Gaming The System - The Feminist Gaming Podcast

238 Uncovering Creativity – Indie Highlights from Day of the Devs Part 2

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Show Notes – Gaming the System Podcast: Day of the Devs – Part 2

In the second part of our deep dive into Day of the Devs, Alex, Jem, and Matt explore the imaginative and diverse world of indie gaming showcased at this vibrant event. The team reflects on the distinct charm and creativity that sets indie games apart from mainstream offerings, highlighting the passion and authenticity driving these unique projects.

Discover which games piqued their interest—and which didn't quite hit the mark. From quirky musical nostalgia in Mixtape, to genre-blending curiosity in Neverwake, and even the sensory overload of Ratan, this episode captures the range and richness that indie developers bring to gaming.

We touch on Diversity & Inclusion, Accessibility, Corporate sponsorship and future showcases.  

https://caniplaythat.com/

https://www.dayofthedevs.com/


  • Corporate Sponsorship: A nuanced discussion on whether corporate support compromises indie integrity—or if it's a necessary partnership.
  • Future of Game Showcases: Reflections on the legacy of E3, the rise of smaller, more inclusive streaming showcases, and hopes for the future of gaming events.

Tune in for thoughtful insights, a touch of nostalgia, and an engaging look at the heart and soul of indie game development.


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Jem:

it comes from the people who want to create these things and not just the people who the system has allowed to create these things, the games themselves embedded a lot of diversity. Embodied a lot of diversity, and the designers and the teams behind them. Represented a lot of diversity

Alex:

it must be really hard to think of unique stuff that's no one has done before. And yet when you watch Day of the Devs, you get games that are doing things that are having a unique concept or a unique idea behind them.

Matt:

That's where imagination fails, even the indie developers, they just need, the imagination to. Think how do we make this game as accessible to everyone as possible? The can I play that.com website has literally every kind of accessibility feature possible.

Alex:

Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Gaming the System, the podcast where three intersectional feminists examine gaming and games through a feminist lens. Today, I'm your host, Alex, and I'm joined by my friends, gem and Matt, before we get started, if you want to support us, you can subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/gaming the system for some exclusive content. Or you can send us a one-off donation via PayPal to our email address. We are gaming the system@gmail.com. This week we're going to be talking about a gaming showcase known as Day of the Devs. I wanted to do a deep dive into Day of the Devs because compared to some of the other more mainstream, gaming showcases that we have, such as, summer Games Fest, and the, PlayStation ones, for different consoles, it just feels more creative and appealing to me in terms of the games that it, it showcases. What about games that maybe weren't so interesting to us, and why? Did you have any of those listed

Matt:

the games that didn't speak to me necessarily were that big walk one. Just felt a bit, I prefer going for adjusted an actual walk

Alex:

Yeah.

Matt:

And just the peace and quiet of the countryside. I like that. Even though I live right next door to a motorway. The other one I didn't quite like was mixed tape, Because there's nothing worse than being stuck listening to someone else's music when you don't like the same music

Alex:

Yeah.

Matt:

and'cause music is such a

Jem:

I really do like all that music. So I was like that, that

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

listed it, I was just like, oh my God. That's my teenage, that's my teenage mix tape.

Alex:

yeah.

Matt:

Yeah. And yeah, exactly. Yeah. So the, and it, again, it's, it'll, it basically means it'll be like a musical. Anything where the music is a core part. It really well for me. I still haven't found my way into musicals. I. Generally, but I'm pretty sure this isn't, this wouldn't suit me. But again, like if I was to buy, if we bought every one of the games on this list, there's 25 games, it would probably be like 250 pounds to buy all of them if they were at release. And in two years time, there'll be much, less than that anyway. Or you can buy Madden FIFA and Call of Duty in one year for the same price.

Alex:

Yeah.

Matt:

so that, that's the beauty of indie games. It doesn't matter how bad one is, you are, you're not gonna be paying through the nose for it.

