Home Gaming Indie Zoe: Raider of the Lost News (19 December 2013)

Indie Zoe: Raider of the Lost News (19 December 2013)

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Retro indie zoe

The last indie wrap up of the year, it’s sorta hard to believe. By this time next week, you’ll all be recovering from the gorging on Xmas day, but for now, let’s look at the indie news that was in 2013.

2013 certainly marked a renaissance in indie gaming, both locally and internationally. Starting with local news, there were some major breakout successes this year. For the first time, rAge featured a ton of games from a variety of locals in cooperation with Make Games SA – this helped propel a bunch of locals into the limelight. In fact, Pixel Boy came out on top from that event, getting approached by Nintendo and Microsoft for possible distribution deals, as well as getting Greenlit soon thereafter. In fact, a bunch of local indies got the Greenlight this year, including Broforce and Rook’s Keep.

Also this year, Desktop Dungeons finally released on Steam. The timing of their launch may not have been ideal considering that it coincided with the launch of PS4 and Xbox One, yet they seem to be doing well for themselves and we’re happy to see the game released into the wild.

Raising over $100k on Kickstarter, Stasis certainly wowed us all at the end of this year. The team behind the project are really nice and worked hard to get the game going on Kickstarter and Greenlight.

Finally, let’s not forget the awesome local indies who are working on the mobile platform. Thoopid released Snailboy successfully. Tasty Poison’s Neon Shadow climbed to the top of the OUYA store and released on iOS, while Lighthouse Games Studio crossed the 100k downloads mark for Greed City.

The local indie scene is thriving, and I’m excited to see what 2014 holds, even if it does mean more updates to my who’s who in SA indie game development.

2013 also saw some great international indie games getting some excellent exposure. Sony highlighted their love of indies at all the major press conferences, giving the indies equal weighting as the AAA titles. Microsoft also professed their love of indies, officially launching the ID@Xbox program. Seriously, I wonder if no one at Microsoft ever looks at their product names – that name sounds awful when you sound it out! Regardless, it’s wonderful to see both of them supporting indie developers and pushing their games on the new consoles.

I’m curious to see how the indie scene develops in the new year. What games will we see that innovate, and how will the shift towards new consoles affect their exposure? Will we see more people getting into indie games, or will it remain a niche market? I still believe it’s hard to find the signal in the noise – with so many indie games released all the time, it’s hard to know which ones are good or you will enjoy. If you’re still not sure which indies from 2013 you should check out, my top list for 2013 might help point you in the right direction.

Last Updated: December 19, 2013

12 Comments

  1. Unavengedavo(aka. MadeYouLook)

    December 19, 2013 at 12:39

    Lol. Yay you used it 😀 I really need to rebuild a home PC so that I can play these indie games, I feel like I am really missing out

    Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    December 19, 2013 at 12:39

    Trine 2, Mark of the Ninja & Deadlight all stand out as indies I thoroughly enjoyed this year. I’m probably forgetting a couple of others from earlier in the year. You’re getting some really good games from the indies now.

    Reply

    • Unavengedavo(aka. MadeYouLook)

      December 19, 2013 at 12:40

      Indies are starting to become more appealing than most of the major titles coming out

      Reply

    • Skoobaz

      December 19, 2013 at 12:49

      Played the other two but haven’t come across Deadlight yet?

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        December 19, 2013 at 12:54

        It’s another side-scroller. It’s on Steam. I’d wait until it’s on special though if you think of buying it, it’s a really short game.

        Reply

    • JJ's horrible secret (John)

      December 19, 2013 at 12:52

      Trine 2 was so much fun. Planning on replaying it sometime. Still want to get FTL though.
      Also, Disqus is still not lekker.

      Reply

  3. Alien Emperor Trevor

    December 19, 2013 at 12:55

    New header image looks really cool.

    Reply

    • Unavengedavo(aka. MadeYouLook)

      December 19, 2013 at 13:18

      Thanks 😛

      Reply

  4. oVg

    December 19, 2013 at 13:05

    • oVg

      December 19, 2013 at 13:15

      Is Chess a sport or a game?

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        December 19, 2013 at 13:47

        If it doesn’t have microtransactions or DRM, then it’s a sport.

        Reply

  5. Admiral Chief in Vegas

    December 19, 2013 at 16:11

    I like the new header!

    [Admiral Chief Stamp of Approval]

    Reply

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