I have noticed that recently the Indie games are BETTER than the triple As that are coming out…or at least people are enjoying and getting more excited about the indies
Such a subjective thing to say! I don’t know about better, they just tackle different audiences and areas within the industry.
I’m excited about different games, triple AAA titles offer me something Indie games don’t and vice versa.
Banished is a great experience, whether or not it’s better than any other game is a hard thing to say, you can only truly compare like for like and discuss the flaws and merits of each title in relation to it’s aims.
For example asking whether or not Banished is better than Titanfall is a ridiculous question. In all fairness it’s probably even ridiculous to ask whether Banished is better than say, Towns … both games offer different experiences and have different aims.
Look what you’ve started.
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It’s always @Newf. Always.
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Its different genres sure but there are a lot of indie games of the same genre that are much better, enjoyable and cheaper than most AAA titles. Makes me wonder what the hell does a team of 200 people do if a single man can create a game like Banished.
I think that’s a bit of a broad generalisation, certain genres are perhaps better suited to AAA titles than others, FPS for example are definitely awash with incredible titles and franchises that indie developers will struggle to compete against.
Arguably indie developers are afforded a larger amount of freedom in terms of pursuing their own interests as they don’t predominately have to navigate the bureaucracy that comes with investors and the market, etc.
Don’t get me wrong there are some truly awful games out there that do make you question what the hell a large team was doing, but it’s unfair to tar them all with the same brush.
These teams produce games that are in all fairness extremely large coordinated exercises, there’s a reason these things take a couple of years to come out.
With the greatest respect to the Banished dev it’s not exactly a massively content rich game (compared to a good standard AAA title), it does what it does, and it does it well. Perhaps that’s all you should demand from a game, but there is so much that can perhaps go unnoticed in a triple A title …
Edit: That’s not to say in any way shape or form that Banished is lacking, I am truly loving the experience.
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I’ll leave you with this 
This was just proof to something I already knew since I’m into the whole indie dev community
Was definitely an interesting read though I can’t help but feel that it’s horribly reductionist.
I think I’ve got to agree with Darius Johnson in the comments for this one…
Does anyone really believe that entire section about Steve and John? It kinda saddens me how cynical everyone is nowadays. He clearly makes John run the game as poorly as possible, and I struggle to believe that even one John would actually make it in a AAA-producing company, let alone all of them. “Playing Angry Birds throughout the presentation” I mean c’mon, this just ices the cake.
As good as Banished may be, and I haven’t played it so I can’t judge hugely, but from the few videos and screenshots I’ve seen I can definitely see where a AAA company could make improvements. For example, the graphics. I don’t like 'em. The style’s nice and all, but the graphics themselves could really use some upgrading, in my opinion. And the UI’s a bit plain, a bit boring. (Just like to note I am not tryna dig on Banished, just pointing out that if he had the resources, which he clearly is gonna struggle with as a one-man dev team, he could improve it)
Other things that people never seem to consider is that AAA titles are almost always cross platform. This takes money for the licensing, and this takes extra developers and time, which then requires more money. Right now if you wanted to bring out an AAA title you’d likely want it on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, perhaps Mac, perhaps Wii U etc…Indie games can’t do that. Stonehearth, whilst being a game only really suitable for PC in my opinion, can only viably manage the PC and then later Mac and Linux support it is going for.
I’ve got to say, I would pay ~£40 for an AAA game and feel like I got my money’s worth. That money for an indie game? I’d almost undoubtedly consider it preposterous.
I have actually become one of Novus Aeterno’s memes with the name Newf Newf, (Ya’ know its Moon Moon but with my name) and have become quite hated, popular and famous in a couple of weeks. It was really quite an experience.
This thread seems to have been hijacked, and is no longer about Banished specifically but bloated development teams and indie games.
This I really feel the need to comment on. The UI is one of the best things about Banished. It is CLEAN, efficient and well organized. The trouble with many AAA games (I play a lot of them, I think I own over 130 on steam alone) is that when they have a team of 15 guys responsible for the UI alone, they feel they need to do something, so they add all these animations, and transition effects etc. Yes, some of them are nice eye candy but a lot of them end up just being unnecessarily confusing. Many AAA games have pretty UI’s that do very little. I cant count the games I’ve played where I’m always left feeling, why does this game not have the ability to watch X, or open a Y type window. Well to be honest pretty much every game I play I always think of something I would really like to have that the game doesn’t (Banished Included).
Banished’s UI is very well done. It’s simplicity in visual design aids in it’s efficiency. It takes very little time to learn, and allows you to focus on the game, not trying to figure out how to use the UI. AAA games could learn from Banished.
Agreed, let’s relocate everyone here, and continue to blame @Newf for his lack of tact.
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Well dang, fair enough I suppose, can’t argue with that. I gotta say, I only watched the video posted in that thread so I didn’t really get much of a flavour for the general game and the whole UI and I don’t own the game, so that’s likely a very fair point. I think I partially disliked the look of it for the amount of black too, but stepping back and thinking about the game and how much death is likely to come into play, it’s probably fairly appropriate.
And don’t get me wrong, from what I’ve read in the other thread, Banished looks cool and I’m definitely not digging on it. I just dislike the whole hatred for the big corps that everyone, it seems to me, always feels obliged to display. I’d love a much less cynical world. Ah well. 
My take on the state of game development is rather short, to the point of possibly being overly simplistic.
Indie teams are capable of pushing the boundaries and developing and experimenting as they want, not what a publisher pushes on them. A publisher wants returns on their investment. So they play it safe.
I’m not saying one is bad, or one is good. Just that’s where I see difference that causes this ‘rift’ between the two developer types.
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As I mentioned last time this topic came up, the indie development community does owe a lot to the ‘conventional’ game development community in terms of tools, software and systems that have been built and subsequently released for general use. No one writes something like Unity or the Unreal Engine for fun, but lots of fun games have used them since. That’s not to minimize the excellent work that indie developers have been doing, but without the ‘big’ players it’s unlikely the gaming community would be able to provide the same support.
-Will
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I’ve always liked Indie Games a hell lot better than AAA titles. I’ve always prefered games like this, this, and can’t forget this, better than games like this, this, and this. But that’s not to say that all AAA titles are bad. Some AAA titles are masterpieces, like this, this, and this.
Wow! Had a look at Project Spark, totally blown away!
(Their website is a bit below-par though )
quite he cerebral conversation taking place here… clearly I should steer clear…
suffice to say, @Geoffers747 and I are of like mind on this… because, he’s smart, and stuff…
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Yeah, I signed up for Beta Testing a month ago and got a copy of the game. You can’t imagine how furious I was when I realized I couldn’t play the game because I couldn’t log onto my Xbox Windows account because Microsoft Accounts was acting like a b****. I then subsequently screamed at the top of my lungs, “DAMN YOU MICROSOFT!”
Alright, I overreacted a little bit.
Wait … what? Your Xbox windows account should just be your windows account? They are all linked across?
I’m sure if you had tried again a few hours later it would have worked…
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Sorry, I meant Games for Windows Live.
And yes, it’s linked to your Windows Account.
And no, I tried a few days later, the damn thing wouldn’t log in, it says I have to verify my account, which I already did a month ago.