Sometimes it can be a bit hard to explain why I’ll occasionally prefer a completely unknown game I found on the internet to something tried and true, mass-produced and flooding the markets. It’s kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what it is - but I think I can try.

Part of it is the mystery. Indie developers usually aren’t tied down by expectations; Nintendo can’t exactly come out with a thriller-horror version of Mario, and I doubt that Ubisoft wants to try their hand at new and unexplored territory when they still have Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry to milk. Now, there’s nothing wrong with those games - they can be fun, and have a large and expansive community. But when you crack open a new game of Pokemon, do you really have any doubt of what’s going to be inside?

Indie games are a gamble, short and simple. Even when they’re shitty (which, let’s be honest - they often are), they can still make you laugh. And sometimes, just sometimes, you stumble across an absolute diamond in the rough, something that’s just a bit different, just a bit unusual, and it stays in your mind. I think that’s worth it.

But a lot of it, I think, is the fact that every indie game, good or bad, short or long, funny or sad, is a labor of love. That single person - or group of people, sometimes - spent weeks, months, sometimes years of their lives developing this game. They aren’t a big corporation; they don’t know if their game will go big, flop miserably, or be discovered at all. And still, despite this, they see their game through the end.

I think it won’t be hard to think of a time where you said “this will be so cool! I’m going to do it!” and then lose your motivation half of the way through (or even a quarter of the way through, or an eighth of the way through) and stop. Indie games are projects seen through to the very end.

And honestly? Making a game is hard, even with the help of a game maker such as RPG Maker. Even without all the ridiculous scripting and coding - which some indie developers still opt to do themselves - games require graphics, good music, characters, a story.

Now, this is not to say that large corporations have it easy - creating a game in a large company is its own challenge, and comes with an entire different kettle of fish. However, indie developers don’t have many of the things large corporations do - such as a large budget, a lack of secondary or tertiary jobs, and an expansive, specialized team that can handle each individual part of the game. Indie developers have themselves, their own skills, and a computer. That’s about it.

It’s easy to forget in the grand scheme of things, but remember that whenever you play an indie game - or, shit, whenever you use anything, be it a program or your phone or a flight of stairs - someone made that. That is a product of time and thought that someone made. That doesn’t make it good. That doesn’t even have to make it okay - there are plenty of shitty things in the world. But sometimes, the knowledge that another human being dedicated even just a fraction of their precious time in the world to creating something you are now appreciating, can make an experience all the more enjoyable.