Before I even begin discussing my favorite indie games, I’d like to state up front that this list is not complete, and it never will be.
What Does It Mean to Have a “Favorite”?
The core concept of a “favorite” anything stems from our human tendency to favor organization. We love ranking things, and we especially love comparisons, because that’s one of the main ways we make sense of the world. It’s how we primarily make decisions! When we’re thinking of a game to spend our hard-earned $30 on, we’re looking for the best of the best — a la “creme of the crop” — because we want products that give the best bang for our bucks. The result? An endless chase for “perfection”, turned into an deadlocked narrative of comparisons, turned into analysis paralysis. Think back to when you last asked your friend about their favorite anything, and chances are that they couldn’t tell you a damn thing. The definition of a “favorite” in the context of organization (i.e., your “favorite” is the “best”) simply doesn’t mesh well with how we realistically participate with art.
So if using the word “favorite” to mean “best” is, in fact, illogical, what would be the point in making this post? I would like to then define what I mean when I say “favorite games”, so that we may hammer down this abstract nail of a term. When I call a game “one of my favorites”, I am simply stating that I really love or enjoy the game for some particular set of reasons, which is how many would define a favorite in the first place. Indeed, we call something a “favorite” when it is something we really, deeply love. You have a movie you used to watch a lot as a child? That’s likely one of your favorite movies. You have a significant other? That’s likely your favorite person. Favorite is not the best, and many of our favorites are flawed, but the difference between a favorite and a non-favorite is that we would die fighting for our favorites, any day of the week.
It is imperative to know, then, that favorites tend to change. A lot. The brain is an itchy, needy organ, always wanting food to consume, and this desire has only ever been intensified in the age of social Internet, where media is delivered to people in a fast-moving conveyor belt, existing in the form of tiny, bite-sized pieces. You and I encounter a lot of media, and I especially a lot of games, so it’s no surprise, then, that I eventually encounter a new thing I deeply love. Still, I cherish everything always, for the brain may forget, yet the heart does not.
With all that said, I will now list a few indie games that I really, really love.
UNDERTALE
Toby Fox’s UNDERTALE is quite possibly one of my earliest favorite games from as far as I can remember. If by some God’s given miracle you have yet to hear of UNDERTALE, it is a top-down, turn-based, bullet hell RPG that was released in 2015. The battles function similarly to what is typical of the genre, except the enemies’ attacks are active projectiles you (symbolized by your in-game heart) must dodge. The game’s uniqueness stems from its deep cuts into morality, as it gives the player the option to spare or kill every monster it fights, leading to vastly different outcomes, aptly named “Pacifist” and “Genocide” routes.
If I talked about “the things I love about UNDERTALE”, my words would be the first tangible example of countable infinity. Still, one of the things I love about UNDERTALE is the way it perfectly masters the medium of gaming and how it completely flips the rulebook on its head. Levels and Experience Points having the alternate meanings of “Levels of Violence” and “Execution Points” are only among a few examples, and even that’s probably some of the game’s cheesiest. YouTuber Jacksepticeye said it best when describing the game: “[UNDERTALE has] so much afterthought; so much thought outside of what the game is. [Toby Fox] has such an understanding of the medium, and the way games work; the way they can be crashed; the way they can be shut down.” Beyond the usual praises sung for this game: from its excellent, point-blank confident writing, and its eye-opening perspective on morality, to its unforgettable music, we must not forget UNDERTALE‘s insane grasp on the fundamentals of game design, and its usage of those fundamentals so damn clever, that indie devs are still trying to catch up to what Toby Fox did nearly a decade ago.
