What is your favorite indie game?
Given the big swathe of posts about bad behavior from big companies, I figure we could counterbalance that with some positivity about stuff the smaller guys made that often costs us less too.
First :
Then :
Hollow Knight
I love it so much that I can't finish it, I always stop when I'm about to fight the final boss. I just don't want it to end.
Maybe when Silksong came out I finish it once and for all.
Hollow Knight isn't exactly over when you finish the story. There are more fights, especially Godhome. If you can beat all that you're an incredible player.
You probably know this but just wanted to make sure you're not unintentionally missing out.
For me, FTL: Faster than Light still hasn't been topped. Hades II might get there, though. Disco Elysium, Ikaruga, and Papers, Please are also high on the list.
FTL!!! And yeah, PP is awesome and so unique!
Stardew
FTL: Faster Than Light
The Multiverse mod expands the game dramatically, and is, if anything, better than the base game; I highly recommend it.
It does add a lot of very good playable content, but the quality and tone of the writing is a departure from the main game. Some find it a deal breaker.
such a great non traditional roguelike with sooo much replayability.
It's the game that made me like these kinds of games. 1,300 hours :)
Dwarf Fortress. Not even just my favorite indie game, but favorite game ever.
I'm such a sucker for world simulation! It made me hate games where events happen just because they're programmed to do so.
Pushing the definition but I started when it was still in beta... Minecraft has gotten hundreds and hundreds of hours put into it.
Terarria and Starbound are both really good and scratch that same itch as Minecraft. Core Keeper is another one that has some of that feel and I ended up really enjoying.
Surprised I haven't seen it mentioned but Cave Story was made by one guy doing everything... and everything in it is immaculate. It's still free for the original version as well.
Stardew Valley is awesome and restarted a genre.
Crypt of the Necrodancer is awesome, and well worth checking out... also goes on sale really cheap.
Pacific Drive is a fun one to check out. If you're from the PNW, it will hit even more.
Really enjoyed Stray. Worth grabbing on a sale.
OwlBoy was a delightful game with a lot of character.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was a really nice return to form if you like IgaVanias.
If you like roguelites then you owe it to yourself to check out Enter the Gungeon (isometric) as well as RoboQuest (fps).
If you want a game that's beautiful, with emergent story and is hard af... definitely check out Rain World.
Is Black Mesa still considered indie? It's how I would recommend anyone play Half-Life 1 these days.
Rusty's Retirement... isn't so much a game.. sorta.. but yeah.. check that out.
+1 for Pacific Drive. Nothing else like it out there. And you get to form a relationship with a station wagon, which is peak passenger vehicle design.
And the soundtrack is outstanding!
Nothing else like it out there.
I keep meaning to check this one out but haven't yet. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1290170/Titan_Chaser/
I enjoyed Rusty's Retirement, glad to see someone else has played it. (I do count idlers as games.) Cute little desktop idle/incremental game.
Balatro
Obra Dinn
I loved Obra Dinn. If you like that you will probably also like "Case of the Golden Idol" and it's successor.
I tired it and it didn't hit the same way for me
You might like !factorio@lemmy.world
You might enjoy Heaven's Vault since you've played Chants of Sennaar! It's languagerific.
Janky though at times, movement wise
Same but with spelunky 2
In my thirst for difficult games, I 100%'d it. Took more than a 100 hours but still the most fun I've had mastering a game to that level of expertise
Lethal Company. It was developed by one person, yet it outsold Call of Duty. It trended from 2023 to 2024, but I still play it at least weekly. A couple Lethal Company clones have since come out and some say one (R.E.P.O) is better, and graphically I would say yes, but nothing quite matches Lethal Company’s charm.
It’s a scrap-collecting + space horror survival + comedy game. The comedy feels very unintended and that’s why it’s so fucking funny. You encounter very horrifying creatures, then see your friends die the funniest death. Then you hope to collect enough scrap to survive another day.
Bro yes. That game is so good. Wish I could get my friends to play more often lol.
The monsters in REPO are worse somehow.
Not sure if its because its relatively easier to stun/kill/hide from them or if its because their mechanics are lacking in some way compared to lethal company's, but I feel as if they don't have the same sauce.
Monster Sanctuary. A superbly polished, extremely fun, and decently challenging metroidvania and monster collecting/battling game. If you played the first few Pokemon generations on gameboy and don't find the newer games capture that same magic, check out Monster Sanctuary!
Pacific Drive. A station wagon building amd exploration game set in a STALKER-esque Pacific Northwest in the Olympic mountain range. Extremely original and unique game, and with an excellent soundtrack.
