The future of gaming belongs to weird little games

Gaming IndustryThe future of gaming belongs to weird little gamesWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Various)

A collage of key art from Content Warning, Abiotic Factor and other weird games

But there is at least one clear and heartening message being shouted from the rooftops, if you’re willing to look up from the bottomless pit to hear it: the future belongs to weird-ass little games.

Let’s review this year’s bounty of unconventional breakouts:

Why being small is an asset

For the biggest games, the fact that they take the longest to develop is a strategic weakness. Diablo 3 and 4 took about a decade each. Starfield took eight years. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League took seven. A new GTA or Fallout,as some fans were lamentingas they watched a very good TV adaption in April, might take a decade. At that glacial cadence, one wonders how any big game manages to seize on any trend at all.

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Content Warning is the latest evolution of the Discord hangout horror game, a booming category that relies on proximity chat and jump scares.(Image credit: Landfall)

content warning game

Replayability is one of the quietly big trends at play here. Compared to five or ten years ago, players expect more kinds of games—singleplayer or not—to be highly replayable. This expectation has urged most of the world’s biggest developers and publishers to create projects with 5- or 10-year lifespans, like Destiny 2, Overwatch, Apex Legends, and Rainbow Six Siege.

If you’re one of the many people who have sworn a vow to one of these 1,000-hour titans (mine’s Hunt: Showdown), you know it’s easier to fit a small, weird game into your routine than something skyscraper-shaped. I don’t have to persuade my entire Discord server to change their lifestyle in order to enjoy Balatro.

2022’s Vampire Survivors was another small game that leaned into its oddness.(Image credit: Poncle)

Vampire Survivors Chilling Update

Small infinity

The enthusiastic reception that small games have enjoyed in the first half of 2024 isn’t something that will come and go. It’s a full-blown age. This trend will continue, because the conditions that created it will continue:

Lighthearted presentation was one of Dave the Diver’s best facets.(Image credit: Mintrocket)

Guy holding a gun at a desk full of collectible figurines

Another recent game that sat, uncomfortably for some, at the crossroads between big and small was Dave the Diver, the simple-but-deep, endearingly quirky diving and cooking game which won ourBest Design award in 2023. The"Is it indie?“discourse that circled Dave the Diver’s TGA indie nomination last year was irritating because so many commentators were dwelling in semantics when something much more interesting had happened: acolossalgame publisher made something thatfeltlike it came from a small studio.

The small game spirit is alive and well. It’s a sign of vibrancy that modest studios are able to punch above their weight as frequently as they have in 2024.For our part, we’ll be pointing our spotlight at many more weird little games in thePC Gaming Show on June 9during Summer Game Fest.

PRODUCTSBalatroAbiotic FactorPalworldContent Warning

PRODUCTS

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Why being small is an asset#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

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Why being small is an asset

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

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