They all seem to be the same boring stardew valley/dead cells/anyotherauccessfullindiegame clones with pretty pixelart and too much time e commitment needed
There was a lot of lazy copies with flash games too. And that’s not unique for indie games or even video games. Every form of media has people copying what’s already successful
Some of the best games are copies of earlier games that flopped, because they were poorly implemented or lacked good marketing or were just ahead of their time.
Yeah there’s a lot of copycats, though even within that there’s some great stuff. My wife has been loving fields of mistria. But also I’m currently playing slay the spire 2 and loving it. You’ve got games like cult of the lamb, Rogue Legacy (1&2), every supergiant game, Cassette Beasts, and less well known ones like Song of the Deep. Flash games were their own thing and it was awesome, but with limited time for games these days I’d rather be playing modern indie games. But I understand why some people would feel the opposite
They definitely skew to the pixel games and the rogue-likes, due to the limitations of a cell phone interface. But Idk if I’d call stardew valley boring.
I had a lot of fun with Slay the Spire and Balatro. There’s a bunch of indie board games that are on mobile as well, Root being one of my favorites. And then there’s all the digital CCGs (basically the only way I play MtG anymore is on mobile).
I would say the bigger problem with finding good indie games is the nightmarish volume of bad games (both indie and otherwise) that crowd out everything in the marketplace. I learn about the ones I like through word of mouth. Anything I just randomly install and fool around with, I inevitably hate.
If you browse on itch.io by popularity and go down the list until you find one you’ve never heard of (or never played, if you want easier standards) that’s where the “newgrounds culture” is nowadays. Plenty of stuff that works in browser for free.
We absolutely didn’t celebrate its downfall. Flash had issues, but the culture of flash games was awesome.
That said, indie games are way better these days
They all seem to be the same boring stardew valley/dead cells/anyotherauccessfullindiegame clones with pretty pixelart and too much time e commitment needed
:: looks around nervously as someone who loves those specific games::
Yeah, I love the clones, it’s like bonus levels
the time commitement bit is real.
There was a lot of lazy copies with flash games too. And that’s not unique for indie games or even video games. Every form of media has people copying what’s already successful
Some of the best games are copies of earlier games that flopped, because they were poorly implemented or lacked good marketing or were just ahead of their time.
There are lots of other games as well. Let me recommend a couple:
If you like these narrative driven games especially Disco, you owe it to yourself to check out Esoteric Ebb and Many Nights a Whisper
Your “couple” is a whole extended polycule
Some people just have more exciting … gaming lives.
Disco Elysium by itself is an extended polycule.
The polycule is a state of mind
Yeah there’s a lot of copycats, though even within that there’s some great stuff. My wife has been loving fields of mistria. But also I’m currently playing slay the spire 2 and loving it. You’ve got games like cult of the lamb, Rogue Legacy (1&2), every supergiant game, Cassette Beasts, and less well known ones like Song of the Deep. Flash games were their own thing and it was awesome, but with limited time for games these days I’d rather be playing modern indie games. But I understand why some people would feel the opposite
They definitely skew to the pixel games and the rogue-likes, due to the limitations of a cell phone interface. But Idk if I’d call stardew valley boring.
I had a lot of fun with Slay the Spire and Balatro. There’s a bunch of indie board games that are on mobile as well, Root being one of my favorites. And then there’s all the digital CCGs (basically the only way I play MtG anymore is on mobile).
I would say the bigger problem with finding good indie games is the nightmarish volume of bad games (both indie and otherwise) that crowd out everything in the marketplace. I learn about the ones I like through word of mouth. Anything I just randomly install and fool around with, I inevitably hate.
Oh stardew wasn’t (ok, the start of year one, maybe)
Yeah, that seems to be the issue. It became so easy to make games (and now even more with vibe-coding) that the market is flooded, often with clones.
It’s just hard to find the good games now since there are so many
If you browse on itch.io by popularity and go down the list until you find one you’ve never heard of (or never played, if you want easier standards) that’s where the “newgrounds culture” is nowadays. Plenty of stuff that works in browser for free.
I was fucking about in Flash back when it was Macromedia Flash.
Yeah, a good many of us did not ‘celebrate’ its downfall… maybe we took it for granted, but that’s not the same thing.
Thankfully, NewGrounds is still up and operational.