Please allow me to extol its virtues for anyone here who has not played it.
Still blows my mind that one guy made it in assembly. The amount of detail:
* You can click on any guest and see how much cash they are carrying, their favorite ride, and status bars like it's a whole park full of The Sims -- one year before The Sims was released
* You can name a guest and hit a notification button to get an alert everytime they do anything, like ride a ride, or buy a park map, or win first place at the go karts.
* You can pick them up and put them down anywhere in the park. You can even drop them in the lake and watch them drown.
* If you're understaffed on mechanics, your rides break down in unique ways: brakes fail on rollercoasters and ram into the next train. The merry-go-round starts spinning at ultra speed as the music speeds up and the riders start getting super sick.
* Every square of land is completely terraformable. You can send paths and rides through underground tunnels. You can create ponds under your rollercoasters and ducks will migrate in. If you click on a duck, it quacks!
* Every ride is customizable -- colors, ride time, wait time. You can synchronize one roller coaster with another so that their trains always leave at the same time and weave in and out of each other in loops for extra excitement. I'm not even going into the coaster physics.
Modern games like Planet Coaster are too sandboxy to hit the management charm of RCT. If you're reading this and have ever been interested, PLEASE go buy it; RCT2 Triple Pack goes on sale for $2.50 frequently on Steam and install OpenRCT2 which adds support for modern resolutions etc. Don't expect RCT3 or any of the spinoffs or official remakes to be as good, they're not.
Just want to add. You can also buy the original on mobile, and from what I've heard, the original creator gets the money, not the company that bought the rct license
If you haven't heard, the craziest thing about the original Rollercoaster tycoon is the guy coded it *in Assembly*, which is a very base level coding language. Basically as if someone built their own car, but not by using pre-made parts, but they smelted the metal and crafted/welded every little piece as well. Absolutely bonkers achievement
I also didn't like Planet Coaster. It's a great sandbox game that lets you create a beautiful park. But I'm more drawn to the management part of games and in Planet Coaster, there's just no challenge.
I did enjoy RCT3 a lot though. That game kept the management part of the first two games.
It was made by one guy (Chris Sawyer, a legend in game development) and is written 99% in assembly. Graphics and everything. Only the APIs to windows and the Hardware are written in C
What a madman. That’s a game that will always have a special place in my heart. First game I ever played pirated. Got it from a friend who burnt it to a cd for me. Gave me a nasty virus and I had to reformat mine and my friends computers. Which also led to me and my friend doing some stupid shit out of boredom and almost getting arrested while waiting for his computer to finish.
Good times.
Yep, coded entirelt by one guy, in Assembly which is to my understanding absolutely hellish to do anything in, but resulted in it being functional on basically any machine.
To make it even more insane, one of them was exclusively the composer. 2 guys did everything else: lore, art, programming, design, story, animation, scripting. Everything other than the music (and maybe other sound stuff)
Edit: looks like I’m wrong. Team Cherry is 3 people with the composer being a 4th they contracted/collabed with. Still insane and so incredibly well done, just not “more insane”
Not gonna lie, sometimes when something unexpected and daunting happens in my life, Nightmare King Grimm’s theme starts playing in my brain. That one goes HARD
Half way through my first playthrough, i did something I've never done and went looking online for the developer so I could express my admiration for the game, was pleasantly surprised to see team cherry are fellow Aussies.
It was so indie the studio nearly went bankrupt midway through development, and it was only big youtubers (like jacksepticeye and markiplier) playing it that caused a MASSIVE influx of people buying the alpha that allowed them to finish development. We almost never got a finished release
Oh I didn't know that! I bought it in early access because of Markiplier (his screams whenever something mildly scary happened... 10/10), always been a bit bummed that I 'played i through' without being able to experience the whole game but nice to hear that it helped keep development going.
On top of that, it was one of the first notable games to succeed using the early access model.
...we can almost blame it for the massive amount of indie early access survival games that we see today haha
Can't wait to get into it. I still have some story left in Hades. And I know if I would just pick up Hades 2 right away, it would be too much Hades for me. But it's on my wishlist and after having some break, I am super excited to pick it up. For long I thought Hades isn't game for me but ended up being super awesome.
This is an apt description that somehow even expands to their composer Darren Korb. I don't know how a small company that makes such consistently good games is matched up, in house, with an absolutely top shelf musician, since the skills aren't really intrinsically related.
They do lean into the music in a way other games don't, though. I'll never forget the end of Bastion with Zia and Zulf's songs overlayed, and it's gotten even better since.
So glad for Supergiant that Hades blew up more than ever.
Not exactly the same but just yesterday I died to the bomb timer skull trap on my final run (20 heat) of the bow. Hades was one hit away from my victory and I managed to freeze up and fuck up anyway. I kinda feel your pain lol
I remember seeing the updates occasionally about how good it looked and they were going for heavy realism, and my thought was: this is a game going to be stuck in development hell forever before coming out and being a massive disappointment.
Couldn't be happier I was wrong! I love that game.
When you get to Rattay train a lot extra with the guy that teaches you the basics of fighting. Go hunting (poaching really) to improve your bow skill.
Until you level up and get decent gear you should probably run from most fights. The millers buy stolen goods (along with poached meat) and thieving is a decent way to get money early on.
