Electronic Sports and Gaming Summit 2022 (ESGS 2022) continues to feature our favorite publishers, personalities, and of course, games. From retro to unreleased, there are going to be titles that everyone’s going to want to try out or learn more about as everyone who visits will have the chance to play them. One of the people that are always interested in getting you to try out what they have to show off is our local independent developers aka: ‘indies’, and they sure made a showing for this year’s convention. Here’s a list of the games that really stood out to us and perhaps you should watch out for:

Good Knight

This title has been around for a while now and made its debut at a much earlier ESGS. So why would I bring this up now? Isn’t it an old title meaning it doesn’t bring anything new? Well, that’s the thing, it hasn’t actually stopped development. It’s still expanding with new modes and even multiplayer functionality. It continues to bamboozle players with the hand-crafted bullet hell sequences you must dodge and fight through. Combined with a kick-ass soundtrack it and daunting but reasonable difficulty, it’s a good pick-up if you want instant action that you can control with one button.

Mecha Blitz

I honestly feel like there’s been a real lack of robots with guns these days, and it sure helps that there’s a weekly series to look forward to with Witch of Mercury. But if you want to play a game, a mobile title is here to give you some quick, customizable, combat with robots under the name of Mecha Blitz. This is a twin-stick shooter title that has controls similar to what you see in most MOBAs these days, so picking up how to play is rather simple. On top of that, there are a lot ways to tune and refine your machine. Considering this title is pointed towards PVP, you’re sure to encounter a wide variety of setups as you play. At least until people figure out a meta.

Vita Fighters

Games that tend to spoof things tend to have a short lifespan because if you run a joke enough times it gets old and unfunny. But that’s not necessarily the case for fighting games, Vita Fighter is one of them. It takes inspiration from classic fighting games and in its own, blocky Minecraft-like style, brings to life oddly characters that might look like they came from somewhere else. Watching most people try out this game and do more than just wail at each other and smash their controllers tells me that this game is quite easy to get into and understand. So if you just want some whacky, quirky fun with a friend, trying out Vita Fighters might be a good option to look into.

Working Tidal

Megaman Battle Network and a bit of Touhou? Yes, sign me up. Looking at the game it’s seriously bare bones and feels more like a proof of concept. I mean why do you have a guy playing Badminton (or Tennis? I’m actually not sure) fight against the creatures of the sea? Otherwise, the combat and mechanics are quite engaging. The fact that every level gives you a roguelike progression system where you pick between 3 random powerups keeps things fresh. Especially since these powerups aren’t just +1 damage or other stat changes that you may find boring. There are also powerups that can change entirely how you play like having charge attacks or swapping your parry ability with something else. How actively the mechanics play out was truly engaging, and made me want to go for round two without hesitation.

Meet Me on the Mountain

A puzzle game that incorporates hidden object mechanics in an interesting take. You change the color filter of your camera to reveal hidden objects when mixed with certain colors, it definitely makes you remember how to mix primary colors that you used to learn in grade school and experiment to see what kind of result you might get in solving puzzles. It’s a neat take for a puzzle game and no wonder they bagged awards in Game Jam Plus 2021 that includes Best Sound Design and Game of the Year. Hopefully the team behind Meet Me on the Mountain would continue the development for this as it has potential especially if they can incorporate a really good storytelling and plot twists in the narrative for a one-of-a-kind experience.

As a game reviewer, I’ve been shown game after game that doesn’t really try to make anything new. Not all of it is bad, really, but it does get tiring and wears you down over time. However, looking at the indie scene gives you a glimpse of the possible future, and the guarantee that new ideas and concepts can still be hatched by the human mind, even in an industry as crowded and competitive as games. They also are much happier to see their hard work appreciated by others, which can be an entirely different experience when it comes to dealing with higher-profile publishers. While indies can indeed be lacking in polish, and most likely won’t be making games you’ll be playing for a long time to come, their creations are often brimming with heart and an eagerness to share with you something personal and authentic, and aren’t that where you have to start to come up with something original?