Alex:

Yeah. a great point, Matt. Definitely. I had a few similar ones on my list of not so interesting games, mainly because of the gameplay, is ones like types that don't appeal to me, but that's not to say that they won't appeal to other people, of course. There's things like blighted by drink box studios and I got the overwhelming impression that was very much a Hades and that's not really a type of game that I'm very much into, possesses by heart machine and powerhouse animation. That was again, looked more like a sort of term based type thing. There was some interesting animation in it, but, I think the overall gameplay was just a type that didn't appeal to me. Again, mixtape not quite on my level, but I can definitely see it appealing to, people. moonlight 2 the endless fault I felt was a, was very much a rogue like, and it might have some, not necessarily repetitive game loops because that's the point of a rogue like, but yeah, it just didn't quite capture my attention. Marvel cosmic Invasion, again, not into that, but interestingly it was my partner, Tom's most favorite of all of the games'cause he's massively into Marvel comics. so he was really excited particularly about the bits with Ninja Turtles in. So he's very excited about that one. Never wake, I thought was quite interesting, by cold blood ink, but I'm not sure I'd play it all the way through. But I felt like it gave me the impression that it was like star, a Starview Valley horror type game, which I wondered why it might appeal to you, Jim.'cause I know you love Stardew Valley.

Jem:

They called it a Horror Life Sim.

Alex:

Yeah. Yeah.

Jem:

like an expiration mark and a question mark note. So honestly, I'm gonna have to read you some of my notes Games

Alex:

yes.

Jem:

Yeah, I thought it reminded me of, yeah, stagy Valley, but also, Chrono Trigger, which was One of the games my, the first console game that I

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

Properly. And I played that all the way through and really enjoyed it. This was really similar to that, but yeah, it looked like it might be quite interesting, but it was like, I dunno, because it was a farming and a fighting game. This is a clash of a lot of genres here..

Alex:

It is a lot. It is a lot. But it was interesting. I think all of the concepts are really creative and surprisingly unique. Surely, it must be really hard to think of unique stuff that's no one has done before. And yet when you watch Day of the Devs, you get games that are doing things that are similar to other games but are having a unique concept or a unique idea behind them. So that's one of the things that I like most about it is that it is providing you with these, new ideas as well. Another one that was on my Not so interesting to me, list Ratan, by TBT Co Ratata Arts. Game, that was a Japanese company. It's a rhythm game essentially. And I'm not so into those, but the music that accompanied the whole trailer was grating in the extreme. I'm sorry to say. It sounded like I, I thought something I could say, but I've completely forgotten. It's a little bit like, children's TV show, gone off the rails a little bit. It was just really grating. That one was a bit much, I think it was a little, sensory overload, for me. Another one that was intriguing, but probably one that I wouldn't play for more than five minutes, is Pocket Boss by Playable, and it's basically about manipulating graphs and charts. They're basically alive and you have to do things with them to move on but they move in surprising ways and do surprising things. But again, it's not something that would make me think, oh, I must play this. But it might be fun for people who work with spreadsheets all day. I don't know, maybe it's like a busman's holiday for them or something. But yeah, it's an interesting concept and this person obviously really loves data who's behind it and wants to play with that and within the games within games as a media. But it's not something that I think would appeal to me to play. And then the final one I have is off. By Mortis Ghost, slash fan gamer. I think it has been previously released, but it's being rereleased for the Switch and a couple of other consoles. It's quite a sort of horror graphic type animation, and it's very much a turn based combat sort of genre. But yeah, those games are interesting to watch, I think, but they're not ones that I would play, personally. If anyone has any thoughts on that list, please feel free to jump in.

Jem:

I those games probably came low on my

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

well. Off, I have actually played Under Tail or have got

Alex:

Ah, yes. Yeah.

Jem:

I played it, but I haven't managed to into it. I know it's very popular and gets a lot of good reviews, but it just didn't quite me. And I do think that maybe it's just the graphics that have done that for

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

The way that a game looks is really important. It doesn't have to be really fancy, fancy graphics, but it has to. I dunno, I couldn't, I couldn't say what it was.

