Incline Real Indie Renaissance?

[PorkyThePaladin]

With the AAA and AA segments of the video game industry going straight to the shitter recently for the most part, exemplified both by the turd-like quality of their recent offerings and the subsequent demise or down-sizing of the companies producing them, there have been whispers of Indie developers picking up the slack, and an Indie gem appearing here and there from time to time. But the overall number of impressive games coming from Indie sources was low enough that it could not yet be taken as a serious replacement for the fading larger companies.

But I've recently done a bit of an inventory of quality Indie games coming out in the last several years, and I really think we've turned a corner. There are so many of them now that it seems like they are ready to step in and replace the mainstream trash for the monocled gamer for the most part. Let's take a look at the last 10 years:

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number 2015
Kerbal Space Program 2015
Underrail 2015
Age of Decadence 2015
Starbound 2016
Darkest Dungeon 2016
Factorio 2016
Darkwood 2017
Hollow Knight 2017
Rain World 2017
The Long Dark 2017
Kenshi 2018
Return of the Obra Dinn 2018
Dead Cells 2018
Rimworld 2018
Outer Wilds 2019
Disco Elysium 2019
Titan Outpost 2019
Hades 2020
Noita 2020
Empyrion 2020
Inscryption 2021
Vampire Survivors 2021
Valheim 2021
Outward 2022
Case of the Golden Idol 2022
Citizen Sleeper 2022
Gloomwood 2022 (Early Access)
Roadwarden 2022
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord 2022
Colony Ship 2023
Chants of Sennar 2023
Caves of Lore 2023
Heads Will Roll: Reforged 2023
Rise of the Golden Idol 2024
Manor Lords 2024 (Early Access)
Drova: Foresaken Kin 2024
7 Days to Die 2024
Zero Sievert 2024
Shadows of Doubt 2024
Monomyth 2024 (Early Access)
V Rising 2024
Skald: Against the Black Priory 2024


So I have 43 games for the last 10 years, which would give us 4.3 games a year. Not the cornucopia of late 90s or anything, but still, better than nothing, and most likely way higher than the number of quality AAA/AA games per year. Also, I most likely missed some, and as this type of thing becomes more common, it will inspire even more people to get into indie development. Plus with all the new AI tools, it might make it easier to produce assets and other stuff.

So I think Indie games are definitely well on their way to fill the vacuum left by the likes of Ubisoft, Rockstar, Bethesda, Bioware, and many other mainstream studios and publishers.

 

[StaticSpine]

So I think Indie games are definitely well on their way to fill the vacuum left by the likes of Ubisoft, Rockstar, Bethesda, Bioware, and many other mainstream studios and publishers.

I agree that indies are in a good place now, but I doubt they'll fill the vacuum for these studios.
Most normies still consume AAA slop and will never turn to indies.
I think AA studios will fill this space. Stuff like Palworld or Wukong, those are neither indie nor AAA, but something in between, they have production values without unsustainable budgets and expectations. If we're talking about RPGs - Owlcat and Larian will probably take over, also AA.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

You deliberately didn't include many indie crpgs of the last decade, but ok.

Another genre that I am glad has returned thanks to indies is the survival horror with combat, puzzles, and limited resources, in particular the one with "fixed camera". The examples in the last few years are too many for easy picking.

 

[Falksi]

Could add a fair few more to that list for me too:

• Shadowrun Returns
• Shadowrun Dragonfall
• Avernum series
• Geneforge reboots
• Amid Evil
• Dusk
• Hard West
• Cuphead
• Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser
• Technobabylon
• Devil Engine
• Tanzer
• Xeno Crisis
• The Cursed Knight
• Demons of Asteborg
• Tales of Iron
• Valfaris
• Blazing Chrome
• Ion Fury
• Katana Zero

....and more besides.

Indie development won't ever replace the mainstream, but that's obviously a good thing and so long as quality studios make enough money to stay active and giving us more, that'll do me.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

You deliberately didn't include many indie crpgs of the last decade, but ok.

I tried to include games considered widely to be "good" or better, and in genres that I actually play. Also, with some games, like say nuShadowrun games or Expeditions games, which are quite good for the most part, I wasn't sure if they would be considered indie. But I did mention in the original post that I most likely missed a bunch of games.