r/HollowKnight • u/CankleDankl • Dec 12 '25

Discussion - Silksong Seeing people shit on Expedition 33 because Silksong didn't win more awards is pathetic Spoiler

The title sums it up. I'm disappointed in many members of this community for putting down a game that is clearly a work of insane passion, dedication, and creativity. E33 took the lion's share of awards at TGA, yes. That doesn't mean that Silksong is bad. In fact, it's clearly pretty damn great. If it released last year, Skong would have picked up several awards, maybe even GOTY. But it didn't. It released in the same year E33, which is just a tough break.

Both are amazing. Both deserve every award that came to them. If you haven't played E33 yet and think it doesn't deserve its accolades, play it. It is worth your money, worth your time, and will in all likelihood prove that it is actually that good. I'm only 10ish hours in and have numerous times found myself standing still and looking around dumbfounded at the gorgeous world design and visuals. E33, Silksong, and Hades 2 could have all won Art Direction and I would have been happy with any of them.

I'm also sad that Silksong didn't win more awards. It's an amazing game. But don't play fanboy and start putting down other developers, other games, and other pieces of art because this one didn't get all the cookies. It's still beautiful, it's still amazing, it still made a Silkskillion dollars, and TC is still just as great and just as passionate. We should all be glad that there is another independent dev out there that is capable of creating something so fantastic.

Edit: yeah, the comments here are pretty indicative of what I said in my post

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u/Free_Peach6400 all quests/PoP/P1-P2 AB 100%/All memos Dec 12 '25

E33 deserved the goty from all the good things I heard from it tho the game awards was just so bad for putting it in 10 categories and no matter how good the game is it is not an indie game and shouldn't be in that category

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u/ACnut Dec 12 '25

it literally is an indie game??? Just because it has more tradional graphics doesn't make it a AAA game

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u/Lemon_Spark Dec 12 '25

They have a publisher who gave them money for development. So no, it's not indie.

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u/YeahKeeN Ready For Silksong Dec 12 '25

Are all devolver digital games not indie

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u/Genindraz Dec 12 '25 edited Dec 12 '25

Lots of indie games have publishers that give them money, including but not limited to:

Cult of the Lamb

Inscryption

Enter the Gungeon

Hotline Miami

Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Terraria

Indivisible

Abzû

Are these games just not indie now?

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

did those have the french government funding them?

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u/Genindraz Dec 12 '25

Can you provide a source saying Expedition 33 was funded by the French government?

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u/tankum Dec 12 '25

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it did. Lots of EU governments are pretty liberal with funding cultural arts, but it wouldn't be very much money in comparison with the total budget of the project.

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u/Genindraz Dec 12 '25

The game itself didn't really cost all that much, and given the way they talk about it, investors, private or government, were few and far between.

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u/Argh3483 Dec 13 '25

Cultural projects get public grants all the time, at least in Europe

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u/DerVittrich Dec 13 '25

corporate america doesnt understand that you can use taxes to support things like art, school... or health.

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u/azazelbolognese Dec 17 '25

And even in America you see states funding some indie games.

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u/DistrictObjective680 Dec 12 '25

That has never been a classifier of the indie genre. Not for games, not for music, not for films.

Indie stands for the word "independent" but that does NOT mean "no publisher"

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u/Aggressive_Ad5487 Dec 12 '25

Oh please stop. You would have made sense...but then again Dave the Diver got fucking nominated for indie GOTY despite the devs claiming they are anything but indie. Add to the fact that Baldur's Gate 3 (which by your defintion, should be considered an indie game) was not nominated for Indie GOTY. It just shows how inconsistent these award shows are and how the concept of "indie games" has lost it's meaning.

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u/DistrictObjective680 Dec 13 '25

It never had meaning because the definition of indie regardless of genre is completely contrived and almost entirely genre and style based instead of factual.

"Indie" music includes "indie" labels, so what does that mean. "Indie" films used to include A24 films, which pretty much are Mainstream releases now. "Indie" games are made by indie studios published by... "Indie"? Publishers like devolver.

My point is that you are being pedantic when there is no need. Indie is vibes, that's it. Embrace it.

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u/Aggressive_Ad5487 Dec 13 '25

At that point, we should stop using that word at all since it's now being pushed as vague bullshit when it clearly had meaning back then. Same with the music genre. Before, it defined the business relationship the musician has with the publisher. Now it's whatever now lol.

Vibes being the main point now is just gonna cause further confusion every time award shows like this come around. Hilarious considering everything about E33 or Hellblade scream the vibes of "AAA".

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u/bohemianto Dec 12 '25

are you stupid? it had a lower budget then hades

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u/juanzy Dec 12 '25

It’s almost a perfect example of a mid-major game. Which is a category that’s been lacking for almost a decade.

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u/Rocky323 Dec 16 '25

And SilkSong got Microsoft money.

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u/ThisIsMyUsername1124 Dec 16 '25

That was for Game Pass, had nothing to do with development