Cave Story
Ah, if it isn’t indie gaming’s most beloved lovechild, the oldest sibling of the family, Daisuke Amaya’s Cave Story. Many would call this the first (or at least one of the first) indie games. I wouldn’t even give Cave Story a 9/10 by today’s standards, let alone a 10/10, but I put this in my favorites because it is genuinely one of the most inspiring games for me. The story behind its development is endlessly fascinating and has been the subject of many video essays. Cave Story was the work of one person, Amaya (also known as Pixel) over many years, after which he uploaded it as freeware to his website wherein it slowly gained popularity within months. Nowadays, that’s the usual for indie games: a solo developer working day and night on a passion project to stardom, with Eric Barone’s Stardew Valley a great recent example. During Amaya’s time, though? Well, it was basically unheard of.
Cave Story is a big part of why a distinction must be made between “AAA games” and “indie games” in the first place, and it’s honestly one of my biggest inspirations to date. Outside that, my love for this game comes within the work itself, for there is genuine substance in it. One of my favorite themes in Cave Story, for instance, is its depictions of the atrocities of war, its impact, and how tackling war in different ways leads to different outcomes. The game is also just fun to play, with charming graphics to boot. If UNDERTALE was the one to pick apart the fundamentals of game design, Cave Story is one of the pioneers which set those very foundations.
Until Then
The placement of this here may reveal a bit about my nationality, but I’ll come out fully swinging: I’m a Filipino, and I would be lying if I said Polychroma’s Until Then isn’t the best video game ever produced by the Philippines. Except maybe Train to Gensan 3.
Until Then is a narrative game about Mark Borja and his weird but heartfelt adventure through becoming a pianist and fixing reality back to its place. The game is set in the Philippines, and one of its greatest strengths for me is how well it represents the Filipino state, not just in its representation of the Filipino’s iconic culture, but also in its representation of the country’s — for the lack of a better word — fucked up government. Even outside its local representation, though, it also has excellent writing and characters, characters which feel so… real, in a way not many other pieces of art have made me personally feel. I particularly enjoy the way Until Then sets up its scenes. They are long; characters are not afraid to stare at each other for extended periods of time, allowing for either tension to build up, or for emotions to breathe and settle in. It has a great method of manipulating how you feel, so I suppose it’s no surprise that I cried to this game many, many times.
Contextually, Until Then is also really important to me and the Filipino game development scene as a whole. If you look at Wikipedia’s list of video games produced in the Philippines, you would find a mere dozen titles, a vast majority of which have received mixed to negative reviews. Of course, there are plenty more than 12 Filipino games, but a lot of these independent releases have not received much attention within and outside the country. Thus, for Until Then to be such a successful game locally and globally provides not only proof that the Philippines can produce real games, but also hope for aspiring Filipino developers to pursue their craft. Certainly, it’s one of my biggest inspirations in pursuing game development right now.
Papers, Please
Everyone agrees that to be immersed in a fictional world is to believe you are part of it. But when folks think of immersion in a video game, ultrarealism immediately comes to their minds, whether it be in the game’s graphical fidelity, acting, or even in its auditory impressions. Whenever I think of immersion, though, the first thing that comes to my mind is Lucas Pope’s 2013 indie darling Papers, Please, and the way it convinced me that I was a struggling immigration inspector under a crumbling dystopian society.
Seriously, this game rocks. Not only is it such a unique concept for a game, it also serves as one of the industry’s most compelling depictions of human dilemma. As soon as you bite the hook, you’re forced to make a decision between letting a man’s wife into the country or denying her entry and earning a bit more cash for the next day. At the core of Papers, Please is the interplay between the individual and their larger society. Who do we prioritize, and who do we let go? Who do we trust, and who do we ignore? Your fate vastly depends on your answers to these questions, but perhaps most notably, the world stays a dystopia all the same; a point first stated in Pope’s Flash game The Republia Times, and only reciprocated more effectively here.
What’s Next?
Ed Najoukas’ classic board game What’s Next? is a fantastic adventure pick-your-path—— oh, wait, that’s not what I was talking about.
Truth be told, this list of games is not exhaustive. Like, at all. But what is next is more games to be played, and inevitably, more favorites! My point is: favorites always come, but favorites never go, so while you may expect Four More of my Favorite Indie Games sometime in the future, this here post will exist until the end of time.
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