Sony announced 12 indie games that will soon be making their way to PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita platforms at a recent press event. Some of these are already established modern classics that are already available on other machines (like Derek Yu’s Spelunky), but others will be brand new releases within the PlayStation family.
Check out the full list below, with links to guest posts by the developers on the Playstation Blog.
- Nidhogg (PS4): This 2D, side-scrolling competitive fencing game has been the talk of the town for 2014. Don’t let its Atari-style visuals fool you–this game is a fast, modern beast.
- Spelunky (PS4): As if Indiana Jones needed to be more rogue-like, this procedurally-generated platformer has you dying a thousand deaths as you try to delve deeper and deeper into the Earth.
- Chasm (PS4): Another 2D platformer that has you exploring procedurally-generated depths, but with more of a Metroidvania bent than Spelunky‘s roguelike.
- Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-a-Fide Edition (PS4): This turn-based-strategy game of leading undead samurai armies has been a favorite on mobile platforms, and the PS4 release comes packed with even more content for its console debut.
- Source (PS4): Another Metroidvania, but this one is first person, draws visual influence from “Tron, deep sea marine life, and fine surreal art,” and looks beautifully unconventional.
- Axiom Verge (PS4/Vita): An ambitious solo project, this retro-styled Metroidvania (starting to see the pattern?) features an interesting focus on encouraging glitches as a way to “break past the boundaries of normal gameplay.”
- Drifter (PS4/Vita): An open-world space sandbox, Drifter sets you loose in a massive, procedurally-generated universe to explore, trade, mine, and/or pirate to your heart’s content.
- Jamestown Plus (PS4): This co-op, arcade-style bullet-hell shoot ’em up made waves a few years ago on PC, and it is arriving at its natural console home with new ships and levels.
- Starwhal: Just the Tip (PS4/PS3): Sort of like Nidhogg, in that it’s a 2D fencing game, except you’re narwhals dueling in magnificently psychedelic outer space.
- Escape Goat 2 (PS4): The first game from outside developers to be published by Double Fine, this fiendishly clever 2D platformer’s title says it all: you’re a goat and you’re trying to escape (for the second time).
- Ironclad Tactics (PS4): Card-based, fast-paced tactical combat set in the American Civil War, but with robots. Simultaneous, fixed-length turns keep things moving and new cards are only unlocked through gameplay, to the relief of many financially-devastated CCG players.
- Apotheon (PS4): An idea so brilliantly obvious that every game developer/classicist is hitting their head for not thinking of it first, this beautiful 2D action game is set in Ancient Greece and draws from the visual style of Greek pottery.
What can we take away from this list? Indie developers are creatures of major nostalgia. While the recent indie revolution largely started on PC because of its lower cost of entry, many of these developers profess that they wanted to create console games all along, pining for childhood afternoons on the couch with their best friend, an SNES, and a box of Hi-C Ecto Cooler. They also want all Metroidvania, all the time, apparently.
In any case, this is a fantastic spread of some of the most exciting games to come from indie developers in the last few years, further cementing Playstation as the leading console for independent games.
Image courtesy of Adam Boyes.
