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15 Incredible Indie Games To Slam On Your Wishlist
30.5.2022
“...no, you can have some water in the afternoon if you’re quiet.” I’m sorry, you’ve caught me just cramming the last of the Kotaku team in the Holiday Closet. As they rest and recuperate in tangled proximity, I have control of the site, and as such can write about indie games no one’s heard...
Soulslike Dev Explains Nintendo World Showcase ‘Selling Out’ Joke
25.5.2022
Dozens of games were shown during Nintendo’s Indie World Showcase earlier this month, but only one featured a crab heading out in search of treasure, sword in claw, and taking on the undersea world. The Switch game in question, Another Crab’s Treasure, sounded perfectly niche, but its developers...
The Zelda-Inspired Indie Game That's Causing A Commotion
18.5.2022
A recent entry in IGN’s peculiar indie developer-funding competition, Rogue Jam, has raised eyebrows for its obvious visual similarity with Nintendo’s 2019 Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. In response, many are attempting to whip up some sort of controversy, as if this isn’t...
Everything At Nintendo's First Switch World Showcase Of The Summer
11.5.2022
E3 proper might be skipping this year, but that doesn’t mean we’re not getting an E3 season. Nintendo kicked it off today with a 20-minute Direct focused on indie games coming to Switch in the coming weeks and months.Read more
As Apple Threatens Pulling Games, Devs Explain Why Forced Updates Are A Preservation Nightmare
25.4.2022
Although the mobile gaming ecosystem is known for hosting live-service games that monetize more aggressively than standalone console games, there’s no shortage of creators making mobile games that don’t call for constant updates. Now, some indie developers are finding out what can happen when...
Loop Hero's Developers Tell Russian Players To Pirate Their Game
30.3.2022
Four Quarters, the developer behind the highly regarded deck-building roguelike Loop Hero, is encouraging players to pirate its game if they can’t find any legal means of purchasing it amid the ongoing sanctions placed on Russia after its military invasion of Ukraine. Read more
Gorgeous Zelda-Like Tunic Is Exactly What I Needed Right Now
17.3.2022
In Tunic you wake up as a fox on a colorful, isometric shore. Walk for a little bit and you’ll find some monsters. Go in a cave and you’ll find a stick with which to fend them off. Venture a bit further and you’ll find a maze of rocks, broken bridges, and other obstacles to navigate in search...
The Best-Selling Indie Games On Switch In 2021, According To Nintendo
29.12.2021
December still has a few days left, which means we still have a little bit more time to reminisce back on the year that was. In this case, Japanese publisher Nintendo released a punchy supercut of what are, apparently, the most popular smaller budget games on its portable platform.Read more
What's Worth Picking Up From Nintendo’s End-Of-Year Hidden Gems Switch Sale
24.12.2021
As the death bell tolls for 2021, Nintendo and a suite of independent publishers have chosen to give us some final indie game sales before sending this garbage year off into that sweet night. All things considered, it’s a pretty excellent send-off, composed of many of the last few years’ best indie...
Indie Game Says Kalashnikov Stole Their Shotgun Design, Turned It Into A Real Gun
8.12.2021
Ward B, the developers of upcoming FPS Oceanic, have accused Russian arms manufacturer Kalashnikov of outright stealing one of their weapon designs for a new shotgun that’s being sold commercially.Read more
Wow, Dead Cells Is Still Going Strong, Huh
30.11.2021
For a game about the undying, Dead Cells is really living up to subject matter. The popular roguelike, first released in 2018 for consoles and PC, is getting even more new content, developer Motion Twin announced via press release today. The expansion announcement comes shortly after announcing...
25 Exciting Indie Games To Wishlist Right Now
26.11.2021
While the rest of Kotaku are all in their nearest Walmart, fighting strangers to death over the last discounted toaster, I have restored proper British control to the site. With a stiff upper lip and neatly ironed pair of trousers, I’m using my unchallenged authority to write about as many...
Dead Cells Gets Major Crossover Event Worthy of Smash Bros.
23.11.2021
Dead Cells has gone full Super Smash Bros. with its new ‘Everyone Is Here’ update, which adds new weapons and character skins from half a dozen phenomenal indie games including Blasphemous, Skul: The Hero Slayer, Hyper Light Drifter, Guacomelee, Curse of the Dead Gods and Hollow Knight.Read more
10 Dope-Looking Games Fighting For A Chance To Get Finished
10.11.2021
Indie games can allow creators to think outside the box, bucking mainstream trends to do work that’s more original and daring. But while creating those games can be liberating from a creative standpoint, gaining financial momentum for pitches can be a debilitating process. The Pitch Ya Game contest...
Japanese Indie Game Gets Themed Rooms At Kyoto Hotel
3.11.2021
In the past, Kotaku has introduced themed rooms at Japanese hotels. Typically, these rooms are for established franchises like Kingdom Hearts. But now, one Kyoto hotel is offering a room plastered in Japanese indie game Unreal Life. Read more
15 years later, did indie game discovery happen like we thought?
21.10.2021
What's changed in game distribution, tools and platforms since?
I’m Gonna Play The Heck Out Of This Lo-Fi Spin On Pokémon
19.10.2021
The elevator pitch for Cassette Beasts, a forthcoming indie game, can’t fit on a single line. A lo-fi monster-hunting game clearly inspired by Pokémon? Or, oh, oh, how about a top-down role-playing game with gorgeous pixel art and killer music? Surely it’s something distinguished by being awash...
Epic Finally Admits Among Us Inspired Fortnite's Impostors Mode
12.10.2021
If it walks like Among Us, talks like Among Us, and quacks like Among Us, it was probably at the very least inspired by the runaway success of Innersloth’s murder mystery party game. Epic Games is now finally copping to that in the patch notes for a new update to Fornite’s Impostors mode.Read more
Dev Reveals Exploitative Nature of Most Game Contracts
17.8.2021
Receiving a publishing deal from an indie publisher can be a turning point for an independent developer. But when one-man team Jakefriend was approached with an offer to invest half a million Canadian dollars into his hand-drawn action-adventure game Scrabdackle, he discovered the contract’s terms...
Everything Shown During Today's Nintendo Switch World Showcase
11.8.2021
It’s time once again for Nintendo’s Indie World, a semi-regular showcase of some of the cool indie games coming to the Switch in the coming months. This latest presentation features a combination of exciting, brand-new games and old favorites making their Nintendo Switch debut. Here’s all...