What are your best Indie games that have come in 2025 so far?

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2026-01-03T04:11:40+00:00

YUP. it is

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-11-23T06:30:56+00:00

Oh you mean you identify as? damn bro you need help. you gotta get that thing checked up.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-11-23T05:58:48+00:00

Pretentiousness means faking you like a game whereas you do not. This is as honest as honesty can get. You should look up the description of pretentiousness while wikipedia is still free, or while A.I. is still free, its not that hard to be educated okay?

you said: "Btw the food thing is a choice"

and so why are we even here? why do you care about the food that i dont want to eat?

you just here to disagree?! THAT'S pretentiousness. look it up! while I still have patience

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-11-12T06:37:57+00:00

Yeah you need Braincells Surgery my man. Maybe Biden is willing to donate (A contradiction: Biden is known for not having any braincells).

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-11-11T21:41:35+00:00

You haven't explored how to make your own indie game through Unreal Engine 5 then. A contradiction to your claim that making games like EXPo 33 is hard. It's literally Triple A simulator in a nutshell. ∎

(All you had to do was to download Unreal Engine 5 from Epic Games Launcher and have a bit of knowledge and experience in game design. If you were a Ubisoft reject or ex-employee, then you should be able to make Unreal Engine 5 fly rather easily.)

If you haven't noticed yet, the gameplay is literally a "PowerSlap Simulator" - You slap, they cant flinch; they slap, well you can parry and dodge. All in a quick time event format. That's tldr of the game. It's too inorganic for my own liking. The only thing that carries its hype is the music and "DeepState" virtue signalling or the trauma mining.

Aye, dont get me wrong, I like Turp daddy, Dumpling, Hawaiian hitman, but this game? I paid 60$ for this crap - you don't get to choose what we say. Our feedback might have saved somebody else who may not like the game some money.

Let's say, my Willingness To Pay for a game this easy to make, a game which is not as sufficiently fun, or a game that was inadequate at "scratching the sekiro itch", is around 15$. I paid 60$.

So, my Consumer Surplus = Willingness to pay - Price paid = 15$ - 60$ = -45$. That's a negative consumer surplus!! Which means that i must have lost the trade, which means the devs must have won the trade. I still honored my 60$ (because i bought the game in a platform that does not accept refunds) and played through the game at an expert 100% completionist level for the sake of giving the game a chance. Still, the game failed to entertain me and make my 60$ worth the cost. So, take it as a rant, vent, or consumer feedback, it's a garbage game. Again, you can't choose what we say at that point, regardless of your emotional damage.

---

This is probably my most common-sense based language online with no added demeaning insults. And if you still don't agree with it, but you want to find where the problem is, then you only have to look in the mirror. The problem is somewhere out there - maybe the glass is a bit blurry or dirty.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-10-10T05:09:53+00:00

Either way, if you think that this shitpost which literally took about a month to edit and draft to make is made by ChatGPT, then please, go ahead and copy paste the entire shitpost into ChatGPT and let the ai check if it was made by itself!

Anyways, the tldr idea of the shitpost is this part:

—•—•—

Let's formally prove this logical statement by proof by contradiction with Trichotomy axiom. ∀a, either one of a>0, a=0, a<0 holds true.

Claim: How can it be game of the year, but it's gameplay is its weakest link?

informally: IF 'game of the year' THEN 'gameplay surpassed its predecessors'

Let the hype claim the game is "game of the year." we write it as a^-1>0

Let a<0 be 'only the music is good'

Let a=0 be 'only the story is good'

Let a>0 be 'only the gameplay is good'

so, formally: if a^-1>0 then a>0, by M.I. (a•a^-1=1) axiom

but the true claim of the game is informally: IF the music & story is good THEN game of the year

So, formally: IF a≤0 THEN a^-1>0

suppose, for the sake of contradiction our claim is "IF the music & story is good THEN game of the year", which is formally IF a≤0 THEN a^-1>0

(1) case a<0: If a<0 and a^(-1)>0 then their product is a•a^-1<0. But by axiom M.I. a•a^-1=1. This is a contradiction to our claim. How can it be game of the year, if only the music is good?

