I discovered this great game site: The Independent Gaming Source which is all about indie games. While those games really feel back-to-basics, they also feel back-to-roots; you know, what gaming really is about. 😉 While I admit to be colored by some nostalgia, it really makes you ponder what good games really are about.
Due to the size of big game companies and the money involved, refreshing game concepts are too risky to try out. But this doesn’t affect the indie game developer who has nothing to loose. So we actually shouldn’t be surprised to find some very entertaining game concepts in the indie camp, be it maybe somewhat less polished or technically advanced as its ‘commercial’ siblings.
I just played “You made it” (runs fine under linux/wine) and although the concept is so simple, I was surprised how addictive it was and how I loved the added difficulty induced by a non clearing backbuffer. 🙂
try it for yourself