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[TwilightVulpine]

Since the list on the new Beginner's Guide to Indie Gaming thread is huge, we have to make it easier to the newcomer to know which of these games they should try first, to have an idea of what indie games are and can be.

I've listed all games from that list here. Pick 10.
I will update the poll when new entries are added to the list.

EDIT: Post your suggestions in the Beginner's Guide to Indie Gaming thread. Having suggestions in just a single thread avoids confuzlement.

EDIT2: Entries with 0 votes will be removed, so if you don't want a particular game to disappear from the list, be sure to vote for them.

[PleasingFungus]

[Peevish]

Um, Braid? Passage?

[TwilightVulpine]

Um, Braid? Passage?

The whole point of the other thread is to suggest more recent games to add to an old list I dug up in the forums. There are several important ones missing. Like I said, I will add them to the poll as the list gets updated. I intend to add new games to the list and the poll at least once a week, in the weekends. I'm not having a whole lot of time to deal with this in the weekdays(in fact I am neglecting my job just to answer you).

Good suggestions, by the way. Please, add them to the other thread.

[Peevish]

Done!

[starsrift]

I can't believe 10/30 people would pick Dwarf Fortress as a way to introduce people to indie gaming. Seems a bit of the "throw them in the deep end, if they swim, then they can swim" sadist style. DF's a great game, but good luck trying to convince someone accustomed to the graphics budgets of triple A titles to play it. Gotta ease 'em into it.

[Xion]

I picked samorost only because I didn't see machinarium on the list, Minecraft, Liero because I loved playing it before I even knew what indie meant and it's a rad, simple game with alot of wildly varied content (mods), Crayon Physics, and even though I haven't played it, Amnesia: The Dark Descent seems like a good bet from what I've heard/seen of it.

edit: oh shit ten. I thought it was five, for some reason.

edit: okay, also picked Alex Adventure, Fraxy, Gamma Bros., Iji, and Retrobattle. Couldn't find a good tenth.

[TwilightVulpine]

Results:

Highlighted

#
5 Days a Stranger (Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw, Win) {Site currently infected, safe download here}

A
Alien Hominid (The Behemoth, Web/Other)
Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games, Win/Mac/Lin, $20.00-Demo)

B
Battle for Wesnoth, The (Collective, Win/Mac)x

C
Cave Story (Pixel(JP), Win)
Clean Asia (cactus, Win)
Cortex Command (Data Realms, Win, $18.00/Demo)
Crayon Physics (Petri Purho, Win)

D
Darwinia (Introversion, Win/Mac/Lin, $15.00-Demo)
Dwarf Fortress (Bay 12 games, Win)

G
Gish (Chronic Logic, Win/Mac/Lin, Pick your price(Suggested:$19.95)-Demo)

H
Hydorah (Locomalito, Win)

I
Iji (Remar, Win)
Immortal Defense (Radical Poesis Games, Win, Name your price(suggested:$17.00)-Demo)

K
Knytt (Nifflas, Win)

L
La Mulana (GR3, Win)
Liero (Joosa Riekkinen, Win)
Lyle in the Cube Sector (Bogo, Win)

M
Minecraft (Notch, Win/Mac/Lin, $28-Free mode)

N
N (Metanet Software, Web)
Noitu Love & the Army of Grinning Darns (Joakim Sandberg, Win)

S
Spelunky (Derek Yu, Win)

T
Toribash (Hampa, Win/Mac/Lin)

W
Warning Forever (Hikoza'n Chi, Win)
Within A Deep Forest (Nifflas, Win)

Removed

A
Akuji the Demon (E. 'Buster' Hashimoto(JP), Win)
Anchorhead (Michael S. Gentry, Win/Mac/Lin/Other)
Apricots (Mark Harman, Win/Lin)
Ark 22 (HiVE, Win)
Aveyond (Amaranth Games, Win, $6.99-One hour trial)

B
Blocksum (Infotech, Win)
Bubble thing (Queasy games, Win/Mac/Lin)

C
Castle of Elite (Remar, Win)
Cholo (Ovine by Design, Win)
Cloud (Student Collective, Win)
Crossing, The (Orisinal, Web)

D
Diver Down (Grenideer, Win)

E
Eets (Klei Entertainment, Win/Other, $9.95-Demo)

F
Fedora Spade (Radical Poesis Games, Win)


G
Glest (Collective, Win)
Gunroar (ABA games, Win)

H
Hakaiman(dl) (Ikiki(JP), Win)

I
Infinity String, The (Sektor 13, Win)

K
Kudos (Positech, Win, $9.95(Win)/$22.95(Mac)-Demo)
Kudos: Rock legend (Positech, Win, $9.95(Win)/$22.95(Mac)-Demo)

M
Missing (Radical poesis games, Win)
Motocross Challenge (DHG Games, iOS, $??)
Mr. Blocko (Perfect Run, Win)
Mutant Storm Reloaded (Pom Pom Games, XBL-Win, $??)

