The Future is Here. And it’s indie.

As you may have noticed in a previous article that I wrote, I love indie games. I believe they are the freshest, most interesting games around, and most importantly, they are the future of gaming. They take video games to whole, new, uncharted levels, where the mainstream gaming companies fear to tread. I aim to look at why they are just...better than normal games, why they are so important in this day and age, the best ones around and what the future holds for independent game developers...

1. Why indie games ROCK

Independent games developers have always been around. Since the beginning, of video gaming, people using open source or freeware software or even just a command prompt and a lot of skill, have been producing video games. As the games industry developed, the publishers hunted down those with the most talent and took them under their wing to produce some games that were indie at the time, but are now classics. Such as Mario - only in an indie game would you get a communist Italian plumber jumping around a surreal world full of turtles and bouncing mushrooms to defeat a giant angry dino-tortoise who has stolen a princess - or The Sims. Or Pokemon. These are all gaming legends. And they were all made, originally, by indie games developers. In fact if you think about it, the name is a slightly redundant one, as all companies that are not owned by the state in some way are independent, but whatever. What I'm talking about are games companies that create games without the support of a publisher such as SEGA or EA. This means that they are free from constraints such as deadlines (which can result in games being rushed and released with bugs (*cough* all Total War games)), catering for a wide as audience rather than a niche, and most importantly, being able to do what the hell they want just for lols. That's why you get games such as Polarity (Free here), a sadly very short game, where you run around magnetising yourself in either blue or red polarities to stick yourself to ceilings or walls, or to fire yourself off said objects.

Yes, of course you can walk on the ceiling...

Or the immensely popular Audiosurf ($9.99 here) where you pick a track of your favourite music and it creates a rollercoasting, traffic-dodging ride for you to surf in many different ways. Try DragonForce's Through The Fire And Flames on a hard mode and tell me that this is not a brilliant game. Go on, tell me. So yes, indie games ROCK

2. Why indie games are so important in this day and age

Now, not wanting to sound like a communist, I believe that sometimes, just sometimes, the big games companies are just that little to big, and the shareholders who are only in it for profit throw their weight around just that little bit too much. Now, I'm not saying that games companies should not make a profit. But companies that are only in it to win it, so to speak, often forget the creativity and beauty that can come out of the newest art form, video games. True, games like Mario and Pokemon are good. Up to a point. Past that point, however, the companies get stuck. They need to make a new game, so what do they do?

"Oh,  Mario sells well. Let's just make another one of those"

"Yeah, and how about throwing in Sonic, as well?!

"Yeah, great idea. Now, we only need a setting..."

"The Olympic Games?"

"Nah, too 2008. We need something fresh, something to excite the gamers"

"The...Winter Olympic Games?"

"Hmmm...alright..."

And, accordingly, you will be seeing a review on this very site of that very game when it is released...whenever it is released. This is not exactly a criticism. Mario and Sonic are both examples of games developers' spectacular creativity. The problem is, that was their creativity thirty years ago (alright, 25, if you must). I'm not saying that Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games will be bad (actually, I am), but I am questioning their reasons behind still doing it. Actually, I am not. I know their motives. To make profit. Games, upon release, have been known to make a loss. And in this time of the so-called "recession", making  a loss is not a good idea. Sticking with tried and tested formulae is. So, as I have said, when the time comes round for a new release, the CEO or whatever gathers up all the developers and says "make "X" 13" and they do. Because it will sell. On the other end of the scale then, you have the independent developers. They make games for fun as an art form, sentiments that would leave business people shaking. They use often low-key software, perhaps freeware to make games that are simply outstanding. And most importantly, in the "recession", these games are cheap. Polarity, above, is free. SteamLine, a beautiful game about two lines racing, is just 200 gamer points ($2.00) on Xbox Live. GridWars (Download by clicking here), the most beautiful game in existence, is free.

Tell me this incarnation of Asteroids, GridWars is not beautiful...

The hundreds on online gaming websites (including PopCap, king of all indie games, in this site's eyes) are all free. And of course, others are more. But these guys have to make a living, don't they? Don't they? And to guide you as to who to help to make  a living, here comes...