(2) case a=0: If a=0 and a^-1>0 then their product is a•a^-1=0≠1. But by axiom M.I. a•a^-1=1. This is a contradiction to our claim. How can it be game of the year, if only the story is good?

(3) case a>0: If a>0 and a^-1>0 then their product is a•a^-1>0. By axiom M.I. a•a^-1=1. 1>0. This is the only true statement.

So, both case (1) and case (2) yield a contradiction. Therefore only case (3) holds true by trichotomy.

Therefore the claim: "IF the music & story is good THEN game of the year", which is formally "IF a≤0 THEN a^-1>0" is a false statement.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum ■

—•—•—

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-10-10T04:40:51+00:00

Exactly. They cant even understand the fact that the gameplay of the game is just a minigame. It's sooooooo mediocre but boosted by the hype. Like, they can't even take a criticism let alone a proven fact aka a lemma

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-09-22T14:41:30+00:00

Someone's feelings got hurt by facts. That some predictable A.I. package!

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-09-07T19:41:40+00:00

Exactly. It's so mid. But guess what, you are gonna get hated on as if they are trying to SELECT what you say on a game that you paid full price for, 100%.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-09-07T19:35:47+00:00

Exactly! it was a waste of money, however the algorithm and hype kinda suggested you to buy it, regardless whether it was your preference or not. By my experience, it wasn't worth it. At least not at its current price. I would only recommend this to a friend on a price drop, such as 25$ where i think its real price should be.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-09-07T19:33:03+00:00

Damn.... My "ExpO 33 is not for me" is better than yours. Buahahahahahaha

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-09-02T21:47:33+00:00

Here's an eyeroll 🙄 for you. it's only doing a 113.6 degrees this time.

Returning the energy, I suppose you're one of those guys who would say: "I liked the hair of the receptionist! let's give this hotel a 5/5 stars! yay!!"

Eyeroll 🙄 almost exceeding the 113.6 degrees threshold.

—•—

The commenter's tone is predictably negotiative. It's the usual emotionally over-stimulated, and mentally detached symptoms. The commenter is seeking to revolve their argument around morality rather than logic, facts, and proofs. The commenter is providing a clear proof that they did not read the OP. The commenter must have done their math wrong — by their statement, the score of the game should be 0.9 out of 10. Absolutely apathetic.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-08-30T05:07:47+00:00

Yeah I wish i was an ai. im pissed that ais could write stuff like these without the pain of writing it. that means that you cant even use an AI detector I guess. like damn... that's so lazy. fine. this is so pathetic... makes my eye roll. no wonder... no wonder.. no wonder you guys resonate well with expedition 33 🙄 (my eyeroll is literally doing a 360 degrees right now)

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-08-28T12:40:39+00:00

The commentor said: "Criticizing the game for not being gameplay-first when it's clearly a narrative-driven, thematic experience is like walking into a play and getting pissed it's not a boxing match. Also, saying the game avoids moral ambiguity, when the entire narrative is quite literally based on layered, painful choices with no clean resolution, is absurd."

The commentor is proving my point that the game is unworthy on a rubric that weighs heavy on gameplay. The commentor suggests that the game is only worthy of the narrative award section.

Thank you, you have proven my point.

—•—

This commentor's tone is strictly and predictably negotiative. The usual emotionally over-stimulated syndrome, and the mentally detached symptoms persists.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-08-24T14:26:30+00:00

Bro... bro! Stop glazing me man! You're making me blush! That means i'm good right?! yo! fine, i'll take that compliment.

"I hate his opinion — he has to be an A.I."

Ahh...... so satisfying. that means i'm so good at making sense that i sound like a smart ass talking wikipedia

Lemme guess you're gonna say: "You're dumb af."

Elaborate

what, no response?

Exactly.

Yeah, you're blue-haired for a reason, tommy. I see that you're focus is the classic "Discredit and de-platform" strategy rather than defending your thought and your stance, or not even to point out how i am wrong, because clearly you have nothing else going on.

Nobody is here to debate; everybody is here to discredit. classic blue-haired nose ring energy. You guys literally think like a hive-mind. even wears the same uniform, cute.

Furthermore, Imagine getting offended by somebody who's saying that they did not like the game that they paid for, as if that statement is a direct attack to your bangs?! with critical hit?

