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Message: [QUOTE="Lena CE, post: 28185, member: 26523"] This has to win the thread because I've never disagreed with every syllable of such a long post before (had to delete most of the quote to stay within the character limit because I got carried away typing a response). Bravo, I'm attaching a $20 bill to a neighborhood squirrel and sending them your way as a prize. I wanna poke around a bit and ask some questions in good faith if you're down to talk about it more. I know your post was intentionally silly and hyperbolic and it definitely got some good chuckles outta me, but there is an interesting discussion to flesh out I think! The moment we start acting like Lethal League and Jet Set Radio are connected by anything other than certain aesthetic choices or that Undertale and Earthbound aren't extremely unique experiences from one another despite the former's obvious inspiration, ya lose me. I don't see a Lethal Company, Balatro, Inscryption, VA-11 Hall-A, Mouthwashing, Furi, Dwarf Fortress, Papers Please and plenty other big indie hits as anything but unique experiences even if - as you pointed out - you can recognize the influences just like with every game. Pikuniku, Nidhogg, Projections, The Longing, World of Horror, Lovely Planet, Cruelty Squad, Risk of Rain 2, Return of the Obra Dinn, Kenshi, Echopoint Nova and just sosososososososo sooooooo many more titles are just oozing unique art styles, mechanics and wholly unique gimmicks within their respective genres. There is endless innovation happening within the indie space and impossibly diverse selections of aesthetics and sensibilities. I honestly struggle to understand how anyone could look within the space and come away thinking that any other sector of the industry is half as ambitious or inventive. If you do any kind of modest digging into the space you'll be amazed at just how many incredibly unique projects are sitting on storefronts with less than 500-1000 reviews that you'll feel deserve the world. Like even if you hate pixel art you have every other aesthetic to shoot for from low poly PS1/N64 style games that are starting to really take off or more standard production values albeit generally with more polished art styles. In both gameplay and aesthetic you are absolutely spoiled for choice and it feels odd to come down so harshly on indie games for having inspirations or specific genres that they pull from. Have the last 10ish years of AAA video games not been the most homogonous, spineless era for that sector of the industry? Did the 5-6 years prior to that not become infested with endless FPS slop that chased the Call of Duty bandwagon? I say all of this because despite the length (and of course intentionally silly tone) of the comment I still come away not really understanding what your standard or general expectations for indie games even are. What would one have to do to not get instantly slapped with the label of lazy or derivative in an industry where almost every unique concept and new(ish) genre of game for the last 10ish years has come from or had its biggest hits within the indie space? Nowhere but the indie space will create Lorn's Lure, Swordcar, Teocida, Fumes, Hyper Demon, 500 Caliber Contractz or Elation for the Wonder Box 6000. You mention tons of Undertale-inspired games releasing in the wake of its success but I struggle to think of many. Quirky RPG is a pretty broad subject that has been around for decades anyways so it isn't like Undertale invented the concept. I guess you have Omori, Oneshot, YIIK and Knuckle Sandwich but all but the latter of those were in development around the same time so it isn't remotely fair to act like they're purely trying to ride the wave, especially when they're each so unique from each other in gameplay and aesthetic. This is a minor point though, doesn't really matter. Acting as though even the not-so-groundbreaking stuff like your Shovel Knight's or your Castle Crashers aren't also stellar and filling some kind of niche feels odd. I struggle to see how another farming sim - as oversaturated as that space seems to be nowadays - is doing anymore harm than the 50th over-the-shoulder AAA game or the 100th AAA live service multiplayer fad. Again I can appreciate that you just don't care for older aesthetics and that's totally fair, but it all comes back around to the big question. What exactly are you looking for and can you give any examples of that being done? Sorry for the essay, I just had to respond given how interesting of a rant it was. Again, I hope I'm not coming off confrontational or anything <3 [/QUOTE]

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