In the west hall of E3, a small group of tables houses the little-known but well-loved IndieCade, a yearly gathering of video games created by independent companies!
Give these games a chance, and you almost certainly won’t be disappointed! While huge developers can put out flashy games that completely lack soul (take Anthem for example…), most of these creations are labors of love, which means they’re loaded with niche appeal, innovative storytelling, experimental game mechanics, and more! As Undertale has proved, big things can be found in small packages.
Triple-A creators, we love you, but step aside! It’s time for the…
Best IndieCade Games of E3 2019
Sloppy Forgeries
Congratulations: you have 90 seconds to develop a good forgery of a priceless painting. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be perfect! It just has to be better than the job done by your competitor…
Sloppy Forgeries simplifies classical pieces of artwork down to a snapshot made from about five colors, which the forgery masters must replicate with simple paint tools. At the end, they’re each given a percentage score based on how many pixels correlate with the original.
Frankly, this is a work pure genius: the premise is simple, the execution is perfect, and the result is great fun!
Manifold Garden
Yeah, we like the look of it, too!
When you get into Manifold Garden, it actually plays like Portal: you run through this beautifully crafted, visually engrossing world and must get through gates, rooms, and doors by manipulating gravity in six directions : north, south, east, west, up, and down.
Still confused? No worries, check out some gameplay !
The demo didn’t give us a sense of story, and there may be little-to-none. Frankly, a plot line would just be a cherry on top of a refreshing world filled with challenging puzzles.
Lemnis Gate
We promised experimental game mechanics, and Lemnis Gate delivers: prepare yourself for a first-person shooter in four dimensions. Yes, you’re going to be playing with Time itself!
Previously called “Convergence”, this game takes turn-based combat to the next level: back and forth, each player adds another soldier to a battle that loops every 30 seconds. The more rounds finished, the more complexity added. Soon enough, you’ll have to sort through chaos to find victory!
Ascend
After the initial release of Super Hot, indie VR games hit a stale period. Ascend aims to breathe life back into the market!
Strap on a VR helmet and prepare for battle as one of two angelic warriors : a gun-toting shooter or blade-wielding knight. Once you’ve chosen your character, launch right into the aerial combat and defeat your opponents!
Admittedly, while we’re amazed at what the game is today, we’re looking forward to seeing where it goes! Aerial VR battles with shooting and sword fights could lead to some intensely powerful games in the future, with wide-ranging applications. If more diverse characters are offered, the number of players per battle increases, map packs are added, and a community starts to develop, we could see this becoming another VR classic.
Boyfriend Dungeon
We smile literally every time we think about this game.
You’ve seen isometric dungeon crawlers. You’ve seen the silly anime dating sims. Get ready for a hilarious trope inversion that meshes aspects of both!
In Boyfriend Dungeon, you fight through dungeons to find weapons that you then go on dates with. Who wants boring old dating sims when you chill with a guy that’s a sword, or a cat that moonlights as a set of spiked brass knuckles?!
Neo Cab
We promised innovative storytelling , and Neo Cab delivers the goods!
Step into a future where Automated Vehicles (AV’s) almost completely abolished the need for cab drivers. But guess what? You’re a cab driver working for Neo Cab, one of the few remaining taxi companies!
In a world where automation is the last word in transportation efficiency, your end goal is to prove that the human element still matters in the highly competitive service industry. Be careful: a simple conversation with a passenger carries more weight than you might expect!
Have personality. Be discreet. Stay human.
KillSquad
We’re not fans of top-down action RPGs, but dang …
This game looks amazing.
In fact, the phrase “too good” applies! Killsquad’s graphics look SO good, the monsters look SO cool, the weapons and abilities are SO exciting, it almost doesn’t feel like an indie game. If we didn’t physically see in the middle of IndieCade, we might have assumed it was a AAA title.
Then again…they are doing early access, which means Killsquad still has more work until completion. If they maintain the current quality, we look forward to seeing the result!
Thanks for Playing
Indie games are a great source of life, invention, and quality content for the gaming community. We hope you enjoyed the article, if any of these games sounded like your kind of thing, please give them a try!
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