Weird, Wild, and Everything in Between: Why Indies Keep Pushing the Industry Forward

Let’s be honest with ourselves. It’s hard not to look at the current state of the games industry and wonder why so many different people are feeling… burnt out, to say the least. While I’ve been enjoying the current generation of consoles and PC gaming, I can’t help but feel a little pessimistic about the way that things are going. Seeing games that I grew up with lose their identity, becoming crossover central rather than sticking with what made them great in the first place. Seeing Battle Passes and Microtransactions rule the storefronts, rather than focusing on fixing the nagging issues that are plaguing some of the biggest games on the market.

But when I’m feeling in my own head about the state of the industry, I remember that a certain genre of game always has my back. Home to some of the weirdest, wildest, and wackiest game concepts I couldn’t have imagined in a Benedryl-soaked fever dream. The world of Indie Games has evolved tremendously over the years. From my first experiences with games like Super Meat Boy and Cave Story, something about these low-budget masterpieces had their hooks in me from the get-go. Even now, over a decade since I’ve played these modern marvels, I’ve found myself diving deeper and deeper into the world of indies. Not only because they’re much more cost-effective in an economy that seems to find itself in a uroboros situation, but because it reminds me of the “golden age of gaming”. That time when developers weren’t afraid to take risks, make strange and weird experimental games, and leave a mark on the halls of history. More games are getting released daily than ever before, and indies have left a bigger mark in my mind than the biggest AAA blockbusters. 

Image Credit: Kaizen Game Works

How a Severed Pinky and a Talking Block of Tofu Changed My Outlook on Gaming in 2025

Sometimes, you just see a game that speaks to you on a spiritual, emotional, and metaphysical level. Other times, you see a game that just looks so bizarre that you can’t even comprehend what you just saw. Promise Mascot Agency, the second game from the folks behind Paradise Killer, was exactly that. The premise was unlike anything I had ever seen up to this point before: you’re a Yakuza crime-boss who has been sent to a remote island filled with neglected mascots, and it's your job to raise billions of Yen to make sure that the patriarch of your family isn’t murdered in cold blood. Oh yeah, and the voice actor who brings Kazuma Kiryu of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise to life is the main character here, we can’t forget that. 

But, here’s the thing. Promise Mascot Agency wasn’t an immediate sale for me because of the star-studded cast or anything like that, even if it did feature SWERY and plenty of other faces that would make a strange little guy like me squeal with excitement. It was the fact that it was so bonkers, so left field, and so interesting that caught my attention. Guess what? It’s one of the best games that I’ve played this year, as well. You can look at every blockbuster game that came out this year, powered by the latest graphics engine and featuring the most advanced technology, and you won’t find anything that matches the sheer joy and excitement that Promise Mascot Agency delivers from the moment you start it. It’s a testament to all things weird. It’s a game meant for the freaks, the neglected, the forgotten, and it excels at nearly everything it sets out to do. Plus, continuous updates and patches, alongside new features like GRINDING IN A TRUCK, are being added at no additional cost to players. 

That’s right: while games like Call of Duty continue to nickel and dime players for everything that they’ve got, Promise Mascot Agency is doubling down, adding basically a brand new game mode for free, and letting people rip through Kaso-Machi without a care in the world. It’s bliss. It’s exciting. But most importantly of all, it’s the reason why indie games continue to rock the scene and leave more of an everlasting impact in the halls of my mind than a remaster, remake, or redo of a game that I’ve played umpteen times before. Even the halls of horror aren’t safe from the hands of the most perturbed indie developers out there, leading to another game that has completely absorbed every thought in my mind: RATSHAKER. 

Image Credit: Sunscorched Studios

As Always, I Must Ask: Who up Shaking They Rat Right Now?

Where do I even start with my infatuation with RATSHAKER, a game that is so disturbing and interesting that it’s become a talking point in my daily life? A game that I’ve gifted to more people than I’d like to admit, this psychological horror adventure is something that I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams. Set in a first-person perspective, RATSHAKER is exactly as it sounds: it’s a game about shaking a rat. Part walking simulator and part mental degradation and brain rot, RATSHAKER is one of those games that I recommend to… well, damn near every person that has ever crossed paths with me in life. It’s the only game that I’ve ever played through on multiple systems to get a Platinum, full Steam Achievements and a perfect 1000/1000 Gamerscore on Xbox, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. 

Outside of the game, I learned something interesting. Even if a horror game is the most fucked-up, depraved, viscera-filled bloodbath that you’ve ever encountered, there’s a good chance that the development team behind the game is going to be filled with the nicest people that you’ve ever met. That couldn’t have been truer when it came to RATSHAKER. As soon as I discovered the game in November of 2024, I immediately had to write about it. I’m not going to link it, but if you search for the game on Google, you’re going to find countless articles all done by me about the game, because it made such a dramatic impact on my psyche from the beginning. After putting my thoughts about the game into the world, I tweeted about the game and tagged the development crew. From there? I developed a genuine friendship with the crew that was behind the most rat-tastic adventure I’ve ever been on. 

RATSHAKER || Indie Impact feat. @scichacki

I learned that Sunscorched Studios is filled with talented folks who want to get their vision for the perfect horror game out into the world. They weren’t weird or disturbed in the head, like some may imagine the folks who would make a game about shaking a rat around would be. Instead, I learned that they’re just incredibly interesting, kind, and fantastic folks who wanted to see their vision come to life before their very eyes. Another massive win for the indie community, at least in my eyes. You could either pay $70 for a horror game from any AAA developer, or you could spend $2.99 and get 4 hours of pure joy involving a rat screaming and getting choked out. The choice is yours, but I already know exactly where I would be dropping my money in this situation. 

Image Credit: Gil Lawson

Disregard AAA, Admire and Respect the Indies & Creative Big-Budget Titles

If you’ve been feeling the burn of modern-age gaming, I can’t blame you. Buying a new console or building your very first PC, it’s always a good bet to throw some cash down and pick up the most eye-blisteringly beautiful games on the market. Seeing the world evolve before your eyes in something like Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is incredibly impressive and shows the potential of what a developer can do if they genuinely care about the product that they’re crafting. But watching the soul escape from the realm of multiplayer gaming, all tossed to the wayside in pursuit of the latest and weirdest crossovers, can be genuinely disheartening. That’s why I suggest checking out the realm of indie games now more than ever. Games like ROGUE LIGHT DECK BUILDER by Gil Lawson make a case for the strangest interpretation of a genre that I’ve ever seen in my life. But at the same time, I’d rather play a game about sloppily slamming down a hammer to drive in a nail before I download the next battlepass-ridden FPS game. 

The sheer number of bafflingly good indie games released this year alone is staggering. That’s not even accounting for the past decade of indie games, most of which can be picked up for cheaper than a cup of coffee from your favorite fast-food joint. If you’ve been struggling with burnout recently in the world of gaming, look past the glitz and glamor of the biggest, most popular releases and dive into the world of indies. It’s something you won’t regret.