Indie games have always been around, just like indie films and indie music…which has really taken off as a genre of its own. But never before has the independent market been more important to the retro gamer. With so many producers concentrating on newer, bigger, faster and “better” offerings, gamers have to look to the indie market for new plays on old consoles.

Sure, lots of indie gamers make their own games for newer platforms, such as the PS2 or Xbox Live, but even many of those are created in an 8-bit style, appealing to both the old school and nouveau gamers.

The 13th annual Independent Games Festival took place on the third day of the Game Developers Conference and offered up the year’s shining stars in the indie world. As Andy Schaatz, the developer of Monaco stated: “The IGF is not intended to make a small thing big, it’s a reminder that there is beauty hidden in the shadows of the big things.” Some of the winners may well worthy of note to retro gamers. The Best Student Game, Fract, is very Tron-like with puzzles that are reminiscent of the original Myst for PC. Like many other classic games, Amnesia: The Dark Descent (winner for Technical Excellence and also Excellence in Audio) is inspired by H.P. Lovecraft (can anyone say Cthulu?).

While Desktop Dungeons (winner for Excellence in Design) is a roguelike puzzle game based on resource management, one look and you can see the 8-bit appeal. It is available as a free PC download. The Nuovo Award went to Nidhogg in all of its pixilated brilliance and Minecraft (IGF Audience Award and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize) has reached a level that really needs no explanation.

Check out the article here. There’s a good chance you can find a title that will stimulate the 8-bit brain.

The Independent Games Festival, 5.0 out of 5 based on 2 ratings

Tags: Indie, Microsoft Xbox, Sony PS2

This entry was posted on Friday, March 11th, 2011 at 08:00 and is filed under Retrogamer Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.