Like any other proud gamer, I enjoy showing off my fandom with a sweet shirt or maybe a button. But sadly because their lack of notoriety indie games often lack in the merch department. I often scour the internet for a sweet mini figure or statue to only wind up empty handed. But luckily there are several notable retailers that sell not only indie game apparel but often enough, physical version of the games themselves. So today Instead of highlighting a single developer or game. I want to tell you about several amazing sites that any indie fan should visit.
First up (these are in no particular order) we have Fangamer. At Fangamer they're all about community, they frequent several different conventions year round and even host one of their own called Camp Fangamer. They also often work with several charity organizations such as Child's play and the Michael J. Fox Foundation. But the best part about Fangamer (other than all the amazing charity work and awesome community) is their dope ass merchandise. They have everything from buttons to special edition games like their new UnderTale collectors edition. Don't worry though, they don't just have extremely popular and new game franchises. Their products range in popularity. I would recommend when visiting the site click on the game collections tab at the top right.
It really helps you sort through everything to find the products you're looking for.
Iam8bit is where I like to go for most of my physical goodies. They not only have physical copies of games like Hyper Light Drifter (one of my favorites, I've bought it 4 times now.....Don't judge me) Gang beasts and Rez Infinite. But they also have legit collectors editions with all sorts of amazing physical items. Sadly at the moment of writing this article most of these are sold out. They do restock on occasion so make sure to keep an eye on the edition you want. I'm still holding out hope that they re-release the Oxenfree collectors edition. One of my favorite pieces that Iam8bit sells, is their physical soundtracks on vinyl. I'm not really a hardcore music guy, but I still appreciate a cool collectors item. Iam8bit also offers a similar sorting feature located in the top left of the home page, that helps you find specific collections.
Iam8bit has a massive range of collections to check out, everything from Call of Duty to Journey. There seems to be something for every kind of fan, not just the indie.
For Fans By Fans is pretty aptly named (they changed the name recently from We Love Fine to For Fans By Fans. I personally like the former). Most of the products they sell are actually created by independent artists. FFBF often hosts art contests to decide which designs to print onto shirts and all sorts of sweet merch. My person favorite collection on this site is Shovel Knight. They have not one, not two, but depending on stock they have 5 different Shovel Knight Plush.
Featuring characters such as Shovel Knight (obviously) Shield Knight, Plague Knight, Specter Knight and the illustrious King Knight, who will soon be playable in the King of Cards DLC. And of course just like all the other sites I included, For Fans By Fans also has a way to sort by "fandom" all you have to do is hover over the shop icon and you can select it on the right of the drop down menu.
These are just some of my favorite sites to pick up amazing indie games merch. If you have any favorite sites make sure to comment them down below.