Top Indie games of 2011

[The Green Bean]

http://www.tigsource.com/2012/01/12/top-indie-games-of-2011-according-to-the-tigsource-forums/

I have played 5 of the top 6 games (I refuse to play BoI--it is highly offensive) and I loved them all. I still have to get into Terraria, but I like what I've seen. My personal favourite though, is SpaceChem.

I've spent (and enjoyed) more time playing Indie games this year than the likes of TW2, Shogun 2, Portal 2, B:AC and Skyrim! Anybody else becoming an Indie gamer?

 

[gorcorps]

Hmm... maybe I should have bought bastion when I had the chance

 

[ImpulsE69]

Wait..BOI is offensive? I need to play it, I've had it on my drive for months and haven't loaded it yet

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Wait..BOI is offensive? I need to play it, I've had it on my drive for months and haven't loaded it yet

There's poop everywhere, the villain is a crazy fundamentalist mother out to kill her kid, there's a powerup that lets you shoot tears of blood, you can sell your soul to the devil for power ups, there's an aborted fetus familiar that functions like an option from gradius, and if you try to use the Bible on the devil you die instantly. And that's just what jumps to mind immediately.

It's so ludicrously over the top it feels less offensive and more like a parody of an actually offensive game then genuinely offensive. But clearly at some point in design they sat down and said "We're going to make sure that if this game ever hits the news, concerned fundamentalist parents are going to shit a brick."

 

[ControlD]

http://www.tigsource.com/2012/01/12/top-indie-games-of-2011-according-to-the-tigsource-forums/

I have played 5 of the top 6 games (I refuse to play BoI--it is highly offensive) and I loved them all. I still have to get into Terraria, but I like what I've seen. My personal favourite though, is SpaceChem.

I've spent (and enjoyed) more time playing Indie games this year than the likes of TW2, Shogun 2, Portal 2, B:AC and Skyrim! Anybody else becoming an Indie gamer?

For sure. The only "mainstream" game I played this year was Skyrim. The rest of my time was consumed by Dungeons of Dredmor and Terraria. I enjoyed Skyrim quite a bit, but after finishing the main quest after maybe 60-70 hours I am now bored with it. I have logged more that 200 hours in DoD and still keep playing it, at least I was playing it before starting Terraria. Talk about addictive ....

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

Is Orcs Must Die either not indie, or not from 2011? Was expecting to see it there.

 

[darkewaffle]

Bastion definitely deserves it, Jamestown is a great SHMUP as well. Not sure of it's release date so it might not be eligible for the list but Shank was a great, if short, experience too.

Couldn't stand Terraria though.

 

[JamesV]

This is the first year in a long time that I've bought indie games, and like the OP, I find myself playing them much more then AAA titles.

Terraria is just incredible. Even if it does bite off of Minecraft, there is an actual game there, and playing co-op is a blast.

Dungeons of Dredmor 'looks' like a really crappy game, but is incredibly addictive and fun.

Recettear is probably the strangest indie I've played this year - you play a little girl who owns an item shop like those found in adventure games, and buy and sell in a sort of mini-game. You can hire adventurers to clear dungeons, which you control, to gain items to sell for free (no cost to pickup), and to get items for crafting. Truly unique and interesting.

Dungeon Defenders is a great tower defense game, and while I still think nothing can touch Toy Soldiers, DD is a great addition to the genre. Some of my friends have over 250 hours in the game.

I really wished I picked up more games during the Steam holiday sale like Bastion, Orcs Must Die, and SpaceChem. My totals for indie games far outweigh the time I spent in Skyrim, Dead Island, SR3 and other big games (at a fraction of the cost).

 

[Elcs]

Guess two guys working on a game together and releasing it in 2011 doesn't count as an indie game released in 2011..

SPAZ won the Indie contest hands down for me.

 

[gorcorps]

There's poop everywhere, the villain is a crazy fundamentalist mother out to kill her kid, there's a powerup that lets you shoot tears of blood, you can sell your soul to the devil for power ups, there's an aborted fetus familiar that functions like an option from gradius, and if you try to use the Bible on the devil you die instantly. And that's just what jumps to mind immediately.

It's so ludicrously over the top it feels less offensive and more like a parody of an actually offensive game then genuinely offensive. But clearly at some point in design they sat down and said "We're going to make sure that if this game ever hits the news, concerned fundamentalist parents are going to shit a brick."

It IS a parody, The Binding of Isaac is a Bible story from Genesis... where Abraham is commanded by God to scrifice his son Isaac to prove his devotion.

It's designed to slap around the absurdity of the Bible story, and then bring that absurdity to new heights. One can argue that people offended by such things are whiny pissants who take things too seriously, but that's not important. :whiste:

 

[zokudu]

It IS a parody, The Binding of Isaac is a Bible story from Genesis... where Abraham is commanded by God to scrifice his son Isaac to prove his devotion.

