Yeah, Indie to me has always been a distribution thing more than a “number of developers or amount of budget”. I think some folks just make the mistake that “indie” means “small”, when it’s just short for “independent”.
My flannel shirt, thick-rimmed glasses, and thick, luxuriously waxed beard would beg to say otherwise!
(It might be the case that I own none of these items)
More seriously, I think the term “indie” for gaming has become about as uselessly broad as it has in music. At the very least, it probably requires some clarification if it’s an important part of the point you’re trying to make (e.g., if I were offering a $1m scholarship to indie developers, I’d sure as heck define what I mean by indie).
One that doesn’t appear to be on steam I believe, is called Parkitect. That one goes back to the isometric view of RCT 1 and 2, and looks pretty good to me. I always preferred the appearance of RCT1 and 2 over RCT3.
It’s Frontier’s MO. They charge large amounts for very early access, and it goes down in price as you get closer to launch. Keeps the riff raff out while things are in rough shape and maximises revenue. Though in Elite’s case it was even more expensive, and I wouldn’t expect the final game to be all that much cheaper. £40 minimum I’d have thought.
I’m watching the alpha on Twitch. So far I’m impressed with what I see. The game engine looks pretty solid. The terrain editor will allow you to build canyons and caves, so the possibilities there for building coasters is going to be insane. I can see this being a 3am kind of game, where I get completely absorbed in building the perfect park.
Can I disconnect the end of my track to send cart loads of people to their doom? If not, NO SALE!
You might be disappointed then… the coaster stops at the end of the track and nobody plummets to their death. But hey, it’s only Alpha, time to send feedback to the devs!
Frontier must be over the moon at how Atari are managing to screw up the release of Rollercoaster Tycoon World in every way imaginable. Meanwhile, have Frontier confirmed anywhere yet that there will be VR support in Planet Coaster for experiencing the rides? It’s such an obvious fit for the game and they were very early adopters of the Rift in Elite.
I am watching both games closely, proper path filth and vomit are a must, if I am to enjoy any coaster related game.
I remember back in the day when I played Theme Park, the massive vomit puddles outside of most of my coasters was a sign of true design accomplishment.
I was excited about both these games. Room for two… and then RTCW went from MP to some sort of bastardized social media scheme, thus justifying it being tied to being online and now EA…? Well at least one of them is looking promising.
I remember the original Theme Park too. Bouncy castle always breaking down, needing a short line for slow as molasses snake slide.