Indie World Showcase (17th April 2024 @ 15:00 BST)

[Julius]

It's indie time! 

Everyone probably melting down after the recent Silksong ratings haha

[Dcubed]

Yeah... it's time for Silksong.

Personally I'm hoping to see Mina The Hollower here, as it's been 3,000 years, but nope; everyone else is just hyped for Silksong.

[killthenet]

I feel like Silksong might be too big for this but I won't argue with a shadow drop - would undoubtedly be the biggest shadow drop ever if it happens

I'm with @Dcubed on the Mina the Hollower hype - feel like that's one I would jump into immediately whereas Silksong seems like much more of a time commitment. 

 

[Julius]

31 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Personally I'm hoping to see Mina The Hollower here, as it's been 3,000 years, but nope; everyone else is just hyped for Silksong.

The years are flying by because I 1000% thought that we'd had a Mina update and new footage more recently than Silksong, but nope, latest stuff I can find is still Q1 2022 for Mina (mostly stuff shortly after that Yacht Club presentation with the game's KS announcement) and June 2022 for Silksong during the Xbox Games Showcase. 

Some serious mind fudgery going on here. Let's get updates on both! Okay maybe that's a bit much to ask for but eh, why not 

24 minutes ago, killthenet said:

I feel like Silksong might be too big for this 

It definitely feels that way for me, I feel like a Direct would make the most sense for a shadow drop if it were going to happen, absolutely got the most eyes on them during those. Indie Showcases do middling numbers by comparison.

There's no chance in hell in my mind that it drops during an Xbox event (even with Game Pass deals and the like) simply because of how poorly it would get communicated that it was dropping on everything. I mean Xbox buy a couple of days of Atlus saying their games are coming to Xbox only in their trailers, for pity's sake! 

24 minutes ago, killthenet said:

would undoubtedly be the biggest shadow drop ever if it happens

Wdym, we get so many fantasy farming sim indies shadow drop all of the time, there's no way Silksong is bigger than those

[Dcubed]

Indie World is the biggest and highest profile regular indie event that we currently have (across all platforms).  With E3 being gone, I can't see any better opportunity we have for an indie game announcement like a Silksong trailer/release date.

Only thing potentially bigger than an Indie World is a proper mainline Nintendo Direct; and we're not due another one until September now.

The Triple III initiative has promise if it carries on being as good as their inaugural event, but right now, Indie World is the best we have. 

Edited April 16 by Dcubed

[Julius]

3 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Indie World is the biggest and highest profile regular indie event that we currently have (across all platforms).  With E3 being gone, I can't see any better opportunity we have for an indie game announcement like a Silksong trailer/release date.

Only thing potentially bigger than an Indie World is a proper mainline Nintendo Direct; and we're not due another one until September now.

The Triple III initiative has promise if it carries on being as good as their inaugural event, but right now, Indie World is the best we have. 

While I agree that Indie World Showcases are the biggest shows consistently released specifically for indie titles, they're often lucky to break the 1 million views mark. They're nowhere near big enough to actually expand the audience for Silksong. 

Even in lieu of a Direct proper, for something like Silksong, I could see Nintendo coming up with any excuse to have a Partner Showcase and feature the title – I just think it would be going backwards to go from the first game shadow dropping during Nintendo's E3 Direct to an April Indie World Showcase that draws a fraction of the crowd. Heck, I'm sure that Nintendo not turning up with a Direct proper in 2022 is a big reason why it turned up at the Xbox Games Showcase instead. 

But, for the reasons I said above, I don't think an Xbox Games Showcase would be suitable for this game to shadow drop - they pull in a pretty niche slice of the gaming crowd, all things considered (and the thing being considered is that it's mostly Xbox fans, the smallest traditional platform to release on currently). Summer Game Fest would be absolutely suitable for this and draws in crowds from every platform, it would probably be the best event in terms of sheer eyes-on volume for this to drop during. 

But, checking the release schedule, I reckon that if we get a shadow drop or release date within the next month for Silksong, it'll be because of Shadow of the Erdtree launching 21st June.

If Silksong is complete and ready to go, as the recent ratings would seem to suggest, I can easily imagine a scenario where they were waiting to shadow drop it at Xbox or SGF, learned of the Shadow of the Erdtree release date, and spotted that mid-April is pretty open by comparison. I think, at least in the diehard gaming crowd which has been fawning over Silksong updates for ages now, the overlap with the From crowd is pretty huge, and a lot of Hollow Knight's success overall is down to smart release timing and plenty of word of mouth to spread the word about the game. 