3. The Best Indie Games Around

Now, as ever, this is going to be a rather subjective view. But, luckily, as this is not a silly "top 10" or anything, I cannot be accused of favouritism. I can be accused of stupidity, and you can email me here, if you so wish...so anyway...in no particular order...

• Audiosurf - as I have already mentioned, a game in which you ride your music. What could be more fun than a game to which you choose the soundtrack? ($9.99 here)
• Gridwars - aforementioned beautiful Geometry Wars clone, and free here
• Polarity - yeah, yeah, look in the article to download...
• Anything by PopCap. Their free online games are OK, but for the real deal, download 'em. Must haves are Plants vs Zombies ($14.95), Peggle (same again) and..oh, that's all you need to keep you busy for ages...also available on iPhone and Touch, DS and Xbox 360
• Ricochet - a space themed breakout game with awesome graphics and thousands of levels - free here

Games by Telltale games such as Sam & Max and Tales of Monkey Island - graphic adventure games both, they are quirky and intriguing for those into that sort of thing.

So, what have we got here? A cartoon rabbit and a dog in a suit at a crime scene? It's indie, all right...

• For those who like their games that tiny bit less sophisticated, I give to you Jets 'n' Guns, a side-scrolling space shoot 'em up with plenty of explosions, particle effects, senselessly destructive weapons and gore. Truly epic, not one for the faint hearted...($19.99 for normal version here, or $29.99 for the gold edition if you're feeling special
• Moving back into the realm of the slightly fantastic, we have World of Goo, a physics game in which you build piles of different kinds of goo-balls to reach your objectives. One of the all-time indie greats, it is thoroughly addictive and has an amazing soundtrack to go with it. £16.99 on Steam here
• Sticking with the more complex and weird, I present the mind bending Braid, a platformer a bit like Mario...but with the added bonus of time alteration.  On some levels this is easy - you have buttons with which to manipulate the flow of time to your advantage. On others, your brain starts to ache as the flow of time is affected by the direction you move - left for forwards, right for backwards, etc. Lovely graphics too. £9.99 on Steam here, and it is also available on Xbox Live Arcade
• Still in the land of the odd, The Maw is an action adventure game with a difference. Available on PC or XBLA, you control a small alien called Frank, who after landing on a strange planet, drags around another alien called The Maw, who you use to complete challenges and grows over time. A full review by our esteemed editor can be found here, an interview by the same with the developer here and we play it during Nometalk episode 2009.1 and 2. Buy it on Steam here for £8.99 or get it at the XBL Arcade for 800 points.
• More? Oh yes. Not really an indie game, but I couldn't possibly leave it out, as I have become addicted to Gary's Mod over the past few weeks. It is, in case you didn't know, a sandbox game for the Source engine, meaning that if you have TF2, HL2, CS Source or Portal there is a whole lot of silly sandboxy fun to be had. Play on any map from any source game you have, download silly weapons packs, attach thrusters and balloons to things (such as trains), spawn hundreds of zombines and one citizen, pit one Heavy against 50 spies for no good reason...OK, these options are a bit lame, but you get the idea. If you have any Source game, there is no single reason you shouldn't fork out £5.99 for version 10 on Steam here or, if you are feeling extra mean, you could get version 9 free.

This look like fun? THEN GET GARY'S MOD NOW!

Now, I could go on. There is a world of brilliant indie games out there that I could talk about But I shan't. I don't really want to bore you to tears, if you haven't been already. Have you really read all 1608 words so far? Have you? Or did you just skip to the best games around? Hell, I don't care, I'm only here to advise you on what to buy. So there is a selection. To find out more, go to www.google.com and search for "indie games"...

4. The Future : Indie?

Well, actually, in short, yes. Indie games, like indie music and films, push forward the media of gaming to whole new horizons. Those who make aweosome games independently are talent spotted and make their way into the large organisations and there make "totally cool" games. Such as Portal. It looks so, so much like an indie game - the beauty of the levels, the complexity of the plot, the dark humor of GLaDOS - everything about it says "This game was not made for profit. This game was made for art". And that's how games should be. They have become too commercialised, and it is a rare joy when people design games like this for large companies like Valve. May they continue to do so for evermore...

LONG LIVE INDEPENDENT VIDEO GAME DESIGN!