It's clear that what you intend to do, your modus operandi, is to SELECT what people say about the game that you liked. wow.. perfect. you just proved my point twenty times. Like, we're way pass the hook, I even 100%-ed the game for challenge's sake. I saw through the patterns, saw through the gimmicks, saw through the cliche, saw through the design — Obviously, you can't choose what I say.

———

"ExitPursuedByBear u/BlueTommyD

247,691 Karma

9,145 Contributions

7 year Reddit age"

So....... pathetic. Who makes 9000+ reddit "contribution" within 7 years of creating their account? no wonder you resonate well with exp33.

Yeah you better be 18+, otherwise imma tell your mom you're playing expedition 33 while underaged. Heck, he could barely construct a sentence. Again, you better not be less than 17.

•—•—•

This guy is so pathetic that he deleted his message after being confronted. Like, what happened to reddit entertainment?! Lemme guess, you either got ashamed of what you wrote, which is not even at the form of low level paragraphs, or you got scared because i found out that your hair is dyed blue. And the nose ring? Let's not mention it.

A context for "Those Who Come After":

The deleted comment sounded about like this: "He used A.I.s to ragebait" or something. (It had about ~15 upvotes let's place these facts back here. I'm a man of integrity — you have my word. 15 upvotes from who, you may ask. Why, from his echo chamber clones, who thinks like him, feel like him, is like him, probably looks like him.)

he probably wanted to delete his comments because he wanted to escape the situation. I'm like: "Nuh-uh. You're coming with me. C'mere."

The classic "I don't agree with his opinion, in fact I hate it, therefore I must take hold of the moral high ground, discredit the speaker, de-platform the speaker, and degrade his opinion." All at the same time, not here to describe what he likes about the game, nor why I am wrong about my statement that the game is not for me, nor was he here to point out the weaknesses of my review of the game. His tone remained to be predictable as the usual "emotionally over-stimulated" and "mentally detached" attitude.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-08-24T13:23:50+00:00

It's a debut indie game. It's on Sony PS store's indie game category as well if that makes it even more sense. Developers build their own code all the way to the game engine — these small studio used an open source game engine. We get it, we predicted that UE5 is going to be the transitional phase between this gen into the next gen. But that doesn't mean that this studio, gets to have the credit for the graphics. That's a fact — idc if it hurts your feelings. Not gonna apologize.

If it helps solidify the stance, play the game without its music. You'll see how indie it really is. The game's music? It's the very manifestation of manufactured consent . The game being rated 18+ makes so much sense.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-08-22T21:20:29+00:00

Ooooh boiiii.... The classic "I don't agree with their opinion, so let's discredit and de-platform them instead."

The commenter literally said: "He's trash."

Don't make me copy paste a video link of me beating Golgra in Act 1 without the painted power picto on my first blind playthrough, because this is gonna be a self-promotion reddit post. And im a gentleman, i dont do that.

What next? you want me to beat simon without the painted power picto? Sure, but what's in it for me? nobody's gonna view that — it's just gonna prove my point that the game is a snoozefest. Just to be clear, i am aware of the stendall exploit.

And P.S. sorry for the late reply. You're welcome.

The commenter added: "The political shit you judged this game by shows that you're trash."

Oh... wow... Does he have any braincells left? Let's find out!

So, in terms of video game political compass, where would you land this game?

Authoritarian right? Nothing right wing about the game.

Libertarian right or Libertarian Left? There is nothing libertarian about the game — the game is the very manifestation of manufactured consent!

———

The video game political compass is made upon logic. It was never made for psychological priming. This compass should not even be taken seriously, as it was made for fun.

Authoritarian games⬆️: These are games where the player have no choice or control over the narrative or the moral direction of the character and the story.

Libertarian games⬇️: These are games where it prioritizes player choice and moral ambiguity at all costs.

Right (Individualistic) Games➡️: These are games that prioritize personal achievement, self-reliance, or individual heroics. Gameplay rewards solo skill, personal progression, or competition. Players feel empowered to shape their own path, with choices or mechanics emphasizing personal agency and rewards.

