I'll add more as I can, but it's important to pay attention to this topic for two reasons:
(1) Most of these games are (far) less than $20 bucks and can provide as much enjoyment, if not at least a TON more variety, than most retail games!
(2) There are going to be MORE indy/downloadable games in our future than retail games! They are no longer simple, one-trick-pony style games. A lot of the time they are made by independent studios un-restricted by big-money publishers dictating what needs to be made. All the fresh, new creativity of the game industry will be found HERE!
If you want me to elaborate on any, let me know! Feel free to add your own!
You know to add onto that Minecraft comment, it really is amazing how much the game has evolved over the past few years. My son has pretty much never stopped playing it, and I'll check in on what he's doing with it from time to time. I don't recognize half of the items in the game anymore. It's expanded so much. And if you see what modders have done to it on PC, it's even more remarkable. They've gone so far as to create actual games using the base of Minecraft as the engine. Nothing too remarkable, but there's a lot of interesting ideas all the same.
...the largest expansion to date just happened a month or two ago, so there's probably even MORE than you expect!
A lot of that has been true for quite awhile.
phantom_leo said:I'll add more as I can, but it's important to pay attention to this topic for two reasons:
(1) Most of these games are (far) less than $20 bucks and can provide as much enjoyment, if not at least a TON more variety, than most retail games!
(2) There are going to be MORE indy/downloadable games in our future than retail games! They are no longer simple, one-trick-pony style games. A lot of the time they are made by independent studios un-restricted by big-money publishers dictating what needs to be made. All the fresh, new creativity of the game industry will be found HERE!
I share this opinion and this development is something which causes me to be hopeful and optimistic about the future of videogames. I like that there are alternatives to the big production type games which most boxed releases nowadays are. None of the games on the current list seem to cater to my tastes currently though but I do have high hopes for this topic. Except perhaps that Rebel Galaxy game which looks interesting and sort of reminds me of an old PC RTS (Homeworld if I'm not mistaken). The others seem to have this kind of generic indie look and feel of the last 2-3 years. Also excluding Minecraft, which just looks like Minecraft but it doesn't interest me because I don't understand it or see the fascination.
I was recently very impressed by games like Stealth Inc 2, The Swapper, Fast Racing Neo, Shovel Knight, Mighty Switch Force/2, Thomas was Alone, Guacamelee (not to mention older ones like World of Goo which is one of my best games ever) and others and look forward to more high quality downloadable offerings.
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
Trust me when I say most of these games are not at all like the typical indie games that have been coming out for the last few years! It's hard to convey this in simple screen shots. Nuclear Throne, for example, is an AWESOMELY fun game! Finding a screen of that game that makes it even look like it makes sense, or where you can even discern the characters, is an issue though! A lot of these, sadly, are you have to play them to "get" them, but I don't think they offer demos for games like these!
phantom_leo said:Trust me when I say most of these games are not at all like the typical indie games that have been coming out for the last few years! It's hard to convey this in simple screen shots. Nuclear Throne, for example, is an AWESOMELY fun game! Finding a screen of that game that makes it even look like it makes sense, or where you can even discern the characters, is an issue though! A lot of these, sadly, are you have to play them to "get" them, but I don't think they offer demos for games like these!
You do convey the added complexity that most of these have. I'm not sure if that would make them altogether less endearing or more as the relative simplicity of many downloadable games is often an attractive attribute for me. Nuclear Throne, while I'm not crazy about the graphical style, looks good in a kind of "Total Carnage but ... Actually Good" kind of way though I'm convinced it will be another game that I will admire but will not be able to enjoy. Such as the likes of Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga and the scores of other impossible shmups I've been collecting.
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
Resogun looks like something I could potentially get into. I have it on the PS3 but I've been told it's a very stripped down version of the actual game.
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
I wouldn't say they are complex. A few of them are very simple to play but this hides a depth not often seen in most games, retail or indie.
Nuclear Throne is not a twin stick shooter. Nor is it bullet hell. The characters you choose aren't simply cosmetic. They change the way you play. The fish has a dodge roll. Crystal can make herself invulnerable for a moment and reflect incoming attacks. Melting can make the corpses of his enemes explode. Plant can snare his enemies and moves faster. There are times when, yes, the screen is full of bullets, but there are also times when you need to take cover and pick off enemies one by one. You are NOT constantly in motion like you would typically be in a twin stick. It isn't entirely reflex based.
Hand of Fate lets you build a deck of cards full of weapons, defenses, skills, etc, but you don't know which you are going to draw when you are playing. The battles play like a simplified Arkham City, but you never can be sure of what weapon you'll be holding or the skills you'll possess. The game keeps you on your toes this way. Battles can be easier or tougher depending on the luck of the draw.
None of these games are quite what you think they are... and I don't mean YOU, specfically, Bugsie.
A lot of the times Indies start with an idea where "Wouldn't it be cool if you could..." and they build a game around that. The games look familiar but they play quite unlike anything else! I'm not saying you're wrong by your expectations, but due to the nature of indies and "independent thought" they are not quite what you expect, either.
bugsonglass said:Resogun looks like something I could potentially get into. I have it on the PS3 but I've been told it's a very stripped down version of the actual game.
Ironically enough, I've had Resogun since day one with my PS4, but I never really got into it! I didn't find it as engaging as Super Stardust for some reason, although a few people do really love it...
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Gravity Rush Remastered -- Master gravity in a highly artistic, open-world that's half Ico and half inFamous. If the idea of plummeting from great heights at high speeds and fighting enemies to collect power-up orbs while searching for challenges in a visually distinct city is your cup of tea, you may just fall for this game!