Matt:

Like with Stardew Valley, the, and like other games like this, the ones that aren't that stereotypical futuristic gaming experience, I. I don't know how you start making a game like that Because when you start making something like Starry Valley, the decision to have it be a 2D top down thing and that turnout to be the perfect format for it, is quite mind bending to go, right? Having an idea for a game and then feels like a big leap to go, we're gonna make a game and we're gonna make it look like it's on a game Boy This is the perfect format for our game. Rather than make it look like a more modern one. So it could, so Hades is a top down game as well, but it's got this very dynamic and stylized art system, whereas this one just looks like it. It's from a Game Boy, but it works.

Jem:

Yeah,

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

I think, I thought that the one that was a bit Hades like I thought was quite nice because it had the sort of Hades style But then it also had this. Like a comic book style in,

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

in an, in the scenery. So they were leaning into the low end of the graphics as not hyperreal so that they are leaning into that. I don't think I would play the game mixtape. I thought

Alex:

Oh, mixtape. Yeah.

Jem:

a lot like, life is strange.

Alex:

Yes. Yes. It was definitely giving off those vibes.

Jem:

is strange feel to it, and it was lots of skateboarding What I could see.

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

yeah. And then this sort of eighties feel. I think what came across with the whole showcase was that all of the people were really passionate What they were

Alex:

yes.

Jem:

on. Think that's what, that's what you're trying to put your finger on there, Matt. You know that these people are doing these weird styles or these concepts or these things that we just feel are very different from what your sort of mainstream and your big, publishers are doing. And it's because they're, these are their babies. They really care about this stuff. I can't remember which game it was. There were these two guys in a, in an apartment.

Alex:

Yeah. I think at the end they drank some milk together, didn't they? Yeah. It's all very strange.

Jem:

Yeah, it was weird. But you could see that this is a labor of love. These are our passion projects. And that's what gives them the energy, I think, to put these things together and the belief that, you know, yeah, I'm not gonna use fancy graphics or I am gonna have a little boy in a tire

Alex:

So obviously Day of the Dead is all about supporting these independent developers, who put their heart and soul into these projects, and sometimes they might need a little help with sponsorship. An interesting development is that Day the Devs is now a nonprofit. would you say. Necessarily that it is compromised by having to take corporate sponsorship. And I've given you the names of some of the main sponsors. So PlayStation itself, razor Bloom, house Games, X Solar, and potentially also Netflix games as well, which will sponsor the whole showcase. Do you think there's a compromise that's being made there or is it more about balance? Because obviously a lot of these developers in these games couldn't get off the ground without the help of some of this sponsorship.

Matt:

I think as long as they don't own any of the studios, because what has been proven is. The big company will buy up a studio, a very small studio and say, alright, we'll give you tons of funding and you can create the thing that you want. And then they take your intellectual property and fire everyone. And so if they're su and if they're supporting a showcase, they're not gonna be making tons of money off this showcase and none of the games on this list, it would be very unlikely that they're gonna be the next Stardew Valley. But then I could be surprised, but I don't, I just, I don't think it's big enough to be compromisable necessarily.'cause if it's the E three or the Unreal Showcase or the Xbox Showcase, that's the built-in capitalism arm of things, whereas this stuff is so small scale that I don't think they'd, yeah, I just think it's fine. Just think that it's probably okay and if it's not okay, then the amount of damage it can do is negligible.

Alex:

yeah. It was a devil's advocate question really, but yeah. Do you have similar thoughts, Jem, or,

Jem:

yeah, I thought there was quite a few sponsors and they were

Alex:

yes.

Jem:

of the industry. So I think that in itself, they cancel each other out. Essentially these games, although as Matt says, but these games are competitors to the bigger games. But, at a, they're working on very different levels. And also, as Matt mentioned earlier, one of the ways that the more mainstream businesses can support the industry and ensure diversity of concepts and the sort of. Fertile ground, really for games going forward is to put money into it. And this is a way that they can actually do that. So I think that has to be questioned. I think you're right to ask the question, Alex, and it is something that we should always be keeping an eye on. But yeah, I don't think it's a problem. I think it's good because I think what it says is that the mainstream games industry is taking them, the indie, indie industry seriously,

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

acknowledging that it, it has a place and I think ultimately that's a good thing. yeah.

