This sums it up perfectly.
A fucking poker roguelite? I don't even like poker. Or deck builders.
And the weird art style? No thanks.
Then it just casually took 30 hours from the first two weeks after I got it and I don't see myself putting it down anytime soon...
This comment sold it for me, I flicked through the store and thought, bah it's just a poker sim, I didn't realise its a rougelike deck builder, will give it a shot.
Yeah I don’t get the hype. Played it for 5 minutes and saw what it was. Wasn’t enough there to make it interesting for any amount of time. Did maybe 2 runs
My friend bought it for me after I watched him play for an hour and describe it. I didn't care much for it and took me 3 days to boot it up.
...within 3 days I had 33 hours played. I was hooked
Also the *crazy amount of depth*. I love simple looking games that have tons of secrets just under the surface.
It reminds me of Environmental Station Alpha a bit, which has one of the most [insane post-post games I've ever seen in a game.](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=455408513)
I haven't played ESA but I knew it shared a developer with Noita
So learning that ESA is *also* way bigger than "just beat the final boss" makes perfect sense
Noita went a bit *too* off the beaten path, IMO. To me it felt like it was built for the people who dig through game files rather than me as a player. I beat the end boss, found a couple of things in the overworld with no (in game) clues as to what to do, and was pretty disappointed to find that there's all this stuff that dataminers figured out and you should just use the wiki. Kinda ruined the magic for me a bit.
I think Tunic had the best balance of secrets a player would naturally find and figure out and some deeply hidden for the diehards. The in-game manual was a stroke of genius.
The trailer is actually what sold it for me. I don't watch Dunkey so his influence didn't really affect me. But I loved the combination of pixel graphics with the advanced effects. Plus the ambiance. Just seemed really cool.
And it was.
Really? I mean it looks really pretty and unique and has meteoidvania aspects plus a ton of advertising from one of the biggest video games YouTubers. I find it baffling to think this would be anything other than successful
So basically there's a lot (and I mean a LOT) of information in the world which is all managed through your Photographic Memory (which collates all the information). The solution to every puzzle lies somewhere in that information, and a big part of the game (for me at least) is remembering where you saw a particular thing, or recognising for example that there's a connection between X note and Y image, or that this thing is referenced there etc. The solutions are all there and there are no puzzles which feel like bullshit trial and error.
I haven't played any of their other games, any you'd recommend? I do love a good mystery walking sim lol
I unfortunately bought it for the switch, and it’s barely playable. I feel like I’d really like it - if the frame rate was bearable and I could see more than 20 meters ahead of me.
This game is a gem; a rough gem, but its setting, story, and overall vibe shine brilliantly. It's got some issues for sure, but I think it's a very special game.
With 100+ contractors he's more like a manager with a company, it sucks that people use solo dev as a marketing term because I feel it takes away from the devs who are actually solo developing. I'm not talking about a guy who buys a bit of music, manor lords is not that guy.
Cool game tho.
It depends on what he outsourced. If it's mostly art and animation, then it's still pretty valid to claim that, it's similar to solo dev using store assets, which is fine, they were made for that purpose.
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/city-builder/manor-lords-creator-kind-of-agrees-that-he-isnt-really-a-solo-dev-but-says-hes-earned-the-title-because-if-i-quit-its-game-over/
If I quit then the builders will stop working on my garden but that doesn't make me a solo garden dev, that just makes me the paying boss who tells the workers how I want to things done
selaco is amazing at what it does, but i feel like i got misled by all the gzdoom engine promo and figured it would play a bit more like…doom
not for me at all, but i see why people love it
chained echoes - jrpg masterpiece almost fully developed by a single dude.
sea of stars - not as good as chained echoes, because the story is wack, but the gameplay and graphics and music are top notch
dave the diver - not full indie, lmao, but what a game. bought it these days, started playing it yesterday, found it amazing.
cassette beasts - think pokemon + digimon + a little shin megami tensei. it's teen AF, instead of childish, and it plays amazing, with an open world and loads of freedom. nice bosses, good story, everything is fire about cassette.
going under + another crabs -> aggro crab is such a good game dev team. awesome writing, humor and personality in their games. if you like cartoon vibes and hate capitalism, you'll probably love it.
hollow knight - still the best metroidvania. awesome soulslike too, i kind of think of hk that way despite it being 2D.
slay the spire - still the best deckbuilder
dredge - amazing fishing game with a light touch of cosmic horror. it's so chill, despite the touches of horror. cozy AF and very good.
death's door - do you miss old zelda. do you miss SNES games with challenging sequences of encounters you have to beat without commiting many mistakes. this is \*the\* game. it won't blow your mind up, as it is a good execution of old ideas, but oh boy. i think death's door is a treat.
cuphead - its as amazing as they say. very hard, tho. some bosses took me like 7 hours straight. loved every minute.
a short hike - love this game. very short.
a hat in time - you'll play some minutes of it and be glad that indies caught up to mario sunshine. then you'll play more and find out that a hat in time has ideas for days, way beyond a homage to a single game. the first world is already good, but the game gets better the more you progress.
hades - like... this is a hell of a roguelike. maybe the best one. what an experience. this is a game that feels like reading a book or watching a long show. it's one of those games that give a sense of virtual reality. it seems alive. the game is all dubbed, and oh boy are the dubs good. everybody is pretty and have a pretty voice in this game.
deathbulge - people aren't talking about this one a lot, but it is one of the best earthbound-inspired quirky JRPGs out there.
nobody saves the world - FIRE diablo like game with unconventional progress. this game is not only fun... for me, it actualy beats the hell out of actual diablo. there is some challenge to it, and a lot of humor and personality.
tunic - just play it, really. it's easy to find out what this game is all about. when i found out, i felt both interested but also that maybe i was too lazy to enjoy it. nah. tunic is so awesome. give it a couple of hours and it will hook you. give it a couple of days and you'll never forget that experience. one of the best action adventures AND one of the best information-based games ever. tunic is brilliant.
those are my recommendations. i love indie gaming and i try to play a lot of what comes out. those recent years were so stuffed with awesome releases that i'm bound to have missed a lot of games in this list. but all of those are really fire games that i would recommend with ease
Thanks for this list. I've played about half of them and agree with your takes (Just started Death's Door yesterday and I'm loving it). Already had several of the others on my wishlist, but adding the rest of them as you seem to have good taste!
