Quirky Indie RPGs - Depression is optional

[LucasSomething]

Previous comment made me think of delays and i'll think out loud now

Heartbound has been on early acess for like 6 years.
Oddventure was going to release mid 2022 and apparently they remade the entire game. Allegedly releases october.
Kingdoms of dump still has no release date. (this one personally triggers me)
Knuckle sandwich took almost a decade to release and was whatever which is worse than bad.
Omori was considered a scam for a while. It's not perfect but was very sucesful and has a big fandom.
Mother 4 changed names to oddity and will probably never release.
The new mother 4 will probably never release either.
Some LISA inspired games i saw are M.I.A..
Barkley 2 is DEAD and gone deep into the b-ball dimension.
That game from jimmy dev (hymn of earless god) was delayed and i wasn't even aware.
The game from one shot dev will probably get delayed despite the 2026 release.
YIIK went through development hell, flopped, and got resurrected, hopefully to not flop again.
That LIFELIKE rpg actually released on early acess and will probably die there cause it got no sales.
Crystal story dawn of dusk got no content updates since i played back in jan/feb.
Cairn mathair curse says october but i expect delays.
GLITCHED still has no release date.
She Dreams Elsewhere is apparently in development for 6+ years and i was 99% sure it was dead.
That dog harmony adventure demo gave me strong "this will never be full game" vibes (sad.).
Ikenfell was apparently KS and delayed 2 years.
Certainly more i can't remember right now.

It seems quirky indie rpgs are cursed to be delayed forever or die or something. I know "solo dev with a dream" means delays are expected and it's hard to stay motivated but goddamn, they can't gather momentum at all.

Even deltarune, despite it's clear sucess and fame, will probably take like, 20 years to finish the chapters with how toby is going.

Anyway there was this undertale like named Leximan that released to no fanfare. It's apparently not great so... bleh.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2017200/Leximan/

 

[HexFag]

Did Lisa the Pointless ever get off the ground? I've been waiting for Episode 2 for years.

 

[Sparky Lurker]

Heartbound has been on early acess for like 6 years.
Oddventure was going to release mid 2022 and apparently they remade the entire game. Allegedly releases october.
Kingdoms of dump still has no release date. (this one personally triggers me)
Knuckle sandwich took almost a decade to release and was whatever which is worse than bad.
Omori was considered a scam for a while. It's not perfect but was very sucesful and has a big fandom.
Mother 4 changed names to oddity and will probably never release.
The new mother 4 will probably never release either.
Some LISA inspired games i saw are M.I.A..
Barkley 2 is DEAD and gone deep into the b-ball dimension.
That game from jimmy dev (hymn of earless god) was delayed and i wasn't even aware.
The game from one shot dev will probably get delayed despite the 2026 release.
YIIK went through development hell, flopped, and got resurrected, hopefully to not flop again.
That LIFELIKE rpg actually released on early acess and will probably die there cause it got no sales.
Crystal story dawn of dusk got no content updates since i played back in jan/feb.
Cairn mathair curse says october but i expect delays.
GLITCHED still has no release date.
She Dreams Elsewhere is apparently in development for 6+ years and i was 99% sure it was dead.
That dog harmony adventure demo gave me strong "this will never be full game" vibes (sad.).
Ikenfell was apparently KS and delayed 2 years.
Certainly more i can't remember right now.

It seems quirky indie rpgs are cursed to be delayed forever or die or something. I know "solo dev with a dream" means delays are expected and it's hard to stay motivated but goddamn, they can't gather momentum at all.

None of the mother-like games shown on the first mother direct on 2020 even got finished:

As an addendum:
Circadian, Connections and Uncanny are dead.
Devs from Avast started developing a Portal-like game that ended on dev hell.
Toasty still exists, for some reason they started doing the Evoland approach by doing multiple genres.
Hypersomnia and Astral Guard keeps getting paraded around with no date, Hypersomnia overhauled the combat mechanics multiple times at this point.
Took 5 years for the Gnomonic guy say: "yeah I should make a kickstarter".

 

[LucasSomething]

Did Lisa the Pointless ever get off the ground? I've been waiting for Episode 2 for years.

Nope. They're actually working on update named the monster update for YEARS. The "update" eventually became so big it was changed to an effective episode 1 remake. Last new content shown was back in 2021 (?). There is no sight of episode 2.

https://pointless-rpg.fandom.com/wiki/LISA:_The_Pointless

As time went on, however, what was initially just an 'update' slowly transformed into a full blown remake - completely overhauled graphics, a systemically examined and rewritten story, an original soundtrack, new areas, characters, gameplay mechanics - all stemming from an ambition and a desire to "bring out the best in [the development team] and unearth the latent "treasures" hidden in the roughness of the original Mystics of Trash and Violence." The 'update' aspect merely stuck as a name. (Monster Remake isn't as catchy, we suppose.)