It's designed to slap around the absurdity of the Bible story, and then bring that absurdity to new heights. One can argue that people offended by such things are whiny pissants who take things too seriously, but that's not important. :whiste:

Honestly I didn't like the game and the whole premise did kind of offend me. I don't know why but it really struck a chord where I felt like I just shouldn't be playing it.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Then you shouldn't play it. Personally, even discounting the entire biblical story part, the game is brilliant. It is simply fun to play. It is one of the rare games that you can actually sit down and play for 15 minutes and have a blast. Even after months of playing the game nearly daily I find something new regularly. It really brings all the best parts of what old arcade games use to be.

 

[Dankk]

Binding of Isaac is, indeed, probably my favorite indie game of the year. I feel sorry for people who take it too seriously and/or have to be emotional about it for some reason.

Bastion is fantastic also, however I never got around to finishing it. I should probably do that.

 

[Aikouka]

I don't mind the story in Binding of Isaac, but the graphics are really just... creepy looking. :|

I actually found that I couldn't get into SpaceChem much, which was disappointing. I like playing Trainyard on my iOS devices, which is kind of similar in nature. Maybe it's because there were certain aspects of SpaceChem that I never even realized existed until I saw other people's solutions. For example, I thought they always had to be "Grab Drop" interactions, but no... you can actually switch to Grab or Drop only.

I did have fun with SPAZ and Solar 2 though. I found some of the missions in Solar 2 to be a little annoying by nature, and the game really requires you to save multiple solar systems to do things. For example, you need something ridiculously large to steal planets from another solar system, but you want to avoid damaging yourself too much and still having enough room to steal 4+ planets.

 

[Soccerman06]

I didnt play a single one of those hah

 

[Barfo]

I refuse to play BoI--it is highly offensive

You sound like one of those uptight Muslims or something.

 

[Dumac]

BoI is okay. The theme doesn't bother me at all (actually the theme and art is probably the best part of the game and the only reason it is even known).

What does bother me is the simplistic gameplay that relies too much on RNG. But its not bad...just not as good as everyone makes it out to be.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

It IS a parody, The Binding of Isaac is a Bible story from Genesis... where Abraham is commanded by God to scrifice his son Isaac to prove his devotion.

It's designed to slap around the absurdity of the Bible story, and then bring that absurdity to new heights. One can argue that people offended by such things are whiny pissants who take things too seriously, but that's not important. :whiste:

Well, realistically if plot of the game is to mock one of the world's major religions and you don't offend people, something is wrong.

Now I'm not a member of that religion, so it didn't offend me. But the way the goddamned game always gives you another key when you just need a bomb - that did.

 

[zinfamous]

Skyrim!



(Indie = not made by EA, right? right? ....:whiste




.....




anyhoo, SPAZ for me.

or Terraria.


I played the demo of Bastion, but then decided that I would have a blast for a wee spell, but just not give a damn after that. Feels like the same old same old I've been playing over and over and over again--like when you finish a run through Titan Quest and ask yourself--why the fuck did I just play Diablo again? or when you play Fate, then finally ask yourself, wtf am I playing Diablo again? Or when you play through Torchlight, and finally ask yourself, wtf am I playing Diablo again? etc...

not sure what game that would be for Bastion, but I felt that it would give me that same sort of feeling, and so I would suddenly quit and never touch it again. Whatever that means...

 

[ImpulsE69]

I played the demo of Bastion, but then decided that I would have a blast for a wee spell, but just not give a damn after that. Feels like the same old same old I've been playing over and over and over again--like when you finish a run through Titan Quest and ask yourself--why the fuck did I just play Diablo again? or when you play Fate, then finally ask yourself, wtf am I playing Diablo again? Or when you play through Torchlight, and finally ask yourself, wtf am I playing Diablo again? etc...

..

Sooo..now i HAVE to ask. Are you planning on playing Diablo 3? lol

 

[Dumac]

To comment on top of hours, SPAZ is great. I got around 30 enjoyable hours out of that $2 game.

 

[Zorander]

Where are Limbo, SPAZ and Orcs Must Die?

 

[Dumac]

Where are Limbo, SPAZ and Orcs Must Die?

I got all 3 on steam during the holiday sale, for less than $10 total iirc.

 

[Zorander]

I got all 3 on steam during the holiday sale, for less than $10 total iirc.

My question was referring to the list in the OP.

I got those during the Autumn and Xmas sales as well (75% off - total of which should be under $10).

 

[zinfamous]

Sooo..now i HAVE to ask. Are you planning on playing Diablo 3? lol

haha, no, not really. I never played Diablo 2.

It will be a GW2 year, for me. Once that is out, I'm playing nothing else for...I don't know, 3 years?