Yep the best way to learn combat in KCD is by actually fighting. Just go through the main story a bit and the captain leading it heads back to the main town of Rattay where he’ll hang out at the combat area every day and offer to spar with you for free.
Once you can hold your own against him you’ll be able to carve up any bandit you come across
If you’re fast traveling and get a random encounter check when the last save was and decide if you really want to risk losing that play time if you die. If not then just get on your horse and run because those encounters can go very bad very quickly and losing 30 minutes to a badly timed ambush absolutely sucks.
On that same note make a habit of saving before fast traveling. I get the lack of quicksave is supposed to discourage save scumming but it really sucks to lose 30+ minutes of progress because of a random encounter.
Also one last note about saving - the save and exit is free (doesn’t use the Saviour drink), BUT it auto deletes itself when you log back in. It’s not a “real” save just a temporary one.
Another tip, in the first town skalitz (however it's spelt) grab every flower or plant you can find, eventually you'll upgrade your skill so every plant you sell goes for twice as much I'm pretty sure. Been awhile since I played
My colleague lives in the town of Stříbrná Skalice. He always says how tourist traffic picked up when the game dropped. There are actually places with little signs that tell you what part of the town you're in and what role that place had in the game. lol
I've been to Kutna Hora a few times for the bone church mostly but always struck me how little tourism seems to get there for what a beautiful town it is. Hope that picks up a bit with its inclusion in the second game.
At least with Ori you would be quite right. As it was financed and published by Microsoft (and the studio owned by Microsoft), it is not an Indie game.
That was one of the co-founders of the company, the game was called Somerville and it's like a 6/10.
However, the lead game designer of Limbo and Inside left to make a game called Cocoon which is a 10/10 and won tons of game awards last year. (It's on Gamepass, too!)
Omg so yes they are making a 3rd game in space and in 3d with limbo and inside vibes. One of the original creators left the company and created his own and they made Cocoon. A fantastic puzzle game with limbo vibes . I highly recommend while we wait for Playdead’s 3rd game
Also to be clear to others, Cocoon is not the game that /u/RandomPersonBob said in this thread came out to lukewarm reviews, which was "Somerville". That's a separate case of Playdead staff leaving to make their own game 😁. Personally I think Somerville is pretty interesting, but yeah Cocoon is so good and feels much more like Limbo and Inside in playstyle and world-building.
every single pixel in the game is part of the complex system.
I remember someone telling me about how cats can die of alcohol poisoning from stepping on spilled alcohol and licking their paws.
the fucking game counted the alcohol content of a cat's paws and caused the cat to die from too much alcohol. from licking its paws.
Oh that game is a legacy for my family. My father taught me to play a long time ago back in its original design and it was so fun despite me not understanding a single bit. At least there is a mild bit of dwarf therapist in base game now
If its the scene im thinking of (top down incendiary shotgun) it didnt directly inspire it. That scene is inspired by Hong Kong Massacre, but that itself takes heavy inspiration from Hotline Miami.
One of my favourite games ever and probably the only game I've played that's truly captured the feeling of gun-fu. The vibe and setting and story are great, too, and I love the unfairly maligned sequel as well
TUNIC is too unique to be a AAA game I feel like. Every inch of that game SCREAMS zelda 1 love letter, while still being one of the most unique and interesting games i’ve ever played.
Plus its been over eight years since the game came out and he just released a huge update last month. Sure, he totally could have retired years ago just on Stardew alone but he's making his follow up game plus continues to update Stardew. Updates are free too!
Especially before the later updates
the community center was really the only “storyline” the game had, and after you completed it the only thing left to do in game was to make as much money until you got bored with the game
Its really an unique game, there is nothing else like it. You can tell its an indie game from its length, though.
Basically, it weaves being a roguelike into its story because reality is unstable in the zone so literally anything can happen and things change constantly.
Literally anything, like an anomaly popping out of a trunk and healing your car or a creepy moving statue throwing a god tier car part with randomized stats that were god tier.
I hope they make a sequel. They left it open for one but I don't think it sold very well.
Pacific Drive got to be a slog near the end, and it’s very repetitive both gameplay-wise and art assets-wise, but holy shit did they nail the vibe. I still listen to the soundtrack on Spotify all the time.
You can tell they ran out of funding towards Zone 3.
Not very well balanced, less content than the other zones, and the only thing there is a button that teleports you back for free.
Stardew Valley is the best. It’s the perfect decompression game for when you’ve had a rough day at work and just wanna come home and distract your mind for a bit. It’s so great that it’s basically set up in 10-15min intervals.
I feel this deep in my bones lol. I have bought it for Xbox, PS5, Switch, and PC.
PC was most recent and with SVE and Ridgeside, I’m in over my damn head lol
With 1.6 update everything got screwed so I haven’t had the energy to fix it all so I’ve been playing on console. But boy do I miss my automatic gates
I almost didn't play this game because my brother recommended Slay the Spire so I bought it during the last sale, I was deciding between the two.
So anyway I played Slay for about 2 hours and sure it was kinda fun, but I don't know man, something was missing. It wasn't really clicking for me.