Hardspace Shipbreaker: spaceship salvage, with increasing hazards and challenges and complexity of ship systems to expertly disassemble. With a pretty cool workers' solidarity and union struggle type of plot.
Rimworld. Hundreds of hours lost.
Stardew Valley. A literally perfect game.
Terraria. Also a literally perfect game.
Caves of Qud. Like if Dwarf Fortress adventure mode was actually polished, and also if distant future scifi with mutants and cybernetics and sentient plants and sapient gun turrets.
Dwarf Fortress. It's Dwarf Fortress.
WolfQuest. Wolf simulator set in Yellowstone, with a focus on real world accuracy. So cool to raise a pack and manage territory and hunt and explore and howl a lot
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. A brilliantly executed spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio Future.
Descenders. Crazy fun downhill bicycling game.
One game I love that hasn't been mentioned yet is Subnautica. The only survival crafting game I ever finished. The story telling and athmosphere are unmatched.
One of the few games I've played through too!
Valheim. Bought it late January and already got almost 400 hours on it. Play it vanilla first then modded. I played it with friends, beat final boss on Day 997, we took our times, building and all along the way. Then I started over solo with x3 resources, no raid, and move metals through portal. I just wanted to see if I could solo all game and today I just finished basically everything. So right now, I'm just collecting resources for gears and buildings. Going to make few houses across the map.
Balatro. It's a great Maths game.
Here are a few, hopefully they aren't mentioned yet:
Some of these might be AA, it's hard to tell the difference sometimes. I have plenty more where that came from. :)
I feel like blufire never got the recognition it deserved.
Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. It's not the best game of its genre, but it's better than most.
I urge anyone who has not played CrossCode to give it a try. I randomly played it during the pandemic, and I've since not been able to enjoy gaming the way I did it before. For me, it was very close to being a 10/10.
Not just my favorite indie game, Skullgirls is my favorite game. That game is 13 years old, and there are still killer strategies that no one has even found yet, due to how flexible defense and team synergies are.
Vagante is probably my favorite roguelike, trailed closely by Streets of Rogue. As a bonus, both are playable in online and local co-op.
Sadly, the team behind Cannon Brawl never got to make another game together after making one of the best RTS games I've ever played, but to be fair, it wasn't exactly super similar to the likes of C&C and StarCraft. Tooth and Tail is another great indie RTS game that I felt could be a future for the genre, but it didn't really take off either.
There are also a handful of indie games that I've played that very few have. The Masterplan is just shy of being the perfect heist game, including a bunch of mechanics built around holding people at gunpoint. Magnetic By Nature is a clever magnetic platformer that deserved more attention. And most recently, I finally gave up hope that Cloak and Dasher, a fast paced platformer like Super Meat Boy or N++, will ever get another update and leave early access, but what's there, while kind of thin, is pretty great.
EDIT: I mistakenly listed Mind Over Magnet, Game Maker's Toolkit's game, instead of Magnetic By Nature. They're very different games. Magnetic By Nature is the one that I liked that so few people played that it may as well have been a secret.
Vagante's negative reviews criticize its too-numerous insta-death traps. What would your reply be to that?
I think you might love Noita!
I would say it's a game that requires you to play tactically rather than rushing through it. Especially early game, the traps are very reminiscent of Spelunky, and it's clear where a lot of their inspiration came from, but Vagante gives you even more mechanics to deal with traps, like magic rings that let you go through walls and floors, for instance, but you won't necessarily find them every run. Noita has caught my attention here and there, but I just never made time to try it.
I play, almost exclusively, non-AAA games. Some gems, known and hidden:
Tails Noir was a cool little game! I really liked it. 🤩
I liked that it wasn't a parody of itself. Most of the writing could have been unchanged if it hadn't been anthro themed. And the writing was nice, nothing ham-fisted, and had some respect for the reader. I keep running into games where you've just talked to an NPC about how they need you to hit the blue button, and you've gone through a hallway of posters saying your goal is to hit the blue button, had a quest marker guiding you there that says 'this way to the blue button you need to press,' and your character still feels the need to speak to the air about the need to hit the blue button when you walk into the blue button room.
Slay the Spire
Here are the ones that don't get uninstalled from my potato box:
(Disclaimer: some are very old, some may not be indie, eh, I did my best.)
With the amount of content the main game of Baba Is You comes with, alongside the level editor and custom modded level packs people have made for it, would 100% recommend it.
