With indie games becoming a huge part of next generation consoles, it is important not to forget where indie games originated – the PC. Indie games on PC have always been great, by being fun to play and overall getting to experience new and exciting experiences. The huge-hit game Minecraft is an indie game and originated on the PC. Minecraft is now available on the Xbox 360 and will be released on the Playstation 4 and Xbox One home entertainment consoles. This shows how far small development studios can get their games, with enough passion and interest in getting their games to the larger markets and wider audiences.
Both Sony Playstation and Microsoft Xbox are getting involved with indie developers for their next generation of consoles and with it being GamesCom this week, we have already seen plenty of indie games for both the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One! Indie games are becoming a huge part of gaming and with every gamer now getting to experience indie games, indie gaming is going to be the biggest it has ever been. With Sony releasing a whole bunch of games for the Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita in the coming months. These games, for the Playstation 4, include:
- Assault Android Cactus (Witch Beam)
- Fez (Polytron Corporation)
- Final Horizon (Eiconic Games)
- Guns of Icarus Online (Muse Games)
- Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (Dennaton Games and Devolver Digital)
- N++ (Metanet)
- Rogue Legacy (Cellar Door Games)
- Samurai Gunn (Teknopants)
- Starbound (Chucklefish)
- Switch Galaxy Ultra (Atomicom)
- The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (Nicalis)
- Velocity 2X (FuturLab)
- Volume (Mike Bithell)
- Wasteland Kings (Vlambeer)
As well as Playstation 4 getting a lot of indie games, so is the Playstation Vita! The games that will be available in the coming months for the Vita are:
- Age of Zombies (BlitWorks/Halfbrick)
- A-Men 2 (Bloober Team)
- Assault Android Cactus (Witch Beam)
- Avoid Droid (Infinite State Games)
- Broken Sword: the Serpent’s Curse (Revolution Software)
- Eufloria HD (Omni Systems)
- Fez (Polytron Corporation)
- Final Horizon (Eiconic Games)
- Flame Over (Laughing Jackal)
- Gravity Crash Ultra (Just Add Water)
- Gunslugs (Abstraction Games)
- Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (Dennaton Games and Devolver Digital)
- Joe Danger 1 (Hello Games)
- Joe Danger 2 (Hello Games)
- Kick & Fennick (Green Hill Studios)
- Rogue Legacy (Cellar Door Games)
- Samurai Gunn (Teknopants)
- Supermagical (Tama Games)
- Switch Galaxy Ultra (Atomicom)
- Table Top Racing (Ripstone)
- The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (Nicalis)
- Volume (Mike Bithell)
- Wasteland Kings (Vlambeer)
There is a lot of games there, however Microsoft is not holding up short, they also have a large number of indie games planned for release on the Xbox One and have finally announced their indie developer platform that allows indie developers to sign up for an account, at Microsoft, and publish their games to the Xbox Live Marketplace. More information on the indie developer platform can be found here.
Next generation consoles look great in terms of big blockbuster titles and the large number of indie games that will be available at launch. PC has a huge number of indie developers, that do not have to go through any sort of developer program, they are free to create their game, host it on their website and put it on the Steam store-front, for gamers to play. Steam has now created a new area, specifically for indie games, called Steam Greenlight, this allows gamers to find great new indie games all in once place! There is a huge number of indie games available on Steam at the moment. Some of these great games are:
- Bastion
- Braid
- Crayon Physics Deluxe
- Limbo
- Little Inferno
- Lume
- Machinarium
- McPixel
- Minecraft
- NightSky
- Super Hexagon
- The Binding of Isaac
- The Wonderful End of the World
- Thomas Was Alone
- Vessel
These indie PC games have defined the genre and the definition resulting in indie games are designed to be a great and exhilarating experience, that you will not get from any other genre of game, and of course – a fun and thrilling game to play with thought-provoking moments and funny clichés.
Overall, indie games have changed the way of the games industry by providing new ways to play and a lot of new content and games readily available for a wide range of devices, from mobile to desktops and then to consoles – it never ends. Indie games are the way forward for the next generation of consoles as they will allow gamers to enjoy a mix of content instead of just playing all blockbuster games.
Do you have any of these indie games or are there some games that you believe define this generation and should be added to the list?
