The indie RPG discussion

[Dincrest]

It's no secret that indie gaming is becoming much stronger lately, especially with XBLA, iOS apps, etc. as well as good ol' PC gaming.  Dust: An Elysian Tail was a one-man project that looks as good as any VanillaWare game.  Smaller developers are creating a lot of games that many of us seem to clamor for more than the bigger boys.  Look at all the successful Kickstarters out there (i.e. for the new Shadowrun) and even the growth of commercial RPG Maker games utilizing good production values (like Rainblood: Town of Death or Whisper of  Rose.) 

So what are some of your favorite games created by independent developers?  Who are some indie studios that you're keeping an ear to the ground for?  Do you have any RPG Maker games that you particularly like? 

I'm still scratching the surface of indie/homebrewed/underground gaming so I'm still figuring out which development houses I like.  My favorite RPG Maker games are easily Eternal Eden by Blossomsoft and To The Moon by Freebird.  The former is very ambitious (their debut RPGM game changed the way RPGM games are presented and they now create their own engines and eventually want to take their games to 3DS) and the latter has amazing storytelling (Quintessence: A Blighted Venom and The Mirror Lied are cool too). 

As far as indie publishers, I was a big fan of the late Hirameki for localizing a lot of visual novels.  Sure their text-editing was a little rough, but Ever17 in English= awesome.  I'm still scratching the surface on the indie publishers out there, though. 

Shadowdawn Genesis is a title that looks promising, but it's been in development forever. 

[Annubis]

At this point, I'm willing to buy anything made by Christine Love without much consideration.

[dyeager]

Anything by Spiderweb Software is something I tend to buy immediately.

[Dincrest]

At this point, I'm willing to buy anything made by Christine Love without much consideration.

Good call.  Analogue: A Hate Story was fantastic.

[MeshGearFox]

Hmmm...

Freeware stuff:

Yume Nikki - Horror-adventure-exploration game made in RPGMaker. Loved it.
Space Funeral - Earthboundish RPGMaker game I liked a lot too.
OFF - Similar to Yume Nikki and Space Funeral. Currently playing it. Impressions are VERY positive.

The UnReal World - Survival Roguelike. Really original -- kind of does what Minecraft does but predates it by like a decade.
Iffermoon + other games by that same dude - Surreal RPGs with atypical gameplay mechanics. Although they tend to be kind of Valkyrie Profile-ish.

Commercial:

As someone else said, anything by Spiderweb's gonna be pretty good.

The Sea Will Claim Everything - Not an RPG, just a regular adventure game, and more focused on storytelling and puzzles. Really good. Just play it. I can't talk about it without spoiling it.

Eador Genesis - Hardcore strategy RPG 4X thing. Great, but positively brutal. I think most people play it on the second-easiest settings and still lose constantly.

Actually I think a lot of commercial RPGs from the mid-90s throuhg 80s for the PC would count as indie by modern standards...

[Wild Armor]

I wonder if y'all came across the rpg maker game Re:Kinder

Couple more rpg maker games (Regardless if they are rpgs) I see sprout up that are cool:

KILLER BEAR - Horror[?] game
Clock of Atonement - Puzzle game (think ghost trick)
Corpse Party Zero
Ib - Horror adventure
Crooked Man - Horror adventure
Paranoiac - Horror adventure
You know what, how about I just do this: http://vgperson.com/games/

Also, I played this game: Orca: A Lenda dos Mares [Download]. I only played for a bout 15 minutes, so I can't say much. Also, it's in portuguese (I understand some of it, as I grew up with a Portuguese father and Brazilian mother).

Also, Mesh, Off is very, very cool. :)

[Monsoon]

I will buy any game made by Zeboyd Games on day one.  Huge fan of their work since they started releasing on Steam. I've played To the Moon and tried Eternal Eden for a bit and thought both were excellent. 

[Carter83]

 Indinera (Aldorlea Games) has been my favorite game developer since Laxius Power.
 And although yet unreleased, Underrail seems pretty promising to me, because of it similarity to Fallout 2.

[Bleaker]

Look up The Way, its an episodic rpg made in Rpgmaker 2000. Its about six episodes, and has some of the best writing I've seen in an indie game.
Hero's Realm is a great call back to the RPG years of old. Both of these games are free too.