Seriously? You can almost win an award for THIS?!

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Halo Fanboy

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LawlessSquirrel said:
It's like asking a homeless guy with a crayon to paint the Sistine Chapel and expecting it to match the work of Michelangelo.
This is a depressingly apt metaphor for what indies are capable of.

Amnesia is a good suggestion. It has good graphics and seems to get most of it's mechanics right even if I thought the demo was ridiculously boring (only played the demo.)

As for Root's suggestions, they are for the most part pretty weak. Most those games aren't worth 20 minutes. And Flow, are you serious? That game is patheticly shallow even for a flash game.

EDIT: and BTW Tale of Tales is easily the worst developer I can think of.
 

Azaraxzealot

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Zhukov said:
Azaraxzealot said:
are there ANY indie games out there that blur the lines between AAA and indie? because so far i dont see any innovation in the indie scene. it seems to be just a bunch of sidescrollers and mario knockoffs.

i have yet to play a GOOD 3d indie game, or at least one that i would indeed enjoy for more than 2 minutes before i got bored and went back to Red Dead Redemption or Saints Row 2.
How are indie developers supposed to blur the lines between indie and AAA? They don't have $20,000,000 to spend on graphics.

That said, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Easily the best horror game of the last five years. Indie. Made by five guys and some contractors.

...

Also, I suspect that you are not the target audience of The Graveyard in much the same way that 16-year-old boys are not the target audience of romantic comedies.
well i dont like horror games, but that IS a very good example of a GOOD indie game. most indie games i see are things like on Kongregate, Xbox Live Indie, Miniclip, and Newgrounds. And definitely more than 80% of them are 2d knockoffs of older games
 

Gralian

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Azaraxzealot said:
i have yet to play a GOOD 3d indie game, or at least one that i would indeed enjoy for more than 2 minutes before i got bored and went back to Red Dead Redemption or Saints Row 2.
The part bolded for emphasis explains why the indie genre, or 'interactive emotional experience' is not for you. This lack of attention is exactly why indie titles recieve these awards; because those with the patience for it will see something truly remarkable. It'll touch them on a much deeper level than it does with people who've been emotionally deadened by all the flashy effects and HELL YEAH BRO culture that has been spawned from franchises like Gears of War. It's all about subtle statements and asking questions that will affect and almost disturb the player. It's about the things you see, you hear and you feel. What do you think it's trying to tell you? What is the metaphor behind a frail old woman walking to the place of the dead, only to keel over with little to no warning, left there to rest unceremoniously? I think you could do with watching some Lynchian films.

But then you could argue that such titles are being 'pretentious' and are only for arthouse critics who like to think they can read between the lines to see something that isn't there. I don't hold such a cynical view. But then i am an English Literature university student, so i'm 'trained' if you like to always read between the lines and try to see the 'bigger picture'.

The Indie genre just isn't for you (in general, not just stylist games like The Graveyard or The Path) in the same way Kinect isn't for me. You're not the target demographic, and while you may feel like the world should always try to market to you, you need to look beyond that.
 

Azaraxzealot

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JourneyThroughHell said:
Azaraxzealot said:
are there ANY indie games out there that blur the lines between AAA and indie?
No, that would kind of go against the whole point of an indie game.

OT: Argumentum ad ignorantiam, isn't it? There are tons of indie games that are not platformers.
but not tons that are fully 3d, and even less than are in 3rd person 3d, and i dont even know if there are any 3d, 3rd person, sandbox experiences.
 

Azaraxzealot

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Gralian said:
Azaraxzealot said:
i have yet to play a GOOD 3d indie game, or at least one that i would indeed enjoy for more than 2 minutes before i got bored and went back to Red Dead Redemption or Saints Row 2.
The part bolded for emphasis explains why the indie genre, or 'interactive emotional experience' is not for you. This lack of attention is exactly why indie titles recieve these awards; because those with the patience for it will see something truly remarkable. It'll touch them on a much deeper level than it does with people who've been emotionally deadened by all the flashy effects and HELL YEAH BRO culture that has been spawned from franchises like Gears of War. It's all about subtle statements and asking questions that will affect and almost disturb the player. It's about the things you see, you hear and you feel. What do you think it's trying to tell you? What is the metaphor behind a frail old woman walking to the place of the dead, only to keel over with little to no warning, left there to rest unceremoniously? I think you could do with watching some Lynchian films.

But then you could argue that such titles are being 'pretentious' and are only for arthouse critics who like to think they can read between the lines to see something that isn't there. I don't hold such a cynical view. But then i am an English Literature university student, so i'm 'trained' if you like to always read between the lines and try to see the 'bigger picture'.

The Indie genre just isn't for you (in general, not just stylist games like The Graveyard or The Path) in the same way Kinect isn't for me. You're not the target demographic, and while you may feel like the world should always try to market to you, you need to look beyond that.
i guess so. ive been pretty spoiled by action games for so long that if more than 10 seconds in a game doesnt go by without something fun and awesome going on then i get bored

probably why i would pick Prototype or Crackdown over GTA 4 or Limbo. And why can't violence be art? why can't making mass slaughter and wanton destruction fun be considered artistic?

its like Yahtzee once said in his Painkiller review about how murdering dudes CAN be an art form.
 

