Gaming hosts Ace, Ryan, and John each share their top 5 indie games. From emotional story-driven gems to experimental hits that push the medium forward, this episode is a celebration of everything we love about video games. Whether you're looking for your next video game to play or just want to argue with our picks, we've got something for every kind of gamer. Your weekly dose of gaming passion, hidden gems, and indie game glory — from the Video Gamers Podcast. Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, and Gaius Connect with the show:Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspodJoin our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbzFollow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/ Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1 Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the top indie games discussed in this episode?
hello fellow gamers and welcome to the video gamers podcast i'm your host ace and today we're talking our top indies but before that with me is my indie brother in arms john hey what's up everybody super stoked for this episode oh this is gonna be a good one i'm very excited for this one and of course my newest recruit to the indie army The one and only Ryan.
Listen, I'm slowly accepting that some indie games are good. I'll take that.
Yeah, Ace, I would be a little hesitant to name him amongst our ranks today. Just with his very, very lukewarm response to Claire Obscure. I don't know. I don't know. He might be a defector in the making.
That could have been a triple A game. I would have the same response. So the developer made no difference.
Well, clearly, because it didn't make any difference for you how you felt about it. I mean, Baldur's Gate 3 won Game of the Year. It's an indie technically, so I'm thinking we're probably going to see another indie win Game of the Year, if you ask me.
There's two great contenders so far. I mean, between Claire Obscura and Kingdom Come. Do we actually even consider Kingdom Come 2?
I think technically two isn't, but one is. It's semantics, all sorts of stuff like that. But, you know, we got a really exciting episode here where we're going to break down our personal top five indies. And I'm very excited because I definitely have a lot I really want to talk about. I know you definitely do.
Yeah. I was like when when you mentioned that this was going to be the topic of this show and we're sort of curating it. I started thinking immediately. I was like, my top five indies is almost my top five just games in general. You know, I. Yeah.
We've had several conversations about this where indie games tend to feel like they have a lot more heart and they're able to take better risks because the financial risk is not as important. Well, it's probably more important, honestly.
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Chapter 2: Why are indie games considered more heartfelt than AAA games?
They put a lot on the line. Yeah, exactly. Sink or swim. Yeah, a bad game will probably tank an independent studio. But it happens with the bigger titles, too. Anyway. Most of my favorite games are indies, so this is awesome.
I'm in the same boat. I know you are too, right, Ryan? Most of your favorite games are surely indie games.
Totally, they are. My name's not Shirley.
Thanks for butchering that quote, by the way. I know. My name is not Shirley. I like indie games.
I just tend to like the polished depth of AAA titles. But I'm not taking away anything from what these indie developers do. I think they do some amazing work. They're doing the Lord's work, man. This stuff they create with, like, 5, 3, 10, 20-man teams is Claire Obscura, 30-man. Like, that's amazing. So, you know, no things against them. But, yeah, man, I'm excited to see what everybody's game is.
Is it safe to say you're also like a Nickelback fan and a Creed fan? Like, like really over.
Well, you know, we all just want to be big rock stars. No, gosh, no Nickelback. I just, I can't say the name without. They made a lot of money, though. I'll tell you that much. They did. They're doing something right. They're still around.
There's a lot of big, steamy piles of poop that have made a lot of money out there.
So did McDonald's, but here we are. Yeah, at least they're consistently poopy.
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Chapter 3: What makes Hades a standout indie game?
Such an awesome guy. Such a great interview. And such a great game. And the art style, the sort of Souls-like mechanics on a 2D, you know, really unique 2D aesthetic in that game. That game just really knocked it out of the park. The narrative was great. The kind of medieval rats and the thick black... Everything about it just really clicked with me, man.
And, you know, I'm glad to see that they've had such success with a dev team of, what was it, like five people or six people or something like that? It was real small because they don't even have an office, he said. They do everything remote.
Everything is remote.
Yeah, their audio people, like, live in a different country. You know, it's, like, crazy, man. So to see the little guy be so successful on such a novel project concept it was awesome and i just loved playing that game
It's such a unique game too. There's not a lot of sort of, I don't even know what you would call that because it's not really a Metroidvania. It's just like an action platformer, almost Souls-like in its difficulty. But there's not a lot of indie games in that genre that I can think of other than like Tales of Iron 1 and 2 and Salt and Sanctuary and its sequel.
That's the only other games I could think of that are like that. You didn't play it, Ryan. I know you did. But you loved looking at the art. You thought the art was stunning.
I thought, I thought it was awesome. I thought it was, it was amazing how they kind of layer everything, how, how the look of the game, um, you know, that, I mean, that's, that's what you see when you play it. So like it has that, that is so impactful.
It's so meaning, you know, meaningful, like you have to have something that looks good and looks intriguing, um, when you're going to play a game or if you're enticed to play something. So, um, For an indie studio to put what they did forth, it was pretty cool to see and then talk to them with Tales of Iron 2 and stuff. It's awesome, so it's a solid pick for sure.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Getting to see the heart of that was so cool. But I guess I'll take the next step here, and I want to talk about The Messenger. I actually made a little short for The Messenger back before we did FaceCam or anything like that over on our Instagram. That one kind of popped off a little bit, I will say. It did. If you haven't checked out our Instagram, go check it out.
