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- Minecraft: Where Legos meet computers, “Minecraft” gives adults the outlet to create, destroy, and play God. The beauty of it all is that you are a barely 3-dimensional character armed only with a pickaxe and your imagination. Players have the ability to create anything from a gothic castle on a cliff to a fully interactive to- scale Starship Enterprise. The unavoidable question remains is how much time is actually required to “minecraft.” Well, I am not going to sit here and judge the authors, as whose first thoughts after laying eyes upon a minecraft rendering of the entire set of “Game of Thrones” are, “who has this much time?” You just think, wow and then you judge much later after attempting it yourself.
- The Walking Dead: Almost everyone loves “The Walking Dead,” but for those who don’t, they usually love this game. The game is about decisions and you will be making so many you will dread attaching yourself to any of these characters. The game is stylishly rendered with a comic book aesthetic, buts it’s only about graphics when you have to see the look on people’s faces when they see how much of a utilitarian-nazi you have to be when making decisions in the zombie apocalypse. The most enjoyable aspect of this game is talking about it with your friends. Just like those heated water cooler discussions after “Lost,” the conversations you have with your friends to find out what choices they made provides enough heated ethical debates to subsist a philosophy class for the better part of a semester.
- Flow: The next game on the list is really the heart of what indie gaming is about. You start out as an atom, and the premise of the game is to grow. That’s it. Whilst you do this, the soundtrack keeps you engaged almost as much as the eerily mesmerizing 2-D graphics reminiscent of an 80’s arcade game. I’m sure if “Flow” was around during Biology class, things may have sunk in a bit better.
- Journey: Imagine being in a desert, with your only point of a reference being a mountain in the distance. Armed with a full body scarf,a small bell,and your point of reference. This is the game in its entirety. The only anomaly in this would be running into another player. There are no words in this journey, so you will have to communicate with your bell and your creativity. The experience cannot be fully explained, but can be described as exactly what it is. Imagine escaping the harsh indifference of a desert with a stranger who doesn’t speak your language.
- Newgrounds.com: Lastly, let us not forget where these indie-games found their Sega-genesis . For those of you who paid attention in school, Newgrounds was where you could go to play Runescape, silly simulators, and mini-games to kill time. Sounds like a fairytale, yes? Not really. When you weren’t jumping monster trucks off ramps and/or accruing vast amounts of points, you were haphazardly acquiring copious computer viruses, pop ups and subjecting yourself to the creepiest ads. Therefore, nowadays Newgrounds is a mere shadow of its past luster caked in trojan viruses and is more akin to the nerd culture equivalent of using Internet Explorer. But one cannot ignore the fact that these creative minds, uninhibited by corporate expectations, gained inspiration if not their first rodeo into independent gaming with Newgrounds.
