Best Indie Games of ALL TIME (2020)

In the video game industry, an independent (indie) game refers to games typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most “AAA games”. The term may also refer to those games financed by publishers who do not exert significant artistic control on the developers.

Because of their independence and freedom to develop, indie games often focus on innovation and taking risks not usually afforded in AAA games, and may explore the medium to produce unique experiences in art games. Indie games tend to be sold through digital distribution channels rather than at retail due to lack of publisher support. The term is synonymous with that of independent music or independent film in those respective mediums. SO here are some of the best indie games of all time.

Enter The Gungeon

In the indie shooter Enter the Gungeon, one or (in local co-op) players fight their way through the dungeon that gives the title to a legendary weapon. The game is a mixture of twin stick and bullet hell shooter, based on random levels and permadeath. And as the name of the game suggests, there are lots of wacky weapons in the gungeon.

Regardless of whether it is the first or the hundredth attempt: With one of four heroes, who differ, however, more visually than playfully, we always start our adventure in the safe breach. Here we chat with NPCs and buy better equipment before we go through the gate to the multi-story dungeon world. And then Enter the Gungeon mutates from role-playing light to a tough top-down shooter.

But if you have the necessary experience or are really ready to bite into it, you will be rewarded with the best action. The high-precision controls, the crisp, varied bosses and detailed dungeon world keep me getting voluntarily into the captivity of this sack-heavy gungeon. And somehow I don’t want my freedom back at all. One of the best indie games in terms of shooters.

Into The Breach

At the beginning of Into the Breach, humanity is about to end. The insectoid aliens of the Vec have destroyed the last resistance. The only way out for the last survivors is by time machine back to the beginning of the alien invasion. Three heavily armed combat robots have waged war in the past until humanity is finally saved.

A level of Into the Breach is eight times eight fields and therefore has the same dimensions as a chessboard. Not only does this remind you of the oldest strategy game in the world, the characters also follow similar rules. Enemy beetles can only shoot their toxic secretions in a straight line across the map.

So there are no good prospects, and that is exactly the essence of Into the Breach. Making its place in one of the best indie games, this game is a real gem. The makers of FTL are behind the round strategy game. And anyone who has played the space roguelike already knows exactly what to expect here: many failures on the way to victory.

Dont Starve / Don’t Starve Together

Don’t Starve is a survival game by the Canadian development team Klei Entertainment. In it, the player takes on the role of explorer and gentleman Wilson, who was lured into a trap by a demon and taken to a mysterious world. Wilson has to learn to use the resources around him and to cope with the people of this world to find a way home.

Don’t Starve Together is a standalone multiplayer expansion of the survival game Don’t Starve. Again, players have to survive in a mysterious world full of strange creatures and dangers. However, this time it is possible to face the challenge together with other players (either online or in local split-screen mode). However, there is still the option to explore the foreign world on your own.

Celeste

In the platform Celeste from the tower fall makers Matt Makes Games, the player takes on the role of the girl Madeline. She wants to climb the eponymous mountain, Mount Celeste, but always struggles with her own self-doubt on the way to the summit. The story is cleverly interwoven with the tricky platforming gameplay, in which the player has to master a total of eight crisp chapters through trial & error with catchy controls. Hands down this is one of the best indie games.

But what a thing! Celeste is a surprise hit that can compete with classics like Super Meat Boy, Ori and the Blind Forest and The End is Nigh. This is mainly due to how Celeste almost perfectly interweaves his game mechanics and background story as well as his intention

At first glance, Celeste is a classic hopping game that requires clever, precise navigation and mercilessly punishes mistakes. Together with heroine Madeline you climb the eponymous mountain Celeste. The path leads through ruins and over steep slopes. You will not only meet characters like the selfie-shooting tourist Theo, but also Madeline’s evil twin sister, who wants to prevent her from climbing at all costs. The climbing section is divided into eight chapters, each with dozens of levels, which usually correspond to a screen. If Madeline dies, the section restarts immediately. And that happens often. Madeline plunges into the abyss hundreds of times, touches deadly spines or is crushed by platforms.

Frostpunk

Frostpunk is a construction game by This-War-of-Mine creators 11 bit Studios and takes place in an icy steampunk universe. As players, we run one of the last enclaves of humanity and have to build a functioning settlement in a narrow crater in the ice. Scarce resources, the freezing cold and the needs of the people make it morally difficult for us to make decisions: Do we resort to child labor in order to get urgently needed workers?

Then we have to put up with the resentment of our residents, which increases if a child is injured at work. At the same time, Frostpunk gives passionate urban planners plenty of opportunities to optimize their settlements. This is where Papers Please meets Sim City.