A public announcement regarding the Monster Update was first made on December 30th 2018, showing off remade areas such as House Dust, teasing new ones, as well as a handful of sprites from Fool's Gold.'[4]

A 45 minute long video was released on January 20th, 2021, showing a revamped intro.[5]

RIP Episode 2, died by perfectionism and feature creep. Its absurd how Lisa only has like, 3 good finished fangames (poinless, hopeful, undone) to this day.

None of the mother-like games shown on the first mother direct on 2020 even got finished:

Lifelike did get a release on steam but it's early acess and i don't know how ""finished"" it is . I also found out that Oddventure will release on early acess (AWFUL IDEA) because the dev still isnt sure about the new combat gameplay (are u serious rn).

Had no idea circadian and avast were dead, they'd pop in the back of my mind every now and then.

Gnomonic guy apparently tried cause if i search i can find a kickstarter trailer from facebook 2020 that was deleted, probably cause it was shit. The 2024 trailer still looks ugly but it has like actual gameplay and a promise, so it's almost a presentable product now.

Hypersomnia has showns the most promise to me as it has improved the most.


(shit looked worse than default rpg maker jank)

It looks a lot better now, so maybe they found their groove this year. Astral guard promised a demo this year.

And yeaaah it's really sad how every game featured on the mother direct arent even close to "finished" 4 year laters. Makes the whole thing so depressing to watch back. Not even the Mother fangames got done either.

https://mother4ever.net/mother-direct-2020/

Mother² is still in the works. Mother encore had a demo last year i guess. Mother RUSSIA is super dead cause the creator is ukranian and war happened (i guess thats fair lol).

 

[Sparky Lurker]

Quirky Effect release date trailer:

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

It seems quirky indie rpgs are cursed to be delayed forever or die or something. I know "solo dev with a dream" means delays are expected and it's hard to stay motivated but goddamn, they can't gather momentum at all.

It's true for almost all indies in general. I don't know if it's running out of money, or living off previous success and being a professional ebeggar.
It probably doesn't help that if you are into those games you are either a perfectionist or a cynic that just wants the most money for the least work.

 

[The Ultimate Ramotith]

Bloomtown, a Persona-like:

 

[LucasSomething]

It's true for almost all indies in general. I don't know if it's running out of money, or living off previous success and being a professional ebeggar.
It probably doesn't help that if you are into those games you are either a perfectionist or a cynic that just wants the most money for the least work.

I think there are definitely passionate indie devs out there but the thing with "true indie devs" with no publisher at all is that they have zero experience to how hard and how long it takes to make a videogame on practice. A solo game means you're the artist, the composer, the writer, the game designer, a programmer, the tester, the marketeer... If you have a second job you it's going to take 8x longer. These indie devs think they can simply take their time and suddendly it's been delayed by +2 years.

There is also the dunning kruger syndrome of people who severely overestimate their abilities and think they're better than veteran game devs. This becomes obvious when you play a fangame or a mod and realize that fans are terrible devs, especially balancewise.

Back then you'd see these devs get filtered out but Kickstarter surge started enabling these people. People with no name will get +50k and work on something they didnt plan beyond a demo for years until they finish or they quit and become frauds (RIP Blue omen). RPGs are especially bad cause it's super easy to promise a spiritual sucessor to a dead franchise.

Bloomtown, a Persona-like:

September is looking pretty stacked but i like persona so i'll play this game and post here. Hopefully it's a bit better from the demo.

Also i found this strategy rpg that looks like Fire Emblem but trying a lil too hard to have nomura artstyle and self proclaimed "Avant-garde twilight punk asthethics".

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3041220/Stratagem_Lost/

 

[Two Dollars]

I recently played the Athenian Rhapsody prologue that released a while ago, and man, I don’t think I’ve seen a demo go so fluently from great to good to okay to bad to crap. There’s not any one specific thing, everything aside from the music just keeps getting worse. Though if I had to pick out one thing, there’s way too much gross-out humor, like it was made by the one guy who found Earthbound’s US marketing genuinely appealing.

Mother RUSSIA is super dead cause the creator is ukranian and war happened (i guess thats fair lol).

Aww, really? That’s one of the few Mother Direct games I was actually looking forward to. But if he’s Ukrainian, then yeah, he has the mother (heh) of all excuses to cancel it.

 

[Don Yagon]

Did Lisa the Pointless ever get off the ground? I've been waiting for Episode 2 for years.

As said before, they're now remaking part 1 in parallel to developing part 2. Last preview from Ed was in 2021 or so, but screenshots and sprites get posted on an announcement channel on the official (?) pisscord guild once every couple months.