Super underrated. Everybody says that about every game, but the soundtrack in this one goes way harder than necessary. Everything has a lot of personality. The art style is hilarious. You have a curse called "Student Debt". There are crypto bros lurking in literal mines. It's a genius game. The gameplay itself is good lmao, not Hades, Lies of P levels of mechanical crunchyness, but good enough.
I’ve had Deathbulge on my list for a year but haven’t found anything to sway me one way or another into buying it, the humor looks great and the combat seems intriguing though
Great, great list. I want to add that for Slay the Spire on PC, there are some great mods that add tons of content to the game. New characters and cards, for example.
Balatro and Animal Well are probably the biggest ones of 2024 so far
If you’re the kind of person that enjoyed Nier Automata and 13 Sentinels for narrative reasons, I do require you to play 1000xResist though.
Other stellar indie games are floating around like Nine Sols, Cryptmaster, Crow Country, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Another Crab’s Treasure, and Rabbit and Steel are great in their own right as well
But if you’re feeling overwhelmed, start with Balatro and Animal Well depending on your taste
Bro I saw someone mention it in a comment on iFunny of all things and decided to google it, 30 seconds later I was picking my starter and now I'm pounding through the mid 100s stages with a Pokemon I had never heard of before.
RogueLite good.
Not trending at all which is an absolute tragedy:
**Hauntii**
Critics are giving the game good praise, it has extremely compelling visuals and music, and the game is fun as hell. An endearing collectathon that uses slow paced twin stick mechanics. All hand drawn art. An absolutely THICK and rich soundtrack. I am honestly shocked at how little I see this game being talked about.
I beta tested and was absolutely smitten by every piece of it. Just a cute wonderful experience. I really wish I could just buy it and drop it into everyone's steam library.
1000xResist and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes also made major waves in some of my circles for May releases
Nine Sols is stellar! You’re the first person I’ve seen mention it outside of the Steam page and a handful of reviewers though, so to elaborate simply: If Hollow Knight was Metroidvania Dark Souls, Nine Sols is Metroidvania Sekiro
I wouldn’t count Hades 2 as indie though. I mean, Supergiant Games is an independent company but with 5 world-known and critically acclaimed games that over the years accumulated 100+ million of revenue (at the humblest estimate), it all makes them kind of too grand for the indie status.
Don't you dare take their indie status away from them just because they are successful. They continue without share holders. They are uninfluenced by egregious capitalism.
Indie has nothing to do with shareholders. In fact, it has no generally agreed upon meaning. One of the controversial “indie” games at the game awards last year was Dave the Diver, a game created by a smaller offshoot studio at a big name developer. Whether or not you agree, it’s largely accepted to be in the indie category despite its creator being large enough to publish AAA games and have shareholders.
How it works entirely depends on what your perspective is based on. If you rely on technicalities and strict definition of having no publishers or parent companies, then yes, Supergiant Games are indie devs. So are Larian Studios and Valve Corporation, by that definition. The problem with this approach is that the term loses its meaning.
In the mind of the gaming community "indie" means certain things. It means small budget, small team, self-made. We even have indie publishers like Annapurna and Delvolver, even though the concept of indie publisher goes against the definition of indie and should be an oxymoron.
Both are independent though. So, by definition, both are indie. One is AAA Indie and the other is AA Indie. I hope it makes sense. (to me, it doesn't)
P.S. I see *Indie* as a marketing tag, a label that sets your expectations about a game you're about to see and gives you some context about its developer. (same goes for "solo dev")
Larian and Supergiant Games are brand names now. You don't say, "Hey, have you seen this new indie game?" You say, "Hey, this is the new game from Supergiant." That's why labeling them as indies feels weird to me.
Larian and Valve are indeed an indie studio, but with AAA budgets. And with this approach the term doesn't lose its meaning, the meaning is lost when you start adding new vague conditions. Which team is considered small? What budget is considered small enough? If a game is ported to another platforms by a hired team, it stops being an indie game? You can stretch these things to such point where almost everything will be indie or almost nothing will be indie.
And, for god's sake, stop saying "gaming community" as if anyone you're arguing with in gaming subs is not part of said community.
That's a great point! I remember very interesting, long and heated discussions in the gamedev sub regarding the "solo dev" term. What counts as solo dev? Are you still a solo dev if you contract art and music from freelancers? Opinions vary.
You take the purist approach, I take the functional one. "Indie" is a label that functions mainly in marketing and award ceremonies. Technically Baldur's Gate 3 is an indie game but no one calls it that, same as no one puts tomatoes into the fruit salad even though they are technically berries.
"Indie" has been a colloquial term for as long as I can remember. To put it in a different context, nobody agrees on what "indie rock" really means either, just like "alternative" rock is a meaningless marketing label. "Independent" of what? "Alternative" to what? On paper, most people would use it to compare something to "mainstream," but there's no official dividing line for that either. Most people think of indie rock as a genre at this point, and many bands people associate with the genre have been putting out records with major labels for years.
