Summary
- Indie games are often trend-followers.
- This year we're in for a slew of religious imagery in the indie scene.
- Death of a Wish, 1000xResist, and México, 1921: A Deep Slumber all offer unique takes on religion.
Indies games go through more phases than big titles. While countless triple-A games aped 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Breath of the Wild aft🎀er its hugely successful release, mammoth development times mean that only a few such games have been released since Zelda reinvented the open world in 2017.
Indie games are normally much quicker to develop (quick, someone tell Team Cherry), and as such can follow emerging trends. Think of how many 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Vampire Survivors-likes we saw in the months after its release. Palworld has plentiful clones thanks to its massive success, and was arguably a clone in itself. I haven’t seen any 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Balatro-likes yet, but surely it’s just a♌ matter of time&hell🎀ip;
Even when you ignore the blatant rip-offs, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:indie games are influenced by each other all the time. As such, trends appear. If one indie game has immense success wit🍬h a certain style or genre, 💎you can bet others will iterate on it. This year, I wager we’re in for a slew of religious games.
I’m not talking about the gaming equivalent of Christian rock, wher✅e some long-haired bloke wearing a loose white shirt will preach at you i♓n the guise of a 3D platformer. I’m talking about games with strong narratives and themes, games that interrogate the role of religion in our society and our personhood.
Death of a Wish
You should already know about , because 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:I told you to play it ages ago. But I didn’t 𒆙go into much depth about its religious themes. On the surface, it’s a game about queer acceptance, but dig a little ꧋deeper and you see the whole story is underpinned by religion.
The foes you slaughter on your journey to scribbled salvation may seem satanic, but their names are ripped straight from the Catholic church. Death of a Wish bastardises and reappropriates these titles for its own ends, weaving them into its tapestry of self-discovery as you div🎃e further into the roguelike.
1000xResist
is a narrative game that uses Titanfall 2’s time-jump mechanic ꧂to return from the fu🌃ture to the present day and solve a mystery about summoning enormous gods in a high school. If that sentence doesn’t make you want to play this game, I don’t know what will.
This is less an interrogation of organised religion, and more a world in which gods are very real, and kid𝔉s are summoning them. From what I’ve played, it sits somewhere between chthonic and folk horror,🍃 with a hint of kaiju scale and a science-fiction aesthetic.
If you’re less interested in Catholicism and more interested in almighty gods that💝 actually appear before you, this is the game for you. In fact, if you’re into sci-fi games with PS2 aesthetics and great dialogue perfectly performed, this is the game for you. Actually, just play it, it’s great.
México, 1921: A Deep Slumber
is a beautiful debut game from Mácula Interactive, in which you are a photojournalist trying to find out who murdered the President. The illustrated art style is ܫstunning and unmistakably Mexican, while the mechanics of solving a mystery through photography are some of the best since Umurangi Generation.
The religious aspect of the game isn’t too strong in the demo that you can play during 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:LudoNarraCon, but it’s definitely there. This is a historical game, there’s no fantastical or sci-fi elements (at least so far), but if you want to see the role of religion during a revoluti🌳on, look no further.
These three games are vastly different in style, presentation, genre, and almost every possible way. But there’s a strong link between them, too, the thread of religion that weaves them together. None are the Christian grifter giving you a sermon, and none depictꦫ religion in the same way. Whether you’re interested in religious history, schoolkid-recruiting cults, or a fantasy take on d൩iving into hell, 2024 is the year of the religious indie game. Amen.