Spread the love: Favorite indie dev

[carnex]

OK, tehre is enough excrement flowing in all directions, including people that create what we like to play out of sheer love for the medium. So let's share some love for them. Of course I'm talking about indie game developers. So lets tell everyone who are your favorite indie game developers and why with few simple rules

- I don't think it's fair to mix Tim Schafer and other older game dev heavyweights gone kickstarter into this
- If anyone mentiones names of any person or company mixed into this mess that's still going on, do not react, this is thread meant to spread love, not hate

That said my vote goes for

Joakim "Konjak" Sandberg

Author of just one commercial game, Noitu Love 2, several free games and partially and fully finished products like Legend of Princess, Chalk, Tripline and ofcourse Noitu Love. Presently working on metroidvania game called The Iconoclasts. Known for gorgeous pixelart, detailed animations, humongous bosses, excellent chiptunes and spot on and inovative controlls his last two releases are masterclass of pure game bliss. Unfortunatelly he's not the most productive dev because he's living of his work for others like his PixelArt for games by WayForward.

Legend of princess is short take on side scrolling Zelda that simply begs for further levels. Features several iconic items and weapons from Zelda games but much different and action oriented gameplay with gorgeous art, perfect controls and music and puzzle bosses.

Noitu Love 2 is one of my all time favorite games. Action sidescroller that utilizes unique controls that only work with keyboard and mouse but are unbelievably engaging and rewarding. Also has gorgeous graphic design, awesome chiptune music, humongous puzzle bosses, really fast action and whole lot of smiles from players. And than when you beat the game you unlock two more characters that play significantly different and actually have tiny bit of level variation all for themselves. I can't praise this game enough.


And my favorite tune from the game


Links

http://konjak.org/
http://konjakonjak.tumblr.com/
https://twitter.com/konjak

P.S. He uses a lot of female player characters and dressed them in ridicules but not in the least revealing clothes.

 

[shrekfan246]

Three immediately come to mind, and it's a little hard to choose between any one of them, though two of them aren't necessarily "indie" devs in the classic sense (as one of them has been around for over a decade and used the Kickstarter/Steam Early Access business models, and the other has had two games published by EA and one by Microsoft before their more recent games have been solo efforts using Steam Early Access).

Anyway.

Klei Entertainment, Larian Studios, and Tom Francis.

Klei - Because Shank, Shank 2, Mark of the Ninja, Don't Starve, and Invisible, Inc. I mean, these guys have a pedigree and it's showing, especially in how they're only getting better and better as they continue making games, despite moving into completely different game styles entirely. Shank was a 2D side-scrolling brawler-platformer, Mark of the Ninja was a 2D stealth game, Don't Starve was an isometric survival game, and now Invisible, Inc. is a turn-based isometric stealth&hack game. And they just manage to tie everything together so tightly, between gameplay and art styles and music, and man is it just fantastic. But yeah, don't know how well they really fit into the classical "indie" definition.

Larian - Because of their Divinity franchise. Now, I totally get the people who don't like the franchise's writing because in many ways it's just a third-rate aping of Monty Python, but damn it, that's one of the reasons I love it so much. When every single other game I've been playing has been so bloody serious and super concerned with its messages and characters and telling an epic story, I really like that there's a franchise like Divinity which shows something of an actual soul, and that adorable charm is what lets me look past how insanely frayed the rest of the game mechanics may be, or how poor the actual quality of the writing itself may be.

Tom Francis - Because Gunpoint, and because of how he handled not only updates of it but also his own blog posts and other videos and whatnot. Gunpoint and Skullgirls are the only two games I've got on Steam where the patch notes regularly seem to have been written by actual human beings, and Tom Francis seems to have an absurdist sense of humor that just appeals to me perfectly. The dialogue in Gunpoint caught my attention immediately, and added on to what I already thought was a pretty damn impressive display for basically a single person who had only been working on the game in his spare time until about a year before its release. His game concepts in general are fascinating to me, and he seems to have the know-how to actually do great things with them too.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I think MinMax Games deserves a mention, it is a two man team that made Space Pirates and Zombies, which is a sprite based twin-stick space shooter adventure. They made a hefty single player campaign and the mechanics go deep to borderline simulation, you got 50+ ships with all parts customizable, parts add weight and energy consumption so it affects manoeuvring, combat ability, defences, recover capacity, cargo space. Ships accelerate and drift as you would expect in space, shots need to be led depending on your and the enemy speeds, you can also jettison hull plates, cargo and crew during combat for the extra edge.