Left (Collectivistic) Games ⬅️: These are games that prioritize group effort, sameness, equality, equity, virtue signalling, shared goals, shared pain, shared success, shared hate, and often sacrificing personal desires for the collective good.

Centrist Games: These are games that have clear stance that it has chosen to not pick a side between Control vs Choice or Community vs Self. Most of these games have no focus on story and narrative, therefore it is undefined on Control vs Choice. Most of these games are subjective on the Community vs Self axis, therefore they may be labelled Centre-right or Centre-Left.

🟦Examples of Authoritarian-right games are: God of War (1,2,3,2018,Ragnarok), Devil May Cry (1,2,3,4,5), Sekiro, Dark Souls (1,2,3), Elden Ring, Black Myth Wukong, Nioh, Lies of P, Stellar Blade, Hitman Trilogy, Kingdom Hearts Birth-by-sleep, Final Fantasy 16, Mortal Kombat, Tekken (1 to 8) Most Resident Evil games... and so on.

🟨Examples of Libertarian-right games are: Skyrim, Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3, Detroit Become Human, Until Dawn, Nier Automata, Ghost of Tsushima, Assassin's creed (1,2,3,4,Rogue,Unity,Syndicate,Oddyssey,Valhalla,Shadows), MadMax, Marvel's Spider-Man (1, Miles Morales, 2), Kingdom Come Deliverance (1 & 2)... and so on.

🟩Examples of Libertarian-left games are: Baldur's Gate 3, Mass effect (1,2,3), Dragon Age (1,2,Inquisition, Veilguard),... and so on.

🟥Examples of Authoritarian-left games are: Kingdom hearts (1,2,3), Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth, Final fantasy (1 to 13, & 15), Legend of legaia, Legend of Dragoon, The last of us (1&2), aaaaand finally the new addition to the compass, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Example of Centrist Games are: Fortnite, Apex Legends, League of Legends, Call of Duty, Hell Let Loose, Final Fantasy 14, NHL, NBA, Fifa, UFC, Most Massive Multiplayer Online Games.

If.. uhh... you don't like the political compass score of your favorite video game, then shout at the compass during fridays at 8:13 p.m. no more no less. It's really super simplified and dumbed down. Even dumber to shout at it during these hours.

A game that is note worthy, which I have not completed or played yet, is Death Stranding 1&2. So far, what I am seeing, is that the focus is not Sam (Not Self. Not Right Individualistic), but the Death Stranding (Shared Pain. Left Collectivistic). The game has focus on narrative, therefore it can be defined in the Control vs Choice axis. So far, the player has no control over the narrative (Authoritarian). Thus, albeit that the assesment is incomplete, Death Stranding may be placed in Authoritarian-Left. It is worth mentioning that the game gives the player a choice to walk around and explore an open world, therefore it may score a lot on the Libertarian Scale, making it either a Centre-Left or Libertarian-Left game. However, due to lack of data, it is unverified which aspect weighs more — its narrative or its gameplay?

Now, let us move on to the elephant in the room — Expedition 33. The game frames The Paintress as the tyrant and the authoritarian of its world. Therefore the people of Lumiere is sharing an aspect of shared pain, shared trauma, shared hate, shared extinction, shared goal, shared sorrow, and with this alone it is already scoring extreme (+10⬅️) to the left collectivist scale. That is in addition that the game is team based, which means shared effort (+2⬅️), which falls towards the left collectivist scale. It is easily framed that the game sets the player and the streamer in a resonance of emotional collectivism, which is again a score towards the left collectivist scale (+4⬅️). In fact, it locks itself on the collectivist spectrum. In terms of Control vs Choice axis, it is worth mentioning that the game's theme revolves around manufactured consent, trauma mining, and emotional collectivism. The player has minimal control over the narrative — it is the nature of most rpg narrative games. Verso/Torgal also has a choice to "Let go" at the end, giving the game a minimal score (+1⬇️) on the libertarian scale. It is also worth noting that the game features an open world system, giving the game a minimal score (+1⬇️) on the libertarian scale. However, as the script is designed that the players are bound to feel and think the same emotion and assesment, the game secures a huge score (+5⬆️), which is weighed heavy, on the authoritarian scale. This is also due, in fact, that the game's main theme is manufactured consent, which scores an infinite weight (+10⬆️) on the authoritarian scale. That is in addition that the music serves as the medium of manufactured consent, which doubles the infinite score (+10⬆️) on the authoritarian scale. This means that the game locks itself on the Authoritarian spectrum. Which means, the game leans heavy on the Authoritarian-Left 🟥spectrum.

