#odd meter

[marfa-g]

I'M SO IN LOVE WITH THIS GAME!!!

IT'S AMAZING!

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Psalm 50, 12.

[supervisorcosplay]

Ask, and you will be decieved.

INDIKA game

Cosplay&costume by me

ph by JustMoolti

[punkmage]

The sisters loved Indika. Christian love is known to be patient, merciful, and faithful. However, in a lowly human sense, they didn't love her that much. To be completely honest, they didn't love her at all.

INDIKA (2024) dev. Odd Meter

[meril-tospen]

[gebo4482]

INDIKA

Announcement Trailer

Website / Steam

[hivemuthur]

Landscapes of Indika

[jimquisition]

An old nun opens her mouth to reveal a small man wearing baby clothes and he dances around to an aggressive drum & bass track. 

There’s no better way to begin a summary of Indika than to simply describe the moment the game makes clear it’s something special - and Indika is special. 

Jumping into themes that other games would be terrified to approach, this compelling exploration of faith and morality is definitely weird, but what’s weirder is how its strangeness isn’t the most notable aspect. Indeed, as the game continues, it reveals some of the best writing I’ve seen in a videogame, presenting a journey I’ll never quite forget.

[lulu2992]

Inktober 2024, Day 15: Guidebook.

And everything will be okay.

[xenomorphzoid]

REPOST

[fluidstatick]

The game has only been out for a few days now, but I watched zmannzilla's longplay of INDIKA yesterday, and I'm rotating it furiously in my mind like it's a rubiks cube. The devs at Odd Meter Studios fled their country to make sure they could finish and release the project, and I'm so grateful they did. The world really needs a game this smart. It makes incredible stylistic choices with the titular character's perception of the world, examines prejudices against the disabled and incarcerated, points a dispassionate philosophical eye at religious corruption, and breaks wildly from expectations over and over again.

More, including some spoilers, under the cut.

The unfortunate anti-Roma and antisemitic moments in some of the background context irritated me. They employ the g slur to refer to a side character, and depict him stealing money. Later, it's said that two brothers who own small businesses across the road from one another are forever angry, because each brother thinks the other one is making more money. We eventually meet one of the brothers, who is unfortunately a blatant hook-nosed handwringing grifter stereotype.

This is a pair of nasty missteps at the back end of an otherwise truly gorgeous horror adventure game. As Indika carries a letter from her monastery to the diocese, she digests the plight of a wartorn community that doesn't trust her, her orthodox religious order, her innate compassion, or her practical knowledge.

While stumbling through the streets of a bleakly reimagined 19th century Russia, Indika gains a reluctant ally, and they grapple with their conflicting philosophies, until those conflicts become a matter of life or death. When is an attempt at salvation actually betrayal? Can the trust Indika has built with her comrade be salvaged? Should it be? What does doing the Right Thing look like in a nuanced, jaded, ambivalent world?

The ending made my breath stick in my throat. The leveling and points system is genius, in my opinion, though I notice many reviewers have already expressed displeasure in it. I think it's powerful and fascinating, if you look at it close enough; the leveling asks, do you want a little bit of a boost now, or accrue a greater store of points over time, later on? Note how each new level ability is labeled. Note what happens each time Indika adds something to her inventory. Light candles. Notice That One Candle that's not like the rest.

Indika finds her way through platform puzzles by navigating her own mind. Level geometry, scale and reason fluctuate wildly. First she's trying to follow orders, then she's trying to survive, then she's trying to make sense of the senseless.

I've seen a little art in the Indika tag so far, and it's mostly shipper stuff. I'm not judging people who bring shipping energy to this story, as there is textual romance here, but I think it's a cog in the story's mechanics, more than a setup for a happy ending. The relationship is tenuous at the best of times. there's honesty in it, but there's also a great deal of stubbornness, resentment, immaturity and selfishness. I don't think there's meant to be a textual happily ever after for either of them. Indika finds a sliver of inner peace behind the shattered remains of her assumptions, and the game ends on a comma, a question mark, a blank space where objectives and threats and grim certainties used to live.

Anyway. Go watch it. Buy and play it for yourself, if you can. Just like its heroine, it isn't perfect. Just like its narrator, it's only as terrifying as you want it to be. And, just like the political and spiritual systems it examines, the surreal meandering narrative has only as much power as you decide to give it.

9.5/10

[marfa-g]

their dynamic....

😭😭😭😭😭

[supervisorcosplay]

It's hard to imagine a place more distant from adventure... than a convent.

Heroine of this story, if it were up to her, would have preferred to stay within its walls. However...

Destiny had something different in store for her.

INDIKA game

Cosplay&costume by me

ph by JustMoolti

[flibbleynova]

🎮- INDIKA 📷- UUU Camera Tools by Frans Bouma 🎨- Lightroom Classic

[meril-tospen]

If she's like Mary and he's like Joseph does that mean Indika & Ilya will be together?

One thing is for sure, their ship name would be wonderfully cute - Indilya

[kabcy]

"Are you the devil? Because I can't get you out of my head."