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[More_Badass]

Voting thread up!
Link to the Voting Thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=734961

In short:
Rank your top 20 PC Indie Games you played last year (check the previous monthly threads if you want to remember what we played here), feel free to give the same rank to multiple games, like:

1. Game XY
2. Game ÖZ
2. Game GA
2. Game XD
5. Game XT
6. Game HT

Feel free to include a second list with the ranks 21-50 in the same manner, but the second list is not needed for the voting.

Also, make sure to post about why you think certain games deserve the votes, to convince others to try a game or to remind them of a certain game. We covered ~500 games last year, so its easy to miss one or two great ones. I would also suggest subscribing to the voting thread to be informed about others writing up their impressions/why this game was awesome-posts.



---

I checked out Path of Shadows from the OP. It was kind of... OK?

Super early alpha demo, what you'd expect? I think the framework is there for something special, though

I see you wrote about Dungeon of the Endless. I was intrigued by the game due to the art style and aesthetic but the talk of the very hands-off gameplay made me hesitant. Would you still recommend it?

 

[Toma]

Super early alpha demo, what you'd expect? I think the framework is there for something special, though

I see you wrote about Dungeon of the Endless. I was intrigued by the game due to the art style and aesthetic but the talk of the very hands-off gameplay made me hesitant. Would you still recommend it?

Has anyone written a post about Dungeon of the Endless here for the january thread yet?

 

[More_Badass]

Has anyone written a post about Dungeon of the Endless here for the january thread yet?

I believe Twinduct wrote something about the game

Edit: actually it was Kayle

picked up Dungeon Of The Endless
pretty fun for a couple hours
but it's lacking an endgame and isn't gonna have much replay value right now
they'll hopefully keep adding, some good bones to it right now
basically FTL meets Tower Defense meets dungeon crawler

 

[More_Badass]

Oh, you meant like an OP-ready post for the game. I got that covered

Dungeon of the Endless - $12.99/$14.99 (PC, Mac)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/249050/

Dungeon of the Endless is a Rogue-Like Dungeon-Defense game for PC and Mac, made by Amplitude Studios, in which the player and team must protect the generator on their crashed ship while exploring an ever-expending dungeon, all while facing waves of monsters and special events as they try to find their way out.

 

[Messofanego]

Finished The Novelist, took 4 hours. Gave my impressions in the thread.

Overall, it's the most effective look into family matters I've seen in a videogame so far. Alongside Papers Please, the best use of moral decisions and a branching narrative I have participated in. These both games allow you to use real world logic rather than in most videogames where you're trying to game the system to get the best rewards. Even though I'm not married or have a family yet, or am an author, I could still relate to all the pull-and-push of a family life and how compromises can be made but not all parties will be satisfied. How tough it is to maintain a work/life balance. I feel this game will be even more relevant further down the line in my life.

 

[Toma]

Finished The Novelist, took 4 hours. Gave my impressions in the thread.

Overall, it's the most effective look into family matters I've seen in a videogame so far. Alongside Papers Please, the best use of moral decisions and a branching narrative I have participated in. These both games allow you to use real world logic rather than in most videogames where you're trying to game the system to get the best rewards. Even though I'm not married or have a family yet, or am an author, I could still relate to all the pull-and-push of a family life and how compromises can be made but not all parties will be satisfied. How tough it is to maintain a work/life balance. I feel this game will be even more relevant further down the line in my life.

The voting thread will also be used to share impressions about the games we think others should take a look at again for the final vote. Since not many have played this game, I would appreciate if you could make a case for it in the voting thread once its up.

(and for the others games you feel strongly about)

 

[More_Badass]

Finished The Novelist, took 4 hours. Gave my impressions in the thread.

Overall, it's the most effective look into family matters I've seen in a videogame so far. Alongside Papers Please, the best use of moral decisions and a branching narrative I have participated in. These both games allow you to use real world logic rather than in most videogames where you're trying to game the system to get the best rewards. Even though I'm not married or have a family yet, or am an author, I could still relate to all the pull-and-push of a family life and how compromises can be made but not all parties will be satisfied. How tough it is to maintain a work/life balance. I feel this game will be even more relevant further down the line in my life.

Wishlisted. How branching/open to replays would you saw the narrative is?

---
Okay, have a Minecraft question. I can't run the demo very well. Has the current version been better optimized or would I have the same level of performance?

