Indie Games and Developers are more important than ever

Video Games are art. Some people might try to fight that, but those people are wrong. Books, movies, paintings, and drawings are all examples of art, and of that's true (which it is), so are video games. With the rise of the AI, the state of the world as it is, questionable leadership in the gaming space,and the need for friends to help keep spirits up, the value of art in gaming is being questioned in a way that gamers don't enjoy. So now, more than ever Indie games are what the games industry needs in order to shine and be either a bastion of hope, a dream escape, or a voice for the words you don't know how to say yourself.

AI is horrible, they try to claim "it gives a voice to those without the talent to do it themselves" but in reality it steals from those who put in the work to cash in on less people, more work. But things like too many fingers, weird hair, or bad item placement will always show through because AI will never have a voice in the way a real person with someone to say will. Many think of "a person with something to say" and immediately assume political, but there are so many feelings, thoughts, and ideas that someone can want to explore and put into the world. Tales of Kenzera: Zao explores grief and loss in the way only someone who experienced in can, and is able to help us in understand that grief, and how it is overcome. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, while using the backdrop of Norse mythology, explores psychosis from the help of people who experience it on a daily basis. Through this game, so many people have learned more about it and understand how affects those who have it themselves. AI will never be able to accurately simulate that in a way that honors it and doesn't just use it as a tool essentially.

The world is a scary place right now. As an American I almost want to apologize to all my foreign friends for the fact that I am. Indie games allow people to have their own voice without people telling them they aren't allowed to say or do something, and that's needed now more than ever. So many people have words they want to put out in the world and games are an amazing way of doing it. A movie let's the viewer see and hear it, a book let's the reader read it, both of which are great, but with video games, the player has to engage with it and experience what you want to say. I'm someone who gets a lot more out of an idea or thought by experiencing it first hand than just being seeing or reading. Games like Citizen Sleeper and Disco Elysium are unapologetic in what they want to say.

One of the most important things indie games can do is make us smile. Don't get me wrong, they don't need to, I play a lot of Indie horror and I'm not smiling, I'm screaming. But with the world how it is, every day new things to drag us down or hurt us, we need to smile, we need kindship, and indie games are doing that better than anyone. "Friend slip" is a term that has been coined in an endearing way, to describe games that are all about ridiculous fun with friends. Games like R.E.P.O., Peak, and RV There Yet are all about the journey, not the destination. It's good to keep up with world events, it's good to help and do what you can, but without moments to remind you why it's so important, it WILL crush you, and games like these are here to remind you. R.E.P.O. is all about getting together with a few friends to try and find treasures in haunting environments, Peak see's friends trying to climb a mountain with so many fun and ridiculous ways to fail, and RV There yet is literally about the journey and working together with hilarious results. You need to laugh in order to remind you why you are going through each day to make the world a better place to laugh.

The last thing I want to talk about is creativity and questionable leadership. What I mean by questionable leadership isn't even "oh this crappy company bought this studio", while that is important, I'm focusing on "this studio tried something new and leadership decided it didn't do good enough by selling millions of copies so they are laying off everyone". Indie studio are not immune to this, Just recently massive layoffs hit the studio behind Highguard, and many others have experienced similar things, but it's so much more prevalent in AAA and bigger devs. Meanwhile you have an indie game like Mewgenics that announced in a couple hours it made back it's budget. That small team is safe and it didn't need to sell a ton. This also brings the questionable creativity of big developers into the spotlight. If it isn't guaranteed to be a hit or sell a ton, they don't want to greenlight it. Static Dread The Light, the last game I reviewed, would never have been made at a AAA studio. And I'm not talking about the game as it is, but the concept itself would never exist. Cozy games like Starsand Island, horror like Crisol Theater of Idols, and fun and wacky games like Demon Tides would never exist.

This creativity flourishes. Every person they touch has a chance of being inspired, has a chance to say "maybe I'll try something like this", has a chance to expand the boundaries of the game industry. Not just by giving them the ideas for games, but with game development at the easiest it's ever been, the rise of solo devs or dev teams comprised of a couple friends is giving us more chances to experience the beauty, horror, and vastness of the human mind, of the world around us. Gives us a chance to grow, to think, to laugh, and to love. Video games are beautiful, but indie games are crafted with love.