That'd be my guess anyways. Not saying it wouldn't be smart to drop tomorrow, there are just objectively bigger events coming up, and Shadow of the Erdtree is the only genuine reason I can think of wanting to avoid a mid-June release and deciding to just drop on a random Wednesday in April instead. 

[Dcubed]

I do generally agree with what you're saying @Julius, but unless Nintendo are planning on putting out another Partner Showcase in lieu of what would've been their usual E3 event in June, there won't be another major Switch event until at least September (and any such event will likely be focused on Switch 2 at that point, rather than the current model; as I'd expect Switch 2 to be launching in March 2025).  Nintendo are basically done with the current Switch as far as major original first party games go now; which is why their February Direct was a Partner Showcase, rather than your usual mainline Nintendo Direct.  And given that Switch 2 has been internally delayed from November 2024 to (probably) March 2025? That's likely pushed back any announcement/event plans that they had as well... hell, they've already pulled out of Gamescom 2024 likely for this very reason.

So it's either Indie World or nothing as far as Nintendo related events go, and I doubt that they'd want to shackle up with Xbox in their own event.  They could do their own announcement at SGF I suppose, but it'd probably get somewhat buried underneath Geoff Keighley's mountanous ego and his hard-on for AAAA explosion fests, so probably not the wisest choice of events either.

The Triple III Initiative event was actually pretty dang good and would likely be their best shot outside of Indie World when they inevitably do their next event; as the last one was surprisingly successful and well recieved (136k views for their first ever event is pretty impressive and will likely only increase from there, given how much positive coverage it got afterwards; by comparison, the last Indie World scored around 836k views).  But that probably won't be happening for a long time from now...

Edited April 16 by Dcubed

[Jonnas]

I second the Silksong prediction. I think this is it.

If we do see Silksong, I don't think we'll be seeing Mina the Hollower. These directs only need one "big" Indie to make a splash, and if Yacht Club isn't rushing to show it, I don't think Nintendo would insist (unless they were desperate).

I think we'll see an official announcement of Penny's Big Breakaway demo.

News on Shantae Advance would also make sense.

The rest ought to be totally new. And that's fine, because after writing all that, I'm surprised at how many high-profile Indies are likely to appear already.

...

I also think we won't see Freedom Planet 2 on the highlight reel, but we should Get that game on your Switches!

[darksnowman]

Bub G : indie-made Bubsy Battle Royale. Sports Story update. Easy on the waffle/ interviews. Indie app on NSO.

[Dcubed]

Wow! Wayforward are busy! How are they pumping out so many titles!?

[Dcubed]

So… Antonblast is a ripoff of a ripoff?

Neat.

[darksnowman]

Little Kitty, Big City (May 9th) still looks all right.
Yars Rising (Wayforward & Atari, 2024) looks cool but maybe not for me.
Refind Self (summer) looks interesting!
Sticky Business (out today) looks fun but don't realistically see myself getting it. 
Antonblast (Nov 12th) looks fun! Demo out today!
Valley Peaks (2024) looks relaxing.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (May 16th) is one to look out for.
Europa (2024) I hope doesn't just look good. Demo out today!
Turtles rogue like (July)... not sure. Need to know more.
Cat Quest 3! (Aug 8th) I still haven't got 2! Demo today!
Stitch (out today) looks like a nice chill-out game. Already worried about missing loops if you don't start on it immediately.
BZZT (summer) looks like an indie platformer.
SCHiM (July 18th) is about shadow hopping?
Animal Well (May 9th) has nice lighting? Not much to go on, really as these ones came thick and fast.
Duck Detectives (May 23rd) could be fun!
Another Crab's Treasure (Apr 25th) I wonder if this is any good.
SteamWorld Heist II (Aug 8th) I need to catch up with this series. I think I got Heist years ago but still haven't even tried it.

I've gold points that will begin expiring in the coming months so I'll have to take a punt on one of these if I don't see something else on sale.

[MindFreak]

No new trailer for Silksong is too bad, I wouldn't have counted on a shadow drop but at least show us a bit from the game again. It's been ages since we last saw something. 

Haven't watched the show yet but it seems like there was a few games that might spark my interest. Now if only I had the time for games...

[killthenet]

Thought it was a good show in the end but Steamworld Heist 2 was a bit of an anticlimax - I had tried to keep my expectations in check but with all the ratings it really did seem like it was time for Silksong so I couldn't help feeling disappointed with the 'one more thing' announcement this time.

Very happy to see Lorelei and the Laser Eyes coming so soon, Sayonara Wild Hearts is one of the best games of the last few years so I'm excited to see what they do next.