Its absurd how Lisa only has like, 3 good finished fangames (poinless, hopeful, undone) to this day.

Timeless and Vegaful are pretty good, too. There's also a plethora of mods for Pointless like SOTWS trying to expand on what was presented in chapter 1 already.

 

[Sparky Lurker]

Sea of Stars free circus DLC announcement:

 

[LucasSomething]

Timeless and Vegaful are pretty good, too. There's also a plethora of mods for Pointless like SOTWS trying to expand on what was presented in chapter 1 already.

I thought they were unfinished shitpost games and i blame it onthe fandom. Wait, i guess Undone and Pointless aren't ""finished"" since they're just chapter 1. While undone is easily the highest production i quit at day 2 when it was clear the writers played too much disco elysium.

How would you compare them to base game, pointless and hopeful? Complete, funny, long etc

 

[Sparky Lurker]

I thought they were unfinished shitpost games and i blame it onthe fandom. Wait, i guess Undone and Pointless aren't ""finished"" since they're just chapter 1. While undone is easily the highest production i quit at day 2 when it was clear the writers played too much disco elysium.

How would you compare them to base game, pointless and hopeful? Complete, funny, long etc

Vegaful is finished, is more dark comedy focused, gameplay is more similar to Painful (hub areas and recruitable members that can be perma-killed), lots of optional areas, is currently being remade.

Timeless has only chapter 1, also comical, but more light-hearted compared to Vegaful, gameplay is more similar to Pointless (2 party members with puzzle heavy battles), chapter 2 will likely be finished before Monster update.

Scholar of the Wilbur Sin adds 3 optional party members, new areas+lore and a bunch of boss battles to Pointless, it also has one major retcon to Pointless, the Infinity Franchise gets upgraded from a pathetic cult of killers to assassins with superpowers, Scholar of the Wilbur Sin also got a bunch of fanmade addons that I frankly do not recommend to get into it unless you really like the gameplay loop.

There is also Unbreakable, also 1 chapter, gameplay is similar to Painful, a bunch of pop culture references to classic games, heavily inspired by Mother Cognitive Dissonance, the 2023 version was a massive improvement compared to the OG version from 2020, but I feel is still under-baked in a few areas.

 

[Kaktus Kompot]

Nope. They're actually working on update named the monster update for YEARS. The "update" eventually became so big it was changed to an effective episode 1 remake. Last new content shown was back in 2021 (?). There is no sight of episode 2.

https://pointless-rpg.fandom.com/wiki/LISA:_The_Pointless

The fact that LISA the Pointless' development has gotten so stretched out that a different team has managed to complete and release a larger fangame is highly amusing.

A fangame of an unfinished fangame of an indie RPG. Can't say I've ever seen that before.

 

[Don Yagon]

A fangame of an unfinished fangame of an indie RPG. Can't say I've ever seen that before.

And not the only one fangame: there's Phone Crew (which got its own fangames), Gardenias, AHAP and SOTWS's own expansions like Infinity Unfolds or Ultimate Modpack, not to mention various perspective mods. LISA fandom seems to quite productive in its autism, likely in no last part because RPG Maker games are piss easy to mod since all you need is grab a copy of it and load the game there.

 

[Kaktus Kompot]

And not the only one fangame: there's Phone Crew (which got its own fangames), Gardenias, AHAP and SOTWS's own expansions like Infinity Unfolds or Ultimate Modpack, not to mention various perspective mods. LISA fandom seems to quite productive in its autism, likely in no last part because RPG Maker games are piss easy to mod since all you need is grab a copy of it and load the game there.

Makes one wonder how many fangames Undertale (and DR) would have gotten if they were made in RPGmaker instead of Gamemaker and the modding bar was set much lower.

 

[Irrational Bounty Hunter]

The fact that LISA the Pointless' development has gotten so stretched out that a different team has managed to complete and release a larger fangame is highly amusing.

A fangame of an unfinished fangame of an indie RPG. Can't say I've ever seen that before.

And not the only one fangame: there's Phone Crew (which got its own fangames), Gardenias, AHAP and SOTWS's own expansions like Infinity Unfolds or Ultimate Modpack, not to mention various perspective mods. LISA fandom seems to quite productive in its autism, likely in no last part because RPG Maker games are piss easy to mod since all you need is grab a copy of it and load the game there.

I'd like to put forward the fact that this fandom is still very bad at pushing forward its own, unique ideas instead of just jury-rigging new shit onto Pointless. It's much easier to mod and sprite new characters and scenes piggy-backing off of the writing, concepts and ideas of something that was good, rather than coming up with something new and carrying it to release day (which, if you're used to interacting with these people at all, they are very bad at doing).

