Mild babble: Year of Indie Games - Part 1

I don't know about anyone else, but this year has been a complete and utter bear - and not the Teddy Roosevelt kind. And I really hope 2015 won't be SSDY, because I might then just consider (for a second or two) chewing my wrists or something equally stupid.

This has really been the year of indie gaming for me. I have to admit that, with the exception of Alien: Isolation, I haven't really been blown away by any of the top releases. Okay, granted, I haven't played Farcry 4 and I am curious about Assassin's Creed: Rogue. But other than those... meh. It took me a while to realise that my very enthusiastic gaming streak was completely flooded with indies. And I have to say, I find that rather delightful.

I might spend more time on some of the games I'm going to list in the future, but I figured just to give a nod and a quick description of each.

One thing I've realised about the games I like to play is that they're time killers. Black holes that I somehow manage to escape only when I have to go to bed to function properly the next day or when my stomach is almost done consuming itself.

Triple Town is a terrible example of this. What makes the game even worse is that I can't say that I like it. It gives me no satisfaction and yet it allows me to switch my mind off for a bit. It doesn't help that I can sit and listen to audio books while playing it. Nor does it help that it is a small window on my PC and that I can sit and play it in between tasks (like sending work emails, ahem). The fact that I've discovered that it's also available as a mobile game is most distressing. I'm doing my utmost to forget this fact.

The concept is painfully simple. Match a minimum of three things together so it makes a bigger thing. Then match the bigger things together. And so on, and so on, and so on... Simple. Addictive. A pain in the ass. *resists temptation to play it*    *fails*

*some time later*

I've always loved the idea of being able to see inside large structures - looking at simple schematics or architectural layouts. I can't say exactly why. Perhaps it is the idea of possibility. Whatever the reason, I was definitely the dollhouse type person - only I hated dolls and my GI Joes looked a little awkward sitting around in their surroundings.

Games like FTL thus appeal to me quite a bit. You play a ship captain of a message courier boat who needs to travel from one point of the galaxy to another to let the goodies know that the baddies are coming. Only the baddies are always right on your tail and it takes quite a lot of effort evading them while jumping around from system to system gathering resources, upgrading your armour and doing whatever random event is generated from time to time.

You have a top-down view of your ship with certain rooms that can/should be occupied by a crew member to operate optimally. Enemy attacks can cause damage to the operations of a room, create hull breaches or set a room on fire. Dealing with that, the attacking ship and the occasional unpleasant boarders can be quite a challenge. But a fun challenge. An advanced edition of the game has been released which adds more ships, races, weapons and other things to the game.

Papers, Please has an insanely simple concept and it is very difficult to explain the element of entertainment that's involved in this game when talking about it. You play an immigration officer at a border of the imaginary country of Arstotzka. It is for you to decide whether a person gains entry to the country or not. As the game progresses, the required documents become progressively more complex and you're thrown into a balance of making ends meet, showing compassion and keeping your head down so as to avoid garnering the attention of your superiors.

The game allows for twenty possible endings. I have encountered three thus far, but have given the game (and myself) a bit of a rest. I'll probably pick it back up again later. It's one of those, I don't ever see really casting aside.

Banished is a different kind of city builder that can be both relaxing and maddening at the same time. For whatever reason, your people have been banished to make a new home for themselves in a randomly generated area. Based on what settings you choose, you're given an x-number of resources and buildings and it's up to you to make something of it by first dealing with the immediate needs of your people - food, heat, clothing, and tools - and then working forward to create a thriving settlement.

The game is constantly being tweaked and has seen some delightful updates come up to deal with some of the pesky issues a player might encounter. Overall, the game is something one can play and have running in the background while other tasks are being dealt with. It's interesting to watch the minions at work.

Going Home is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of game. It doesn't have a great amount of replay value, but there's something about it that makes me want to return to it and capture some of what I felt when I played it for the first time. The game is very strongly reliant of its narrative and puts you in the shoes of Katie, the eldest daughter of a small family who has returned after a year of touring Europe. In the time you've been gone, the family has moved to a new town and into a large house. You arrive at the house to find that your parents and younger sister aren't at home and set about exploring your surroundings to see what's happened in the year you've been gone.

I found the game to be quite profound - to the point where I've had to wipe away the occasional tear as I played it. I love the idea and the story really struck deeply for some reason, but that's both the blessing and the curse of the game. It's an exploration of what has already come to past and so might be boring to some. The story is also somewhat unconventional and might end up being abhorrent to the more traditional minds. Still, I would love to see other games like it.

I managed to grab the audio of the letters read to you throughout the game and listen to it every now and again. The voice acting is superb, in my opinion and I think that's also one of the reasons I keep listening to it. My heartstrings get thoroughly plucked every time.

Seeing as it's past midnight, I'm going to stop this here for now. I promised this post to a friend of mine and will be putting down another post before New Year which will conclude with the list of indies I've been playing - or at least the indies I can think of. I played a LOT of different games this year.

For now, all the best in this season of family feuds, overindulgence, tourists, screaming children, and the delightful knowledge that, in the next couple of days/weeks, you'll be expected to take on a new year as if you couldn't be more rested out.

I'm sure we're all looking forward to it.