This was a very wonderful year for indie (independent) video game development teams! This year, December 11th at 8pm ET, the game awards ceremony will begin, and the Game of The Year shall be chosen!
Of the nominees, 3 out of 6 were developed by indie studios: Hades II, Hollow Knight Silksong, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The remaining games are sure to be good contenders as well: Death Stranding II: On the Beach, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Kingdom Come Deliverance II (seems like a year of some good sequels!).
Each of the games is noteworthy in its own right: Hollow Knight Silksong, a 2D Metroidvania, delivered as a much-anticipated sequel to the successful Team Cherry installment of the original, holding up in difficulty as much as quality. Hades II delivered similarly, holding up an indie sequel to its successful predecessor by Supergiant Studios. Death Stranding II: On the Beach is as creatively innovative as it is completely absurd (in the best, Kojima-style way), Donkey Kong Bananza is sure to be another Nintendo classic, being a very well-received 3D platformer, and Kingdom Come Deliverance II: an incredible first-person melee game filled with good storytelling. Two other games worth mentioning that fit the sequel theme would be Sucker Punch Studio’s Ghost of Yotei and FromSoftware’s Elden Ring: Nightreign (though technically not a full sequel). These games have several nominations in other categories and were definitely personal highlights for me this year.
However, to not discredit the other games, one certainly seems to be stealing the show: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The indie studio Sandfall interactive garnered so much praise in the early days of Expedition 33’s release that the French president recognized the game and its developers as testaments to “French audacity and creativity.” As of this article, prior to the game awards this year, Expedition 33 holds the record for the most nominations in the history of the game awards: 12 nominations!
Regardless, it is the gamers’ voice that matters, and it is up to said gamers to speak their mind on what the best game truly is by voting on the Game Awards official website. Will Expedition 33 sweep the ceremony? Will a dark horse reveal itself? Or will you choose your own game of the year instead? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
Vance Redd
Staff Reporter