 

[Toma]

Wishlisted. How branching/open to replays would you saw the narrative is?

---
Okay, have a Minecraft question. I can't run the demo very well. Has the current version been better optimized or would I have the same level of performance?

Minecraft is shittily optimized.

 

[More_Badass]

Minecraft is shittily optimized.

Well, there goes that. Guess I'll just wait for the Playstation version
---

And about the Novelist...the Steam Discussions are always good for a laugh

Ahh, read a book... just as exciting as so called games like this. I respect any graphical art showcase and afinity for the intriguing and interesting, but seriously? STEAM sees this as a legitimate video game that gamers pay money for? ...maybe they need another category for something like this.

This game looks ok, but the question I'm sure many are wondering is whether it's possible to just off the family, horror movie style? I feel like I might want to pick up this game, but only if wholesale slaughter is a possibility in case you get tired of all that boring "subtly influencing the writer guy and his wife" and just want to murder these people instead. It seems a logical thing to do as a ghost inhabiting a solitary country house.

So, is it possible?

Wait, I get to play a ghost?
So I'm assuming I can make the walls bleed and stuff?

---

So for the Voting thread, are we going to be limited to certain amount of nominees? Any platforms okay (ie. IOS games)? I imagine that because not everyone has played certain games, the voting might end up being in favor of freeware games.

 

[Toma]

Well, there goes that. Guess I'll just wait for the Playstation version
---

And about the Novelist...the Steam Discussions are always good for a laugh



---

So for the Voting thread, are we going to be limited to certain amount of nominees? Any platforms okay (ie. IOS games)? I imagine that because not everyone has played certain games, the voting might end up being in favor of freeware games.

The voting will probably end up slightly in favor of freeware games, but thats fine in my book as its supposed to represent the games that we, as a community, would most strongly recommend for others to check out. A game that is free, is of course more enticing for general audiences as well.

But I was planning to work on creating several vote result lists, one would exclude free games if it was too free-heavy.

 

[More_Badass]

The voting will probably end up slightly in favor of freeware games, but thats fine in my book as its supposed to represent the games that we, as a community, would most strongly recommend for others to check out. A game that is free, is of course more enticing for general audiences as well.

But I was planning to work on creating several vote result lists, one would exclude free games if it was too free-heavy.

Sounds good. And are any games allowed as nominees? I'm mainly thinking IOS indies. Probably wouldn't be too many, but there are a handful of IOS games that I'd rank up there with the best PC indies

 

[Messofanego]

So Pylon_Trooper is banned - it's a sad time for everyone.

That said - he wrote a piece about Dungeon of the Endless (which is pretty good) and about Pandora.

The guy should be a damn writer.

Damn, he indeed should be a writer. Great read.

The voting thread will also be used to share impressions about the games we think others should take a look at again for the final vote. Since not many have played this game, I would appreciate if you could make a case for it in the voting thread once its up.

(and for the others games you feel strongly about)

I can certainly make a case for it!

Wishlisted. How branching/open to replays would you saw the narrative is?

Since you can't save scum or quick save to see both final decisions and my final decision seemed based on my actual actions rather than some canon actions (Deus Ex, Mass Effect, most typical games), I feel you really need to play it from the start again to see the different branches. I'll get back to answering this properly once I give it another playthrough. Also, need to give Papers Please a few more playthroughs.

And about the Novelist...the Steam Discussions are always good for a laugh

lol

Not going to bother going there trying to explain the game to these people who already have their minds made up about what a game is, and what ghosts can entail from only playing horror (FEAR, etc) games

 

[Toma]

Sounds good. And are any games allowed as nominees? I'm mainly thinking IOS indies. Probably wouldn't be too many, but there are a handful of IOS games that I'd rank up there with the best PC indies

Hm, tricky. I dont think it makes sense to include non-PC games as most of the voters wont have played these games and it wont make for a useful vote. The nominees will be all the Indie Games included in the monthly Indie threads this year + the PC Indie Games that released in 2013 up until december 1st. I would suggest excluding any games released in december, as we'll include those in january next year.

 

[Toma]

Voting thread up!
Link to the Voting Thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=734961

In short:
Rank your top 20 PC Indie Games you played last year (check the previous monthly threads if you want to remember what we played here), feel free to give the same rank to multiple games, like:

1. Game XY
2. Game ÖZ
2. Game GA
2. Game XD
5. Game XT
6. Game HT

Feel free to include a second list with the ranks 21-50 in the same manner, but the second list is not needed for the voting.

