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[Derek]

Mainstream gaming has plenty of icons: from Mario to Sonic to lesser-known, but also plenty loved, characters like... that dog from Duck Hunt who everyone hates.  But what about indie gaming?  What are the characters that stood out, that you became emotionally attached to... everything from heroes to villains to antiheroes to that guy that has one line of dialogue in the game but damn is it a good line (i.e. nebishes).

Who are the indie characters that resonate with you for whatever reason?

I'm interested in perhaps writing a list/article feature for TIGSource and I'm trying to figure out how it's going to work (or even whether it's a good idea).  I thought maybe the best way would be to start nominating some characters.

Cave Story has plenty of great characters... I found Balrog to be the most endearing and the main villain Ballos to be the most compelling.

I also nominate the worm from Liero as a good candidate.  Even though there's no story behind the character, I find the overall look, animation, and sound to be quite unique and iconic.  Very simple, yet recognizable.  It mitigates the brutality of the actual game quite nicely, I feel.



Samorost and Samorost 2 have some great characters, although I'd have to replay them to decide which ones I like best.



And definitely this article will include:

@

The unnamed hero/adventurer from Rogue (there you go, Kornel and Slashie)!

But yeah, let's get some names (and screens, please) thrown out there.  Any type of game, as long as it's indie.  Even text-only characters from Interactive Fiction.  Maybe especially, since that is very much an indie-only genre.  Any ones that really stand out?

DISCUSS.

[Terry]

I think an interesting one to mention is Charlotte, from one of my favourite indie games, Varicella (second game down). Varicella is a text adventure by Adam Cadre, who some of you may know as the author of Photopia.



Charlotte is the only indie-game character I know of that's warranted a "scholarly essay". Face It, Tiger, You Just Hit The Jackpot: Reading and Playing Cadre's Varicella co-written by Nick Montfort (who wrote Twisty Little Passages.

Until you meet Charlotte, Varicella can be quite serious. But the Princess is much more than just comic relief - she's the key to the whole game.

Here are some of my favourite Charlotte lines at random:

>ask charlotte about charlotte
"How have you been?" you ask.

"i am locked in a cell," she says. "and yourself?"

>

>unfasten charlotte
You unfasten the straps securing the Princess's straitjacket, and she gleefully
hops to her feet. "mein fuhrer, i can walk!" she cries, shaking her arms to
bring back the circulation. "so what are we going to do today, varicella?" she
asks. "take over the world? won't that be fun!"

>n
You walk into a solid wall. "when i do that they make me take a tranquilizer,"
Princess Charlotte remarks.

A portly guard stands watch over the entrance to Rico's quarters, gnawing on a
rump roast.

You can also see a cooler (which is closed) here.

Princess Charlotte follows you.

>e
"I realize that normally you can come and go as you please," the guard says,
tapping the box on his belt, "but this little red light means that we have
something of an emergency situation at the moment, and seeing as I have a rifle
and you don't, I'm thinking that perhaps you ought to donate a nominal sum to
the palace coffers before entering. I can accept such donations."

"yeah, right!" Princess Charlotte scoffs. "i'm a princess! i can go anywhere i
want!" She walks into the door, which refuses to open. "ow," she says. "except
there."

>

>ask charlotte about charlotte
"How have you been?" you ask.

"i dreamed you asked that before," Princess Charlotte says. "and when i woke up,
my pillow was missing!"

>

I could quote this woman all day, but I won't. If you haven't played it, you really should check it out yourself!

[Derek]

Awesome.  I'm going to look into this.  Echo, you rule, man.

[Terry]

Awesome.  I'm going to look into this.  Echo, you rule, man.

Cheers I've updated the post with a bit more info!

[Bezzy]

Gish!

He's a ball of tar. He adapts and changes in a fluid, natural way to solve puzzles, or just to squeeze between gaps which more contrived characters would find difficulty. He can jump as high or as far as you-have-the-skill-to-make-him.

...And that's a lot like the indie scene. You're squeezing inbetween genres, finding ideas which are seemingly inaccessible to more commercially oriented outfits and lauching yourself into unexplored space with gay abandon.

And beautiful art style for all the concept stuff.

[Derek]

Ah!  Great one, I can't believe I didn't think of friggin' GISH.



(Awesome indie analogy, too.)

[Derek]

Difficult to mention Indie Icons without Alien Hominid:

[guille]

Ben Jordan, is the closest thing we have to Larry, Indy and Gabriel Knight as the protagonist of many acclaimed advenure games.



Knytt, with a cameo on Within a Deep Forest and with a sequel on its way, he's already an iconic indie character.

[jaredbloom]

Definitely the little dude from Seiklus.


I also find the characters from all of Ikki's strange games to be very iconic.


The guy from Paroxysm, even though not many people seem to have played this game.

[xix]

Hey, don't forget to mention how a lot of indie characters are very similar to oldschool gaming characters we've grown to love. Jill of the Jungle, Commander Keen, that Egg dude from early Rareware/Ultragames...

[Derek]

The Seiklus guy I can see, although the other ones I'm not so sure about.  The characters certainly are simple, but I'm not sure if they're necessarily iconic.  It may very well be that the games are not well known enough.

In the end, the game probably can't be too obscure or else it won't make sense.  Or at least, if the game is obscure, then the character needs to be well known for some reason...

And speaking of non-obscure games, the Darwinians are very recognizable... probably one of the most in the indie games community:

[moi]

What about the trailer trash from zombie smashers?

[sergiocornaga]

Was my post here intentionally destroyed...? What wrong did I do?

EDIT: Most of the ones I posted were borderline iconic, so I'll crop the list a little. Ones I agree with the most are Gish, Seiklus dude and Balrog. Bizarrely, these are all from platformers so I'll add a Darwinian in for good measure.


Lyle!


Mia!


Pib!


Trilby!

Yeah, that'll do.

[Inane]

Was my post here intentionally destroyed...? What wrong did I do?

My guess is Bruce Campbell didn't like the fact he wasn't in the list, so he mind-bulleted it.

[Derek]

Was my post here intentionally destroyed...? What wrong did I do?

Repost?  I don't remember ever even seeing you post in this thread.

[Slash - Santiago Zapata]

@Derek: @ FTW!

I think these are pretty 'iconic' (pun intended)



Unfortunately, I know little about the Indie scene (apart from roguelikes that's it) so no more icons come to my mind.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

RABBI STONE HAS A CRISIS OF FAITH (The Shivah)


AYA SHAMEIMARU WILL TAKE YOUR PICTURE (Shoot the Bullet, Phantasmagoria of Flower View)

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

@ may be iconic, but most of the regulars of the Chaosforge forum fear V the most... there was even a topic about it .

As for Slash's post... I guess Adam Bolt tileset and David Geriavis tileset could be considered Iconic in the roguelike scene. They just stick out of everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE. Don't get me wrong, they're great, but not in every game dammit!

As for the Indie scene, yeah, the award for most iconic should definitively go to the Darwinian.

[raigan]

i guess we'd better hurry up with the new game as it appears N's already been forgotten 

[Bezzy]

Holy crap it's raigan! Welcome! What happened to my reply e-mail, huh?

And yes, the Nnnninja definately deserves a place here.