Azaraxzealot

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end_boss said:
Azaraxzealot said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Graveyard_%28video_game%29

i could make that game in one day
But you didn't.
actually... i went ahead and did it. just made a bunch of buildings with simple textures, added heavy fog effects, and turned the lighting down low. boom, the graveyard now known as "the city" HEY! i knocked off one of my peers! I'M AN INDIE DEVELOPER ALREADY! :D
 

viranimus

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World of Goo
Minecraft
Cthulu saves the world / Breath of death 7

Just off the top of my head.

As for Tale of tales this sort of game is pretty much their modus operandi as they come off as trying to be an indie film studio that is developing things that blur the lines of what we consider games. The endless forest is another example of their work that in some respects is considered a game, but it is more like an interactive screensaver.

Honestly I do kind of like what they are putting out, however I perhaps have taken more acid than most over the years and I can understand the connection.

I do get what your saying. Innovation does not always equate to good and honestly tale of tales need to work more on designing an actual game if they are going to be game designers. However I cant fault them for what they are trying to do and I think it would be a mistake to look down on a company that IS trying to innovate and change what we consider to be games.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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Penumbra Overture is excellent. Go play it before you badmouth 3D indie games.
 

Gralian

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Azaraxzealot said:
. And why can't violence be art? why can't making mass slaughter and wanton destruction fun be considered artistic?
What you are referring to is "Ultraviolence" and it's a very touchy, tricky subject. So far i'd say that movies are really the only medium that can truly convey ultraviolence in a truly meaningful and artistic way. In video games, it comes across as being cheap and crass. I think this is because the character being manipulated by the player always reflects the player's mind. It's not like Pulp Fiction where sudden, brutal scenes are the result of unstable characters that serve to make a poignant sociological statement about the casual nature of violence. It's about the player fulfilling childish fantasies of mass homicide and slaughter in the most ridiculous, over the top way possible. They're not thinking about the ramifications of this (how many times have you thought about the last civilian you shot for his horse in Red Dead?) they're just thinking about how funny it was that someone just fell off a cliff after a nearby explosion. The only way you could get any meaningful satire and artistic poignancy out of it would be to have a third party examine the player as they play the game, and that would be breaking the fourth wall.

Incidentally some games have had a go at mindless ultraviolence before. See: Splatterhouse. The game was a commercial flop and no-one saw it for an artistic sentiment. Hell, no-one even saw it was a celebration of grindhouse culture. They saw it as childish. As you quoted yahtzee, i would point you to his video about Splatterhouse in which he starts off by saying that while you may enjoy the blood and gore to start with, it starts to get tiresome and you realise how childish and shallow it is once your childhood giddyness about gore and violence are satiated.
 

oplinger

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The only difference between the free trial and the real game is that in the real one, every time it is played there is a small chance the old lady will die.
I can't...stop laughing at this.

BUY NOW and you can DIE! pay to KILL THIS OLD LADY!

...oh my god...sides...hurt

EDIT: After playing the game, I can honestly say with a straight face (unless I think about the full version) ...That's terrible. I've done better texturing...and I'm -horrible- at texturing...hell making a tree look somewhat real isn't that hard, not even back in 2008 <.< ...

Also the most irritating bit....their animation is off...the old lady slides. SHE SLIDES! It's gumby's mother. ...sorry, that sort of animation stuff get's to me..

EDIT2: There is nothing in this game that is not hilarious! The birds jam their heads into the ground, the song is terrible and a little disturbing, and not in a good way. It's completely jumbled together, and about an old lady thinking about dead, and then hoping she can die. ...This is art like amature free verse night is art. Just because it's about death doesn't make it artistic >.> that's kinda what they seemed to think.
 

imnot

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ZombieGenesis said:
Interesting idea, reminds me of...is it called Passage? Something like that.
I get that it probably isn't worth an award, but the scene itself is a sign of good artistry isn't it?

If something like God of War III is the gaming equal of a whole blockbuster movie, then this is equal to a carefully made portrait.
The path , red riding hood?
 

Assassin Xaero

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Well, Al Gore got a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for telling us something we already knew ("Hey! The climate changes!"). So I'm sure that now anyone could win an award for anything.
 

MrGameluvr92

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I know that there are certain, unique gamers who enjoy certain games but I must say this:

WHO WOULD ENJOY THIS?!
 

DEAD34345

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Sounds dull and pretentious to me. By the sounds of things though, it was never meant to be fun, and since art is completely subjective i am sure there are other people who think this game is incredible.

I don't get the appeal, and nor do you by the sounds of things. Just go play something else and accept that others like this kind of thing?
 

Creepybard

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Azaraxzealot said:
Gralian said:
Azaraxzealot said:
i have yet to play a GOOD 3d indie game, or at least one that i would indeed enjoy for more than 2 minutes before i got bored and went back to Red Dead Redemption or Saints Row 2.
snip
i guess so. ive been pretty spoiled by action games for so long that if more than 10 seconds in a game doesnt go by without something fun and awesome going on then i get bored

probably why i would pick Prototype or Crackdown over GTA 4 or Limbo. And why can't violence be art? why can't making mass slaughter and wanton destruction fun be considered artistic?

its like Yahtzee once said in his Painkiller review about how murdering dudes CAN be an art form.
No one is saying that games like that can't be art. They are simply saying that even though you don't like indie games, they can, and in most cases are, more artistic than most AAA games on the market today.