Also, make sure to post about why you think certain games deserve the votes, to convince others to try a game or to remind them of a certain game. We covered ~500 games last year, so its easy to miss one or two great ones. I would also suggest subscribing to the voting thread to be informed about others writing up their impressions/why this game was awesome-posts.

 

[Toma]

Whoever gets the top post on a page, please quotes the post above so it stays visible for thread regulars, here is another link to the post:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=93768067&postcount=514

 

[PandaPedinte]

Choosing which games to vote and rank is going to be hard. I'll need to check my previous voting posts and read the OP's because I played some games after the month they were featured.

 

[Toma]

Choosing which games to vote and rank is going to be hard. I'll need to check my previous voting posts and read the OP's because I played some games after the month they were featured.

Yep, same. Going to be reaaaally hard, and I dont think I should start thinking about my votes 2 days before the deadline.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

I'm so tempted to probably suicide my account and make a thread giving out free copies of One Way Heroics just so more people play it and it gets some votes...

Obviously I am biased but I totally think it's the Indie GOTY! >.>

 

[More_Badass]

No December games? So Teslagrad or Samurai Gunn can't be nominees?

 

[Toma]

No December games? So Teslagrad or Samurai Gunn can't be nominees?

Yeah, otherwise next years voting will become highly messy as I need to figure out which games released when and already were voted on or not. I thought about it for a while, and I think December 1st as deadline makes it easier for me to follow up with next year.

 

[Toma]

I'm so tempted to probably suicide my account and make a thread giving out free copies of One Way Heroics just so more people play it and it gets some votes...

Obviously I am biased but I totally think it's the Indie GOTY! >.>

Well you are free to post free keys here (or in the Steam thread). We have devs throwing free keys in here sometimes. I was planning to buy 20 or so copies of One Way Heroics myself and give them away in the Steam thread in return for some impressions in the OT, but I wouldnt mind you giving away some keys so that I dont need to spend the money

Remember to put the keys into [*/email] tags, so that lurkers cant grab them as you can only see these tags if you quote a post. Or create a modbot giveaway:
[URL="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=617641"]http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=617641[/URL]

I would also suggest linking to the OT and posting a screenshot in the giveaway, especially if you post it in the Steam thread.

Edit: Dont Account suicide, it will taint the name of your company on GAF.

 

[More_Badass]

Ahhh...going through the old threads to refresh my memory for the GOTY voting...
From July, my first post in the Indie Threads

Technically new to Steam and PC gaming in general
These indie game threads have been a godsend. Subscribed

And then all my incessant spec questions followed...

 

[Toma]

Ahhh...going through the old threads to refresh my memory for the GOTY voting...
From July, my first post in the Indie Threads

And then all my incessant spec questions followed...

lol, I remember these veeeery well.

Edit: Btw, you got the first post on the current page, could you edit a quote to post #514 in there?

 

[More_Badass]

lol, I remember these veeeery well.

Ha, yeah it was either specs, Paypal/payment methods, or summer wishlist/asking about what I should get

Now back to voting, why 20? We had this same discussion over in the Toucharcade forums, eventually the limit was set at 10 nominees. Honestly I think 10 or 15 would be better than 20. I'm going through the games I remember or that really impressed me and I'm already feeling that with a list of 20, I'm going to be including games that maybe might not be 100% GOTY material. You know, padding the list to reach 20 nominees

 

[Toma]

Ha, yeah it was either specs, Paypal/payment methods, or summer wishlist/asking about what I should get

Now back to voting, why 20? We had this same discussion over in the Toucharcade forums, eventually the limit was set at 10 nominees. Honestly I think 10 or 15 would be better than 20. I'm going through the games I remember or that really impressed me and I'm already feeling that with a list of 20, I'm going to be including games that maybe might not be 100% GOTY material. You know, padding the list to reach 20 nominees

Because we had 500 games over the course of 10 months and I want to ensure that we DO stretch our memories a bit. The april voting alone has 7 games I could make a case for, so its not like we should have a case of severe drought. If a game ended up being spot 20, then its 19 spots away from being GOTY, but why shouldnt you still vote for it as rank 20? If we focus on 10 games, I fear we might thin out the games too much and might not include worthwhile games. I want a big list with these votes and I thought a lot about how to handle this, asking for feedback here and there but in the end I needed to make a decision. If the voting crashes and burns, I can still change it for the next time I guess and we'll never speak of the 2013 voting ever again, taking your feedback and improving the next one.