Alex:

Good. Yeah. So having watched and or read about Day of the Dead, do you feel like the indie game scene is more inclusive and accessible than mainstream gaming as a whole?

Matt:

Do you mean as gamers or as developers?

Alex:

Oh, that's a good question though. I guess both if you're happy to explore,

Matt:

I think in terms of developers, for developers, definitely a hundred percent. A hundred thousand percent. Because literally if you've got a, if you've got a laptop, if you've got a laptop with a low tier graphics card, a gaming graphics card, then you can use the Unreal Engine four at least. And that is still, there are plenty of games on the Unreal Engine four that look better than some of the ones on the Unreal Engine five.'cause there is nothing worse than a game that is trying to be really like graphically good. So using, there are some games using the Under Unreal Engine five that looked like they could have been made on the Unreal Engine two.

Alex:

Oh, no.

Matt:

There you go. You've weighed all of that processing power. Do you have any idea how powerful my graphics card is and you're managing to waste all of it, doing your stupid shit looking game, whereas Yeah. As long as you've got a reasonably powerful laptop, you can make a game with the Unreal Engine. And although it's quite an accessible in terms of, piece of technology, in terms of learning to use it and using it compared to creating your own engine, it's not necessarily again, like the diff the difference between real accessibility, which is allowing the, anyone to use a certain thing in a way that is. Best for them. I don't think it's, they've put as much energy into that as they should, but it is a tool there that is free to use for anyone. So it's accessible on, in terms of for the developers in that way. But as for gamers, I don't think it's any more accessible. Purely because only the only two games that I've seen that have done how it done excessively how it should be done is got a war, ragner rock, and the last of Us two, and the remake version of it. But it's not because you, it's still a lack of, that's where imagination fails, even the indie developers, because they just need, you just need the imagination to. Think how do we make this game as accessible to everyone as possible? And then there is literally a website, the can I play that.com website that has an the exhaustive, literally every kind of disability, accessibility feature possible. It's got a list, breaks down the different types of disability and the different ways in which they need to be accommodated. And everything on that list is so manageable to implement. There's, it's, it can be as simple as changing a few font sizes on your, on the text or changing the colors of some things and slowing down time. And just the, again, it's the answer. It is a thing where the answers are there. You don't need to be at the bleeding edge of technology to make your game accessible. You just need to have the imagination to go, oh yeah, while we're at this, we can, they could do it. And again, it's, and then I, you can't, they shouldn't have the judgment on them. That should be on AAA game studios, but it would be nice if we could see that kind of relu, the accessibility revolution happening now in the indie scene. That's what I'd really like to see.

Alex:

That's a very comprehensive Thank you, I'll do a quick follow up for you. Since Matt's answered the accessibility part, do you feel like indie games are more inclusive in the way that they are like presented to gamers? Do you think that their stories are more inclusive than mainstream games?

Jem:

If this showcase is an example of what's out there, then yes, we've got games. Covering all sorts of genres and there were lots of, different looking people in the games and, lots of exploring of different lifestyles and different issues and different topics. So think that seemed to be a very positive thing coming through in, these games. Also, the people who were. them. The

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

that were put on the show to present their games, were all very diverse and very different, from one another. It wasn't just a bunch of straight white

Alex:

Mm-hmm.

Jem:

you know? It

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

was a whole sort of range of people from all around the world and very clearly from all around the world. And there were people there who were obviously really good, media head headed, people who were happy to do something fancy Like these two guys in their apartment

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

milk or, there was one person I think. I can't remember which one he'd done. But anyway, it is, just standing outside in a

Alex:

Yeah. Yeah.

Jem:

and so there was clearly a variety of people, who are creating these games. And again, I think that's because these are, these are made with love. It comes from the people who want to create these things and not just the people who the system has allowed to create these things, if that makes sense. Yeah, I felt like the games themselves embedded a lot of diversity. Embodied a lot of diversity, and the designers and the teams behind them. Represented a lot of diversity from what I could, from what I could see.