Inside
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Eternal Strands
Disco Elysium
All very different and unique. All fantastic!
N++
Undoubtedly the best, most complete 2D platformer I've ever played. Super tight controls and incredible level design, coupled with an episode-long timer mechanic that you can influence makes this one absolutely unmatched. Sure, games like Celeste are flashier, but nothing is a better game than N++. I think I put something like 120 hours into this to get the platinum on PS4. I would happily start over and play the whole thing from scratch again.
Too bad the developer duo basically disappeared... I had an idea for a 2-player sequel but they never responded.
Kerbal space program (the first one) And The Long Dark
Can’t really decide which I like more, and they are vastly different
Cave Story, the original 2004 version.
I played it a long time ago and I still think about that game from time to time.
Cave Story is undoubtedly the greatest Metroidvania made to date of which I know.
Cave Story really isn't a metroidvania. The path splits at points, but there's very little choice where to explore. It's just a platformer action shooter.
My favorite metroidvania has to be Aquaria. Vibes of the game are on point. The story is great for a game in that genre, and the traversal and combat are unique and tons of fun. Soundtrack is phenomenal.
Check out Gato Roboto if you want a metroidvania similar to Cave Story!
The OG. The fact it was all done by a single dude blows my mind. People often praise Toby Fox for the same reason, and he definitely deserves it, but he wasn't good at programming. Pixel was good at everything: programming, music, writing, and art.
Factorio.
You might like !factorio@lemmy.world
Slay The Spire
Fury
Ori And The Blind Forest
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an excellent followup to Blind Forest.
Fury
Furi? Or is there another indie game also called Fury?
The Furi soundtrack slaps btw
Oh yeah Furi.
I was very tired when I typed this up.
I've not seen many RPG maker games mentioned here, so i'll do my part. These are a lot of my favourites through the years:
There are also a lot of them that i've not played but i've watched full playtroughs of, like IB, Hello Charlotte, Lisa, ... and most recently The coffin of Andy and Leyley
One game i would also like to add is Rain World, which is a 2d survival platformer, a bit challenging, but i would argue it's also a "metroidbrania" if you know the genre, games that have knowledge as gates rather than keys or power-ups like metroidvanias. Some notable examples are Outer wilds or Return of obra dinn, who others have already mentioned
Celeste is really good. So sad that the "Sequel Game" from the Devs got chanceled.
Woops, i've left Celeste in while re-writing the list, that's not an RPG maker game
And i didn't know about the sequel until now, that's a shame
Finding Paradise is absolutely an amazing game. Would absolutely recommend a blind playthrough of it, or at least a no-commentary walkthrough if nothing else.
Vampire Survivors
It might just be because I was actually early aboard the hype train for this one; but this one just scratched that “one more go” itch until 2am like nothing else.
Enter the Gungeon
Randomly came across this via a YouTube short, and the art-style just meshed with me. Absolutely love the messy bullet-hell quick-play genre in general.. Hades being another great example of this.
Probably Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. All the older Indy games weren’t that great but this new one is really good.
Dude, The Fate of Atlantis was awesome. Don't you be crapping on my LucasArts point and click adventure games
Dyson sphere program is still one of my enduring favorites.
A Hat in Time
UFO 50
Outer Wilds
Hylics
Hylics 2
Pizza Tower
Celeste
It's hard to pick one lol
UFO 50 is fantastic.
Got a favourite yet? A friend and I have been paying a lot of lord's of disconia and party house most recently.
For anyone not familiar, UFO 50 is an anthology of 50 games in the style of nes/SNES era. It's made by Derek Yu, who made Spelunky before it.
For me, it's between Mooncat, Party House, and Porgy
I'll put Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead up there with FTL and Dwarf Fortress.
I can't say it's my favorite, but after checking out all of these games, I'm just gonna post one I think all you guys would love.
NOITA
I love it and hate it at the same time. Every time after I get far down, I don't want to play again for a long time.
The further you get, the heavier the loss.
From the top of my head
I am having a lot of fun with Timberborn and Big Ambitions.
Timberborn is a colony builder where you are in control of beavers. You have to survive between times of good water, bad water, and no water.
Big Ambitious is a business sum in new York make by the same person who made Startup Company.
Check out Tunic. I would recommend going blind.
The soundtrack to Tunic is so moody.
I used a few little hints to help with the "true final boss", but it was a fantastic reorienting of everything, and was glad by then it got away from traditional combat. I enjoyed the core combat too, although I usually don't even like Soulslikes.