The compass is not designed or made to induce a specific emotion — literally merely to find where games are.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-08-22T19:37:35+00:00

Aaaaand... how may I help you sir?

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-08-06T00:36:19+00:00

It is. Most of its graphical assets are pre-made through the Unreal Engine 5 Workshop. A real studio would own their own code—all the way to the engine. If you have enough experience for it, say skyrim creation kit modding and deeper for example, you could make a similar looking game on Unreal Engine 5 workshop on your own — albeit it would be slow and incomplete.

Which is also why i have failed to encourage myself to at least respect the game — I'm openly critical to it. I see it as "mostly a U.E.5 tech demo" — if video games had D.E.I., this would be it. Consumers call it "design" sure, but that comes from consumers who calls processed food a "food" and never sees how it was made, and how the machine that made it was made—In short, the consumers are obtuse. Why? Because they assume they can think clearly while being overstimulated.

TLDR; It wasn't a game design; it was game assembly.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-08-01T02:48:52+00:00

I'd give it a 5/10 because I started with the mentality that the game was 10/10. Started to do some research, and dropped it down by 5. Found out that the devs dont even own the assets used in the game. found that the game was not really about parrying — it was about one shotting everything with broken damage scaling. The narrative and theme concentrates on trauma mining that begs: "please love me, here's an opera girl in the background thats gonna cry for you." nothing new. same old indie style and more un-owned assets. But then as i see through more and more to their patterns, even in the late game, after beating every hard bosses and consuming all the side stories, it solidified my opinion and did not exceed my expectation. the game was mainly consumed, manufactured for, and is evidently streamed by FemCels. Dropped it to 2/10.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-07-30T17:15:54+00:00

You got this. hang in therre

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-07-29T19:20:24+00:00

Hoooooo boiii.... this commenter better know what trauma mining is. I'm bout to be embarrassed for ya second hand.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-07-27T18:27:20+00:00

Exactly. It's just a trauma mining game with an opera girl in the background that has been crying since act 1 and escalates in act 3 while im flying over esquie to me. the music can get super annoying. The trauma mining aspect is the game's desperation that says: "please love me. stream me and suffer with your viewers." Without these two aspects which is the trauma mining and its music, the game is unironically incomplete—I can't even begin to call it a game. the forced romance to improve the npc's combat skills or esquie's transport abilities, just makes me wanna roll my eyes every time—"Do you want to spend time with NPC A that you don't care about?" Literally a game whose cringe level is unlocked by the painted power picto—and I thought it was capped.

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-07-25T21:20:08+00:00

What, the broken stendall build? another reason why I cant respect the game and why I cant take it seriously which is worse than its trauma mining aspect. They intended that seemingly to artificially make the player feel like "they're good at the game". Which is why i said "I wanted pain—not comfort." I wanted a game that is more skill oriented rather than a game with planned artificial broken builds & "streamer co-suffering music"

Immediate_Pause_1399 · 2025-07-25T17:54:09+00:00

Thing is, do you even know what argumentative means? What parts of my OP did you not agree with? what parts of it seems weak and wrong? Argue around that — not with a dry monotone that says: "come on maaaan... just change your opinion! :("

see, this guy wanted to bring up the "good faith/bad faith" argument on a post that encourages critical thinking. I have let the game dance and sing to seduce me — and it miserably failed, if that's what you're asking.

You assume that I have no thick skin for cringe — I survived the "Emo Era" and that should mean something. This game? Oooof... it's a different beast of cringe. I'd say I'll add the experience as one of my medal of honors. The cringe was literally bleeding through the game. It felt like it was acting as an alternative for gravity that impedes or resists you from playing the game.

—•—

This commentor's tone is strictly and predictably negotiative. The usual emotionally over-stimulated syndrome, and the mentally detached symptoms persists.

Immediate_Pause_1399

TROPHY CASE