Next day I refunded it, 24 hours later I used the funds to get Inscryption, and the rest is history. I could not stop playing, and I'm still working on the last 2 achievements playing Kacey's mod. What an amazing game it is
Scrolled WAAAYYY too far to find The Forest.
Especially looking at their second one, which I'm sure still doesn't qualify as AAA, its visuals are on par with RDRII.
Enshrouded. The voxel tech and building system where you can take over entire CITIES and rebuild them seems like what I expect AAA to do.
But its an indie dev with 1 prior game, and self published.
Man I played it a bit with a friend, the atmosphere is great and it's got one of the best building mechanics I've seen. But it's boring. Explore, go home, explore a little further, go home, etc etc.
No real sense of progression imo
Yeah the progression is way too tied to RNG of loot and altar upgrades. Getting a bad roll at a chest means no progress for you.
You cant even trust your blacksmith because his weapons are always underleveled when you unlock them.
It wouldn't be big a problem but the "hardcore" crowd complained they wanted the combat more like Dark Souls or Bloodbhorne and the game was too easy. Now the devs made combat way more punishing and a level 11 enemy can still be a threat to a level 20 character with end game equipment.
I went back to the capital city (lvl 15) as a level 20 with a lvl 23 sword and got my ass handed to me thinking I was so high level I can stroll in, melee everything so i dont waste arrows, and loot all the free copper arrows everywhere.
My legendary lvl 23 daggers with scaling dmg for rangers did less dmg than the lower quality sword I wasnt specced to use. It was also slower and has terrible block and counter.
My lvl 23 sword couldnt even 1 hit a zombie bug, and my lvl 19 armor might as well be tissue paper because I was taking insane damage.
I dont see how the devs can expect new players with low durability gear and next to no good ammo to fight through a massive city **the size of a Witcher 3 city** with tons of zombie soldiers, MULTIPLE giant boss zombies with giant axes, MULTIPLE flying mage boss zombies **with heat seeking missiles**, AND fight a giant zombie dragon at the very end just so they can level up their altar, and enter the **mid game**.
In the "easy" era of the game, I was still jumping from roof to roof until I reached the throne room because street level was fog covered DEATH.
Now I cannot imagine making it through this quest with the gear I had at the time even with the route I used.
I really hope the devs stop listening to the "hardcore" people
Ugh. I haven't played that, but I've been victim to the "improved combat" update plenty of times. Go play one of the nine billion soulslikes out there, leave ONE for the rest of us, please!
Dyson sphere program. Such a big scale and runs great. Some rogue likes like dead cells hollow knight. I don't know anything about the devs of remnant from the ashes but feels like not aaa but awesome. Haven't played the second one yet. Trying to beat the first one to death and still learning.
Stray. It just feels like one of those gems a big name company would take a chance on, especially with how popular cats are on social media and meme culture. It doesn't seem like an expensive risk.
Yeah most of the picks on this thread are just really good indie games. But this felt like a AAA in terms of quality/graphics/animation. They used the budget really well in the right places.
I think the criticism it gets is due to people assuming it was a big budget game.
Game is almost transformative, if you have someone to play with. It got me in my wife through last winter and bonded us.
She usually hates games where you have to use the twin sticks to aim, but the game is so engaging that she's become our marksman bow and arrow user
Hades, Cocoon, Dredge, Outer Wilds, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, and Ori.
Dave the Diver I guess, but it’s not technically an indie. Feels like one though.
I’ve pretty much completely shifted away from AAA titles outside of a few studios. The quality of indie content within the past 10 years to now is outstanding.
While I loved A Hat in Time, it did have some problems imo, it's one of the few games I've played on PC that gave me some issues, including crashes, but otherwise, it's a fantastic game that feels taken out of Nintendo's platformer golden age.
I dig how they are basically going into hibernation. They developed this beautiful generative experience, and instead of rushing into a new project half-assed, just sorta said "we did what we set out to do," and return back to their normal lives sorta like a modern day videogame Cincinnatus.
I don't like this assumption that perfect=AAA quality when the last decade has shown most AAA games are dogshit lol.
But an indie game currently in EA that has some crazy production value I think is No Rest For The Wicked from the Ori devs.
The game surprised me with how polished everything was and the pure sense of style and atmosphere.
But also Helldivers 2 is a great indie game that definitely has AAA quality things in it.
I can't be the only one who thinks that for the last 5 years or so, AAA has been synonymous with expensive trash. Maybe I'm being bah-humbug, but I've not felt, "Wow, this game feels AAA!" because recently almost all games with passion behind them aren't AAA.
Dyson sohere program. Made by 5 team from china IIRC.
64 or 32 systems max with some having 3 or 4 planets each. Each planet still doing the stuff if you leave and having their own stats as in: inclinations, time of day, time needed to rotate the sun. Is it tidal locked, is it tidal reversed. How strong is the %solar power in said planet, if its closer to the sun its better. How much wind is in the planet.
Full on planet waters, full on ice planets, full on dessert planets.
And the stars, theres multiple stars types in the game like IRL, each has their size, like power. Meaning how much thry can power your dyson sphere.
Neutron stars and black holes have their own special resource that has so small quantity that you cant just use it like that.
