Thanks to the Switch, I find myself constantly stepping outside of my gaming comfort zone.

[Dave]

Ever since I have bought a Switch, I find myself wanting to play indie games. I have never been interested in them, on any console, but now I am in love with indie games! Graceful Explosion Machine, Stardew Valley, Elliott Quest, Golf Story(!!!), I don't know why but the appeal of playing these handheld has absolutely turned my head and I really am finding myself loving games like this out of nowhere. Even if they were on the 3DS, I really am not interested in playing my 3DS any more, but for some reason the Switch has totally got me back into gaming on the go, perhaps more than ever.

It's been a really pleasant surprise, if Mario wasn't coming pretty imminently I would be hopping into buying more games! Has anyone else found themselves stepping out of there gaming comfort zone thanks to the Switch?

 

[RobotHaus]

Stardew Valley was my first Harvest Moon type game and I'm loving it. I think the indie library on the system is doing wonders for variety which is nothing but great. Plus the lower prices give incentive to try more without the worry of wasting money if it's something you don't like.

My only issue is my free time is getting destroyed.

 

[Dave]

Yeah, exactly mate. It's very much a lesser risk and reward type thing than buying a full priced game, because spending £10-15 for nearly as many hours as a full single player experience is a no brainer. It's a nightmare for free time and the backlog though!

 

[calc84maniac]

From the thread title, I thought you meant physically stepping. Like gaming in unusual locations. But this works, too!

 

[jefjay]

Not for the same reason, but I hadn't played much in the way of competitive multiplayer games in quite awhile. But now I have Splatoon with 150+ hours and even Arms at 40+.

 

[Skittzo]

I've actually never purchased an indie game before owning my Switch... All the (3 or so?) indie games I had were from projects I backed.

Now I own somewhere close to 20 of them, and Binding of Isaac became one of my favorite games ever.

 

[Mrflood]

Feel the exact same way. Had a blast with Golf Story and Steamworld Dig 2. Two games I would have never purchased on any other console.

 

[Tagg]

What exactly is it about the Switch that facilitates this more than other consoles or handhelds? It's great that you're playing more indie games but I don't fully understand why this is directly due to the Switch in comparison to other devices. Even the 3DS (as you mentioned) had a wide variety of indie titles available for it.

 

[TJG662]

Yeah I found myself picking up indi games more thanks to it also being portable. Feels like I have more time to game.

 

[AndrewDean84]

Agreed. System is fantastic for trying out new stuff.

 

[jariw]

What exactly is it about the Switch that facilitates this more than other consoles or handhelds? It's great that you're playing more indie games but I don't fully understand why this is directly due to the Switch in comparison to other devices. Even the 3DS (as you mentioned) had a wide variety of indie titles available for it.

Click to shrink...

IMO, it's mainly because the pick-up and play design of the device. The OS is rapid, and I can switch between different games very quickly, and I can also switch to portable/tabletop/docked quickly. I had quite a few indies on the Wii U, but the process of getting a game up-and-running was so slow that shorter gaming sessions didn't make that much sense there. I have around 40 indie games now for Switch (the Switch has pretty much replaced Steam for me - specially regarding indie games). When I play games on Switch, I often have play sessions with 10 minutes in one game, 5 minutes in another, and so on. Switch is perfect for that.

Another thing is that the graphics of many indie games (that don't have the AAA resources in terms of graphics deportment) look really nice on the portable screen. And games like Steamworld Dig 2 look truly amazing on the portable (but OTOH, that game looks amazing docked as well).

 

[Fuchsia]

I really need to buy Golf Story don't I? Damn.

But I totally agree OP. Actually, I probably wouldn't have even played something like the Project Octopath Traveler demo in the past. But I gave that a shot and wow... Hot damn that's a fine game. I'll definitely be picking it up on release.

 

[mrtl]

Huh, that's weird. I would (and eventually will) purchase the Switch for the usual suspects: Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Metroid. My comfort zone is rather small, and I purchased the Xbox One for the exact same reasons: the same games as always.

 

[Redcrayon]

What exactly is it about the Switch that facilitates this more than other consoles or handhelds? It's great that you're playing more indie games but I don't fully understand why this is directly due to the Switch in comparison to other devices. Even the 3DS (as you mentioned) had a wide variety of indie titles available for it.

Click to shrink...

The main thing that stopped me playing a lot of indies on 3DS was its poor battery life in sleep mode- not all small games have 'save anywhere'. That's what led me to the Vita as my indies machine, and more recently the Switch (cheaper storage, more upcoming titles).