Quickie: Indie Games, Yay?

Machinarium sure is cute, but... (image: theindiebundle.com)

Totalbiscuit made me aware of a bundle sale yesterday that I apparently want, nay need. theindiebundle.com offers a limited time sale of six (allegedly) award-winning indie games for only $20 until Friday at noon. I loved World of Goo and have appreciated some other more or less indie titles, so I thought I’d snag the thing up. And Yet it Moves, Auditorium, Aztaka, Eufloria, Machinarium, and Osmos are the titles available now and I am familiar with most of those names. Still, after purchasing and downloading I’m afraid that I’m somewhat AAA spoiled. Sure I’ll play all of these games if only out of curiosity, scouring for some new innovative game design ideas – but so far I’m not actually having fun. Both Eufloria and Machinarium annoy me with their user interfaces and I really thought that point-and-click adventures that require me to scan the whole screen for hotspots had gone the way of the dodo.

I haven’t played all of those games yet and none of them in depth, so this is by no means a review of this bundle. If you enjoy indie games and have a spare 20 dollar bill lying around somewhere, by all means get the bundle. Still, I can’t feel as if we’re being fooled a bit with the whole indie hype. It’s great that I can support small developers by picking up games for little money – but if those games don’t last a single play session, even single-digit dollar prices can’t really be justified. As a gamer (as opposed to the aspiring game designer in me) I’d much rather get thirty hours of gameplay out of my $50 AAA game than two out of the $10 indie title.