Started playing a few indie titles on PC, or at least titles that I would not normally be able to find without digging a bit (Sea of Stars, Hollow Knight, Garden Story, etc). Finding games that are made by smaller studios is a little (not much, but a little) harder than finding “Top Sellers” on Steam. I have tried Steam’s “niche” Recommender, which has helped find some cool titles.
However, I am wondering if there is something that would be equivalent to what E3 was, but for Indie titles? Either some online showcase that doesn’t rely on the Steam Curator system, or even something hosted in person with actual demos like E3. Does anything like this exist?
EDIT: Thank you for the answers! Steam Next Fest, the YouTubers listed below (thank you again!), gamescom, and itch.io all work great for what I was looking for.
Steam does a next fest pretty regularly now to showcase indie games
I had no idea that was what it was. I just looked at February’s Next Fest, and it is awesome. Thanks for the recommendation!
Steam Next Fest. SkillUp tends to do pretty good rundowns of his favorites. Below is his latest in one.
I am glad I finally know what the Steam Next Fest actually is. Thank you!
Youtube channel “Second Wind” has excellent indie game coverage.
They do “Bytesized” for short reviews of new games. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUBKwq0XD0uesOmUb2GTsc6rVp0mILcOY&si=lB8ZOIy3hraaMyG6
Also they have “Hidden Gem” where they stream an older indie game that went under their radar.
Plus most of their other stuff is pretty on the indie pulse.
I tend to watch Clemmy Games to see what indie games are coming up. There are a lot of duds, but then you come across a diamond in the rough. Clemmy does a great job for me, releasing videos almost every day and I would recommend giving the channel a go!
Thank you! The hardest part for me was finding a consolidated source of upcoming ones, and this fits that need well.
I just go to itch.io usually and play new games there. Might not be what you’re looking for, but as far as indie titles go, I find a lot of weird ideas on there.
By far some of the most interesting and bizarre games I have ever seen. Thanks!
For weird/horror games I follow alpha beta gamer on YouTube, so my suggestion is finding a YouTuber focused on indie games you like. As another user wrote you can browse itch.io featured page to find some hidden gems.
or even something hosted in person with actual demos like E3. Does anything like this exist?
The GamesCom in Germany always hosts the Indie Arena Booth, which has tons of indie devs densely packed in tiny booths, where you can play demos.
Since the pandemic, they’ve also had an online offering, where during the GamesCom, you can explore a virtual space with virtual booths, which will then also link to playable demos that you can download from Steam.
I wish they had something for the US, but I am glad they hook it up virtually now. Thank you!
Not exactly what you’re asking for but you can check out Wanderbots on youtube dude plays almost exclusively indie games. Don’t expecte play throughs almost never finishes the games but it’s not a bad way find niche games.
Nookrium as well.
Thank you! I appreciate watching the beginning of a game anyways, that way I can experience the rest if it looks interesting. Definitely has a TON of playthroughs.
Seriously? Hollow Knight is/was a huge hit. The other ones I’ve heard of before by word of mouth.
You can easily find indie games on Steam when you browse by any method. The ones of major devs will be obvious recognizable names. Even on the front page of the Steam store, it looks about a third of them are indie games.
Or you could look at other stores like GOG or Indiegala.
It is true, the gap between Hollow Knight and the other two is large (Steam Reviews as source, and general ease of finding it). But even finding something like Hollow Knight was something that conveniently popped up through either a Curator or in Specials at one point for me (can’t remember for certain).
Growing up, if a game was not something that showed up at E3 or was mentioned by a friend (and then later, showing up on Steam’s Specials or Top Selling), I never played or heard of it. And Steam is good, but I guess I was looking for something that targeted Indie games in particular, and if there existed a yearly showcase or event that was dedicated to Indies.
Hadn’t considered GOG or heard of Indiegala though, thank you for the reference!
Oh yeah, curators is the other one I wanted to mention but couldn’t remember.
Steam does have indie events, but really you won’t find anything there you can’t find just by browsing the store pages.
You can also hear of a lot of games just by being in game communities like here on Lemmy.
And don’t forget about games outside the major stores.