Now they even got a sequel cooking, this time going all in with the 3D space and by the looks of it a complex damage/collision model that seems excellent.

 

[Elfgore]

Taleworlds, the fantastic creators of the Mount and Blade series. A rather small indie dev from Turkey. They have made one of the best RPGs I've ever laid eyes upon. Multiple skills, some logistical and others combat. A huge amount of weapons. A fun and at the time, unique combat system. Warband added a much needed multiplayer mode. The new title Bannerlord looks to be taking the game even further. It doesn't hurt them either, that they're the friendliest devs I've ever seen when it comes to mods. Even allowing one group of modders to make a game off their engine and profit off it.

 

[FutureExile]

Jeff Minter from Llamasoft fame. He's a grizzly-looking Welshman who's been creating amazing games since indie developers were called bedroom coders. Actually, I suggest we go back to calling indies bedroom coders, but that's another topic. He is a fan of old-school arcade games, psychedelic-tinged art styles and tame, furry animals.
He's made games that were universally praised (Gridrunner on VIC 20), cult-classics (Tempest 2000 on the Jaguar) and games that are very polarizing (Space Giraffe on the 360). He recently made some fantastic games for the iOS that were well-received critically but never saw mainstream success. He then moved on to Vita development and is now focused on creating VR games. Man, a Jeff Minter game on the Oculus Rift would be one really weird trip.

 

[AkaDad]

Klei Entertainment for all the reasons shrekfan246 said.

Playdead for making Limbo. I never thought I could like a game that had no story, no color, and no sound, and yet I did. I'm also looking forward to their new game, Inside.

 

[Pink Gregory]

I've certainly enjoyed everything that Introversion (Uplink, Darwinia, DEFCON) have ever done, but Prison Architect feels like their opus.

Another vote for Klei goes here.

 

[Danny Dowling]

Abstraction Games and Devolver Digital seem to push sick indies. They're not people, but usually I see that logo and I'm like "aww sheeeeiit, tings about to get serious."

 

[klaynexas3]

Dean Dodrill. The man programmed and designed Dust: An Elysian Tail by himself. Aside from voice acting and a bit of the story, that game is entirely his own doing. It's inspirational for a guy like me that wants to be a game dev, but is horrible with social skills, that it is entirely possible for me to be anti-social and tell everyone to leave me alone so I can make my game with zero problems.

 

[Guy_of_wonder]

Dean Dodrill. The man programmed and designed Dust: An Elysian Tail by himself. Aside from voice acting and a bit of the story, that game is entirely his own doing. It's inspirational for a guy like me that wants to be a game dev, but is horrible with social skills, that it is entirely possible for me to be anti-social and tell everyone to leave me alone so I can make my game with zero problems.

I full heartedly agree. i love the aestetic of the game, the combat is complex enough to be really fun, and the music. MY GOD THE MUSIC! ITS BEAUTIFUL!! This game became one of my favortie games of all time. I will buy any game Dean Dodrill ever makes for the rest of time.

Favorite music from the game- Abadis Forrest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrXLX9D8ibU

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Either Spiderweb Software or Wadjet Eye Games.

They develop/publish some amazing classic-style CRPGs and point 'n' click adventures respectively. Wadjet Eye's Gemini Rue is one of my favourite games ever, but the rest of their catalogue isn't too far behind (with Blackwell being a blind buy that got me into the whole genre).

Spiderweb developed the Avernum and Geneforge series of games, both of which are ludicrously open, massive and long isometric, turn based RPGs (MY FAVOURITE KIND!). Seriously, the demo for Avernum: Escape From The Pit has like 8 hours of content. The fucking demo! And the full game is pretty much all fun! Thier other games, like Avadon are meant to be great too but I haven't tried them yet.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

I guess TaleWorlds? I don't really play any indie games beyond Mount & Blade: Warband, which I'm not completely sure even qualifies as one. So that's really my only option to mention here. Fantastic game though. Has gone on to influence some larger, but no where near as good games like Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (which is fairly good in its own right) and War of the Roses (which I heard was horseshit). So it certainly did something right in innovating a genre that is incorporating more complex sword play.

 

[Promethax]

Tales' of Games is the best indie developer as far as I'm concerned.

They made Tales' of Games Studios presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa, possibly the greatest game ever made.