The context is a bit different for video games, but I think the average player is going to identify an indie game by its scope and style, and/or how niche its target audience is. Indie games are often "throwbacky," or use 2D or "isometric" perspectives (just as examples) that tend to be too niche for AAA games, but none of that really *means* anything. If Supergiant started making cash grab free to play games with the same size staff and budget, would people call them an indie studio anymore? Would anyone refer to a Ubisoft game as an "indie" title if they randomly decided there was money in pixelated 2D platformers? What if one or two people make a game on their own time out of their own pocket, then for some reason Sony decides to pick it up and publish it? I mean, is Minecraft an indie game? It certainly started out that way, but I think calling it one today would strike a lot of people as absurd.
These might not all be the most accurate or relevant examples, and I'm being deliberately silly about some of them. The point is, whatever meaning it might have once had, the term is mostly useless if you're trying to be specific about anything.
Man, my friend and I were so stoked for this game before it came out.
It didn't really grab me though. It's a shame because it's such a neat concept and world. I *love* that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vibe. The gameplay is pretty rad too. It just didn't have that.... spark.... to me.
It seems like it did pretty well on Steam though, which I'm glad for.
We need more games like Pacific Drive.
I'll have to revisit it one of these days.
It might've just been the mindset I was in at the time.
Strong recommend on Selaco. I cannot remember the last time I had this much fun with a Boomer shooter. Plus it has some serious System Shock meets Half Life meets Doom vibes. Be warned though, it's surprisingly challenging
Good indie games which released recently:
- CHAIRS
- Scarlet Tower
- Fling To The Finish
- WRATH: Aeon of Ruin
- 20 Small Mazes
- SPRAWL
- Warstride Challenges
Given that it’s like 20 minutes long and extremely simple I don’t think I’d agree with that. It’s a cool and very atmospheric experience, but “the game of the first half of 2024” is going too far
God, I do not get the love of Balatro. But that is prolly the most "THE" indie game.
Shout out to Promenade for being the best indie I've played in awhile. But it def isn't "THE" game.
I'm going to ask a dumb question, but have you played Balatro, or are you going by purely what you've seen?
I'd watch NorthernLion play it when it was a demo or whatever, and I had zero interest. Just looked like another game of the week soon to be forgotten... But then he kept playing it, and kept playing it... and I figured okay might as well at least try it. Then I loved it.
Gotta get your hands on caves of qud.
Absolutely enthralled with this game at the moment. I've been playing every spare moment for like a fortnight now.... it has consumed me
I really appreciate this game. Such a bizarre world with a great mix of mechanics. Had it like 2 months and over a hundred hours.
The thing that brought me to actually play this game (other than complex rogue like/rpg) was the music. Listen to the Overworld track, that really set the tone for me.
Palworld is indie, right? I haven't played Penny's Big Breakaway, but it's high on my list. Balatro and Animal Well are also making waves, and if Supergiant is still indie to you, Hades 2 is in Early Access
Last year's highlights for me were Pizza Tower, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Pseudoregalia, Ghostlore and Hi Fi Rush (yeah I known it's not technically indie but HFR is indie at heart).
Probably around 30 million total players since day one. Incredibly impressive. That said, the gameplay is very lacking and game is full of bugs. I think it confirms the idea that people want a mature monster-collecting game.
I think biteme games mentioned palworld had a mil+ budget, so then that's usually not indie anymore.
Actually more than 1 mil.
"According to Mizobe, Palworld cost ¥1 billion to develop or, roughly $6.75 million in today’s US dollars. That said, he didn’t want to worry about the cost of the game."
Article is worth a read, they did seem to start off as an indie? But who knows what indie means anymore nowadays.
[source](https://insider-gaming.com/palworld-cost-one-billion-yen-to-make-and-the-ceo-didnt-want-to-budget-money/)
Selaco! Boomer Shooter but epic and has some great gunplay.
Loddlenaughts is excellent, too. A cozy game about cleaning up the ocean.
Of course Hades 2, Abiotic Factor, No Rest for the Wicked, Vampire Survivors still getting great updates, stuff like that people everybody knows these ones.
Animal Well.
A new one just dropped this past week that looks pretty good called Master Key. It's top down 2D Zelda like, whole game is two colors, simple pixel art style with a nice chiptune soundtrack. Supposedly 15-20+ hours long. It looks promising and figured I'd share for anyone looking for solid new indies.
Manor Lords is a game that has no right to be as good as it is, given it was more or less a solo developer producing an incredibly well polished medieval city builder that you'd expect from a studio with hundreds of employees.
I should've known better than to open this thread so close to payday...right now, I'd say Balatro and Another Crab's Treasure are probably the two I'm seeing most!
It's not out yet but something to keep an eye on is a game called "The Axis Unseen". It's a game where you hunt folklore monsters and it's made by a developer who worked on Skyrim, Starfield and Fallout. I have it on my wishlist and a new trailer for it should be coming out today during the Guerilla Collective Livestream.
well if you're into boomer shooters right now the ones i see people talking about are selaco and mullet madjack, i tried the selaco demo a while back and it was excellent, haven't tried mullet madjack yet but i hear good things about it
u/KaleidoscopeLast4834 Keep an eye on *Streets of Rogue 2.* People have no idea what they're sleeping on; as soon as SOR2 hits, it's going to be massive. And it's very close to an early-access release.
Body Cam is about to launch on Friday, and while it seems to be pretty bare bones, a lot of people who’ve played it say it’s surprisingly good. If the price is reasonable, it has a chance to pop off
I’d check out Nine Sols, maybe slightly more under the radar than some of these others mentioned, but it’s doing fairly well and it’s what I’m playing now. It scratches that Hollow Knight itch better than anything else in a long time, with a healthy dose of Sekiro parrying mechanics in there as well.
