Many of my friends spend a lot of money on big AAA releases such as Fortnite, Marvel Rivals, or whatever Gacha Game is this month’s flavor. As the pretentious wannabe game designer and cheapskate jew, I often complain to them that for the money they spent getting Hatsune Miku doing the Godzilla Roar (an admittedly funny visual) they could have gotten 10 different indie games that would have changed them as people much more than seeing Hatsune Miku doing the Godzilla Roar (an admittedly funny visual).

They often roll their eyes and go “whatever, it’s my money.” Which it is. I can’t control what you do with your money at the end of the day. But I can still be an annoying prick about it, so as proof to my friends that my statement is not an exaggeration, I am going to list a number of fascinating games I’ve played over the past years that cost less than a dozen eggs at an american grocery store¹.

• Pseudoregalia, 6$: 3D adventure title that does the metroidvania-style freeform exploration in a remarkably fluid way. You never feel forced to go any specific way, and yet you never feel stuck either. Ignore the fact the protagonist is a furry with thunder thighs the size of a small nation.
• Vampire Survivors, 5$: Pixel art and simple visuals disguise what is otherwise a casino-made dopamine machine. This game works on all the psychological tricks that the freemium market does, but without actually taking your money so no one’s hurt at the end. It’s a lot of fun, predictably.
• Orbo’s Odyssey, 5$: A fun collectathon platforming game with silly visuals, comedy, and a lot of heart. It knows how to use its solid base mechanics just as long as needed and not to overstay its welcome, which I appreciate.
• (the) Gnorp Apologue, 7$: An idle game that actually ends within a reasonable timeframe. You help your Little Guys (the gnorps in question) break a very big rock, progressing from bashing their heads into it and ending with rocket barrages.
• a short hike, 8$: A relaxing game where you climb a mountain, talk to people along your hike, and find incredibly improbable ways to skip developer-indended methods. This game can be as long or as short as you want it to be, and both methods will feel good to do.
• VVVVVV, 5$: A platforming game where you can flip gravity around to try and rescue your crewmates after a terrible accident. Way more fun than it sounds.
• Super Hexagon, 3$: If Vampire Survivors was a casino-made dopamine machine, this is an industrial adrenaline factory. The game is an incredibly simple and very well telegraphed reaction-based game that still manages to trip you up, it’s impressive.

And these are just a handful of indie games whose base price costs less than 9$ that I, specifically, have played and completed! Change any of these parameters and you get so many more wonderful games!

Look outside the indie sphere and you find classics that influenced the industry, like Deus Ex and Half Life 2. If you raise the price tag by just a few dollars you get modern classics like Slay the Princess or Balatro. If you wait a bit for a steam sale and for the base price to lower, you can get pretty much anything you set your eyes on!

What’s my point with all of this? Stop throwing your money into a big fire. I do not care if you’re “paying for other people to play this game” or if you’ve “invested so much time it’s fine to throw a couple of bucks back,” because not one of the people who told me these statements actually spent a reasonable amount of money on the game. I am not saying you need to go journey the world, but you could be spending your time and money better than replaying the same title for the two-hundreth hour.

Try out new things, give money to the developers who actually need the money, and expand your horizons beyond the marketable, safe bubble of AAA gaming.

Play some goddamn indie games.