Before, AAA games were the only games that were popular in the market. Indie games were almost non-existent in the market because small companies were having difficulty competing with these larger gaming companies that had all the resources. Not only that, but bigger companies had access to more funds from sponsors and such, while smaller companies had limited resources and funds to be able to develop and publish their games. But that was before the dawn of the digital era.
Because of platforms that enable small gaming companies and independent game developers to create their own games, a plethora of indie games are slowly climbing the ranks and dominating the gaming world. Now, we are pleased to say that the gaming industry is flooded with great indie games that offer some of the best gaming experiences you’ll ever get.
However, some gamers don’t even know how enjoyable it is to play indie games due to the bad stigma indie games get. But we’re here to change your mind. So, we’re here to discuss 13 of the best indie games of all time that you should definitely try if you haven’t already.
But before that, you might be asking, “What are Indie Games?” Let’s talk about it!
What are Indie Games?
By definition, an indie game is a game made by a small company or an independent developer that does not have a large amount of funding from any large company. This means that they have no support whatsoever and the developers of these indie games do not work for any large or very well-known company. Indie games can also be characterized by their unique gameplay or design concepts when compared to your typical AAA games.
Now that you know what an indie game is, let’s first go over our criteria on how we chose our top 13 best indie games.
Our Criteria for the Best Indie Games
- The game should be developed by an independent developer or a small game development company without a huge financial backing
- The game can be published by a small or semi-large company.
- The game has received some sort of success.
- The game can either be popular or lowkey.
- The game should have at least a 60% and above Metacritic score.
Bear in mind that the order of the games does not reflect their ranking.
Inside
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: July 8, 2016
Developer/Publisher: Playdead/Playdead
Genre: Adventure, Puzzle, Platform game
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, iOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Mac operating systems
Metacritic Score: 91%
Inside is an escape game where you play as a child trying to solve puzzles in a terrifying, gray, and foggy monochromatic environment. Inside evokes the feelings of anxiety, dread, and desperation to solve all of the puzzles before the catcher catches you.
It’s the perfect game for those who love the thrill of hiding, running, and solving puzzles to get out of certain dreadful situations. This game will really make your gut twist and turn.
Disco Elysium – The Final Cut
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: October 15, 2019
Developer/Publisher: ZA/UM, Humble Bundle
Genre: Role-playing
Platforms: Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Metacritic Score: 91%
In the realistic role-playing game Disco Elysium, you take on the role of an amnesic police officer who is attempting to solve a murder case.
The game is a gut-wrenching and groundbreaking game where you have to use your detective intuition to solve the mystery. But the catch is that you have to differentiate between what is right and wrong from the whispers in your head.
Pyre
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: July 26, 2017
Developer/Publisher: Supergiant games/Supergiant games
Genre: Action role-playing game, sports, simulation
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, Mac operating systems
Metacritic Score: 85%
Pyre is a beautiful symphony of a game. In this game, you guide a group of exiles to freedom in Pyre, a party-based role-playing game, by guiding them through an illustrious competition stretched across a vast, mythical purgatory.
Regardless of the outcome, every round forces you to move forward and gives the tale another twist that is both sad and uplifting. Even if your objective is to bring everybody home, saying goodbye to your favorite people at the party always hits you square in the gut.
Hollow Knight
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: February 25, 2017
Developer/Publisher: Team Cherry/Team Cherry
Genre: Metroidvania
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Metacritic Score: 90%
A large, interconnected realm is the setting of the traditionally styled 2D action adventure game Hollow Knight. In this game, you explore twisting dungeons, old towns, and lethal wastes; engage corrupted monsters and strange bugs; and unravel historical mysteries at the center of the kingdom.
The Hollow Knight will take you on a rollercoaster of mysteries, which intensifies the joy and amazement of learning about new areas of the world and new skills. You’ll always find something to do as the world just goes on and on.
Stardew Valley
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: February 27, 2016
Developer/Publisher: ConcernedApe/ConcernedApe
Genre: Simulation, role-playing game
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Vita, iOS, Android
Metacritic Score: 89%
The Harvest Moon video game series served as the primary inspiration for the farming simulation game Stardew Valley. Players establish a character at the beginning of the game, who receives a piece of land and a little house that belonged to their grandfather in the small town of Pelican Town.
Thanks to a great, compelling gameplay loop, Stardew Valley is a game that can be played endlessly. It is one of the most tranquil yet thrilling games available on the market. You’re also likely to experience greater thrills when you can take your game to a completely new level of fun given the number of DLCs that are currently available for the game.
Kentucky Route Zero
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: January 7, 2013
Developer/Publisher: Cardboard Computer/Cardboard Computer
Genre: Point-and-click adventure
Platforms: Linux, Windows, OS X, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Metacritic Score: 81%
Kentucky Route Zero is a five-act mythological adventure game with an eerie digital score and a collection of hymns and bluegrass tunes performed by The Bedquilt Ramblers.
In a modern adventure game like Kentucky Route Zero, your progress is paced by your choices and dialog instead of puzzles. Although it’s about finding a missing highway, you rapidly become caught in a sort of mythology, making finding a highway a lot less strange.