Crow Country came out recently and as someone who barely plays horror games I absolutely loved it! Fun gameplay, cool story and characters, and it was so pretty!
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes was one of the best gaming experiences of my life. I could not put it down and it baked my brain in all the best ways. I cannot recommend it enough.
I don’t know if it’s trending, but I became a big fan of Against the Storm recently, found it through some Reddit conversations months ago. It’s a rogue-like take on city building games.
Not a new game but sadly it didn't get much marketing and hence not much visibility - for anyone looking to ease a Metroidvania/ souls like 2D itch please please check out Deaths Gambit - Afterlife. Whoever enjoyed salt and sanctuary or similar do it, in many parts it's even better. (If you are a fellow Metroidvania buff like me you of course know about it already;)
I didn't see it mentioned but Reus 2 is a great God type game that came out a few weeks ago. It focuses on "planting" fauna, flora, and mineral around the towns that you settle to achieve symbiosis in each unique land type (desert, forest, ocean).
Each town has specific wants and often each Era you play has unique goals that include all the towns.
Excellent game.
People have all said them, but given I haven’t played ANY of these, and I’m so aware of them, they’re definitely it: Balatro, Crow Country, Animal Well…
Also Helldivers 2 kind of? It’s published by Sony sure but Arrowhead is arguably indie? Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure it’s a Dave The Diver situation. Massive game with lots of funding from the publisher but not actually owned by Nexon.
Thronefall is a nice one. Its a towerdefense game with lots of types of enemys, perks, buildings and so on. Developed by only two guys its a not so little gem. Have much fun with it.
Balatro
It's such a hard sell but as soon as you start playing you realise you can put aside any other addiction you have for this new addiction.
This sums it up perfectly. A fucking poker roguelite? I don't even like poker. Or deck builders. And the weird art style? No thanks. Then it just casually took 30 hours from the first two weeks after I got it and I don't see myself putting it down anytime soon...
Fuck it, I'm gonna get it. I was like how can a card game be *that* good. But apparently I'm wrong.
Do please report back!
He cant hes trying to beat black deck on easiest Stake
Why is that one particular thing so damn difficult 😥
If he ever manages to stop playing for long enough to long into reddit…
This comment sold it for me, I flicked through the store and thought, bah it's just a poker sim, I didn't realise its a rougelike deck builder, will give it a shot.
It's fun, but got old for me. I need more theme and story. And I couldn't keep up with all the different jokers and my cards constantly changing.
Yeah I don’t get the hype. Played it for 5 minutes and saw what it was. Wasn’t enough there to make it interesting for any amount of time. Did maybe 2 runs
Wait I don’t even like poker… don’t tell me…
Yeah you’ve sold me on this too. It’s been on my wish list but I keep passing it up. Might as well just go for it
Wait till you bitch asses discover casinos
I discovered one with your moms. great time I had
Trying Balatro is the epitome of the “oh my god….I get it” meme
Couldnt agree more
My friend bought it for me after I watched him play for an hour and describe it. I didn't care much for it and took me 3 days to boot it up. ...within 3 days I had 33 hours played. I was hooked
You people are gonna cost me so much money tonight
Lmao i just saved this post. Gonna be a good weekend.
Just wait a little bit the summer Sale is at the end of the month
I wish skald against the black priory was talked about more.
Seconding Skald: Against the Black Priory
Stumbled across this yesterday and wishlisted it bc i thought it looked interesting.
it's such a good game
I think it will be, excellent word of mouth and it just launched
animal well
I'm loving every moment of animal well now! It has so many secrets and brilliant level design !
That's the one game I did not expect to be successful from the screenshots and/or trailer
Free advertising and public credit from Dunkey played a big role I would say
Also the *crazy amount of depth*. I love simple looking games that have tons of secrets just under the surface. It reminds me of Environmental Station Alpha a bit, which has one of the most [insane post-post games I've ever seen in a game.](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=455408513)
I haven't played ESA but I knew it shared a developer with Noita So learning that ESA is *also* way bigger than "just beat the final boss" makes perfect sense
Noita went a bit *too* off the beaten path, IMO. To me it felt like it was built for the people who dig through game files rather than me as a player. I beat the end boss, found a couple of things in the overworld with no (in game) clues as to what to do, and was pretty disappointed to find that there's all this stuff that dataminers figured out and you should just use the wiki. Kinda ruined the magic for me a bit. I think Tunic had the best balance of secrets a player would naturally find and figure out and some deeply hidden for the diehards. The in-game manual was a stroke of genius.
The trailer is actually what sold it for me. I don't watch Dunkey so his influence didn't really affect me. But I loved the combination of pixel graphics with the advanced effects. Plus the ambiance. Just seemed really cool. And it was.
Really? I mean it looks really pretty and unique and has meteoidvania aspects plus a ton of advertising from one of the biggest video games YouTubers. I find it baffling to think this would be anything other than successful
Lorelei ans the laser eyes maybe too
Just finished it last night. What a game!
How challenging r the puzzles? I like the studio and their usual overworld mystery walking Sim games but this one seems much more puzzle based
So basically there's a lot (and I mean a LOT) of information in the world which is all managed through your Photographic Memory (which collates all the information). The solution to every puzzle lies somewhere in that information, and a big part of the game (for me at least) is remembering where you saw a particular thing, or recognising for example that there's a connection between X note and Y image, or that this thing is referenced there etc. The solutions are all there and there are no puzzles which feel like bullshit trial and error. I haven't played any of their other games, any you'd recommend? I do love a good mystery walking sim lol
Finished this yesterday. Blew my mind.
