Polycrates
Emperor
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2006
- Messages
- 1,288
Much agreed on the Trine games (particularly the second one, smoothes out a lot of the rough edges of the first), very fun and utterly gorgeous to boot.
Also agreed on Dwarf Fortress, which is an utter mess as an actual game, but just a wonderfully glorious insanity
SpaceChem is probably my favourite indie game ever. It's a puzzle game about fake chemistry; and yeah, it's pretty damn inaccessible and sells itself very poorly, but once you get into it, it's just brilliant. What's great is that its puzzles are so very open-ended, so it's not about figuring out what they want you to do, but about manufacturing your own solution. However, it is HARD and massively time-sucking, and can make a certain sort of personality get dangerously obsessive with trying to figure out solutions, to the detriment of both work and sleep.
Bastion is also amazing - really good mix of fun, simple gameplay with a fantastic narrative presentation and impressive polish
For excellent not-really-games-but-semi-interactive-narratives, both Dear Esther and To The Moon are absolutely top-notch - they're certainly not for everyone though
And I don't know if you can really call it indie as such, but a big shout-out for Stacking (by Double Fine, but it's short and cheap like an indie) - not a challenging game by any stretch, but a very clever concept carried out really nicely. Very much recaptures that Psychonauts sort of vibe.
EDIT: I also want to recommend Barkley, Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden. It's one of those things that probably was a joke at the pub that was funny at the time, and then got taken waaaaay too far. It should be utterly terrible, but somehow the whole thing works and is both actually quite fun as a game, and completely hilarious. I think it's because the whole ridiculous thing is done with such a determinedly straight face. Also it's free!
Others that I would recommend as worth a look: Zeno Clash, Rock of Ages, Defence Grid, Orcs Must Die, World of Goo
Also agreed on Dwarf Fortress, which is an utter mess as an actual game, but just a wonderfully glorious insanity
SpaceChem is probably my favourite indie game ever. It's a puzzle game about fake chemistry; and yeah, it's pretty damn inaccessible and sells itself very poorly, but once you get into it, it's just brilliant. What's great is that its puzzles are so very open-ended, so it's not about figuring out what they want you to do, but about manufacturing your own solution. However, it is HARD and massively time-sucking, and can make a certain sort of personality get dangerously obsessive with trying to figure out solutions, to the detriment of both work and sleep.
Bastion is also amazing - really good mix of fun, simple gameplay with a fantastic narrative presentation and impressive polish
For excellent not-really-games-but-semi-interactive-narratives, both Dear Esther and To The Moon are absolutely top-notch - they're certainly not for everyone though
And I don't know if you can really call it indie as such, but a big shout-out for Stacking (by Double Fine, but it's short and cheap like an indie) - not a challenging game by any stretch, but a very clever concept carried out really nicely. Very much recaptures that Psychonauts sort of vibe.
EDIT: I also want to recommend Barkley, Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden. It's one of those things that probably was a joke at the pub that was funny at the time, and then got taken waaaaay too far. It should be utterly terrible, but somehow the whole thing works and is both actually quite fun as a game, and completely hilarious. I think it's because the whole ridiculous thing is done with such a determinedly straight face. Also it's free!
Others that I would recommend as worth a look: Zeno Clash, Rock of Ages, Defence Grid, Orcs Must Die, World of Goo