Outer system logistics stations. Meaning you can trade stuff from planets to help build bigger factories.
The tech tree is huge and somethings just stack as much as you want.
Also remember the special resource I mentioned? You can stack a perk that uses less material from the ore veins meaning all the ores last longer. So that 40k something special ore can be as good as millions or just plain infinity. It takes a while but, just build science for it.
And of course, building a dyson sphere and actually seeing it being made. Want to fly near it. Be my fucking guest. It takes a while? Just make more rockets. Need more resources. Welp, theres tons of planets with millions resources each just for you.
Salt and Sanctuary.
Never been a Souls fan, but as soon as I saw this charming little 2d game, I knew I had to buy it.
Played through about 8 times now and its still ridiculously fun
Kingdom Come: Deliverance has so much effort and detail
Honestly, if the graphics and audio were better, I wouldn't think it's AAA, because AAA games aren't that good...
Glad the announced a sequel, and I hope they put as much detail as they did the first time
Rollercoaster tycoon
Please allow me to extol its virtues for anyone here who has not played it. Still blows my mind that one guy made it in assembly. The amount of detail: * You can click on any guest and see how much cash they are carrying, their favorite ride, and status bars like it's a whole park full of The Sims -- one year before The Sims was released * You can name a guest and hit a notification button to get an alert everytime they do anything, like ride a ride, or buy a park map, or win first place at the go karts. * You can pick them up and put them down anywhere in the park. You can even drop them in the lake and watch them drown. * If you're understaffed on mechanics, your rides break down in unique ways: brakes fail on rollercoasters and ram into the next train. The merry-go-round starts spinning at ultra speed as the music speeds up and the riders start getting super sick. * Every square of land is completely terraformable. You can send paths and rides through underground tunnels. You can create ponds under your rollercoasters and ducks will migrate in. If you click on a duck, it quacks! * Every ride is customizable -- colors, ride time, wait time. You can synchronize one roller coaster with another so that their trains always leave at the same time and weave in and out of each other in loops for extra excitement. I'm not even going into the coaster physics. Modern games like Planet Coaster are too sandboxy to hit the management charm of RCT. If you're reading this and have ever been interested, PLEASE go buy it; RCT2 Triple Pack goes on sale for $2.50 frequently on Steam and install OpenRCT2 which adds support for modern resolutions etc. Don't expect RCT3 or any of the spinoffs or official remakes to be as good, they're not.
Just want to add. You can also buy the original on mobile, and from what I've heard, the original creator gets the money, not the company that bought the rct license
Nice try, company that bought the rct license…
If you haven't heard, the craziest thing about the original Rollercoaster tycoon is the guy coded it *in Assembly*, which is a very base level coding language. Basically as if someone built their own car, but not by using pre-made parts, but they smelted the metal and crafted/welded every little piece as well. Absolutely bonkers achievement
I also didn't like Planet Coaster. It's a great sandbox game that lets you create a beautiful park. But I'm more drawn to the management part of games and in Planet Coaster, there's just no challenge. I did enjoy RCT3 a lot though. That game kept the management part of the first two games.
The OG indie game written in assembly
Wait rollercoaster tycoon was made in assembly?? Im taking an assembly language class right now, i wouldn’t wish that task on my worst enemy.
It was made by one guy (Chris Sawyer, a legend in game development) and is written 99% in assembly. Graphics and everything. Only the APIs to windows and the Hardware are written in C
What a madman. That’s a game that will always have a special place in my heart. First game I ever played pirated. Got it from a friend who burnt it to a cd for me. Gave me a nasty virus and I had to reformat mine and my friends computers. Which also led to me and my friend doing some stupid shit out of boredom and almost getting arrested while waiting for his computer to finish. Good times.
Should have gotten it from a cereal box like the rest of us
I want to get off Mr. Bones Wild Ride
God I loved that game, that and RCT2 were my childhood.
Wait what? That game that absolutely the entire world had either played or knew of was and is an indie game? Holy shit.
Yep, coded entirelt by one guy, in Assembly which is to my understanding absolutely hellish to do anything in, but resulted in it being functional on basically any machine.
Hollow knight blew my mind that it was created by THREE PEOPLE. The game feels expensive.
Hollow Knight is so damn good its crazy. Didn't know it was just 3 people thats insane.
To make it even more insane, one of them was exclusively the composer. 2 guys did everything else: lore, art, programming, design, story, animation, scripting. Everything other than the music (and maybe other sound stuff) Edit: looks like I’m wrong. Team Cherry is 3 people with the composer being a 4th they contracted/collabed with. Still insane and so incredibly well done, just not “more insane”
Makes sense actually cause the score is so damn good and adds a lot. Thats really cool appreciate the lore.
Not gonna lie, sometimes when something unexpected and daunting happens in my life, Nightmare King Grimm’s theme starts playing in my brain. That one goes HARD
Right when I read the thread title I thought to myself Hollow Knight. Glad to see this at the top. …Silksong still exists right guys?
