‘Loco Motive’ and Games Journalism’s Regrettable Relationship With Indie Games

Before we get into some “inside baseball,” I want to do the important thing first. Loco Motive is a murder mystery point-and-click game you can purchase on Steam, GOG, or the Nintendo Switch for $17.99. (Though from now [November 22] to December 5, you can get it on Steam for $16.19.) It’s one of those indie games I go crazy for. I love point-and-click games, pixel art, and a compelling murder mystery with silly undertones!

Full Disclosure: I haven’t had the honor of playing Loco Motive myself yet. However, in the small Steam review crowd so far, it has nothing but positive ratings! If you need more convincing than that, the few gaming outlets that have reviewed the game gave Loco Motive an aggregate 86% rating on OpenCritic! Truthfully, that’s all I need to know to properly endorse Loco Motive without having played it!

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Now, we can talk indie games and games journalism. What I want to establish right off the bat is this: this ain’t gonna be a “woe is Waypoint” joint. Rather, I want to be totally earnest about any one gaming publication’s relationship with indie games and why many, many of them fall by the wayside, never to be properly acknowledged.

let’s talk indie games, folks

I’ll only speak for Waypoint because — duh. Right now, I’ve got two (with an incoming third, but we’ll save that surprise for later) writers to try and capture as much “coverage” as possible. Truthfully, I’m so busy in a day, I can barely find the time to review anything myself — or else I absolutely would! With our available resources already stretched thin, we usually can only hard-focus on “the big boys.” S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Marvel Rivals, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle — y’all get it.

If we don’t focus on big AAA tentpole releases, y’all won’t show up. The “competition” gets all the views and clicks, and we’re left flapping in the wind — proud indie champions that would survive as a publication for another three months before we’re dissolved. If I could guarantee that a dedicated indie effort that completely ignores AAA games entirely would drive traffic? Waypoint would be strictly indie games and nothing else. Unfortunately, though, we gotta operate in reality.

Admittedly, it sucks. The truth is that indie games are the lifeblood of the games industry. Whenever a video game has dragged strong emotions out of me or becomes an experience I’ll never forget, that rarely comes from a high-budget AAA game. Granted, I’m not anti-AAA! I fall into the hype trains for big releases and adore some of them, too! But, bar for bar? AAA never has and never will touch what the indie space has achieved.

why indie games are so important

Some of my favorite games off the top of my head? Alan Wake 2 (AA, technically, but with an indie soul). Psychonauts. Hollow Knight. Not for Broadcast. Weird West. Dishonored (published by Bethesda, sure, but that put Arkane on the map). Many early Telltale games. We could go on and on! But, the point is: indie games are awesome. Right now, I have an inbox full of emails I can’t possibly respond to in time from indie developers or PR folks representing indie developers.

I sincerely wish I could platform and highlight all the passions of the indie gaming space. But, I can’t. We can’t. Which means so many of those developers will be heartbroken when their game is inevitably swallowed by the sea of indie games also trying to receive an inkling of exposure. In some cases, I firmly believe some outlets think indie gaming is beneath them coverage-wise. Sadly, for others, it’s either not viable for traffic or viable for time.

However, I can promise that Waypoint will always do what it can to deservedly highlight bomb indie games! To that end, I’ll have a surprise for y’all next week in terms of ongoing indie highlights — but we’ll get there when we get there! To end this, I want to push forward a few of the indie-focused pieces we’ve done to get some games as much exposure as possible!

a waypoint indie gaming master list (kinda)

I’m realizing in real time that there’s more indie coverage on here than I thought — which is good! Soooo, y’all can just go to our respective author pages and enjoy the ride! Dwayne Jenkins. Shaun Cichacki. Anthony Franklin II. We protect and support these indie arts — always.