AND THEY SAY PRINT IS DEAD In the last five years there have been a number of new


games magazines launched and retired titles brought back into service, all at the hands of passionate fans. Without ad revenue to call upon and against rising costs, they’ve had to work hard to find and keep their audiences, but thanks to the collectability of each title and the depth of coverage within, many appear to be holding their own.


which is why the magazine was recently launched at Norfolk videogame conference OLL, where a Debug- sponsored stand showcased more than 40 games. “The idea primarily being to support indie titles that ordinarily wouldn’t necessarily have an outlet,” says Mortlock.


THE INDIE


STARTER KIT


Casting an eye over the rise to prominence of indie gaming, STUART GIPP searches for the needles in the haystack of brilliance that is this scene. Let’s dive right in.


UNDERTALE


2015 Toby Fox


SHOVEL KNIGHT


2014 Yacht Club Games


CAVE STORY


2004 Studio Pixel


CELESTE 2018


CELESTE


2018 Mdd M k G


Maddy Makes Games VAMPIRE


SURVIVORS Poncle


SURVIVORS 2022 Pl


THE WORLD of indie games is, as you will have gathered by this point in your esteemed copy of Debug, enormous. There are layers upon layers of brilliant games available from the most prestigious visionary developers to the most lowly bedroom coder. But where to begin? What are the core games that people think of when they think ‘indie’? Naturally it’s completely impossible to say, but the 10 singled out here should be a reasonably satisfying platter of gaming goodness, recognisable as gateway games which forged a path into the industry via their innovation or sheer quality.


visiona that pe singled games


HADES


HADES 2018


FTL: FASTER


2018 Supergiant Games


Si G


THAN LIGHT 2012 Subset Games


DISCO ELYSIUM


2019 ZA/UM


STARDEW VALLEY 2016


ConcernedApe HOTLINE MIAMI


2012 Dennaton Games


This is the videogame equivalent of your favourite childhood movie. Undertale’s ‘pacifist’ RPG action is at turns exciting, hilarious, frightening and downright tearjerking. Great art and music round off a perfect package. If your boat is floated by this then check out Deltarune – Fox’s second game – too.


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Over-promising in its ambitious Kickstarter didn’t prevent Shovel Knight from delivering on every front – though it took until 2019 to deliver everything. This terrific platformer may not have been the first aesthetic throwback indie game, but it certainly put the style on the map. Bursting with brilliant ideas and levels.


It could be argued that this classic Metroidvania was the title that put indie games on the map. With tons of secrets, superb boss battles and a beautifully crafted world, it still puts many modern releases to shame. Nicalis’ paid version adds some tat, but the freeware original still sings, so that’s the one I’d go for.


The masocore platforming genre isn’t the easiest thing to get into – hence the name – but Celeste does a terrific job indoctrinating you in the dark arts of air-dashes, double jumps, wave- dash-jump-cancels and, of course, dying. Regular stages give way to B-Side ones which… well, look. Like I said. Dying. A lot.


This is a bona fide modern classic, even if it is less a game than a slot machine, preying on humanity’s capacity for addiction. So it’s a dangerous, derivative thing, throwing you into a sea of monsters, levelling up from a useless little scrote to whirling dervish of magical death. And once you start, it’s impossible to stop. I tried.


Many roguelites came before. Many will come after, including its own sequel. But Hades is top of the heap, its utterly beguiling isometric action melding perfectly with richly drawn characters to create a game that really does offer something new every single time you play. A build for every play style.


You’d think a randomly generated spaceship would be simple to manage, wouldn’t you. Wait, of course you wouldn’t. It would be impossible, and you would end up killing all of your crew over and over again. So many things can go wrong and in your time with FTL, pretty much all of them will.


A true role-playing game, this masterpiece puts you in control of an amnesiac detective, then essentially lets you off the leash in a spectacular world of tabletop-style skill checks and a phenomenal amount of fascinating, hilarious, heartbreaking dialogue. The kind of original game that you really only get once in a blue moon.


FEATURE TOP TEN TEN TOP


Taking cues from Natsume’s Harvest Moon series, this agriculture- ’em-up delivers a full-tilt farming experience, easing you into its myriad systems with a chilled- out vibe that lets you loose in its world to forge industry as you so please. There’s so much to see and do, and it’s all hugely enjoyable.


Dennaton’s top-down murder simulator manages to nourish the sadistic part of your cerebellum that other games cannot reach. Make your way through impeccably designed environments, using anything to annihilate everything in your path. It’s unmatched, even by its own sequel, with a thumping soundtrack to boot.


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Debug will be headlining a few other events during the


year and plans are being cooked to take things to the next level, or in new directions, or both. Mortlock isn’t prepared to say what, where or how, only that raising the profile of indie gaming and getting more people invested in them is the ultimate aim. Of course, the aim for Debug as the sole breadwinner is


to turn a profit. Realistically though, in this day and age, that means sales targets have to remain modest. “Whereas Future [Publishing] would close a magazine


that was selling five to ten thousand copies because it wasn’t making a profit, if we produced a magazine that sold that amount - we’d literally be rolling in it.”


“Debug will be headlining a few other events during the year and plans are being cooked to take things to the next level, or in new directions, or both.”


According to Mortlock, Sega Powered magazine, which


he launched in 2021, sells between 500-800 copies a month, which is “enough to justify doing it.” With Debug the aim is to go above and beyond that. “Obviously, the days when we were selling large numbers of magazines are long gone, but I think if you’re a small company, independent, have reasonable expectations, and sensible budgets, there’s no reason why you cannot have something that can cover its costs and make a small profit.”


26 | MCV/DEVELOP April/May 2023


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