Some of those pieces of art, like Phone Crew, Gardenias, AHAP and SOTWS have something to show for themselves and are interesting in my opinion (for varying reasons ranging from being products of the space they were created in, the people who created them, or actually bringing new gameplay/story ideas into the fold that were worth the trouble), but I consider the intense fixation on perspective mods, mods of mods, and the general attachment to this one fucking game to be evidence of what's actually a blight on the community. Instead of anyone being able to at least finish their own fan projects, almost everyone is stuck at being able to mod new shit into a game which didn't need it, and was more artistically whole for not having the interruptions from its original vision.

Maybe there's something to be said about how that applies to all the LISA fangames as a whole, with people spending weeks and months working with the same, shitty, limited system used by the game they were inspired by instead of moving on to greener pastures. The group willing to put up with that are split between the auteurs who made original projects of their own using the same basic setting, and everyone else.

 

[Sparky Lurker]

But in some good news, Demon School if got a release date trailer for september 13.

Delayed:

https://necrosoftgames.com/demonschool-in-2025/

 

[LucasSomething]

Delayed:

https://necrosoftgames.com/demonschool-in-2025/

Goddamit, is any game i'm interested not delayed forever. This is actually smart because September is super stacked with top tier games but their excuse for the delay is bad. Adding minigames and quizzes? That's not as good as it sounds.

They're doing demo feedback and i had no idea there was a demo. I checked a bit and just found out the game isnt like devil survivor but more like Into The Breach with a very small open hallway and 90% of the combat being optimizing pushes and kills and reaching the other end of the hallway soon as possible. It also wants to be persona with a calendary and friendship level but the demo starts on week 2 too fast and the first impression is bad.

Anyway, there was also a fanmade "Monster taming direct" done by a very small channel that only talks about monster taming games, so there was a lot of indie game trailers.

Most looks weak but a few have potential to me. I like the look of 'Pry into the Void' because it's clearly trying to be Shin Megami Tensei 1 and 2 and has this edgy aura that i'm into.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1234990/Pry_Into_The_Void/

It also has a demo i'll check. Other games with demos include

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1886210/Mirrored_Soul/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2273720/Eidolon_Awakened/

Photo geist looks interesting as you take pictures of monsts to "capture" them.

https://photogeist-albums.itch.io/photogeist-albums

Pipkin doesnt have a demo but gives strong undertale inspired quirky indie rpg vibes with demo next month

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915520/Pipkin/?l=portuguese

Also found a brazilian game in the wild (its about natives ofc!)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3028370/Tupi__The_Legend_of_Arariboia/?l=portuguese#:~:text=Tupi%3A%20A%20Lenda%20de%20Arariboia,sul-americana%20como%20um%20todo.

I also found out about Aethermancer from the Monster Sanctuary devs, meaning it should be solid rpg with no release date and probable early acess

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2288470/Aethermancer/

Oni Hunters has a surprisingly decent artstyle and quirky vibes that makes it look way better than other trailers. There is no demo but the trailer said 2024.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1051070/Oni_Hunters/

And there was Digimon Tamers 2, a fangame where you raise your digimon from scratch and must battle and collect all forms. It's free and looks decent if any digimon fan likes the pet raising part.

https://dragonrod342.itch.io/digital-tamers-2

Maybe i missed other games with demos but anyway, i'll try the Pry Into The Void demo when i get home.

I've also been playing Meg's Monster which is a very cliché but sentimental "big bad monster that hates annoying child learns to raise her" story that i haven't finished but i recommend already and will post a review when i'm done.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1783360/Megs_Monster/

If you liked Monster Inc then you should like this. Be aware that combat is a joke, battles are mostly scripted and there is no depth so expect more of an interactive walking sim than a "rpg game". The trailer is excellent but kinda spoils a bunch of story beats so watch it at your own risk.

 

[Anonitolia]

Anyway, there was also a fanmade "Monster taming direct" done by a very small channel that only talks about monster taming games

Oh wow, Monster Tamer Ed's at 90k subs already? I found him when he was at barely 4k. Jeez, what a sudden rise.

All of these games look bad, honestly, there's so much aping of the Pokémon formula it's depressing. I should be used to this already but I'm really not, it's such a waste. I guess the SMT-inspired game looked cool, too, but it also seems very derivative (just of a different franchise).

I hope the genre gets past this shitty starting phase soon and grows into something better as all derivative genres tend to. FPSes had their years of Doom clones, Soulslikes had their years of Dark Souls rip-offs (that you could argue haven't ended yet, but frankly I think the fact that they're at least trying to rip off new things like Hollow Knight or Dead Cells now is a sign that it's gonna be over with soon)... I hope the day that Monster Catchers creep out from under the shadow of Pokémon comes soon.