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Originally, the gaming space was literally all about people who could make games, making games, and seeing how well they did. Then, the industry became a bit more corporate, with massive entities buying up as many teams as possible to try and make a profit off of. However, over time, as certain game creation tools became more public, other crews and groups came into play, and the rise of indie games started.
Fast forward to now, and the indie movement is arguably stronger than ever, and it’s easy to see why certain indie games and indie teams are getting more attention now than ever before.
Indie Teams Getting It Done
Let’s start with the obvious thing, shall we? One of the reasons that indie teams are getting a lot of love right now is that they are cranking out big titles that have been blowing people’s minds with their quality, and prove that indie teams can go as big or small as they want to deliver great content.
As you can see from the picture above, one of the best examples of this is Larian Studios. Did you know that they were first founded in 1996? Yeah, they’ve been making games for almost three decades, and they’ve been dedicated since day one to making the best games possible, and they do that on the regular!
Their biggest accomplishment by far has been Baldur’s Gate 3. This was the 2023 “Game of the Year” for many, and it’s not hard to see why. Larian took the D&D formula and made it something that was not just accessible to those who aren’t natural D&D players, but also those who are diehards and wanted an experience like they get when they’re doing tabletop adventures with friends.
The title itself was nothing short of a masterpiece, and one that continued to grow, evolve, and get better after its release. Larian Studios listened to the fans’ feedback and consistently made the game better via new content, revised gameplay mechanics, and more. It’s better now than it was at launch, and it was pretty epic at launch. That doesn’t even talk about the legendary characters they created for the title that have already “blessed” the gaming community, like Astarion, Shadowheart, and our personal favorite, Karlach.
And that is just one example of how indie teams can make things that blow people’s minds.
How about Deltarune by Toby Fox? That game has fans so invested that the chapter system makes the game more anticipated every time a new one comes out, and then the players feel crushed afterward because they have to wait for the next one to arrive! That’s how good that game is.
For many indie devs, they have a mindset of “if we don’t make the best game possible, then we’re not going to be making games for long,” and that shows in the unique styles, gameplay loops, characters, and more that they create. They’re going all out from the get-go, and the sky is literally their limit, and sometimes, they even break through the sky.
Breaking Through To Show What They Can Do
One of the great ironies about indie games and indie game developers is that there’s no “box” that they’re confined in, per se. Sure, they’re about making video games, but the point is that once they start making a game, they can make it be whatever they want it to be, no cap.
An excellent recent example is with Clair Obscur Expedition 33. This was the FIRST GAME made by Sandfall Interactive, a group of devs who worked at places like Ubisoft previously but wanted to do something more unique, special, and that they themselves would love. What did this particular team love? RPGs! So, they found a passionate group of people to come together and create an RPG that would be uniquely theirs, while also paying tribute to the many RPGs that inspired them growing up.
The result is arguably the current “Game of the Year” frontrunner, as Sandfall not only crafted an epic that many AAA devs fail to come close to, but they tied it together with stunning visuals, a deep voice acting cast, incredible music, and a gameplay system that let players tailor their character’s strengths to insane levels if they stacked things the right way. Now, gamers are pumped to see what Sandfall does next, and we don’t blame them.
Then, there’s Team Cherry, who many years ago set out to make a Metroidvania-style title that would take things to the next level, and that title became Hollow Knight. Said game became the standard-bearer for games of that nature on the indie side of things, and for the last seven years or so, gamers have been waiting for its sequel, Silksong, which is now just about a week away from launch.
The reason it’s so anticipated is that the first game was seriously that good. So, naturally, they want to see what can be done next with the follow-up.
As we said before, these indie teams go all out to make the best titles, and then, they push themselves to make even better titles the next time, as gamers are hoping they can continue making great titles.
Indies Are Doing What AAA Often Won’t
One of the biggest downsides to the gaming industry right now is the state of AAA developers. Outside of a select few, such as Nintendo, the AAA community is seemingly “fine” with releasing games that are in a broken state, are overloaded with live-service elements, or are frankly “cash grabs” that devs/publishers think that gamers will pay big money for. To be blunt: it’s really bad out there.
We’re seeing it all the time with hard-working developers getting layoffs, being shut down, or publishers, via the top brass, refusing to admit that their decision-making led to bad games getting released, certain things not being fixed despite fans asking for it, and making titles that honestly shouldn’t have been started in the first place!
Greed is driving so many companies nowadays that the indie teams are getting a lot of love due to them NOT having that issue. Remember Larian Studios? Founder Swen Vincke straight-up called out the corrupt members of the industry by stating at The Game Awards that the titles that win “Game of the Year” are the ones that aren’t about making money, or raising stock prices, or anything of that nature. It’s about making the best games possible, and numerous indie teams focus on that fact.
Take Supergiant Games. They are known for hit titles like the Hades series, and the sequel to that game is on Steam Early Access right now. Why? Because they want it to be as solid as possible before launch. Why? Because they respect gamers!
Larian Studios did the same thing with their GOTY title before its launch, and other companies like Moon Studios feel the same way. They want to work with gamers to make their titles close to flawless so that they don’t have to worry about such backlash at launch.
In short, we can rely on indie teams often more than AAA developers. Thus, there will always be a need for them in the gaming community.