Edit: I see you didnt include Factorio in your initial idea list, if you havent yet, give the demo a try.

 

[Gazoinks]

I'm probably gonna grab the current Humble Weekly, mainly for the Zeno Clash games. Those're supposed to good, yeah?

 

[Toma]

I'm probably gonna grab the current Humble Weekly, mainly for the Zeno Clash games. Those're supposed to good, yeah?

Weird as barely anything else, but definitely worth experiencing. Very enjoyable if you go in with an open mind.

 

[Hofmann]

Now back to voting, why 20? We had this same discussion over in the Toucharcade forums, eventually the limit was set at 10 nominees. Honestly I think 10 or 15 would be better than 20. I'm going through the games I remember or that really impressed me and I'm already feeling that with a list of 20, I'm going to be including games that maybe might not be 100% GOTY material. You know, padding the list to reach 20 nominees

You're trying to punish me for some reason with this suggestion. I made the initial list that consists of about 40 games and everytime I have to eliminate one it makes my heart bleed.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Well you are free to post free keys here (or in the Steam thread). We have devs throwing free keys in here sometimes. I was planning to buy 20 or so copies of One Way Heroics myself and give them away in the Steam thread in return for some impressions in the OT, but I wouldnt mind you giving away some keys so that I dont need to spend the money

Remember to put the keys into [*/email] tags, so that lurkers cant grab them as you can only see these tags if you quote a post. Or create a modbot giveaway:
[URL="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=617641"]http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=617641[/URL]

I would also suggest linking to the OT and posting a screenshot in the giveaway, especially if you post it in the Steam thread.

Edit: Dont Account suicide, it will taint the name of your company on GAF.

Haha don't worry I have had this account too long without ever being banned to do something stupid now ;p

We are about to hit the Top 10 on Greenlight(probably before the end of our work day) so I think we will try to coincide any code giveaways with that announcement. Keep your eyes peeled!

 

[More_Badass]

Just saw this on Reddit. Thought it was pretty funny. Stanley Parable-related, no spoilers.

Someone emailed the dev for a refund
http://i.imgur.com/wPtqW6G.jpg

 

[Messofanego]

Eidolon - 2014

Trailer

So it's like a mix of Proteus and Dear Esther, with survival elements

I got this confused with Dream Fishing that Klepek played in his latest Worth Playing lol

 

[Messofanego]

I'm probably gonna grab the current Humble Weekly, mainly for the Zeno Clash games. Those're supposed to good, yeah?

Yes.

 

[More_Badass]

Wait, would Project Zomboid count as a 2013 release? It was released on Steam this year, but it's been "out" for much longer. Which criteria are we going by? Same with BLEED

 

[More_Badass]

Saw this on TIG. Love the art style

Zombygon - a top down exploration zombie shooter

---
New Terry Cavanagh game
Fountain

 

[One Foul Note]

Wait, would Project Zomboid count as a 2013 release? It was released on Steam this year, but it's been "out" for much longer. Which criteria are we going by? Same with BLEED

Bleeds probably be in my top 5, if it's allowed.

 

[Toma]

Wait, would Project Zomboid count as a 2013 release? It was released on Steam this year, but it's been "out" for much longer. Which criteria are we going by? Same with BLEED

Bleeds probably be in my top 5, if it's allowed.

Any game in the threads is allowed for the voting, I was planning on creating different lists anyway and will probably make one without pre-2013 releases if necessary. In the end it's supposed to be a recommended games list of stuff we played in 2013, so we'll see how it turns out,

 

[Toma]

Since I just noticed it in the GOTY voting thread:

If you plan on posting longer impressions/"Why you should consider gameX" posts, please create single posts for each game and include a screenshot.

Your list can still include shorter descriptions/explanations however, similar to what Badass did so far.

 

[daydream]

Posted in the Voting thread, and.. ugh. Too many games.

I think narrowing it down to ~30 will be easy, but cutting the last ten and deciding on the order of the top 20.. I'm not ready for it.

 

[Toma]

Posted in the Voting thread, and.. ugh. Too many games.

