The industry is in a bad place. Successful dev teams are seeing layoffs the same as those who aren’t. The AAA side of the gaming industry is being hit the hardest because of ballooning budgets and unrealistic expectations. Enter indie games like Hades.
For about the last 10 years, the industry has seen a significant surge in the popularity of independent gaming, providing gamers with the creativity and honestly weirdness that was sorely needed.
Indie games such as Dead Cells, Bastion, and Hades have been released to near universal critical acclaim and for good reason. Games like these harken back to the days when developers were able to experiment and drop unique experiences that left indelible marks on us all.
THE HADES EFFECT
Hades obviously wasn’t the first popular indie game, but it does feel like an inflection point especially given it’s a roguelike that employed one of the most unique storytelling devices I’ve ever seen.
Playing through the game and dying was a reward in itself. More and more story would become available to you as you continued to lose, the characters would react to you as Zagreus, and he would respond in kind. The interactions with Hades himself in particular were a highlight of the many playthroughs.
It was a different way to tell a story and keep you playing to uncover more of it. Of course, the gameplay being great is the other piece of that, but it was pretty awesome. The coolest thing about it was seeing a AAA game use that same storytelling device. The God of War: Valhalla DLC took what Hades did and handled it masterfully to bridge an almost 20-year story.
Think smaller
It’s ok to not drop bloated games that throw content at us for the sake of content. AAA’s can learn from Indies just as the reverse is true. Smaller games with a clear and concise direction can still do numbers and make a huge impact on the industry.
There’s no better time for these companies to pay attention to what’s around them. There’s a path for money to be made while allowing the industry to grow. We need more talent, more brain power, more people willing to get creative and weird. Indie games hold the key to the long-term health of gaming, and it’s about time we acted like it.
The post Indie Games Like ‘Hades’ Are Holding the Line appeared first on VICE.
The post Indie Games Like ‘Hades’ Are Holding the Line appeared first on VICE.