The real Silksong is the amount of times we have been blueballed by Team Cherry
Half way through my first playthrough, i did something I've never done and went looking online for the developer so I could express my admiration for the game, was pleasantly surprised to see team cherry are fellow Aussies.
hollow knight is well made but i feel like most modern 2d platformers automatically feel like an indie game
That may be related to the fact that most modern 2d platformers are indie games. I can only remember one exception off the top of my head
I’m playing Hollow Knight right now! Just beat the game and 4 pantheons. Y’all know what time it is 😄 (🥲🫡)
Huh, had no idea. That's amazing.
I loved HK, it’s simply a great game.
Cuphead
It took so long to make because a small team had to draw everything.
Each frame handdrawn…
and the game even has animation inconsistencies on purpose! like cuphead's gloves turning yellow at the end screen of each level
Platinumed Cuphead a couple years back. One of my top 3 gaming achievements along with Platinum RDR2. Slot 3 is reserved for Hollow Knight’s Plat.
If you haven’t already do the Cuphead dlc too!
That’s part of the plat. DLC was easier in some ways than the main game lol.
SUBNAUTICA WAS INDIE???
Yes
GOD THAT SHAKES ME
It was so indie the studio nearly went bankrupt midway through development, and it was only big youtubers (like jacksepticeye and markiplier) playing it that caused a MASSIVE influx of people buying the alpha that allowed them to finish development. We almost never got a finished release
Oh I didn't know that! I bought it in early access because of Markiplier (his screams whenever something mildly scary happened... 10/10), always been a bit bummed that I 'played i through' without being able to experience the whole game but nice to hear that it helped keep development going.
I didn’t play it until it released. But it’s people like you that allowed me to experience that game to its fullest and I thank you for it
On top of that, it was one of the first notable games to succeed using the early access model. ...we can almost blame it for the massive amount of indie early access survival games that we see today haha
Hades. I still play it to this day. Can't wait to start the sequel.
Of course you still play it THERE IS NO ESCAPE
Is supergiant an indie studio? Edit: just looked. 24 people on their team. That’s impressive for how good it is.
Darren Korb basically does the work of an entire team by himself. That man is a god.
Ugh, the music this man has done. Transistor, bastion, so goood
Dude Hades 2 is sooo good even as Early Access. I can’t wait to see it finished!
It's already bigger than Hades and it's not even finished
Can't wait to get into it. I still have some story left in Hades. And I know if I would just pick up Hades 2 right away, it would be too much Hades for me. But it's on my wishlist and after having some break, I am super excited to pick it up. For long I thought Hades isn't game for me but ended up being super awesome.
[удалено]
This is an apt description that somehow even expands to their composer Darren Korb. I don't know how a small company that makes such consistently good games is matched up, in house, with an absolutely top shelf musician, since the skills aren't really intrinsically related. They do lean into the music in a way other games don't, though. I'll never forget the end of Bastion with Zia and Zulf's songs overlayed, and it's gotten even better since. So glad for Supergiant that Hades blew up more than ever.
What really tricked me was that Supergiants first game Bastion wasn't an indie game.
It depends on your definition. It was originally developed/funded independently, Warner Brothers signed on very late
Lost my 36 heat run on Hades’ second form. That was a year and a half ago. I just can’t bring myself to go back.
Not exactly the same but just yesterday I died to the bomb timer skull trap on my final run (20 heat) of the bow. Hades was one hit away from my victory and I managed to freeze up and fuck up anyway. I kinda feel your pain lol
Obligatory ROCK AND STONE!
What a perfect game. DID I HEAR A ROCK AND STONE?
Rock and stone brothers
ROCK AND STONE TO THE BONE!
If you don't rock and stone, you ain't coming home !
YEAH! ROCK AND STONE!
FER KARL!
Rockidy rock and stone!
DID I JUST HEAR A ROCK AND STONE??! Such a great game, I'm glad I got into it lol
Don't tell Karl
Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
I remember seeing the updates occasionally about how good it looked and they were going for heavy realism, and my thought was: this is a game going to be stuck in development hell forever before coming out and being a massive disappointment. Couldn't be happier I was wrong! I love that game.
And they caught us off-guard with how soon they're releasing the second game from the first announcement trailer they did recently lol
I love it when devs do that xD. "Here is the trailer for highly anticipated game ! Btw, it's out next week"
And the sequel is coming soon. Can't wait
I just got it on my Steam Deck for $6 because I’ve heard such great things but it strikes me as intimidating. Any tips?
When you get to Rattay train a lot extra with the guy that teaches you the basics of fighting. Go hunting (poaching really) to improve your bow skill. Until you level up and get decent gear you should probably run from most fights. The millers buy stolen goods (along with poached meat) and thieving is a decent way to get money early on.
Yep the best way to learn combat in KCD is by actually fighting. Just go through the main story a bit and the captain leading it heads back to the main town of Rattay where he’ll hang out at the combat area every day and offer to spar with you for free. Once you can hold your own against him you’ll be able to carve up any bandit you come across
If you’re fast traveling and get a random encounter check when the last save was and decide if you really want to risk losing that play time if you die. If not then just get on your horse and run because those encounters can go very bad very quickly and losing 30 minutes to a badly timed ambush absolutely sucks. On that same note make a habit of saving before fast traveling. I get the lack of quicksave is supposed to discourage save scumming but it really sucks to lose 30+ minutes of progress because of a random encounter. Also one last note about saving - the save and exit is free (doesn’t use the Saviour drink), BUT it auto deletes itself when you log back in. It’s not a “real” save just a temporary one.