Alex:

Brilliant. I felt the same way. Definitely. I definitely got a sort of, like many of the indie games that were showcased a sort of cozy feeling from the whole showcase as if we were coming into a circle of friends and they were all just picking each other up and it was just really nice. a really nice way, I think to present the showcase as a whole. I think we'll end the episode with one final question, which is, how would you like games to be showcased in the future? And as a sub question, do you E3 or other similar games, showcases of the past?

Matt:

I think that this summer of In of Games conferences has shown that we don't need E three anymore because we've got the X. We had the Xbox Showcase, we had the Unreal Engine showcase. Big, massive things, especially the Unreal Engine one, the. The sheer power and majesty of the Unreal engine is just getting bigger and bigger. And thanks to Fortnite, they're never gonna run out of money for it. Even if they could give it to free for everyone, and it would probably, they'd be, wouldn't even scratch the bottom of their coffers of money. And then you can have little streams like this, and it doesn't, you don't need to book out a massive theater and have really expensive hosts flow in from all over the world. You can just, if you've, if you can stream, you just need some people with camera and a microphone and someone who knows how to set this kind of thing up and you can go.

Jem:

E three has a interesting place in my heart because when I was working, at ea, electronic Arts e three was massive. Then E three was where everyone in the games industry wanted to be. And it, even if you weren't presenting anything, you wanted to attend it. And my housemate did go. And I was always hoping that I was gonna be able to go and I entertained for, probably about a year. The idea that I was gonna work in the games industry, but then I moved out of London and there were only two places in the country where you could work in the games industry at that point. And it was down south, London or up north. And I ended up in the middle, so I was like the worst of all places for games stuff. So that dream disappeared. But, I actually cannot stand those kind of big, fancy events. And I think it's such a lot of, back patting and ego massaging and all of that. And it just, just doesn't appeal to me at all. So I can understand why people. Want to have a big, fancy, flashy event where they can stand on a stage and tell a thousand people all about why their game is so brilliant. And I understand why other people want to go to see that, to be the first people to see this Unveiling. the, we don't really live in that world anymore. I think, and I really liked that this day of the devs. Showcase was something that was accessible by the fact that it was, it allowed all these people who probably wouldn't have been able to physically get to an event because it would've been too costly for them. And yet they were still able to take part in this and they were still able to put their own little spin on, on what they were doing. No, I think we can manage without E three and I think that I would like to see more of these smaller, events, we've moved to this online sys, these online

Alex:

definitely.

Jem:

and I think it's a positive thing in

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

I.

Alex:

Yeah, I'd agree. I think it's interesting what you said about E three.'cause I think when I was becoming a gamer, I first learned about new games through things like magazines and getting DMO discs or even, TV channels. I think that was one called G four. Correct me if I'm wrong. but I used to watch that as well occasionally. And then when E three started happening, I was like, I'll watch this now. I'll know what games are coming out. and then of course, we changed, everything changed and now we've got a lots of different streams from lots of different people. And I think E three has that nostalgia. It is very much of its time. It represents a particular time in the gaming community. But I think times have moved on now and, we connect and showcase things in different ways, and having these different streams. Is a good way of doing it because then you can find ones that appeal to you rather than just having one big one. Because it gives space to, and developers that couldn't otherwise have been in E three because they're not considered big enough to be there or whatever else, or there wasn't enough room to fit them in on the schedule. So I think it's good having a wide array of different showcases, and I'd like to see lots of similar things to Day of the Devs in Future because we need to give a platform to those who are perhaps more marginalized within the gaming developer community and within gaming community in general. So I would like more of it, please, and I look forward to next year. thank you both for joining me in this, discussion all on day of the Devs. I think it's really nice to be able to reflect on it now, with some of the games coming out very soon, and, and just get your thoughts on it. And I'm really glad that I've introduced you to it, Jem, because I didn't realize you hadn't watched it before, so that's nice. So yeah, that, unless anything has an anything, anyone else has anything to say, we'll get my teeth in a minute. I think we'll cool the end of the episode and welcome you to come back any Thursday for more from us. And thank you very much for watching and listening. See you next time.

Jem:

Bye.