N
No-Action Jackson(dl) (Britton O'Toole, Win)
Notrium (Monkkonen, Win/Lin)

O
Oasis (Mind Control software, Win, $19.95-Demo)

P
Peacemaker (Impact Games, Win/Mac, $19.95-Demo)
Punishment (Messhoff, Win)

R
Rameses (Stephen Bond)

S
Shiva, The (Dave Gilbert, Win, $4.99-Demo)
Spider and Web (Andrew Plotkin, Win/Mac/Lin/Other)
Starscape (Moonpod, Win, $19.95/Demo)
Sword of Jade (Radical Poesis Games, Win) {Unavailable, remake under development}

T
Tale in the Desert, A (eGenesis, Win/Mac/Lin, $13.95 per month)
Trilby's Notes (Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw, Win) {Site currently infected, safe download here}
Truck Dismount (Jetro Lauha, Win)
Tumiki Fighters (ABA games, Win)

V
Varicella (Adam cadre, Win)
Veck (Smayds, Win)

W
Weaponed Head (Collective, Win)



The poll was reset.

[Guillaume]

My personal choices:

- Machinarium, to demonstrate an amazing adventure game
- World of Goo, to demonstrate an amazing puzzle game
- Minecraft, to demonstrate an amazing sandbox game
- Spelunky, to demonstrate an amazing action game
- Cave Story, to demonstrate an amazing platformer

I have many other favorites in this indie world, but these 5 are the ones that struck me the first time I played them.

Wow, for some reason I thought it was only 5...if I had to add 5 more, I guess it would be:

- Braid
- Blueberry Garden
- Defcon
- Knytt
- Osmos

[ink.inc]

Crayon Physics, Crayon Physics, Crayon Physics.

[cynicalsandel]

Since there are many definitions to "Indie" Games, I don't know if Castle Crashers is considered as such. But whenever I want my friends to start playing indie games, I usually make them play it first. From there, I usually move onto some of the other well known ones.

The issue is that most aren't willing to play games on the PC, so I have to make them play WiiWare/PSN/XBLA/XBLIG games.

[TwilightVulpine]

I wouldn't consider Castle Crashers and The Behemoth exactly mainstream. We also have Alien Homnid in the list, so why not?

Unless the game is developed by a mainstream studio, I don't see any problem. Let's avoid questioning the relative "indieness" of the games. I'll just add them and let the citizens of TIGLands determine their worth.

[Syrion]

The "casual" gamer most likely doesn't care (much) about how a game was financed or exactly how many people worked on it, so as regards introducing people to indie gaming, I would define "indie" mostly by the kind of game. And I'd say in that way Castle Crashers, Super Meat Boy and Cave Story are all equally indie.

[TwilightVulpine]

That's why I said developed and not published. Either way, lets just not dwell on it.

[oyog]

Seriously?  Sumotori Dreams only has one vote so far?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the current popular games with the largest player base would have the most votes. (minecraft, braid)

Ah well.  It's a tough poll.  Those are some awesome games.

[TwilightVulpine]

Highlighted

B
Braid (Jonathan Blow, Win/XBL, $9.99-Demo)

C
Cave Story (Pixel(JP), Win/WiiWare, Free(Win)/$12(WiiWare))

I
Iji (Remar, Win)

K
Knytt (Nifflas, Win) {A little redundant, so I won't be highlighting it}
Knytt Stories (Nifflas, Win-DS)

M
Machinarium (Amanita Design, Win/Mac/Lin, $20-Demo)
Minecraft (Notch, Win/Mac/Lin, ~$14-Free mode)

S
Spelunky (Derek Yu, Win)
Super Meat Boy (Team Meat, Win/Wiiware/XBL, $10.00-Demo)

V
VVVVVV (Terry Cavanagh, Win/Mac, $5.00-Demo)

W
World of Goo (2D Boy, Win/Mac/Lin/Wiiware, $20/$15(Wiiware)-Demo)



Removed

A
Alex adventure (Szybiak, Win)

B
Big Adventure of Owata's Life, The (King-soukutu(JP), Web)
Blueberry Garden (Erik Svedäng, Win, $5-Demo)
Bridge Builder (Chronic logic, Win)

C
Chalk (Joakim Sandberg, Win)
Cute Knight (Hanako Games, Win, $4.95-Demo)

D
De Blob (Collective, Win)
Defcon (Introversion, Win/Mac/Lin, $15.00-Demo)
Democracy (Positech, Win, $9.95(Win)/$22.95(Mac)-Demo)

E
Endless Forest (Tale of tales, Win)

F
FlapFlapFlap (Lackey, Win)
Fraxy (EN) (Mon(JP), Win)

G
Galatea (Emily Short, Win/Mac/Lin/Web/Other)
Gamma Bros. (Pixel Jam, Web)
Geshundheit (Matt Hammill, Win)
Grid Wars (Marco Incitti, Win/Mac/Lin)
Guardian of Paradise (E. 'Buster' Hashimoto(JP), Win)

M
Masq (Alteraction, Win)

O
Outpost Kaloki (Ninja Bee, Win, $14.95-One hour trial)

S
Shoot the Bullet(buy) (Team Shanghai Alice(JP), Win, $25.00)
Stair Dismount (Jetro Lauha, Win)

T
Toribash (Hampa, Win/Mac/Lin)


Edit: Sadly I had to remove some nice games, such as Bluberry Garden. If I knew nobody would vote for them, I would've done it. I think I lost the game and so did you.

[st33d]

I've put people who never played games in front of World of Goo and they've been hooked from the word go (or goo).

It's not a matter of it simply being a puzzle game and slow paced, it's also incredibly well designed - it's impossible for a complete idiot not to get into.

[X3N]

Where's Nethack on the list?
Oh right..