Another tip, in the first town skalitz (however it's spelt) grab every flower or plant you can find, eventually you'll upgrade your skill so every plant you sell goes for twice as much I'm pretty sure. Been awhile since I played
My colleague lives in the town of Stříbrná Skalice. He always says how tourist traffic picked up when the game dropped. There are actually places with little signs that tell you what part of the town you're in and what role that place had in the game. lol
I've been to Kutna Hora a few times for the bone church mostly but always struck me how little tourism seems to get there for what a beautiful town it is. Hope that picks up a bit with its inclusion in the second game.
Jesus Christ be Praised! The sequel comes out later this year
Crazy amount of depth and world size for a small studio
Jsyk, those that are interested, it is on steam sale for 6$ 80% off allegedly
This is an indie game? The detail and love poured into this game is crazy
The best singleplayer RPG of all time to me. What a game, cant wait for KCD2.
For me, Ori and Cuphead are the definition of “indie AAA”.
At least with Ori you would be quite right. As it was financed and published by Microsoft (and the studio owned by Microsoft), it is not an Indie game.
Moon Studio does work with microsoft a lot but they are not owned by them, they are still fully independent for the time being
INSIDE and LIMBO. (Speaking of, what are those devs up to? Are they still around?)
Inside might be one of the greatest games I've played.
Play little nightmares and LN2
It’s just perfect.
How have you not heard of Cocoon??
They are working on an indie scifi, still waiting patiently for it One of the developers left and made his own, which came out to Luke warm reviews.
That was one of the co-founders of the company, the game was called Somerville and it's like a 6/10. However, the lead game designer of Limbo and Inside left to make a game called Cocoon which is a 10/10 and won tons of game awards last year. (It's on Gamepass, too!)
Omg so yes they are making a 3rd game in space and in 3d with limbo and inside vibes. One of the original creators left the company and created his own and they made Cocoon. A fantastic puzzle game with limbo vibes . I highly recommend while we wait for Playdead’s 3rd game
Also to be clear to others, Cocoon is not the game that /u/RandomPersonBob said in this thread came out to lukewarm reviews, which was "Somerville". That's a separate case of Playdead staff leaving to make their own game 😁. Personally I think Somerville is pretty interesting, but yeah Cocoon is so good and feels much more like Limbo and Inside in playstyle and world-building.
Dwarf fortress The artful escape
every single pixel in the game is part of the complex system. I remember someone telling me about how cats can die of alcohol poisoning from stepping on spilled alcohol and licking their paws. the fucking game counted the alcohol content of a cat's paws and caused the cat to die from too much alcohol. from licking its paws.
Oh that game is a legacy for my family. My father taught me to play a long time ago back in its original design and it was so fun despite me not understanding a single bit. At least there is a mild bit of dwarf therapist in base game now
Hotline Miami, although retro style, is better than a fuck ton of pretty games.
If you inspire a game that inspires an action sequence in John Wick you did a good job and are a certified classic
Which one specifically?
John Wick 4 has a top down perspective scene just like Hotline Miami gameplay.
If its the scene im thinking of (top down incendiary shotgun) it didnt directly inspire it. That scene is inspired by Hong Kong Massacre, but that itself takes heavy inspiration from Hotline Miami.
Jacob Geller fan detected
I absolutely adore this game and the sequel. The music, ambience, brutal difficulty...aww man it hit every note so damn right
One of my favourite games ever and probably the only game I've played that's truly captured the feeling of gun-fu. The vibe and setting and story are great, too, and I love the unfairly maligned sequel as well
Yeha this game was pioneering and a perfect example of spawning copycats that fail to understand what makes Hotline Miami so addictive.
Hades was stellar
Hades might be one of the greatest indies ever made.
I love Hades tremendously. I just wish I didn't suck so bad at it lol
Tunic
TUNIC is too unique to be a AAA game I feel like. Every inch of that game SCREAMS zelda 1 love letter, while still being one of the most unique and interesting games i’ve ever played.
The perfect blind playthrough game. Every time I try to play it again it just doesn’t feel the same
For me, it's Outer Wilds ! Should definitively give Tunic a try :)
stardew valley and pacific drive really surprised me
Stardew valley is incredible but i don't know if i would ever mistake it for a AAA game
It has cozy indie game vibes
I agree, but the fact that it's made entirely by one guy makes it even more ridiculous imo
Plus its been over eight years since the game came out and he just released a huge update last month. Sure, he totally could have retired years ago just on Stardew alone but he's making his follow up game plus continues to update Stardew. Updates are free too!
Especially before the later updates the community center was really the only “storyline” the game had, and after you completed it the only thing left to do in game was to make as much money until you got bored with the game
Pacific Drive and Dredge just hit that really weird spot in video games perfectly.
Now I really have to try Pacific Drive because Dredge is the best video game experience I've had in years.
Its really an unique game, there is nothing else like it. You can tell its an indie game from its length, though. Basically, it weaves being a roguelike into its story because reality is unstable in the zone so literally anything can happen and things change constantly. Literally anything, like an anomaly popping out of a trunk and healing your car or a creepy moving statue throwing a god tier car part with randomized stats that were god tier. I hope they make a sequel. They left it open for one but I don't think it sold very well.