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Crypt of the Necrodancer -- A rogue-like game where you must fight and move to the beat of excellent chip-tune songs. Highly unique and completely entrancing are the best words to describe a game that's a workout for your eyes, ears, rhythm and reflexes!
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The Witness -- Welcome to a gorgeous world created by Jonathan Blow designed to reward curiosity, test your logic and patience and teach you how to think outside the box. You'll get every cent's worth out of this forty-dollar, 600 puzzle, 80-plus-hour, downloadable title!
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This War of Mine: The Little Ones -- An emotional game set in the midst of a war where survival not only means finding medicine and food, but also ways to keep children happy and safe from harm to the benefit of all around them. (Haven't played yet, will add impressions once I do.)
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Updated with four new titles!
I can't express how much FUN Crypt of the NecroDancer is! Some games have good gameplay, some a thumping soundtrack... When you get a game that combines both, where the thump and the gameplay go hand in hand... It creates something sublime! I'll post a video of me playing, but it's something you should really try out yourself, if you get a chance!!
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For those that don’t know, you have to move, attack and take action to the beat of the song. Doing that builds up your Coin Multiplier.
The game itself is very Spelunky or Rogue Legacy-like in that you get temporary upgrades you lose when you die and permanent upgrades you can buy with Diamonds.
I love my Rogue-likes, but add the rhythmic gameplay to it and it becomes something entirely unique!!
There are very few games like this one, but developers need to wake up and pay attention. The marriage of things that are taken for granted a lot of the times into something else… VERY COOL!! 
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Rhythmic gameplay? Fuck it, I'm out. Rhythm games and I don't seem to get along. I don't think I ever got past the third stage of Rhythm Heaven.
I think I want Necromancer. Except it somehow reminds me a little bit of DigDug (I think the colour palette), and that game used to make me depressed.
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
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BROFORCE! -- PLAY AS RAMBRO, BROMMANDO, BRO HARD, MR. ANDERBRO, B.A. BRORACUS, SNAKE BROSKIN, THE BROMINATOR AND MOOOORE... IN THIS SIDE-SCROLLING SHOOTER REMINISCENT OF SOME OF THE BEST SUPER NINTENBRO GAMES FROM YESTERYEAR, BRO! FREE BROSTATION PLUS GAME, FOUR-BRO-SIMULTANEUS ONLINE GAMEPLAY, DESTRUCTIBROL ENVIRONMENTS AND THE PRIVILEGE OF DEFENDING DEMOCRACY FOR 'MERICA... WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED TO KNOW, BROS?!
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...and as soon as I get excited, a nasty bug rears it's ugly head... 
There's a bug that occurs around the beginning of levels that makes the controller stop responding for a few seconds; believe it or not, this often results in the player getting killed.
I'll update as soon as I hear of a fix!
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Don't Starve -- If Tim Burton co-developed a survival game with the brilliant team at Klei, this would be it! Devious game of foraging for materials, creating everything you need to survive and lasting just one more night before hunger or insanity claim your life!
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Abyss Odyssey -- You are the figment of a sleeping Warlock's dangerous imagination, which also happens to be bringing vast dungeons and grotesque creatures to life. A flawed but intriguing, side-scrolling, rogue-like title with an unusual art-style and game-play system closer to a one on one fighter than an action game!
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Salt and Sanctuary -- Side-scrolling Souls game sums it up perfectly! The risk/reward, multi-class system of the Souls games meets the action and graphics of Dishwasher: Vampire Smile and it TOTALLY works!!
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Enter the Gungeon -- Don't let the cute looks fool you! Think Binding of Isaac meets Nuclear Throne with randomly generated levels, but fixed enemy encounters, plus 200 guns to collect and a table-flipping, cover-based, twin-stick shooter, bullet-hell game-play system that all adds up to one of the BEST examples of this type of genre yet!!
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Tharsis -- A roll of the die decides whether you succeed or fail, live or die on a doomed missions to Mars. The developers of the Bit.Trip series develop a game where every, single roll creates hold-your-breath tension!
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The Banner Saga -- Create your own story in Final Fantasy Tactics meets A Game of Thrones. Stylized animation and thick-accented voice-acting are unusual for a slow to start but intriguing downloadable game.
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Rebel Galaxy -- Become a mercenary, miner, smuggler or hero in a space exploration game quite unlike any other. (More) stylized graphics meet interplanetary naval battles meet old-west music in a randomly generated galaxy you will gladly get lost in!
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Hand of Fate -- Yu-Gi-Oh! meets Arkham City where the cards you draw decide the weapons you carry, your defenses, enemies and traps! Part luck, part skill but always a fresh experience whenever you dive back in.
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Galak-Z -- A rogue-like, 2D space-shooter starring a pilot with a ship that transforms into a mech. If that description doesn't excitingly remind you of your Saturday afternoons when you were 7 years old, you must have popped out of your mom at age 30!
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Nuclear Throne -- Life isn't easy for the evolving, gun-toting Mutants that inhabit this procedurally-generated, top-down shooting rogue-like, but it sure is FUN! You'll probably never reach the Throne in this wildly-popular STEAM (and PS4!) darling, but you won't mind trying again and again and again!
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Shutshimi -- You play as a muscle-bound fish that needs to destroy his enemies and bosses in 10-second stages with a mostly random weapon arsenal! If WarioWare, Charlie Tuna and Parodius had a baby... it still wouldn't be as weird as this game!
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Minecraft -- Even if you've played Minecraft before, there's TONS of new stuff to discover. New biomes, new weapons, armors, stones, treasure, make it more of an adventure than it ever was in the past!
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