I chose Doki Doki Literature Club by Team Salvato. It’s a game masked as a typical Japanese dating simulator. After multiple hours of gameplay, things start to get a little weird and twisted, and you get the sense that it’s not a regular dating simulator. Part of why I consider this not only an indie game but an art game is that Team Salvato acknowledges video games’ abilities to be an art form and a way to express things not available in traditional media.
Spoilers ahead:
The game gets super twisted and self-aware. One of the characters has the ability to manipulate the other characters’ game files and she begins deleting their files- killing them in-game. She eventually gets one-on-one with you, the player, and the only way to progress the story is to delete her file from the game.
I chose this video with this timestamp because it shows a section where the character within the game is extremely self-aware. She mentions the fact that she gets shy when people are recording her, “knowing” that the gameplay is being recorded. (Lots of profanity in this video)