10 Indies Games that Matter

[Alec]

Page 1: http://bit.ly/13V9AN

Page 2: http://bit.ly/14loCp

Nice to see Aquaria up there amongst other good indie games. 

[Hiro]

Glad to see Aquaria getting the recognition it deserves huh? 
Being put in a list with Cave Story and World of Goo...a high honour (to them as well haha).

[sadron]

Though the mention of the uncertain and clouded future of an actual Aquaria sequel has me meloncholy. I want to see Naija's corrupt mom get what she deserves!

[Xiagan]

Nice article! Aquaria totally deserved that!

[Prometeus]

Yeah, it'd be great if there were a sequel to this excellent game. And i'm glad to see it between the first 5 best indie games. I didn't tried Cave Story, maybe someday i will do it.

You should check this other game, it's almost indie and it's still a great adventure-puzzle game today

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riven

[Alec]

Ah, I have fond memories of Riven.

[sadron]

Ah, I have fond memories of Riven.

I'd only played bits and pieces of Riven and the Myst games really. Can't remember much.


*sigh*

[Prometeus]

I didn't played Myst, it's not my kind, but Riven was amazing, the entire game was a giga-puzzle, not just the little puzzles you find everywhere, sometimes you need tips from distant places in the game to solve puzzles in other places. It pretty similar to Aquaria in that aspect but in a bigger scale

[Alec]

I didn't played Myst, it's not my kind, but Riven was amazing, the entire game was a giga-puzzle, not just the little puzzles you find everywhere, sometimes you need tips from distant places in the game to solve puzzles in other places. It pretty similar to Aquaria in that aspect but in a bigger scale

I was always more into the worlds of Myst/Riven rather than the puzzles. The puzzles confused the heck out of me.

[SevenMass]

The games Myst, and especially Riven, where just a poor excuses for a whole big load of Scenery Porn

Not that I'm complaining about that!   

Its one of the good points in Aquaria too.


Funny, if you think about it.
Nowadays you usually hear the complaint that games focus on graphics to much at the expense of game play, yet, the old Myst and Riven games are just that: 5% gameplay, 95% pretty graphics. And no one who played those game ever complained about it.

[Archeus]

I didn't played Myst, it's not my kind, but Riven was amazing, the entire game was a giga-puzzle, not just the little puzzles you find everywhere, sometimes you need tips from distant places in the game to solve puzzles in other places. It pretty similar to Aquaria in that aspect but in a bigger scale

I was always more into the worlds of Myst/Riven rather than the puzzles. The puzzles confused the heck out of me.

Yeah. I wasn't much into the puzzles and backtracking myself. But I loved the environments. So immersive.

[Alec]

Well the thing with Myst wasn't that it just looked pretty, it was that it represented a detailed and atmospheric world.

A lot of modern pretty games are pretty shallow.

[SevenMass]

I didn't mean to say that people who complain about games focusing to much on pretty graphics are wrong, I  just pointed out the irony of it.

[Alec]

I didn't mean to say that people who complain about games focusing to much on pretty graphics are wrong, I  just pointed out the irony of it.

For sure. But I'm saying if all a developer is focusing on is pretty graphics, it is wrong.

[Archeus]

Well the thing with Myst wasn't that it just looked pretty, it was that it represented a detailed and atmospheric world.

A lot of modern pretty games are pretty shallow.

Exactly! Just as an example, I play Mmorpgs, and those compared to some done in the past.. well there's just no comparison.  A lot in the past have been pretty well designed graphically wise, they had hand done scenery, etc. It was just really immersive. There would be times i would stop all questing with friends just to stare at and listen to a waterfall it was so well done.

Now days, you have game companies just copy and pasting the same graphic all over the place, just in a certain configuration. Now... don't get me wrong, i know some of that is unavoidable but when that's something that jumps at me and hits me in the face when i'm trying to get immersed.. yeah.. there's a difference between artistically doing it and just spamming it all over a town.  I mean, its obvious... in your game i don't think I've seen one cave that looked the same shape wise or what plants you had where. In other mmorpgs, I've seen them use the exact same cave over and over for quests, so much that i know where the end of a cave is going to be when i enter it.

 It's funny too, some parts in aquaria repeat the use of a texture (rocks and what not).. but the thing is.. I DON'T NOTICE IT (unless i truly look around for it). And i stay immersed via the beautiful graphics, the music, name it... You really love games like this that pay attention to detail and just blend things with perfection.