The Indie Uprising Newsletter highlights trends in games, indie titles you should know about, and lifting new voices in the industry. From games you need to play to ideas shaping the future of gaming, I want this newsletter to deliver something different than what’s on sites today. This form is still in the beta phase so if there’s something you want to see or have any questions, let me know in the comments.
On March 11, 2020, E3 announced that they would not be holding their annual show, leaving in its wake hundreds of game announcements looking for a home and a power vacuum that stretched across the media landscape.
Sites packed in more games than ever before and expanded their coverage from a couple of days to weeks at a time. Steam opened the demo vaults to pour out hundreds of games for the audience to get their thumbs on. Everything from online conventions to loops of trailers showcased every game from AAA to the smallest indie in one location.
With all the games, trailers, and demos hitting online and all the sites pushing for MORE, there’s one thing that comes to mind – the Jam Experiment.
Let’s say that you hand out samples of jam at a grocery store (pre-COVID times). Imagine your favorite flavors with as many samples as the customer wants. One store lets you showcase 6 different jams while another store lets you put out 24 jams. Which store sells more jam?
While the numerous jams attracted more customers (60% vs. 40%), the store that allowed for only 6 choices sold more to the taste-testing customers than the one given more options (30% vs. 3%). The swing between the two audiences who went on to buy jam after trying them out is enormous. Further studies have shown similar results as well as increased customer satisfaction with fewer options. Too much information overloads the consumer making choices harder to make.
To say that all you need is to reduce the number of choices until you hit a sweet spot is a bit of an oversimplification of the issue. Other factors such as complexity, the ability to judge similar items, and the consumer's preference all contribute to the cognitive load behind each of their choices, which may determine which game they walk away with or if they walk away. We can focus on these smaller sets of games through a particular curation lens, which some groups have already started doing.
LudoNarraCon runs like a convention with panels, demos, and announcements, but the whole event takes place in the digital confines of the Steam Store. Even before we tried to figure out how to turn the miles of booths into digital delights, Fellow Traveller dove headfirst into bringing together narrative focus titles and talks under one virtual event umbrella. Wholesome Games takes the same idea for people looking to relax with their games rather than win.
While there’s little to back up numbers other than anecdotal evidence from developers, the need for strongly curated, smaller events continue as both LudoNarraCon, and Wholesome Games start work on their next showcase. Larger media companies or platforms could learn from creating these curated and highly focused events that serve different gaming populations rather than spreading a thin coating of hype over everything. Trying to talk to everyone is a sure-fire way to talk to no one.
Still, Looking for More?
Not everything stops after Black Friday. You’ll find plenty of fantastic games lingering around in the wake of Black Friday. And no, I’m not talking about the Keanu Reeves title. Here are some games you should be checking out now.
Tis’ the season for giving with Yogscast. This year, players choose the charity they want to support. From helping veterans to treating children in need, there’s a cause here you can get behind. Donations of £25 or more will receive +35 games such as The Battle of Polytopia, Among Us, Don’t Starve, and Transistor.
Not even a full game, John “Lin” sandbox is already starting to turn some heads by applying a randomly generated voxel world with ray tracing.
It might already be December, but we still haven’t run out of Halloween Candy. The Madvent Calendar presents players with bite-size horror experiences each day of the month.
The Red Strings Club team put out an interesting narrative story where you are trying to investigate a man who speaks to God through a radio. Interview with the Whisperer twists the typical text-based adventure by using Chatbot AI to answer your questions.
And for those of you looking for more resources to find the games you like, Buried Treasure doles out a new gem every few days. As we swing this back around to the “less is more” angel, the co-creator of Rock Paper Shotgun currently runs the site. Check it out and give his Patreon some monetary help if you can.
Thank you for making it to the end of the newsletter, or at least scrolling to the very bottom to see if there’s anything hidden at the end. (There’s not.) Let me know if there’s anything you want to see in the comments, or you can reach me on Twitter @8bitwiz.
Play More Games.