All articles tagged with #indie development
Jonathan Blow’s ambitious puzzle game, Order of the Sinking Star, launches on October 8 after a ten-year development cycle. The title features approximately 1,500 puzzles and a voice cast led by Emily and Liam O'Brien. Developed using a custom programming language and engine, the game blends mechanics from four distinct free games into a single, non-linear experience across four worlds.
Aerial Knight's Mr. Freezy is a cerebral two-row puzzle where you move heads to line up at least three in a row to chop them, with special heads adding constraints. Inspired by Dots but reminiscent of Catherine in its dark, pattern-driven play, the game has 45 levels on PC (with PS5 release on Sept 8). Indie founder Neil Jones notes the small scope helps the studio survive amid the industry’s discoverability crunch and even posted daily pushups for Steam wishlist milestones.
A group of ex-Ubisoft Barcelona developers led by Myles Kerwin launches Dark Ritual Studios in Barcelona to pursue a lean, experienced team with clear creative ownership and faster decision-making, embracing craftsmanship over scale. Their first game, Puzzle Mage, a dark fantasy PC title set for 2027, has funding secured and has already surpassed 1,000 Steam wishlists. The studio is evaluating self-publishing versus partnering with a publisher amid industry uncertainty.
Brendan 'PlayerUnknown' Greene says Prologue: Go Wayback! will move forward with a smaller team as funding struggles persist; he thanked his staff for their professionalism, explained that keeping the studio running by himself was a luxury he could no longer afford, and noted the project is now released for free while seeking partners to continue development.
Sandfall Interactive's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 developers reject scaling up despite success, preferring a lean, hands-on approach to keep creativity intact; they emphasize quality over size and recently won Game of the Year at the NY Game Awards.
Veteran developer Adrian Chmielarz is stunned by Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s AAA-grade quality produced by a ~30-person core team (half first-timers) on under $10M, aided by outsourcing; he calls it 'the biggest mystery in gaming,' noting design tricks like faceless enemies and cutscene-centric sequences as keys, while the game continues to rack up awards.
Untitled Paper RPG, an indie game inspired by Paper Mario, was in development since 2016 but was ultimately cancelled due to scope and development challenges. A short demo was released, giving a glimpse of what could have been, but the developer has moved on to other projects, including an action adventure game and a micro-RPG.