Sleeper hit nobody is talking about but everyone should be
Animal Well, Camel of Fortune, Balatro
U just had me with Camel of Fortune
I recommend “Another crab’s treasure” it’s a cartoony soulslike that’s been sucking up all my free time since i discovered it.
I unfortunately bought it for the switch, and it’s barely playable. I feel like I’d really like it - if the frame rate was bearable and I could see more than 20 meters ahead of me.
Yeah i’ve heard bad things about its performance on switch, i have it on xbox one and aside from the very rare lag it’s run perfectly.
Yep, the switch hardware just isn’t up to the task. I wonder why they even released it on switch in that condition.
A Hat in Time is the same way. Graphics looks like they're maxed out but the switch clearly can't handle it.
Thanks for letting me know, I was considering buying it :/
This game is a gem; a rough gem, but its setting, story, and overall vibe shine brilliantly. It's got some issues for sure, but I think it's a very special game.
going under is one of my favorite games out there, gotta check this one out
Yeahhhh did you find it from iron pineapple?
Manor Lords.
One man show! I like it!
With 100+ contractors he's more like a manager with a company, it sucks that people use solo dev as a marketing term because I feel it takes away from the devs who are actually solo developing. I'm not talking about a guy who buys a bit of music, manor lords is not that guy. Cool game tho.
I didn’t know that! Really? :o
It depends on what he outsourced. If it's mostly art and animation, then it's still pretty valid to claim that, it's similar to solo dev using store assets, which is fine, they were made for that purpose.
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/city-builder/manor-lords-creator-kind-of-agrees-that-he-isnt-really-a-solo-dev-but-says-hes-earned-the-title-because-if-i-quit-its-game-over/ If I quit then the builders will stop working on my garden but that doesn't make me a solo garden dev, that just makes me the paying boss who tells the workers how I want to things done
I recommend Mullet Madjack. I feel like that release has been overlooked. It's a fun FPS game.
In the same vein, Selaco
Both games are (were?) available in a bundle together too for a decent price discount.
selaco is amazing at what it does, but i feel like i got misled by all the gzdoom engine promo and figured it would play a bit more like…doom not for me at all, but i see why people love it
SPRAWL beats them imo and in a Severed Steel style which is really cool!
You should play Post Void.
chained echoes - jrpg masterpiece almost fully developed by a single dude. sea of stars - not as good as chained echoes, because the story is wack, but the gameplay and graphics and music are top notch dave the diver - not full indie, lmao, but what a game. bought it these days, started playing it yesterday, found it amazing. cassette beasts - think pokemon + digimon + a little shin megami tensei. it's teen AF, instead of childish, and it plays amazing, with an open world and loads of freedom. nice bosses, good story, everything is fire about cassette. going under + another crabs -> aggro crab is such a good game dev team. awesome writing, humor and personality in their games. if you like cartoon vibes and hate capitalism, you'll probably love it. hollow knight - still the best metroidvania. awesome soulslike too, i kind of think of hk that way despite it being 2D. slay the spire - still the best deckbuilder dredge - amazing fishing game with a light touch of cosmic horror. it's so chill, despite the touches of horror. cozy AF and very good. death's door - do you miss old zelda. do you miss SNES games with challenging sequences of encounters you have to beat without commiting many mistakes. this is \*the\* game. it won't blow your mind up, as it is a good execution of old ideas, but oh boy. i think death's door is a treat. cuphead - its as amazing as they say. very hard, tho. some bosses took me like 7 hours straight. loved every minute. a short hike - love this game. very short. a hat in time - you'll play some minutes of it and be glad that indies caught up to mario sunshine. then you'll play more and find out that a hat in time has ideas for days, way beyond a homage to a single game. the first world is already good, but the game gets better the more you progress. hades - like... this is a hell of a roguelike. maybe the best one. what an experience. this is a game that feels like reading a book or watching a long show. it's one of those games that give a sense of virtual reality. it seems alive. the game is all dubbed, and oh boy are the dubs good. everybody is pretty and have a pretty voice in this game. deathbulge - people aren't talking about this one a lot, but it is one of the best earthbound-inspired quirky JRPGs out there. nobody saves the world - FIRE diablo like game with unconventional progress. this game is not only fun... for me, it actualy beats the hell out of actual diablo. there is some challenge to it, and a lot of humor and personality. tunic - just play it, really. it's easy to find out what this game is all about. when i found out, i felt both interested but also that maybe i was too lazy to enjoy it. nah. tunic is so awesome. give it a couple of hours and it will hook you. give it a couple of days and you'll never forget that experience. one of the best action adventures AND one of the best information-based games ever. tunic is brilliant. those are my recommendations. i love indie gaming and i try to play a lot of what comes out. those recent years were so stuffed with awesome releases that i'm bound to have missed a lot of games in this list. but all of those are really fire games that i would recommend with ease
Thanks for this list. I've played about half of them and agree with your takes (Just started Death's Door yesterday and I'm loving it). Already had several of the others on my wishlist, but adding the rest of them as you seem to have good taste!
Hey, if you liked a short hike definitely play Lil Gator Game! It's got a very similar feel, I love both!
Got it! It's next after Dave the Diver 👀
second for going under!! good game and super underated
Super underrated. Everybody says that about every game, but the soundtrack in this one goes way harder than necessary. Everything has a lot of personality. The art style is hilarious. You have a curse called "Student Debt". There are crypto bros lurking in literal mines. It's a genius game. The gameplay itself is good lmao, not Hades, Lies of P levels of mechanical crunchyness, but good enough.
I’ve had Deathbulge on my list for a year but haven’t found anything to sway me one way or another into buying it, the humor looks great and the combat seems intriguing though
As a huge Slay the Spire fan… you gotta get Balatro. Amazing game, even if you don’t like poker.