Shadow Empire. Best 4X wargame ever. 400 page rulebook included. Realistic logistics and planet generation 6000 years in the future!
I think I have that on my GOG account, I'll have to check later. Also currently on sale there, too, super cheap
Slime Rancher, though most of my library is indie so I could list like ten others.
I won’t list out the “big” famous ones since those get covered anyway (Stardew, Undertale etc.)
There are plenty I love that have a little less polish but charm their way through, like Calico and Yonder. I also just played through Tunic and quite enjoyed it.
A solid indie publisher is Reddeer games - about half my switch titles are by them. Finji is another.
It's probably between stardew valley, rivals of aether, or cheaper world.
There's also a number that are almost perfect like wargroove, peglin, and kingdom rush.
Rivals was such a fun/approachable platform fighter. Still is
Cult of the Lamb.
Slice & Dice is the best dice-building roguelite ever and has a free demo that is only content-limited and allows you to already play an infinite amount of runs. I literally played the demo as much as a paid game for a month until I bit down—so hard that, once, when I had my phone in hand and intended to take a shower, I ended up crouching on the bathroom floor furthering a run for an hour before finally pausing to return to the real world.
Clone Drone in the Danger Zone offers awesome online co-op. Noita's world is just endless (people are still discovering new spell permutations years later). I will never turn down someone's offer or request to watch a run of FTL: Faster Than Light.
The AAA world is not impressive to me at all, and if anything gets deprioritized in my book; graphics or a third-person view do not a fantastic game make.
Judging by the playtime, Rimworld. It is such an important part of my life at this point, it's not even funny. I've played thousands of hours, and don't regret it
Probably gotta be Starsector
Hey, you might want to know that the item in brackets comes first and the link comes second. I see the raw link and the item in brackets, instead of what you probably intended: to have the item in brackets be a clickable link.
[Starsector](https://fractalsoftworks.com/) will produce what you want.
Thank you. It's been a day!
This is on my wishlist since a long time. I really want to play it.
It's great. That video I posted has a working CD Key in it if you want to try it out!
I guess either Shovel Knight or Hades
ya know what, I'mma round it out as a Top 5, so let's throw in Bastion, Bloodstained, and Dust: An Elysian Tail as well.
Brotato
Crumble A speedrunning platforming game, where you play as a blob with a tongue. Pleasant experience to play through while learning, while absolutely balls to the walls insane when actually speedrunning, actually 100% achieved this
Cyberpulse Twin-stick arcade neo style virus slamming game. Great control precision, challenging and colourful. The right thumbstick pressing might take a bit of getting used to.
Pseudoregalia Such a fun old school platformer. Big bunny girl MC for some reason but SUPER FUN and satisfying movement mechanics and the world is built well enough for the mechanics. A few hour long game, unless you look everything up.
Actually going to put some indie demos here I played this weekend, that I really enjoyed: Half-Sword Physics based medieval combat game. Reminds me of Exanima but instead of 2.5D, you can play Half-sword in 3rd or 1st person, which is really fun. Can have full gore or turn the gore completely off.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon First person (potentially later also 3rd person) RPG, very much in the vein of Elder Scrolls or Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. Really enjoyed the demo, it takes place on the tutorial island/dungeon. Going to buy the full version when it releases, because there seems to be a save wipe for 1.0.
Bloodthief Reminds me of Neon White and Ultrakill having an even more indie baby. Seemed to be pretty simple and good speedrunning platforming fun.
Shape of Dreams 2.5D action RPG roguelike. Very pretty and gameplay feels good. Didn't play it quite enough yet, only thing I kinda disliked was the amount of cooldowns on abilities.
9Kings Small town defense game with waves of enemies led by other kings attacking your kingdom. Really enjoyed this one. Demo isn't too difficult, even when I am really bad with these type of games.
RKGK (RAKUGAKI) 3rd person platforming game, where you bring some colour to the world with your graffiti. Very fun movement and popping colours. The dialogue isn't necessarily for me but the gameplay felt really fun.
Unbeatable Colourful rhythm adventure game, style is great and soundtrack slaps.
Exanima
Unique physics-based isometric dungeon crawler also featuring an arena career mode.
Moddable.
Really slow development cycle, though.
Severed Steel
Futuristic 3D shooter with maybe the best movement system I've tried, with wall running, full 360 air movement, sliding and more.
Weapons have only one magazine, so you're constantly sourcing them from your enemies while blasting holes into the fully destructible levels.
Very replayable.