The thermometer shows 80 degrees Celsius below zero and the wind whips clinking ice rain on the windows. Food is becoming scarce and the temperatures in the mine are too extreme to continue mining coal. Sending out the hunters is also out of the question, so we have no choice but to hope that the storm will pass quickly.

The discontent and fear in the group increases day by day. To make matters worse, the scouts have reported that a group of people is on the way to us and is seeking refuge. Do we grant these poor souls asylum, even if our hospices are already mercilessly overcrowded and our food supplies only last a few days? Or let us reject the strangers to save ourselves – knowing full well that this decision is tantamount to a death sentence. 

Rain World

In the sandbox platformer Rain World, which is based on the 16-bit era, players slip into the skin of a »slugcat«, which cuts its way through a completely destroyed ecosystem. The cat-like creature is hunter and hunted alike, but can also adopt a spear to kill prey or to defend itself against larger creatures. The availability of the game seals the game in the best indie games

The industrial-looking 2D levels are generated procedurally for each lot. You have to jump, sneak and climb to complete them. In addition to the single player mode, Rain World also offers multiplayer options such as co-op and death match for up to four players.

Devil daggers

Devil Daggers is a first person shooter inspired by the FPS classics of the 90s. As in Doom or Quake, players have to face an infinite number of demonic opponents in a dark arena. Fighting is carried out with magical daggers, whereby the pace plays an important role as in the classics. The goal is to survive as long as possible.

Satisfactory

Satisfactory is a construction simulation in an open world from the first person perspective. You play as an engineer on an alien planet as part of the “Save The Day” program – a program whose goal is to construct a giant machine for a mysterious purpose. Conquer nature, build multi-story factories and automate them to your satisfaction.

The player takes the role of an engineer that has crashed landed via an escape pod on a planet; the player has a choice of four starting locations: the Grasslands, the Rocky Desert, the Dune Desert, or the Northern Forest; this affects the availablity of resources that the player can harvest. On landing, the player starts by constructing the Hub from the escape pod’s parts, the main location from which most other construction they will build extends from.

From there, the player works to expand the Hub from one Tier to the next by providing specific components, most which have to be made by gathering local resources such as ores and plant materials with hand tools, using crafting equipment in the Hub to make new tools or equipment, and using that equipment to make the new components. Once all necessary components are supplied to the Hub, it is expanded to the next Tier, giving the player more construction options and new goals. 

Terraria

Heavily inspired by Minecraft, you dig and build yourself in the indie game Terraria through a block landscape, but in 2D graphics at the level of the early 90s. The look quickly becomes irrelevant, because free exploration of the huge game world, crafting increasingly powerful objects from raw materials and brisk action fights against critters and boss opponents develop addictive potential. It’s even more fun in multiplayer with up to eight players.

The Terraria download is a whopping 33 megabytes that is alone to earn a place in the best indie games hall of fame. “That’s what it looks like,” throws in the annoying Beckmesser who lives somewhere in our upper room. And we cannot disagree. The pixel look in Super Nintendo style is as attractive as Jabba the Hutt.

Nostalgics may gain a certain retro charm from the look, but objectively one has to say that Terraria looks extremely rotten even for an indie title. However, this does not detract from the fun of the game, because behind the hopelessly outdated design there is a real addiction game.

Incidentally, this has been around since 2011 and has now finally been implemented for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Papers Please – Best of the Best Indie Games

Papers, Please is a “document review thriller” by indie developer studio 3909 and places players in the role of a passport control officer on the border between two fictional states, in whose hands the decision is made whether the papers and permits of immigrants are in order are and an entry is possible with it. Smugglers, spies and terrorists are also hiding in the stream of people willing to enter between the many ordinary citizens. Again and again the player is confronted with decisions about the fate of individuals whom he could save from the relentless bureaucracy. It is absoultely diamond in the indie category and one of the best indie games.

According to IGN “Papers Please is a fantastic idea, beautifully executed. On the surface, stamping passports is the dullest job in the world. Wrapped up in Cold War chic though, it’s more than that from the start, with enough personality soon emerging from the greyness to keep it interesting even after foiling the hundredth attempt to sneak something nasty across the border.

It’s not necessarily “fun,” especially as you watch your family wither and die in the name of efficient immigration control, but it’s certainly compelling. Very few other games have so perfectly encapsulated just how being trapped in this kind of dehumanising role can be, in the best possible way, and both inside and out of the dreaded grey booth. If only there could be an achievement for reaching the exact moment you turn someone away for no particularly good reason, only to quietly tell yourself that, as ever, you were just following orders.“

All in all, Papers Please is a mind blowingly interesting game that opens the door for whole new ideas in the indie market.

So this concludes thye list of best indie games of all time. Although there are many gems out there that may be more better than those listed here, but these are the ones that you should definitely try out once.