Growing up, I have always enjoyed playing video games of all types. I play shooters like Fortnite or Call of Duty, along with more intensive games like League of Legends and Overwatch. Sometimes, I even play old kid games like Putt-Putt or Freddi Fish. However, the games I love to play the most are “indie” games. Indie games are those where the game studio has no association with any corporate gaming company, such as Electronic Arts (EA) or Blizzard Entertainment. These games have lower budgets and only a few people working on it. A few examples of popular indie games are Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac and Journey.
In the 1990s and the early 2000s, a surge of PC video games caught everyone by storm. Technology to both plays and create games also increased during this time, causing many game enthusiasts to begin creating their games. There began the dawn of the indie games. There was a wave of browser-based games referred to as “Flash” games due to the software used to create the game. Some of the most popular Flash games created during this time were Stick RPG, Dolphin Olympics, and Interactive Buddy. I remember playing most of these games, especially Dolphin Olympics and Interactive Buddy, during computer lab time and always getting in trouble for it. Games like these were being created like wildfire, and there are over thousands upon thousands of these Flash games that are still available to anyone with a web browser. So many of these games were being created that websites like Kongregate and AddictingGames paid the developers to entice them to have their games hosted on these websites. Games like these brought a sense of joy whenever I played them because they were often created by one person who put a lot of heart and soul into them.
Sadly, the desire for better games and the increase of better consoles lead to indie game development dying out. Many of the old Flash game creators got picked up by bigger companies to help create AAA games. As for those who used to play Flash games, they went off and started playing mobile app games or buying the big-name consoles to play those AAA games. The love for playing small, low budget games died out.
Now, indie games are starting to make a comeback on both Steam, a game distribution platform, and Nintendo Switch. Steam’s catalog has been steadily growing with indie games, providing that old sense of joy to play games that just a handful of people made at home. Since the technology to create a game has advanced through the years, developers were allowed to make new indie games look more beautiful than their predecessors. For example, if you have the time, look into the Nintendo Switch game called GRIS or the Steam game, Transistor. Those games are both so beautiful, and it only took 12 people to create Transistor. The graphics are smooth on both games and the art style along with the story will make the player feel like they are in a mesmerizing animated movie. Another set of viral indie games that brought back people’s love for them are Cuphead, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Stardew Valley and Undertale. All of these games were able to bring back the love for something completely new and fresh to the interested gamers. For me, these games bring back old memories of playing those Flash games with friends in school.
I highly recommend trying some of the Flash games when there is nothing else to do while surfing the web. The websites mentioned above are still up and running today.