RPGWatch - Game of the Year 2011: Most Promising indie RPG in 2012

The last set of results are for the indie RPG that we are looking forward to being released in 2012. The editors could not make up their minds and ranked three games as most promising and our visitors made some different choices.
Here is the game that both the editors and our visitors have in their top 3:

The game is a RPG zompocalaypse. It takes the frequently used zombie theme in a new direction that has not really been done up to this point. While there are a lot of zombie games out there, there are hardly any zombie RPGs with turn-based combat, skills, party members, a shelter to protect and expand upon and most importantly an evolving storyline where your actions influence the game.

More information.

Can't remember when there's been such a disconnect between the editors of the watchdot and us measly forum members

Out of all the games listed, the only ones to realistically intrigue me enough for a purchase are Legend of Grimrock and (assuming I ever get around to buying the first one) Frayed Knights 2. I have a soft spot for ye olde first-person perspective group combat.

I think my 2 choices ended in the "less than 5%" category.

Avernum and Grimrock for me, then Frayed at some point. Another year chock-full of decent indie games, go go indies keep sticking it to the man!!


-Carn

No love for Unfettered? How do you even get on that poll anyway?

I'm looking forward to the reviews on all of those games though and I promise to buy least one of them. I haven't followed any of them closely other than the occasional article here so I don't have a favorite. But as the major developers get further and further away from the gameplay I enjoy, I really want to start supporting these indies as best as I can.

Originally Posted by LuckyCarbon
No love for Unfettered? How do you even get on that poll anyway?

By posting in the thread about which games should be listed, which ran for at least a week before the actual voting started.

Originally Posted by Myrthos
By posting in the thread about which games should be listed, which ran for at least a week before the actual voting started.

Ha! Well, thanks for the answer Myrthos, now I know. Guess I missed that thread, I usually only browse the news & indie forums.

How did Legend of Grimrock not win this?

I can't speak for the editors, but for me - Dead State is a far more ambitious game. As excited as I am (duh!) for a modern revisit of old-school style dungeon crawling that I loved (and can't wait to enjoy again), Dead State is really setting its sights on something pretty new and unique. Well, except the zombie part. That's getting pretty old now. But still… I've got high hopes.

All I can say is that 2012 is looking like an awesome year for indie RPGs. Hopefully all of these games (plus some others I'm really looking forward to) will all make it out this year or by early next year. Including one sequel to a game I'm all-to-familiar with, but that's pretty iffy.

Legend of Grimrock was my choice. I hadn't played one of those step by step motion games since Eye of the Beholder 3 on the PC, though I did borrow the kid's Nintendo DS to play Orcs & Elves and Etrian Odyssey a few years ago.

Rampant pretty much summed up my opinion on the matter. Legend of Grimrock looks great and the devs are beyond cool (they helped a disabled person in less than three hours after they said they would), but Dead State and AoD are far more ambitious.

I've recently been added to the beta team for AoD and that game is everything Vince said it would be. It's unique among indies and even old-school games. I'm trying to think of comparisons, but it combines the best parts of so many games that it's misleading to say it's actually like any of them.

Dead State and AoD are going to be great for us RPG fans. They're something that I've been waiting to play for a very long time.

I agree with everything skavenhorde and rampant said.

Hopefully third time is the charm for AoD. Well at least the demo will be this year.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
I've recently been added to the beta team for AoD and that game is everything Vince said it would be. It's unique among indies and even old-school games. I'm trying to think of comparisons, but it combines the best parts of so many games that it's misleading to say it's actually like any of them.

Dead State and AoD are going to be great for us RPG fans. They're something that I've been waiting to play for a very long time.

That sounds very very good. I must admit I am particularly looking forward to Dead State myself, but these three (with AoD second and Grimrock third) have me practically salivating… ah, so to speak

Eschalon 3 all the way for me! I love the series. Although I have high hopes for AoD, Grimrock, and Dead State. All of these will probably be day one purchases for me if they're spread out enough from each other and reasonable price points.

Every game on that list will be a day one purchase for me (with one obvious exception that I'm paying for with blood & sweat instead…) Which is somewhat remarkable because NONE of the most anticipated mainstream RPGs are on my day-one-purchase list (although Dark Waters comes close). It's not an ideological thing or anything like that, it's just that there's something about each of the indie games that sounds very exciting and fresh, and the mainstream games are mainly more-of-the-same. I'm hoping the piratey bits of Dark Waters really delivers as promised, but I'm holding off on that one for the reviews.

I thought they stopped developing Dead State and moved to another project and that there's no telling when it will be released.

I dont think i could play a game like Legend of Grimrock, i remember how much i hated the stiff "step by step" controls and dreamt of a future with smooth 3D controls. When Ultima Underworld and Doom arrived there was just no turning back to those type of games.. So for me, Dead State and AoD.

I think Grimrock will surprise a lot of people with how new it is, with an approach not easily found in todays' market. For those of us from the 80's and 90's gaming, we can just chuckle and enjoy the living heck out of it! I'm quite pleased on thinking of how much time I'll be spending on indie games this year.


-Carn