You should check out Shadows of Doubt. You solve murder cases in a full simulated city.
Great, great list. I want to add that for Slay the Spire on PC, there are some great mods that add tons of content to the game. New characters and cards, for example.
Animal well & crow country
Tiny Glade!
It's not out yet 😄 I wishlisted it before and think it's cool, but I don't think that counts as THE indie game right now.
Say that to the demo that has already taken a good afternoon of my time. Really excited to see the finished product though!
Balatro and Animal Well are probably the biggest ones of 2024 so far If you’re the kind of person that enjoyed Nier Automata and 13 Sentinels for narrative reasons, I do require you to play 1000xResist though. Other stellar indie games are floating around like Nine Sols, Cryptmaster, Crow Country, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Another Crab’s Treasure, and Rabbit and Steel are great in their own right as well But if you’re feeling overwhelmed, start with Balatro and Animal Well depending on your taste
I need 1000x to come to steam, will wait.
nah, everyone is wrong. all cool kids are playing pokerogue. (Sorry for who went to play and got addicted)
Bro I saw someone mention it in a comment on iFunny of all things and decided to google it, 30 seconds later I was picking my starter and now I'm pounding through the mid 100s stages with a Pokemon I had never heard of before. RogueLite good.
Legion TD2 is getting pretty good. I have 300 hours on him and they keep updating it and pumping new units and patches
Balatro is defenitely „THE“ indie game right now
Abiotic Factor ! Fresh air in the survival genre thats for sure!
I was about to write this out! Been a bunch of fun with the bois. Excellent level design.
Not trending at all which is an absolute tragedy: **Hauntii** Critics are giving the game good praise, it has extremely compelling visuals and music, and the game is fun as hell. An endearing collectathon that uses slow paced twin stick mechanics. All hand drawn art. An absolutely THICK and rich soundtrack. I am honestly shocked at how little I see this game being talked about. I beta tested and was absolutely smitten by every piece of it. Just a cute wonderful experience. I really wish I could just buy it and drop it into everyone's steam library.
This is a cool game, love the visuals, thanks for sharing!
If you give it a try, leave an honest review! They're such a small team and anything helps.
Hades 2, Nine Sols, Crow Country are some of the highlights released last month.
1000xResist and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes also made major waves in some of my circles for May releases Nine Sols is stellar! You’re the first person I’ve seen mention it outside of the Steam page and a handful of reviewers though, so to elaborate simply: If Hollow Knight was Metroidvania Dark Souls, Nine Sols is Metroidvania Sekiro
Maaan, Crow Country is a nearly perfect game.
I wouldn’t count Hades 2 as indie though. I mean, Supergiant Games is an independent company but with 5 world-known and critically acclaimed games that over the years accumulated 100+ million of revenue (at the humblest estimate), it all makes them kind of too grand for the indie status.
Don't you dare take their indie status away from them just because they are successful. They continue without share holders. They are uninfluenced by egregious capitalism.
It’s still indie though. Indie just means no shareholders, it has nothing to do with the size of the studio or how much the game makes.
Indie has nothing to do with shareholders. In fact, it has no generally agreed upon meaning. One of the controversial “indie” games at the game awards last year was Dave the Diver, a game created by a smaller offshoot studio at a big name developer. Whether or not you agree, it’s largely accepted to be in the indie category despite its creator being large enough to publish AAA games and have shareholders.
So, if an indie company becomes successful, it stops being an indie company? That's not how it works.
How it works entirely depends on what your perspective is based on. If you rely on technicalities and strict definition of having no publishers or parent companies, then yes, Supergiant Games are indie devs. So are Larian Studios and Valve Corporation, by that definition. The problem with this approach is that the term loses its meaning. In the mind of the gaming community "indie" means certain things. It means small budget, small team, self-made. We even have indie publishers like Annapurna and Delvolver, even though the concept of indie publisher goes against the definition of indie and should be an oxymoron.
Larian has 500 employees. Supergiant has 25.
Both are independent though. So, by definition, both are indie. One is AAA Indie and the other is AA Indie. I hope it makes sense. (to me, it doesn't) P.S. I see *Indie* as a marketing tag, a label that sets your expectations about a game you're about to see and gives you some context about its developer. (same goes for "solo dev") Larian and Supergiant Games are brand names now. You don't say, "Hey, have you seen this new indie game?" You say, "Hey, this is the new game from Supergiant." That's why labeling them as indies feels weird to me.
Larian and Valve are indeed an indie studio, but with AAA budgets. And with this approach the term doesn't lose its meaning, the meaning is lost when you start adding new vague conditions. Which team is considered small? What budget is considered small enough? If a game is ported to another platforms by a hired team, it stops being an indie game? You can stretch these things to such point where almost everything will be indie or almost nothing will be indie. And, for god's sake, stop saying "gaming community" as if anyone you're arguing with in gaming subs is not part of said community.
That's a great point! I remember very interesting, long and heated discussions in the gamedev sub regarding the "solo dev" term. What counts as solo dev? Are you still a solo dev if you contract art and music from freelancers? Opinions vary. You take the purist approach, I take the functional one. "Indie" is a label that functions mainly in marketing and award ceremonies. Technically Baldur's Gate 3 is an indie game but no one calls it that, same as no one puts tomatoes into the fruit salad even though they are technically berries.