Pacific Drive got to be a slog near the end, and it’s very repetitive both gameplay-wise and art assets-wise, but holy shit did they nail the vibe. I still listen to the soundtrack on Spotify all the time.
You can tell they ran out of funding towards Zone 3. Not very well balanced, less content than the other zones, and the only thing there is a button that teleports you back for free.
Stardew Valley is the best. It’s the perfect decompression game for when you’ve had a rough day at work and just wanna come home and distract your mind for a bit. It’s so great that it’s basically set up in 10-15min intervals.
If it's set up for 10-15 intervals, then why does my switch say I have 1000 hours in it, hm!? 🤣🤣
I feel this deep in my bones lol. I have bought it for Xbox, PS5, Switch, and PC. PC was most recent and with SVE and Ridgeside, I’m in over my damn head lol With 1.6 update everything got screwed so I haven’t had the energy to fix it all so I’ve been playing on console. But boy do I miss my automatic gates
Dead cells
Incredible game especially with all the DLC. It's like a perfect combination of roguelike and metroidvania while also doing its own things.
Hollow knight
I can’t believe I haven’t seen Inscryption. That game changed me man
I almost didn't play this game because my brother recommended Slay the Spire so I bought it during the last sale, I was deciding between the two. So anyway I played Slay for about 2 hours and sure it was kinda fun, but I don't know man, something was missing. It wasn't really clicking for me. Next day I refunded it, 24 hours later I used the funds to get Inscryption, and the rest is history. I could not stop playing, and I'm still working on the last 2 achievements playing Kacey's mod. What an amazing game it is
I love both these games. 2 hours of Slay isn't enough to get a proper feel of it imp. I would go back to it if I was you.
Inscryption is a perfect gaming gem that I look for once every 5 years or so. Incredible game. Another one due soon.
Satisfactory? Think should count
The factory game with AAA FPS movement mechanics.
I tried some fps games during next fest and I think about the factory game anytime I try to slide and it doesn’t work.
It crushes my hopes when people do not take movement into considerstion. It breaks most games for me.
I just Googled and had no idea that it is only about 40 people involved in making this game. That is quite fascinating
Yup! Its a fairly small team for what they have created!
The Long Dark/The Forest
Scrolled WAAAYYY too far to find The Forest. Especially looking at their second one, which I'm sure still doesn't qualify as AAA, its visuals are on par with RDRII.
Enshrouded. The voxel tech and building system where you can take over entire CITIES and rebuild them seems like what I expect AAA to do. But its an indie dev with 1 prior game, and self published.
Enshrouded is my survival crafting game of the year, without hesitation.
Man I played it a bit with a friend, the atmosphere is great and it's got one of the best building mechanics I've seen. But it's boring. Explore, go home, explore a little further, go home, etc etc. No real sense of progression imo
Yeah the progression is way too tied to RNG of loot and altar upgrades. Getting a bad roll at a chest means no progress for you. You cant even trust your blacksmith because his weapons are always underleveled when you unlock them. It wouldn't be big a problem but the "hardcore" crowd complained they wanted the combat more like Dark Souls or Bloodbhorne and the game was too easy. Now the devs made combat way more punishing and a level 11 enemy can still be a threat to a level 20 character with end game equipment. I went back to the capital city (lvl 15) as a level 20 with a lvl 23 sword and got my ass handed to me thinking I was so high level I can stroll in, melee everything so i dont waste arrows, and loot all the free copper arrows everywhere. My legendary lvl 23 daggers with scaling dmg for rangers did less dmg than the lower quality sword I wasnt specced to use. It was also slower and has terrible block and counter. My lvl 23 sword couldnt even 1 hit a zombie bug, and my lvl 19 armor might as well be tissue paper because I was taking insane damage. I dont see how the devs can expect new players with low durability gear and next to no good ammo to fight through a massive city **the size of a Witcher 3 city** with tons of zombie soldiers, MULTIPLE giant boss zombies with giant axes, MULTIPLE flying mage boss zombies **with heat seeking missiles**, AND fight a giant zombie dragon at the very end just so they can level up their altar, and enter the **mid game**. In the "easy" era of the game, I was still jumping from roof to roof until I reached the throne room because street level was fog covered DEATH. Now I cannot imagine making it through this quest with the gear I had at the time even with the route I used. I really hope the devs stop listening to the "hardcore" people
Ugh. I haven't played that, but I've been victim to the "improved combat" update plenty of times. Go play one of the nine billion soulslikes out there, leave ONE for the rest of us, please!
Hadn’t heard of this game but this makes it sound awesome haha
My top 3 hzve to be Stray, Hollow knight and subnautica. Those games are amazing :)
Dyson sphere program. Such a big scale and runs great. Some rogue likes like dead cells hollow knight. I don't know anything about the devs of remnant from the ashes but feels like not aaa but awesome. Haven't played the second one yet. Trying to beat the first one to death and still learning.
I had to search so long here for Dyson sphere program.
Dyson Sphere Program is a masterpiece
Stray. It just feels like one of those gems a big name company would take a chance on, especially with how popular cats are on social media and meme culture. It doesn't seem like an expensive risk.