Rain World
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: March 29, 2017
Developer/Publisher: Videocult/Akupara Games
Genre: Survival, action-adventure, life simulation game
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows
Metacritic Score: 66%
The 2017 survival game Rain World has a simulated environment. You must confront the danger that surrounds you on your own. When a severe flood separates you from your family, you must search for refuge and food in between horrific downpours that could drown you and everything else.
The focus of this game is on surviving and learning about the environment you must navigate through. Rain World can be one of the most stressful and dramatic 2D indie games you’ll play.
Night in the Woods
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: February 21, 2017
Developer/Publisher: Infinite Fall/Finji
Genre: Adventure game
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, macOS, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux
Metacritic Score: 88%
An adventure game with a strong emphasis on character, story, and exploration, Night in the Woods has a large cast of people to interact with and loads to do in a thriving, verdant setting. Playing as the endearing kitty Mae Borowski, you’ll be making a belated trip back to the peaceful small village where you grew up, where both the community and Mae’s future appear to be in peril.
You can hang out, walk on powerlines, bounce across roofs, break things, and find weird, fascinating, and horrible things in this game. A wonderful adventure game with a lot of puzzles, Night in the Woods is about a timeless coming-of-age story.
Subnautica
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: January 23, 2018
Developer/Publisher: Unknown Worlds Entertainment/Unknown Worlds Entertainment
Genre: Open-world, underwater-adventure game
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, MacOS
Metacritic Score: 87%
Subnautica takes place underwater on an extraterrestrial ocean planet. You are about to enter a vast, open world filled with danger and wonder.
You’ll be entering a large undersea environment and depending on how you feel about the deep ocean, this game can either be exquisitely magnificent or horrifying. Additionally, Subnautica is a survival game that can devolve into a shitshow but can also be quite beautiful as you float past bizarre marine life (which you might have to eat).
Don’t Starve
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: April 23, 2013
Developer/Publisher: Klei Entertainment/Klei Entertainment
Genre: Survival game
Platforms: Android, iOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Metacritic Score: 79%
Don’t Starve is an unforgiving open-world wilderness survival game loaded with magic and science.
The focus is primarily on survival, so there is hardly any plot buildup. You can explore a weird and uncharted environment filled with odd creatures, perils, and mysteries in Don’t Starve. As some realities set in, things start to get more serious.
In order to survive, you must constantly collect resources. You must gather food, make tools, and piece together a camp’s worth of materials using the complex crafting system. The gameplay is challenging but satisfying and provides a range of options for avoiding death.
The Witness
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: January 26, 2016
Developer/Publisher: Thekla, Inc./Thekla, Inc.
Genre: Puzzle-Adventure game
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Android, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Nvidia Shield TV, Classic Mac OS
Metacritic Score: 87%
A first-person puzzle video game is called The Witness. Here, you play as an unnamed individual that you will have to control as he emerges from an underground bunker and wanders about an island full of man-made and natural structures.
You are tasked with solving a number of very brilliant puzzles in The Witness, most of them involve drawing lines inside mazes. The island is organized around a mountain that serves as the player’s final objective and is broadly divided into eleven zones. The Witness is a peculiar game to explore, as each riddle is presented as a terminal that can be explored and serves as a standalone philosophical puzzle.
Among Us
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: November 17, 2018
Developer/Publisher: Innersloth/Innersloth
Genre: Part-social deduction
Platforms: Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Metacritic Score: 85%
Despite the game being a few years old, Among Us only became quite popular in 2019 when the pandemic hit.
A number of players are placed inside an alien starship, a galactic headquarters, or a martian base in the multiplayer online game Among Us, where each player is assigned a private role, such as an “impostor” or a “crewmate.”
Depending on the role you are given, you may need to solve puzzles and do tasks to assist the crew, or you may be tasked with sabotaging the system and gradually eliminating the crew members.
Your inner sleuth comes out when you play this game as you try to identify which of your buddies is playing the imposter.
Terraria
Photo Credits to Steam
Release Date: May 17, 2011
Developer/Publisher: Re-Logic/Re-Logic
Genre: Action-adventure, Open-World, Sandbox game
Platforms: Android, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, iOS, macOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Wii U, and more
Metacritic Score: 83%
Terraria is a 2D sandbox game that concentrates on adventure, building, crafting, battle, surviving, and mining.
Though it differs from Minecraft in certain ways, Terraria has a similar vibe. Even if there aren’t any substantial plot points or difficult objectives to complete, the powerful fantasy aspects inspire a sense of adventure for the players.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is The Most Successful Indie Game?
There are a ton of successful indie games. Some of these successful indie games include: Minecraft, Terraria, Among Us, Hollow Knight, and a lot more. You might be asking, “Is Minecraft an indie game?” Well, Minecraft did start out as an indie game, until the creator got enough money to fully develop the game (and his company) into what it is now.
Are Indie Games Better than AAA Games?
It is a matter of personal opinion whether indie games are better than AAA games. Indie games are typically created by small, independent developers and may have a more unique or experimental approach to game design. AAA games, on the other hand, are created by large, well-established studios and often have larger budgets and more resources. Both types of games can offer different types of experiences and appeal to different audiences, so it ultimately comes down to individual preference.
Final Thoughts
That’s a wrap! There are still a handful of great indie games, but the ones listed above are just personal favorites. Nonetheless, if you haven’t tried an indie game before, then you’re definitely missing out! Don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it!
We hope you enjoyed this article! Let us know your favorite indie games below!
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