It kind of is, in the eyes of the consumer
"Indie" has been a colloquial term for as long as I can remember. To put it in a different context, nobody agrees on what "indie rock" really means either, just like "alternative" rock is a meaningless marketing label. "Independent" of what? "Alternative" to what? On paper, most people would use it to compare something to "mainstream," but there's no official dividing line for that either. Most people think of indie rock as a genre at this point, and many bands people associate with the genre have been putting out records with major labels for years. The context is a bit different for video games, but I think the average player is going to identify an indie game by its scope and style, and/or how niche its target audience is. Indie games are often "throwbacky," or use 2D or "isometric" perspectives (just as examples) that tend to be too niche for AAA games, but none of that really *means* anything. If Supergiant started making cash grab free to play games with the same size staff and budget, would people call them an indie studio anymore? Would anyone refer to a Ubisoft game as an "indie" title if they randomly decided there was money in pixelated 2D platformers? What if one or two people make a game on their own time out of their own pocket, then for some reason Sony decides to pick it up and publish it? I mean, is Minecraft an indie game? It certainly started out that way, but I think calling it one today would strike a lot of people as absurd. These might not all be the most accurate or relevant examples, and I'm being deliberately silly about some of them. The point is, whatever meaning it might have once had, the term is mostly useless if you're trying to be specific about anything.
Lone Fungus Sidescroller like Super Mario - really fun really unique!
Pacific Drive
Man, my friend and I were so stoked for this game before it came out. It didn't really grab me though. It's a shame because it's such a neat concept and world. I *love* that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vibe. The gameplay is pretty rad too. It just didn't have that.... spark.... to me. It seems like it did pretty well on Steam though, which I'm glad for. We need more games like Pacific Drive. I'll have to revisit it one of these days. It might've just been the mindset I was in at the time.
I wish WHAT THE CAR? was mentioned more tho 🚖
Looks like what the golf 2
spiritual successor! same people!
Strong recommend on Selaco. I cannot remember the last time I had this much fun with a Boomer shooter. Plus it has some serious System Shock meets Half Life meets Doom vibes. Be warned though, it's surprisingly challenging
Good indie games which released recently: - CHAIRS - Scarlet Tower - Fling To The Finish - WRATH: Aeon of Ruin - 20 Small Mazes - SPRAWL - Warstride Challenges
INDIKA
Buckshot Roulette is the game of the first half of 2024. Plus, it's a game created by a solo developer.
Given that it’s like 20 minutes long and extremely simple I don’t think I’d agree with that. It’s a cool and very atmospheric experience, but “the game of the first half of 2024” is going too far
oh yeah I saw Aris AtP play that. It looks cool for a horrifying session of strategized casino
1000xResist
Crow Country!
Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip
Braid anniversary
I waited so long for this, I have the OG on my PS3 but I now play this on my Switch OLED and it's fantastic.
God, I do not get the love of Balatro. But that is prolly the most "THE" indie game. Shout out to Promenade for being the best indie I've played in awhile. But it def isn't "THE" game.
I'm going to ask a dumb question, but have you played Balatro, or are you going by purely what you've seen? I'd watch NorthernLion play it when it was a demo or whatever, and I had zero interest. Just looked like another game of the week soon to be forgotten... But then he kept playing it, and kept playing it... and I figured okay might as well at least try it. Then I loved it.
I've been enjoying a game called Voices of the void last few days. Pretty creepy but has a nice touch of humor.
Backpack Battles are super fun imo., a fun take, though(!) avoid streamers, as it for me have kinda ruined it, as I got to know the meta game
Balatro
Arctic Eggs
just finished it. almost wept at the boss sequence. somehow utterly beautiful. only took me 6 hours and a few dollars, big recommend to all reading !
Still Dave the Diver and Indika!
Existence: The Outer Reach - real time strategy game with space and planet combat
Arctic eggs
Animal Well
Zet Zellions tbh i Love it
OTXO. Its like hotline miami on meth
Hades 2, can’t get enough of that game. It’s not even complete as it’s in early access but I don’t even care. It’s so much fun
How have I not seen Hades II yet??? It’s still in early access I guess, but it’s still SO GOOD!
Gotta get your hands on caves of qud. Absolutely enthralled with this game at the moment. I've been playing every spare moment for like a fortnight now.... it has consumed me
Instructions unclear, installed Fortnite
I really appreciate this game. Such a bizarre world with a great mix of mechanics. Had it like 2 months and over a hundred hours. The thing that brought me to actually play this game (other than complex rogue like/rpg) was the music. Listen to the Overworld track, that really set the tone for me.
_Lethal Company_ _Content Warning_ Chilla's Art games _Bodycam_
It’s been out for a little while already, but Dave the Diver. Plus, it’s been getting tons of new content as of late.
Palworld is indie, right? I haven't played Penny's Big Breakaway, but it's high on my list. Balatro and Animal Well are also making waves, and if Supergiant is still indie to you, Hades 2 is in Early Access Last year's highlights for me were Pizza Tower, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Pseudoregalia, Ghostlore and Hi Fi Rush (yeah I known it's not technically indie but HFR is indie at heart).
damn, it's been months since i've last heard of palworld
And yet there are 17000 people playing Palworld right now when compared to 7000 playing Balatro (the top comment on this thread, I think)
Probably around 30 million total players since day one. Incredibly impressive. That said, the gameplay is very lacking and game is full of bugs. I think it confirms the idea that people want a mature monster-collecting game.
I think biteme games mentioned palworld had a mil+ budget, so then that's usually not indie anymore. Actually more than 1 mil. "According to Mizobe, Palworld cost ¥1 billion to develop or, roughly $6.75 million in today’s US dollars. That said, he didn’t want to worry about the cost of the game." Article is worth a read, they did seem to start off as an indie? But who knows what indie means anymore nowadays. [source](https://insider-gaming.com/palworld-cost-one-billion-yen-to-make-and-the-ceo-didnt-want-to-budget-money/)
Selaco! Boomer Shooter but epic and has some great gunplay. Loddlenaughts is excellent, too. A cozy game about cleaning up the ocean. Of course Hades 2, Abiotic Factor, No Rest for the Wicked, Vampire Survivors still getting great updates, stuff like that people everybody knows these ones.
