And Little Nightmares and INSIDE.

Party games? Chompy Chomp Chomp and Hidden in Plain Sight are both a pair of the definitive XBLIGs.

Don’t get me wrong Journey is one of might favourite games of all time. It just seems to have an unfair advantage over others. I haven’t played Escaped Goat 2 but if it’s even half as good as the first I think its deserving.
=D

I completely give up on trying to label indies. I had Castlestorm originally not rated because Zen Studios had worked with the Star Wars IP and was a fairly established studio. But then I got to know their studio heads and i realized these guys operate on a shoe-string budget, nightmare deadlines, etc. That a game like Castlestorm could come from such a studio with all the BS they go through is amazing. They’re indie. Some might disagree.

If enough people complain about Journey, I’ll put it to a vote if they’re indie or not. If my readers say they’re not, I’ll take them off the Leaderboard and Escape Goat 2 will become #1. My reviews are NOT a democracy, but I suppose whether a game is an indie or not can be.

Well I think the points for thatgamecompany are debatable considering the budget was in the multimillions and went through two extensions with the help of Sony. In fact there was a little controversy from thatgamecompany for getting royalties when Journey released because Sony had to make back their investment first.

http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/13/journey-cost-multiple-millions-of-dollars-no-royalties-for-a-year/

Sony is great company or so I have heard for giving free reign on projects. But on top of that they dish out a lot of money and a lot of “free marketing” to their publisher funded projects. Hello Games (now widely recognized for No Man’s Sky) reported the reason they landed on Sony’s publisher fund to help was because the xbox market was just too damn scary.

“”Why choose PSN? It was the only way we could self-publish, XBLA is kind of a slaughterhouse for smaller developers.” Sean Murray Hello Games

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/xbla-is-a-slaughter-house-for-smaller-developers

But anyways the real point I am trying to make here is that the publisher fund gives matches whatever developers put into their game with the return of exclusivity of a title. Joe Danger was technically developed and sold by Hello Games. They owned the ip and rights to everything as they likely will with No Man’s Sky.

With thatgamecompany their contract implied that Sony owns the rights to the Flow, Flower, and Journey ip’s which is one of the reasons thatgamecompany was excited to be leaving their contract after Journey. On top of that all three games are published by Sony and not thatgamecompany. So clearly not the same boat.

I think I went on a tangent there but made my point somewhere. Journey is a big big money title, is not self published, and the intellectual properties are owned by an industry giant.

More or less this is food for thought. I am not sure they qualify as an indie just for having a small team but there are those that would argue otherwise. Technically the line is supposed to fall on being self published. However if that was the only line then companies like Telltale, Larian, and even the mighty Bethesda, or Valve could be classified as indie.

I don’t know I think my psychosis is showing but I really like this debate. Sorry if I come across as trolly just a late night I suppose.
=D

You are right debating this might be more headache then its worth.

I tried to nail down the line and determined it was impossible. I base thatgamecompany as Indie because they created and executed Journey with a small house, small budget, and NO oversight from any other company. Sony had no input at all. I debate these issues to this day.

Just so were clear I am not trying to be rude. I am just curious of your opinion.

I haven’t updated the wording of the board yet. The board is now fully multi-platform.