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Chapter 4: How does Death's Door explore themes of mortality?
I think something that I've noticed with indie games, like Tales of Iron is a great representation of this, or Slay the Spire even, is that because there's such a limited budget... they have to lean into style to carry itself. And they're not worried about it being the most expansive or timely or anything. It's just more, is this a good piece of art? Is this a good track?
Does this resonate with us? It might not be the most popular thing or the most current thing, but it means something to this game. The visual style carries a lot too. Yeah. uh, tales of iron. If you were to pick it up today, the game several years old, it looks like it's brand new. You know, like it plays, it looks and it plays like it's brand new.
If you were to pick up like, I don't know, halo three or, or one of the older, like, uh, beat them up, uh, God of wars or whatever. They didn't age too well, man. You know, like, There's something about a small budget.
This extends itself to movies too, but smaller budget things tend to last a bit longer and I think maybe have a bit more of a resonant impact, if not a bigger splash like some of the AAA titles.
You tend to focus on the core of something, like the heart of something, more than the extra risen flair and all that type of stuff. Yeah. It does have some sort of longevity and something that could be good 30 years ago would be good now because it's got that core and that base to it. Yeah, it really makes them stand out.
All right, Ryan. Why don't you give us your number five?
It's your turn. Oh, yeah. So I'm going to go to the high-tech world of virtual reality. Yeah. I'm going to go with Superhot. Oh, yeah. Superhot is one of my favorite...
absolute favorite uh vr games of all time there is nothing like sitting and i'm gonna if you guys can watch like vr or in a video like you go like this and you have your joysticks and you have to dodge and you can look up and down and stuff
that's that's how you play the game it is it is so cool um what they did with this like it's the matrix it's uh john wick it's like everything you can imagine of all the coolest action movies in a vr video game that's why it's on my list it is it is so much fun it is just a cool hey bud you're over here, throw on this headset, play this game. And then, you know, anyone can pick it up.
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Chapter 5: What unique gaming experiences does Lethal Company provide?
Chapter 6: What is the significance of music in indie games?
purest form of a game it's the dream straight from the mind of a developer completely unfiltered as long as it's you know legal you know what's interesting ace i i'm curious about your feedback on this i feel are you familiar with a24 movies that yes yes okay
So they ended up rising to prominence and they're releasing a lot of movies now because the AAA movie titles have lost so much money over time. Like they've become stale and sort of repetitive and A24 started investing in these more like esoteric titles that have done really well on smaller budgets. And now a lot of titles, a lot of bigger movie companies are sort of following suit.
I think personally... I believe so.
I would say absolutely. I believe that's where the most promise is coming from. That's where we're seeing the most evolution. Because you have to innovate in the indie scene if you want to stand out. You can't just keep doing the same thing with a popular character. Right. or else they're just going to throw you away very fast. I agree. I agree.
It would be soft. If indie is the future of gaming, then once you become indie, then you also in turn become AAA. Oh, no.
Is the serpent eating its own tail? Exactly. That's the Batman thing. You either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain. Oh, no.
You become Ubisoft if you stay around too long.
We have too many employees. We better fire them all. Oh, God, yeah.
We're not getting into that. That's a whole other episode's worth of content there. But, you know, kicking us right off, John, why don't you start with us? Tell us what your top five indie is.
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Chapter 7: How do indie games challenge traditional gaming norms?
Hey, I'm putting content over there.
We're going to make a businessman out of you. But The Messenger is a super cool game. So it starts off like an 8-bit sort of running, not hack and slash platformer. I almost said running gun. There's no guns in The Messenger. But it's a hack and slash platformer similar to like Ninja Gaiden and such. But halfway through the game, you get to time travel.
And when you time travel, it also upgrades the amount of bits you get and the graphics change from 8-bit into 16-bit. And now it is in open-world Metroidvania. It's got great humor. It's got great graphics and... an incredible soundtrack. Like, I am not kidding. We love good soundtracks around here, and The Messenger is second to none, except for maybe, you know, one of John's picks later on.
Well, and one of your, actually several of mine and several of yours. I mean, like, when I'm looking at the remainder of my top five, like, man, the soundtrack stands out in all of them, and your list too, dude. That is something that seems to be ubiquitous in indie games. We brought it up before.
We brought it up several times. The music in indie games is just incredible.
It's weird. Why is that the case? Obviously, AAA games, they have to... They're willing to invest in it. Yeah, they have to have a dedication to the graphics and all these other things. But man, the indie games seem like they don't have the money. They don't have the resources to do something like this. But they always seem to pick the right theme and the right music to match their game.
And it always just plays out perfectly. It's wild how well in indie games the music matches.
I'm going to say it's just because they're willing to take the time and invest into it because this is their vision. This is their project. They want it to be perfect versus like a AAA studio, which is like, oh, we could cut some budget there. That's my guess. But what do you think, John?
Oh, I don't know. John agrees. John doesn't look like he agrees with me.
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