First game I bought and played on PS5. It's one of those games that's just truly perfect for what it is.
Yeah most of the picks on this thread are just really good indie games. But this felt like a AAA in terms of quality/graphics/animation. They used the budget really well in the right places. I think the criticism it gets is due to people assuming it was a big budget game.
I shill for Rimworld, love that storytelling simulator. Technically Ludeon Studios made it, but I class Ludeon as a small indie game developer.
A Plague Tale: Innocence
Outer Wilds
I love OW dearly but it is very evidently an indie game to anyone who looks at it for 5 seconds, and I like to think it wears that badge with pride.
But IMHO so is Subnautica, which OP used as their example
touche, flawed post from the start
I love this game so much
Hades, Stray, Cuphead, Disco Elysium...so many great ones out there.
Disco looks and sounds like a AAA game, but it is hard to believe the themes in that game would make it through the corporate of AAA. lol
Valheim is a surprisingly complete game experience all things considered.
Game is almost transformative, if you have someone to play with. It got me in my wife through last winter and bonded us. She usually hates games where you have to use the twin sticks to aim, but the game is so engaging that she's become our marksman bow and arrow user
Me and my wife keep coming back to this game. It's just a perfect survival game especially playing together.
Scorn and SOMA
Hades, Cocoon, Dredge, Outer Wilds, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, and Ori. Dave the Diver I guess, but it’s not technically an indie. Feels like one though. I’ve pretty much completely shifted away from AAA titles outside of a few studios. The quality of indie content within the past 10 years to now is outstanding.
Hat in Time honestly felt like it had a Nintendo level of polish imo
While I loved A Hat in Time, it did have some problems imo, it's one of the few games I've played on PC that gave me some issues, including crashes, but otherwise, it's a fantastic game that feels taken out of Nintendo's platformer golden age.
Oxenfree
Wildermyth
I dig how they are basically going into hibernation. They developed this beautiful generative experience, and instead of rushing into a new project half-assed, just sorta said "we did what we set out to do," and return back to their normal lives sorta like a modern day videogame Cincinnatus.
Hollow Knight and Stardew Valley are gifts to humanity in gaming.
I don't like this assumption that perfect=AAA quality when the last decade has shown most AAA games are dogshit lol. But an indie game currently in EA that has some crazy production value I think is No Rest For The Wicked from the Ori devs. The game surprised me with how polished everything was and the pure sense of style and atmosphere. But also Helldivers 2 is a great indie game that definitely has AAA quality things in it.
I can't be the only one who thinks that for the last 5 years or so, AAA has been synonymous with expensive trash. Maybe I'm being bah-humbug, but I've not felt, "Wow, this game feels AAA!" because recently almost all games with passion behind them aren't AAA.
Little nightmares 1, after one it they upgraded from an indie studio. And I felt that game was a definite AAA title personally
Manor lords
Deep rock galactic
Dyson sohere program. Made by 5 team from china IIRC. 64 or 32 systems max with some having 3 or 4 planets each. Each planet still doing the stuff if you leave and having their own stats as in: inclinations, time of day, time needed to rotate the sun. Is it tidal locked, is it tidal reversed. How strong is the %solar power in said planet, if its closer to the sun its better. How much wind is in the planet. Full on planet waters, full on ice planets, full on dessert planets. And the stars, theres multiple stars types in the game like IRL, each has their size, like power. Meaning how much thry can power your dyson sphere. Neutron stars and black holes have their own special resource that has so small quantity that you cant just use it like that. Outer system logistics stations. Meaning you can trade stuff from planets to help build bigger factories. The tech tree is huge and somethings just stack as much as you want. Also remember the special resource I mentioned? You can stack a perk that uses less material from the ore veins meaning all the ores last longer. So that 40k something special ore can be as good as millions or just plain infinity. It takes a while but, just build science for it. And of course, building a dyson sphere and actually seeing it being made. Want to fly near it. Be my fucking guest. It takes a while? Just make more rockets. Need more resources. Welp, theres tons of planets with millions resources each just for you.
Subnautica
Honestly I feel like Vanillaware games are kind of indie-ish. They only have 39 employees. And of their games, 13 Sentinels blew my fucking mind.
Hollow Knight 100%
Since when is AAA a sign of quality?
Once upon a time, it was
This. People confuse budget size and media coverage with quality.
Balatro
Salt and Sanctuary. Never been a Souls fan, but as soon as I saw this charming little 2d game, I knew I had to buy it. Played through about 8 times now and its still ridiculously fun
Is Shantae Indie?
Kingdom Come: Deliverance has so much effort and detail Honestly, if the graphics and audio were better, I wouldn't think it's AAA, because AAA games aren't that good... Glad the announced a sequel, and I hope they put as much detail as they did the first time
Valheim
Fnaf1. I dont think anyone understands how much it revolutionized gaming from that point forward and how interesting it was to me as a young boy.
To the Moon
Stardew Valley was made by a single person and that always blows my mind.
Spiritfarer. It’s so well thought out, the game play is fun, the story is incredible, and the music is awesome.
Undertale and Hollow Knight
Project Zomboid
Rimworld