I think narrowing it down to ~30 will be easy, but cutting the last ten and deciding on the order of the top 20.. I'm not ready for it.

Yeah, its ridiculously hard.

 

[daydream]

Yeah, its ridiculously hard.

Already started adding stuff, lol. At least my no. 1 is firmly in place.

The Novelist is definitely a big one I still need to play.

 

[More_Badass]

Already started adding stuff, lol. At least my no. 1 is firmly in place.

The Novelist is definitely a big one I still need to play.

December games (Novelist, Teslagrad, etc.) are excluded from the nominees

 

[daydream]

December games (Novelist, Teslagrad, etc.) are excluded from the nominees

Ah, thanks! An unfortunate release window, indeed.

I will still play The Novelist, of course, and Teslagrad, as soon as it hits 3DS.

 

[PandaPedinte]

Westerado is the PC version of RDR that we never got.

 

[More_Badass]

Westerado is the PC version of RDR that we never got.

That good huh?

Spoiler

I agree

 

[Hofmann]

Malebolgia - PC

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=157945114

Dascu has taken a break, so here is his latest gifshot.

PixelJunk Inc. - PC, Mac, Linux

http://pixeljunk.jp/inc/

Warhol would be proud.

Cosmonautica - PC

http://cosmo-nautica.com/

You are the captain of a small washed-up space cruiser. Assemble a well functioning crew and build a flourishing space company. Explore the galaxy and pursue intergalactic trading in dynamic and random generated solarsystems. Success and failure depend on your decisions.

Naval Action - PC

http://www.navalaction.com/

Devs who worked before on games such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R, World of Tanks, IL-2 and Rise of Flight take on realistic naval combat/exploration game.

Cyberpunk 3776 - PC

http://www.peter-hann.de/projekte/cyberpunk-3776/

It is a classic Sidescroller, a psychedelic lunatic Cyberpunk Novel taking Place at the postapocalyptic Earth while fighting a lost battle against an Alien Invasion. A very dark, hopeless hypnotic nightmare.

Future Unfolding - ???

http://www.futureunfolding.com/

Haven't seen or heard much about it, but based on the short description and a few screens found on their facebook profile I can say it's one of my most anticipated 2014 games.

Awesome Boots - ???

https://twitter.com/VictorRayDev

 

[PandaPedinte]

Cosmonautica sounds interesting.

 

[More_Badass]

Belated and forgotten, but it's a nice little tradition worth maintaining on IndieGAF



Naya's Quest
http://terrycavanaghgames.com/nayasquest/

I had been turned off when I first tried this game, mainly because I didn't like any of the control schemes. Tried it again yesterday and found one I liked, and now I can say this a fantastic little game. Definitely for fans of perspective-twisting games like Fez and mind-bending platforming puzzles. The isometric graphics are simple, but the gameplay is anything but.

If you're looking for a challenging free game that offers great puzzles, an enigmatic story, and an interesting puzzle mechanic, Naya's Quest is worth a playthrough (or an attempt)

 

[More_Badass]

No doubt that Tiny Thief was a fun game on IOS, but $14,99 for the PC version is pushing it.
Especially when their reasoning is:

Hi everyone!

In this version we have made an additional effort to make the game look as good as possible, with high-quality graphics and other improvements to make the experience as smooth as possible. Additionally, the game is 3$ on mobile platforms: prices are set differently on each platform and these two markets are very different.

We've been developing Tiny Thief for over 2 years, the game has around 3.000 animations and 700 sound effects plus music; crafted by a small team of passionate game developers. We truly believe Tiny Thief to be a unique and great game with a correct price for this platform and we hope you feel the same way once you get to play the adventure.

So some graphical changes and updates are the only differences. I usually don't complain about this stuff, but this is ridiculous

 

[phantomspiker]

No doubt that Tiny Thief was a fun game on IOS, but $14,99 for the PC version is pushing it.
Especially when their reasoning is:


So some graphical changes and updates are the only differences. I usually don't complain about this stuff, but this is ridiculous

Sooooo, their reasons for the higher price is that PC gamers will pay more?

 

[flowsnake]

Sooooo, their reasons for the higher price is that PC gamers will pay more?

It's a common reasoning, except I usually see the reverse, where the mobile version comes later, and costs considerably less.

You have to wonder how many people will actually buy it at full price anyway.