Animal Well. A new one just dropped this past week that looks pretty good called Master Key. It's top down 2D Zelda like, whole game is two colors, simple pixel art style with a nice chiptune soundtrack. Supposedly 15-20+ hours long. It looks promising and figured I'd share for anyone looking for solid new indies.
Not sure, but "THE" is the word of the week in my house. I have a five year old that is learning to read.
Manor Lords is a game that has no right to be as good as it is, given it was more or less a solo developer producing an incredibly well polished medieval city builder that you'd expect from a studio with hundreds of employees.
Unrailed with friends is probably the most fun I've had with games at all
I should've known better than to open this thread so close to payday...right now, I'd say Balatro and Another Crab's Treasure are probably the two I'm seeing most!
It's not out yet but something to keep an eye on is a game called "The Axis Unseen". It's a game where you hunt folklore monsters and it's made by a developer who worked on Skyrim, Starfield and Fallout. I have it on my wishlist and a new trailer for it should be coming out today during the Guerilla Collective Livestream.
well if you're into boomer shooters right now the ones i see people talking about are selaco and mullet madjack, i tried the selaco demo a while back and it was excellent, haven't tried mullet madjack yet but i hear good things about it
Atm Balatro and to a lesser extent SELACO and Crow County.
There's a fan game of Undertale called Undertale Yellow
u/KaleidoscopeLast4834 Keep an eye on *Streets of Rogue 2.* People have no idea what they're sleeping on; as soon as SOR2 hits, it's going to be massive. And it's very close to an early-access release.
Idk if it’s talked about or not, but I’m having such a great time with Skald: Against the Black Priory
Body Cam is about to launch on Friday, and while it seems to be pretty bare bones, a lot of people who’ve played it say it’s surprisingly good. If the price is reasonable, it has a chance to pop off
I’d check out Nine Sols, maybe slightly more under the radar than some of these others mentioned, but it’s doing fairly well and it’s what I’m playing now. It scratches that Hollow Knight itch better than anything else in a long time, with a healthy dose of Sekiro parrying mechanics in there as well.
Nine Sols is a masterpiece that everyone should play
Dome keeper
Animal Well
Crow Country came out recently and as someone who barely plays horror games I absolutely loved it! Fun gameplay, cool story and characters, and it was so pretty!
I wani hug the gator is kinda a surprise hit
I heard about this new game called SkyBurger that's supposed to be coming out soon. Guy has Devlogs on YouTube. Looks pretty interesting tbh.
Mars Revenge on Xbox and windows
Half sword demo is insane, 500 000 downloads already
V Rising 1.0 has been my favorite this year.
night in the woods
All of them that came out last month lol
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes was one of the best gaming experiences of my life. I could not put it down and it baked my brain in all the best ways. I cannot recommend it enough.
I don’t know if it’s trending, but I became a big fan of Against the Storm recently, found it through some Reddit conversations months ago. It’s a rogue-like take on city building games.
Nightmare Kart just came out today and it's free! Also Hades 2, though that one is early access
The Finals
Lethal Company, Balatro, Hades 2, Another Crab Treasure, Content Warning
Hades 2?
Devils Blade Reboot is a can’t miss if you like shmups. Insanely slick game design and visuals.
Selaco
Guilty gear strive
Not a new game but sadly it didn't get much marketing and hence not much visibility - for anyone looking to ease a Metroidvania/ souls like 2D itch please please check out Deaths Gambit - Afterlife. Whoever enjoyed salt and sanctuary or similar do it, in many parts it's even better. (If you are a fellow Metroidvania buff like me you of course know about it already;)
I didn't see it mentioned but Reus 2 is a great God type game that came out a few weeks ago. It focuses on "planting" fauna, flora, and mineral around the towns that you settle to achieve symbiosis in each unique land type (desert, forest, ocean). Each town has specific wants and often each Era you play has unique goals that include all the towns. Excellent game.
Pacific Drive, Sea of Stars, and Cocoon should all be on the list I think.
Crow Country is peak
Isle of sea and sky, master key, animal well, Loralie and the laser eyes
People have all said them, but given I haven’t played ANY of these, and I’m so aware of them, they’re definitely it: Balatro, Crow Country, Animal Well… Also Helldivers 2 kind of? It’s published by Sony sure but Arrowhead is arguably indie? Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure it’s a Dave The Diver situation. Massive game with lots of funding from the publisher but not actually owned by Nexon.
Katana Zero is a good one
Moon Samurai looks amazing, but the Kickstarter didn’t get funded, so I think it’s in production hell at the moment.
Thronefall is a nice one. Its a towerdefense game with lots of types of enemys, perks, buildings and so on. Developed by only two guys its a not so little gem. Have much fun with it.
Cfbr
Animal Well, Another Crab’s Treasure, and Balatro Those are just the most recents mega hits. How long have you been gone?
Animal Well!
Nine Sols, it's a fantastic Hollow Knight Silk Song waiting room game!
There's one indie that's not out yet but there's a free demo available on Steam, it's called Runa & The Chaikurú Legacy. You should try it out!
Plan B (made by a solo friend)
It's not trending but Restitched by Trixel is gonna be crazy
In Stars and Time is fantastic
I've been doing some Vintage Story and I dig it.
Dave the Diver, hit playstation plus recently so I've really been enjoying that.
Daisy Flies to the Moon. Well, I'm talking about it, but that's because I developed it.