shooting.
3. Banished
Alpha gameplay videos for Banished popped up on Reddit recently, and communities are already forming around the indie project. It's a city building strategy game, but you're not amassing an army of destruction or nourishing a vast civilization. The goal is survival in a harsh wilderness. Food, shelter and firewood are top priorities, especially with the approach of winter. Hunt, fish, farm, trade and grow your settlement into a thriving town. If Oregon Trail morphed into an RTS, it might feel something like this.
The reduced scale and flexible building options have charmed strategy fans. Drag and drop a 20-acre farm or a backyard vegetable patch. The look and feel of your town will be personal, but strategy will dictate whether your settlers thrive. The art already looks impressive, and the developer has noted there are animation and graphical improvements in the works. Expect a release in mid-to-late 2013, according to the website.
4. Star Command
If you enjoyed last year's indie darling, FTL: Faster Than Light, it's time to gear up for Star Command, a space mission and ship management game that goes where no mobile adventure has gone before. That's right. In addition to a forthcoming PC release, Star Command will be coming to Android and iOS devices near you.
Hire a pixelated crew, customize your ship, manage resources and advance through the ranks with each new mission. But be warned: Space is rather dangerous. Tangle with the wrong aliens, and your favorite ensign might be burned alive in an electrical fire or sucked out into the void through a hull breach. Keep your shields, engines and weapons humming with an experienced and intrepid crew.
The game has no shortage of humor, but don't be fooled by the colorful, 8-bit style. Rich gameplay videos and a saucy development blog have had serious fans chomping at the bit for about two years. The latest updates point to an imminent release date.
5. Reus
There's a newcomer in the pantheon of god games, and it's made by a bootstrapped little dev team in The Netherlands. Reus imagines a charming 2D world, where three nature gods use their powers to help humanity thrive. Mold the surface of your world to entice settlers to take root, and aid their prosperity by irrigating the land, planting trees or creating strategic rock and water formations.
But human hubris and greed will always get the best of your budding civilization. Keep your people in check, lest they bite the hands that feed them.
It's hard not to fall in love with the art style. Here's hoping Reus delivers on all the fun of playing god. It's slated for PC release in 2013.
6. The Castle Doctrine
Here's a game about robbing people and home invasion. Cool.
Professional envelope pusher Jason Rohrer (Sleep is Death, Inside a Star-filled Sky, Chain World) has created another curious gem, currently in alpha.
"It's 1991, and things are bad," reads the description of The Castle Doctrine. You must secure your family and money with fences, barbed wire and booby traps, while trying to acquire more funds by robbing other players. If you die, there's no coming back.
Essentially, you're creating puzzles for other players to solve. In fact, you must prove that your house is penetrable ("fair") before locking in the layout for the night. Rohrer has set the stage for an arms race. You must steal to increase your own fortifications, but robbing people risks death. Knowing whose house you're capable of knocking off is critical, and starting a heist is dark and very tense.
It's an interesting concept, and fans of Rohrer's work will catch another glimpse of his genius. Support the project by purchasing the alpha and you can give it a whirl today.
7. Transistor
On the heels of its 2011 hit Bastion, indie dev Supergiant Games recently debuted the trailer for its next atmospheric action RPG.
Transistor feels a lot like Bastion — a moody, isometric brawler with fantastic weapons and responsive environments. But Supergiant promises this isn't just a sci-fi re-skin of its first hit. In a blog post that launched the trailer, the team writes:
"Transistor invites players to wield an extraordinary weapon of unknown origin as they explore a stunning futuristic city. We’re designing our next game to seamlessly integrate thoughtful strategic planning into a fast-paced action experience."
Though Bastion is an outstanding work of narrative art (seriously, if you haven't experienced it yet, go try the demo right now), the gameplay leans heavily on button mashing.
Here's hoping Transistor brings storytelling and fresh mechanics into a more perfect union. At the very least, another soundtrack by Bastion composer Darren Korb is guaranteed to be epic. Sit tight for a release some time in 2014.
8. Parallax
The developers of Parallax call it a "first-person puzzle platformer," but from the videos we've seen, it's more like an inter-dimensional mind fuck.
The goal of each level (if we may presume there are "levels") is to get from point A to B. But you're passing through two distinct worlds simultaneously — one white, one black. Moving through a portal completely changes the field of play, so you'll have to anticipate the layout and physics of both worlds. As its developer Toasty Games explains, "try to be in the right place, in the right dimension, at the right time."
It's really hard to describe, so just watch the video above. Fans of the way Portal messes with your brain will probably be at home here. It also has inklings of another recent indie brain buster, Antichamber.
Parallax was added to Steam Greenlight last year, so if you'd like to see it released there, be sure to vote for it.
9. Star Citizen
Caution: The trailer below may induce shortness of breath, sweaty palms and an uneasy feeling that every video game up to this moment has been total crap.
If what we're seeing is to be believed, then veteran game designer Chris Roberts may finally be carrying the torch forward for space combat sims — a genre he pioneered in the '90s with the Wing Commander franchise, and later Freelancer.
For all intents and purposes, the genre has lacked a serious heir for about a decade. With more than $8 million in crowdfunding (on and off Kickstarter), space combat fans have put their money where their hearts are. And Roberts has been showing off some amazing assets.
For starters, Star Citizen looks absolutely gorgeous, but graphics are just the tip of the asteroid. Roberts promises a level of immersion, scale and detail we haven't seen elsewhere. We're talking white knuckle space combat, groundbreaking physics, granular ship engineering, the ability to leave your ship and explore, a persistent multi-player universe and a compelling single-player story line.
Shut up and take our money.
10. Project Eternity
The mission? To revive the golden age of party-based, isometric role-playing games (a la Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Fallout, etc.). With nearly $4 million in backing, Project Eternity is the second-most funded gaming project on Kickstarter behind the OUYA console. What's more amazing is that the ask video shows little in terms of assets or design. It's just a slick trailer with some of PC gaming's heaviest hitters, talking about how they want to create the best fantasy world yet.
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