 

[Strain42]

Off the top of my head I have to go with The Game Bakers for their Squids series.

It's a series of SRPGs only instead of a grid you just kinda stretch them out and fling them. The maps are well laid out, the environments are beautiful, the soundtrack is great, and for an iOS game it's actually got an amazingly deep story and solid characters.

Don't let the fact that it was an iOS game fool you, you can also get the series on PC/Mac, and I think it's even out on Wii U and 3DS now (the console one is actually the best since it's both of their games so far in one and it's got extra stuff and fixes a lot of the problems the original first game had)

So yeah, The Game Bakers.

Squids and Squids: Wild West.

Amazing games, look into them.

Oh, also there are hats. All gamers love hats, right?

 

[Ishal]

Snip

Would you call the devs who made Endless Space Indie? If so, I'd start with them. I actually think it was you who recommended that I get the pack during a Steam Sale.

As for the others. I'd have to go with Team Meat and Edmund McMillen for his work on Meatboy and the phenomenal Binding of Isaac. The two students who made Risk of Rain under the name of Hopoo Games.

Also the guy who made Cave Story. Freaking love that game.

 

[shrekfan246]

Snip

Would you call the devs who made Endless Space Indie? If so, I'd start with them. I actually think it was you who recommended that I get the pack during a Steam Sale.

Oh yeah, they're a good one too.

I'm actually really interested in their newer games as well, but I'm a little bit worried they're spreading themselves thin by working on two at the same time. Plus they're both on Steam Early Access, which is... eh... well, I've made my opinions on that pretty well-known in the past. Though both games have had pretty positive reception so far from what I've seen, so as a fan of Endless Space I am excited to see where they go.

 

[Vigormortis]

A few spring to mind of whom I have the utmost respect and admiration for.

Re-Logic
- Terraria is such an incredible little game. Even more incredible is the post-launch support Redigit and his team have given to the game and it's players. For free, I might add. At this point the game has grown to at least four times it's original size in terms of content since launch. I have a lot of respect for Redigit and his team, and I have pretty high expectations for Terraria 2.

Subset Games
- I went into FTL with mixed feelings. I'd heard a lot of praise but wasn't really impressed by what I'd seen in screen caps and videos. Still, I thought I'd give it a go so I bought it at an extremely low price during a Steam sale. I am so glad I did; or rather, I wish I'd paid more. After my first play-through I was hooked. It has easily cemented a place in my list of favorite games.

Double Fine
- Psychonauts, The Cave, Broken Age, Costume Quest...it's rare that I don't enjoy a game from Tim Schafer and his team. I'm looking forward to playing Costume Quest 2 and Hack n' Slash. And I think it more than fair to list them here. Tim Schafer may be a recognizable name but his company is very much independent.

Runic Games
- Torchlight 2 was everything I'd hoped it would be and more. It exceeded my expectations and removed any semblance of desire on my part in buying Diablo 3. Their post launch support has been spectacular as well, though a Mac build would still be appreciated.

Valve
- I know a lot of people will disagree but Valve is, by definition, an independent developer. After leaving Sierra they've self-published all of their titles; only relying on outside publishing for a few console build releases. As for why I've listed them, it basically boils down to me enjoying just about every game they've ever released to some degree or another.

Pocketwatch Games
- Monaco turned out to be one of the most fun co-op games I've played in a long time. I lost hours of time playing it with friends.

Honorable mentions:
The Indie Stone
- While their release schedule has been a bit slow they're still crafting one hell of an incredible game. Project Zomboid is one of the most impressive and detailed survival games I've ever seen. Yes it has zombies but the attention to detail is fantastic in terms of the play mechanics and world interaction. Multiplayer is a blast, and even a little nerve-wracking.

 

[SillySam]

I've certainly enjoyed everything that Introversion (Uplink, Darwinia, DEFCON) have ever done, but Prison Architect feels like their opus.

This, so much this. I feel they're quite underappreciated, as there's a ton more indie devs now
Uplink and Darwinia are my all time favorites, and their games have a timeless quality about them
I was so sad when Subversion didn't pan out, but Prison Architect seems to be shaping up pretty nicely (albeit slowly)

Also, I've enjoyed games from Playdead (Limbo), Subset Games and Blendo Games/Brendon Chung way too much

 

[Haerthan]

Zoe Quinn. I freaking love Depression Quest. Let there be anger, let there be fury, let there torches and pitchforks.