How One Person Changed Indie Games Forever

we need to find a better fitting word than "MetriodVania"

I played cave story on my DS or 3DS, can’t remember which, I just fell in love with it and had no idea of all the inspiration this game caused. What a beautiful story.

I remember discovering Cave Story on the Wii Shop channel. It had a demo so of course i started playing it. It blew my mind how an old game like this was really well made, and when i discovered he released the game for free; I quickly played it on my windows xp. Simpler times back then.

I'm so glad that Cave Story was made. It's my favorite game of all time.

I played cave story on the switch a while ago, and it was aight. it is a good game but it didn't impact me like it impacted others

however, my favorite game series is momodora, and momodora 1 took heavy inspiration from cave story. though I don't "get" cave story, I respect it for this. thank you, Daisuke

The guy who did touhou series was there before cave story, but cave story probably has better prominence

I never knew me playing the waterway with og music and graphics was just me playing v0.8!

I recently played through Cave Story 3D because I had homebrew and wanted to give it a shot. I did not expect it to get really dark extremely quickly, especially with some of the characters potentially dying in heart-wrenching ways. I haven't gotten the third ending, unfortunately (because I forgot to fully restore the memory of a certain character before I beat the Doctor), but it's surprisingly really easy to replay. My only gripe is that you don't get to go back to the other zones once you've saved at the end of the story, but that's pretty much it. Cave Story has to be one of the craziest and most unique experiences I've had, despite it being somewhat short.

i only ever got to play the demo on my wii as a kid. ofc ive played a lot more of it now, it will always have a place in my heart, so nastolgic, so mesmerizing and captivating. just a perfect game.

some of the old weapon designs from the beta looked really cool

I wish we had access to the beta sprites

I first played this game as a kid because there was a demo of it for the wii. I loved it so much that I begged my parents until they finally bought it for me. It always stuck with me even though I'm really bad at bullet hell games like this or Touhou. But, unlike Touhou, this game was so enchanting to me in a way that I didn't quite understand at the time, or even now. I just really loved everything about it. He wanted someone to feel something from his game, and I absolutely did.

The most impressive part to me is that one guy absolutely nailed it in every department. The art, the music, the sounds, the gameplay, the story, the cuteness, the fun... everything.

Killing off the Mimikyu's was a major dick move, even if it DID later inspire the creation of Made In Abyss >:(

i wish they expanded cavestory lol those 3 levels but the level selection screen looks like was originaly going to be alot more atleast 20-30.

I bought the game for my wife a few years back for xmas. I may need to see if she would let me play it.

It's reasuring to know that even the most famous indie developers, had to go through an iteration and learning process. I used to think "Pixel" developed Cave Story on the first try and that it was his first game. As an amateur game developer, this makes me feel better about all my scrapped prototypes and unfinished games.

Probably my favorite game of all time. Absolute masterpiece.

Played this before it made it to any consoles. Incredible game. Still like to play it once in awhile.

Thank you for covering Cave Story, it was a game I really wanted to know about its development!

I hope he kept the beta version of the game, it seems pretty cool to have to deal with an ammunition system and a new roster of guns that never made it to the final game.

I can’t believe Cave Story is playable on a graphing calculator XD

you sound like a pitched down SethEverman

despite not knowing much about music, lmao, just like the writer of godfather didnt know how to write movies

Fun fact. The name Undertale is a play on the name Cave Story

Cave Story has been and still my favorite game of all time. It was the first indie game I ever really played and enjoyed, and I love indie games so much to this day. I might have never played games like Terraria, Minecraft, Celeste, Undertale, or even Night in the Woods if it weren't for Cave Story. The music, gameplay, art design, and story all come together to make the ultimate experience, even if it is retro inspired. Thank you Pixel, for Cave Story.

played the OG free version , was super impressed ; this is how/why games can be art , there was no profit motive , just spirit/essence

I've played this game on steam/PC, switch, 3DS and WiiU ... god I love this game

I've been developing a game for about 20 months now and I am very happy the way was paved for us.

Cave story mid. Rollercoaster tycoon is the real OG indie game with a much more talented dev.

aren't you overselling this? i've never heard of this game nor the dude who made it.

I think this whole story shows that lawyers are leeches who created nothing and drain society of creative and productive talent.

disappointed we haven't seen version 2

This game was really fun

A blank what now?

A...what?!

I can't believe I discovered this game one week ago! Wtf

Cave Story is a huge inspiration for me. I want to make 2D games like that someday!

someone should send a DMCA against this guys twitter account with the story attached and saying that Elon has the last word on who can use his site and for what. Bet he would not just take the bait but rip the whole fishing rod with it just to give this guy some karma.

I initially downloaded this game as a homebrew game someone put on PSP, but I didn't give it much of a chance because the intro stage wasn't friendly enough to me. Now, I feel bad for doing that, and I'm going to look for the game and properly play it on my PC.

Cave story was a banger of a game

One of my frustrations with the remakes of Cave Story is actually how little control he has over it anymore due to Nicalis' litigous nature, as I found out while making mods for the game such as a soundtrack cover based on the original version's music. This was back in like 2014, separate from the litigation you mentioned, as I was modding the freeware version.

When I spoke to Pixel regarding the soundtrack, he confirmed it was licensed to Nicalis, not owned, and that working on the freeware version should be okay.

still the best baby

Oh dear lord, what a geek. Hurts just to look at him

I wonder when is the sequel coming? If cave story 2 is coming?

I'm been making indie games since 2003-2004 as well. And I think it's unfair to attribute the start of the indie game dev scene to Pixel. I was playing freeware indie games made by one person since the 90s. Liero, Powball, C-dogs are some big ones from the 90s, DOS days.

Really love the game. Probably one of my favourite games of all time. Got into it because someone uploaded a piano medley of the OST.

It’s interesting that he revisited the Frog idea in Kero Blaster

This game didn't change perception of games developers.
nothing spectacular