In the virtual media day for the upcoming annual Gamescom Asia 2022, we were able to sit down and tune into a fireside chat with Brian Kwek, the Treasurer and Exco-member (Indie) of the Singapore Games Association (SGGA) where he talks about the importance of indie game titles in the video game ecosystem.

Nowadays, AAA game titles have largely taken over the gaming sphere where masterpieces after masterpieces have been considered to be the borderline standard of what makes a game “good”.

In his chat, Brian Kwek quotes that “AAA titles is the poster child or the front of what people perceive games to be and indie games explore niches that might not be covered by some developers, who may be risk-averse. Maybe they got a good thing going or a smash hit franchise that they want to keep focusing more on that type of game”.

Brian also goes on to mention how Stardew Valley revitalised the farming simulation genre over the last decade or so. He also mentions that from a design point of view, indie games give rise to experimentation in techniques for both game design and storytelling.

One personal example that I would like to highlight would be Coffee Talk done by Toge Productions where it portrays a coffee barista who owns a cafe in a world where humans and monsters co-exist with one other and the game tells the stories of the ever day lives of the customers. While this concept be interesting as a whole, it wouldn’t necessarily translate well as a AAA title.