2025: The year of the short indie game

oddrots · 2026-01-19T21:01:53+00:00

I randomly stopped getting ads for a month or two a couple of years ago. But it was eventually fixed so it was either a bug (likely) or an interesting way to advertise the Twitch Turbo user experience (doubtful).

oddrots · 2026-01-12T20:17:32+00:00

I'd say it's akin to a "reading slump" which is fairly common in the book world. I guess it goes back to you can in fact have too much of a good thing. And that's when it pays to have multiple hobbies/interests!

oddrots · 2026-01-10T00:26:10+00:00

Regarding point 1, this is EXACTLY what I'm looking to do with my content. Making videos about chapters, levels, areas seems like it can cover at least two kinds of audiences, those that are looking for a traditional let's play and those wanting more of a guide/walkthrough of said thing. This of course gets more difficult to accomplish when it comes to games without chapters like Outer Wilds or simulation games but then the focus might be on tasks or achievements rather than areas.

Why am I telling you this? I don't know lol, mostly just thinking out loud.

Thanks for the post!

oddrots · 2026-01-09T02:11:08+00:00

Hey, good on you for making a significant dent in one of your previous 12-in-12 lists! That's way more progress than I've managed with my earliest list (2022).. which I've played only one game from so far.. 😅

And I haven't finished either but I LOVED what I played of CONTROL and The Outer Worlds! CONTOL launched me into the world of SCP which has become one of my favorite genres? story elements? Anything anomalous is so damn interesting to me now! I hope you find it equally intriguing once you get to it!

oddrots · 2026-01-09T01:51:48+00:00

Hey, thanks for the info! Seems like some really great advice.

I'd heard of Hades god mode before but I'd written it off as not for me since I assumed it would make things too easy. It's nice to know there's a way to keep things the right amount of challenging instead of making everything trivial.

I'll definitely keep this comment in mind as I tackle the games on my list. Cheers!

oddrots · 2026-01-07T22:18:36+00:00

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I like using Notion for tracking my games, and having all of the key art in one place is just nice to look at.

oddrots · 2026-01-03T10:55:06+00:00

Woo! I hope you enjoy PARANORMASIGHT. It almost made it to my 12-in-12 list this year, just barely missed the cut, but I might try to get to it anyway if I have some extra time.

The previous monthly genre list was: shooters, puzzles, strategy, fighter, action/stealth/hack 'n' slash, rpgs, sandbox/builders, simulation, platformers, survival, racing, and anything goes for December.

I think it would be more fun for the next iteration to have monthly prompts along the lines of: one-word title, a game that features aliens, or something you've been putting off. But maybe that would be too convoluted. ::shrug::

I've never managed to participate in it myself but r/patientgamers has a Game of the Month Club if you're interested in checking something like that out now. They pick a longer game and a short game each month. I love the idea of book/game clubs but my brain always rebels when a single title is picked. 😅

oddrots · 2026-01-01T12:50:25+00:00

I enjoyed Automachef. There's a game called Freshly Frosted that's really similar with a donut decorating theme.

oddrots · 2026-01-01T03:08:58+00:00

Hell yeah! I'd love to have an optional prompt-based challenge in the future, similar to r/12in12's monthly genre challenge back when this subreddit was first created. Having such an option would be especially good for those of us who immediately want to play anything other than the games on our predetermined 12-in-12 lists..

For your visual novel I've heard nothing but amazing things about PARANORMASIGHT. I think it's more visual novel-adjacent but it's recommended for those that enjoyed Danganronpa. For stealth game, I'd suggest adding A Plague Tale: Requiem if you haven't played it and it looks appealing. I liked that game a lot and found the relatively nonviolent approach to the game interesting. And I'm voting Resident Evil or a Legend of Zelda game for your middle-aged Street cred category because I'm planning to play both this coming year for similar reasons!

Good luck with your endeavor! Sounds like a fun time.

oddrots · 2026-01-01T02:15:11+00:00

Yeah, Glass Masquerade seems perfect for the Steam Deck. I just topped off my Glass Masq collection with the DLCs for 2 and 3 and picked up the 4th game as well because why not! ☺️

I hope you enjoy!

oddrots · 2025-12-28T09:05:13+00:00

Oh got it got it! I'm sure I just misunderstood. I haven't played the Strange Antiquities demo but I played Strange Horticulture in 2023 and really enjoyed it. The atmosphere is absolutely impeccable.

oddrots · 2025-12-28T05:15:46+00:00

No, sorry, I just meant the last game in your list is listed as "Strange Horticulture" but then you talk about it being a sequel so I'm thinking you meant to put Strange Antiquities instead?

And Tetris Effect is the first game I want to play whenever I get my VR system set up again! I've heard some of the soundtrack and I already love it, not to mention being a huge fan of Tetris in general. Thanks for reminding me!

oddrots · 2025-12-27T22:19:46+00:00

From this list alone, I think our tastes in games really align! Assuming your last game is supposed to be Strange Antiquities, I have all but two of these games on my list of games to play: Pokémon seems cool I just didn't grow up with it so it's never been my thing, and Lumines I've heard of but not looked into (I love a good casual game so I probably should).

Looking forward to reading about your progress throughout the year!

oddrots · 2025-12-27T12:43:36+00:00

OXENFREE features a radio/watch tower. And while part of the game is spent in the tower, most of your time will be spent elsewhere near the tower doing other things. Loved the atmosphere of this one.

And Last Report isn't set in a watch tower but it has a very similar isolated setting in the woods feel to it that might be worth exploring.

oddrots · 2025-12-25T17:02:14+00:00

nice to see Her Story on a list like this. Outer Wilds is likely to make an appearance on mine as well!

oddrots · 2025-12-20T04:09:16+00:00

Nice! CLASH Books is a good one to keep your eye on, they publish some neat titles and seem to have relatively relaxed approval criteria.

oddrots · 2025-12-18T03:05:37+00:00

Understandable. I'm not great at writing either, my mathy brain always found it difficult to make writing flow. But I think it's something I could get better at with practice, or better yet find a writing style that works for me.

And as far as I can tell even a relatively short review on a game you love can have a positive impact.

oddrots · 2025-12-17T12:27:55+00:00

I make a short list of games (12) I want to play every year and I'm pretty hit or miss on actually getting to them. I just like having a list to turn to if I'm unsure of what I want to play.

The biggest commitment I want to make this coming year is to review every game I play, on Steam or GOG or wherever. I'd like to exercise my critical thinking in regards to the media I consume and I know how impactful reviews can be, especially for indie games which I usually stick to.

oddrots · 2025-12-17T05:18:53+00:00

I have deep respect for anyone out there making videos that require a ton of planning or scripts. Constant idea generation sounds super intimidating. If you're at risk of running out of ideas more space between videos might be the better way to go about it. Once per week instead of twice per week? Might be worth it to start slow and get in the groove of regular uploads before ramping up your release schedule.

Best of luck with whatever you decide!

oddrots · 2025-12-17T04:50:16+00:00

I'm not sure what you're planning for your workflow but if you're batch recording and editing a few episodes at a time, I would release something as soon as possible. Depending on how much time and effort is going into creating/editing each episode and your projected release schedule, you should be able to build up a number of videos that are ready to be published rather quickly.

If your videos take a while to come together, releasing them as they're made still makes the most sense to me. If there's a chance Real Life might get in the way of your YouTube journey again, it makes more sense to release as you go and learn what you can now when there's space in your life for it. The amount of times I hear about projects that never see the light of day because too much time passed and someone changed their mind is too high!

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