Weirdly the second best announcement for me was Wayforward's Yars Rising - I've never played any original Atari games so have no fondness for any of their titles but I thought this new Metroidvania take on the series looked super cool. 

[Hero-of-Time]

I think I was spoiled by the Triple I show because I thought this show was pretty weak. As always, the stupid voice overs during the trailers were annoying as Hell.

As someone who isn't invested in Silksong, its hilarious seeing so many get excited for an Indie show, only for the game to not show up.....again. You'd have thought people would have learnt their lesson by now.

[Cube]

Little Kitty, Big City looks like fun, more than any of this "Silksong" stuff.

[darksnowman]

Anton Blast demo gives you access to two levels and two characters. I did one level with one character. The game is obnoxious. Let's never speak of it again.

Europa (satellite of Jupiter), can't fault the vision, though the controls have a weird feel to them because you can hold B to charge your jump so if you just tap the button for a quick hop, it takes a hair to register, like it's waiting to see if you want to charge up or not. Doesn't seem like the game will put you in any pressure platforming situations, but still. Gives it a weird feel.

[Ashley]

5 hours ago, Dcubed said:

So… Antonblast is a ripoff of a ripoff?

Neat.

I saw it and thought "oh must be from the makers of Pizza Tower" (or whatever it's called) but I guess not?

I thought the showcase was fine. Didn't skip through anything which is usually how I judge them. 

And I don't know why it's taken me some 30-odd years but the TMNT thing had me realise the cartoon theme said "heroes in a half shell" but it's not a half shell. It's their full shell. My whole life has been a lie. 

[Jonnas]

I didn't get a single prediction right!

• Little Kitty, Big City still looks lovely. Open-world cities are usually not my kind of game, but a cute realistic cat will win me over;
• YARS Rising looks like a cool Stealth Metroidvania. Caught my attention;
• Refind Self looks... intriguing. I'll wait to see how it's received;
• ANTONBLAST is one I had heard about a year or two ago, even before I heard of Pizza Tower. Imma try the demo. Meanwhile, Nintendo really should release Wario Land 4 on the NSO;
• Lorelei and the Laser Eyes still looks like a heck of a game. Looking forward to it;
• Europa looks decent, and more importantly, seems to have a Portuguese developer behind it... feel obligated to try that demo, now;
• TMNT: Splintered Fate is not my genre in the slightest;
• Cat Quest III looks super cute, but I'm not sold on it;
• stitch. looks lovely, and it's one to consider;
• Steamworld Heist II was not on my bingo card. I thought the first game was a solid 4-star game, so I'm hoping this one can bring us that extra oomph the series needs to achieve greatness.

Didn't care much for the other games.

Honestly, even though there weren't any big hitters, I thought this Direct was super solid. There were a lot of appealing games that caught my eye, way more than I expected.

[S.C.G]

Indie World Showcase 17/04/2024 Roundup

Fully-formatted press release, and video embed.

[Jonnas]

10 hours ago, Jonnas said:

ANTONBLAST is one I had heard about a year or two ago, even before I heard of Pizza Tower. Imma try the demo. Meanwhile, Nintendo really should release Wario Land 4 on the NSO;

Demo impressions: still rough around the edges. It feels good to play, and it mostly hits that fast-paced cartoony feel it's aiming for. But I see three issues already.

• Levels are way too big. Each level in the demo is roughly twice as long as your average Wario Land 4 level. One of the escape sequences is 5 literal minutes long, and if you die during it, you get sent back to the moment you turned the switch. It really highlights just how long these can get.
• There are secrets and collectibles scattered throughout the level that you have only one chance to try and get (sometimes it's because they're dependant on breakable, non-respawning blocks, but mostly it's because the levels are filled with points of no return): if you fail to get them for whatever reason, you need to open the menu and select "Restart from Checkpoint". And you better hope that checkpoint wasn't too long ago.
• The "springy ground-pound" and the "shoulder bash-run" are two distinct moves assigned to the same button. Might seem fine at first, but it becomes obnoxious for many a platform section.

The first two seem tied to the game's design philosophy, but the third point can still be fixed before the full release.

Overall, this feels like a game that was made for hardcore Wario Land 4 fans, specifically the ones that like to speedrun through levels. Hopefully the final game won't alienate the more casual folk.

10 hours ago, Jonnas said:

Europa looks decent, and more importantly, seems to have a Portuguese developer behind it... feel obligated to try that demo, now;

Demo impressions: This game looks and plays lovely, but I got some major ABZU vibes from it. Seems that the gameplay loop is just exploration, jumping and gliding. I do hope the final game has some puzzles to solve or something, because "exploration-only" gets old somewhat fast for me.

Edited April 18 by Jonnas