Dave the diver! /s
But seriously I'm a real sucker for platformers, and so A Hat In Time is my most favorited one. It brought back this sort of charm I haven't felt since the n64 days and I love it!
Stray and Kena: Bridge of Spirits are pretty awesome too, would be my second and third favorites
Top of my list right now is Vintage Story! It's like a serious version of Minecraft, with more focus on realism.
For me it's Rimworld
Monster sanctuary (turn based monster collector) and Roboquest (arena shooter) were a couple from recent years that stood out to me
For older games nethack and dwarf fortress are great if you can look past the graphics
Monster Sanctuary was so good. I tried it when I had Game Pass, and I loved it so much I bought it outright for Xbox, and then again on Steam. Also got the hardcover monster journal.
Aethermancer, made by the same folks, is looking really good from their demo. Clearly lots of inspiration from Monster Sanctuary but very much its own sort of game
Most of what I play is indie and choosing a favorite is too hard, so instead I'll go with biggest playtime. Antimatter Dimensions, also on Steam, has quickly shot to having the highest playtime of my Steam library. It is an idle/incremental game. Bonus points: free! Most of the idle/!incremental_games@incremental.social I have played have been free in the browser without IAPs, and seem to have been made by one or a few people.
Not counting that, I'd probably have to go with Stardew Valley.
free in the browser without IAPs
Like what else?
Lots more I cannot remember off the top of my head
super meat boy
One of my all time favorites right now is Brok The Investigator.
It's a game by French company COWCAT Games that is describes as a point and click beat'em-up game. Has lots to do because there are multiple endings. It has a free visual novel made to essentially showcase a vn engine that can be used to make BTI fan games or your own creations and has an upcoming DLC (apparently only gonna be $9.99) that focuses more on the combat side of the game.
It's currently available on PS4/5 (vita planned but scrapped), xbox (don't know if they mean one and series x/s or just series), switch, steam, itch(dot)io, and even epic if you hate yourself.
Hey, I have that game! I need to get to it
Check out frog fractions!
+1 for Frog Fractions. I finished in about an hour. Cannot tell you much without spoilers, but I can say it's not one of those surprise horror games. It looks like a kid-friendly game and at least content-wise stays kid-friendly.
Live for Speed
I've been playing it on and off for over 20 years now with some definite highs and lows but I have nothing but respect for the devs (3 people) and community. It's not on any store fronts and they just do their own thing.
Crosscode for sure! They have a new game in the works as well, it looks like it will be just as good. Great time to get into it
I really hope the sequel does more with dungeons than just ricochet/geometry puzzles. CrossCode's incessant use of those in dungeon after dungeon was what made me stop playing.
Not a sequel, just their next game! Combat and UI look similar so far. They’re doing dev streams on their discord
I thought crosscode had the best puzzles haha. The way they built it out with the elemental system, the enemies that required puzzle mechanics you had learned, the tight timing where you had to send a ball flying and then race it to various objectives, the myriad of subtle environmental puzzles in the overworld. Could go on and on, but yeah the VRP is the game’s central mechanic so if you simply don’t enjoy lining up your shots then I imagine the game would be pretty rough lol
Sayonara Wild Hearts is a magical experience that can't be described honestly. On difficult stages, it engages all your senses and you're just 100% inside, enthralled by the visuals, music and rhythm. This is probably the most focused and most precise game ever, everything it has, works. It's not just my favorite indie game, it's one of my favorite games ever.
Also, Night in the Woods and Keep Driving. Both resonated with me emotionally in a lot of ways, touching the things I care about. Keep Driving also has a really fun gameplay loop and an incredible music selection (which works as a boost for that emotional factor).
Honorable mentions: What Remains of Edith Finch (it made me uncomfortable and scared at some moments) and Firewatch (nice way to tell a story, and the characters feel real).
Sayonara Wild Hearts is such a good weekend game. Really cheap, really short, really good and with a soundtrack that you're going to listen to long after finishing the game.
Highly recommend!
Fun fact: I discovered the soundtrack first, listened to it, checked out the game on YouTube and decided it's not worth it. Only after something like two years of listening to the soundtrack did I get the game.
Used to play battlefield 2, BC2 and 3 alot. Then I stopped playing online games and recently started playing "Ravenfield". It's succesfully filling the void, there are even battlefield maps and some vehicle/heli/jet/tank mods and ignoring the fact that it looks like battlefield heroes (very indie-style graphics), the physics/handling feels pretty close, especially when flying heli and shooting rockets
i'm not sure The Ur-Quan Masters counts as indie
yes! Such a good game! Amazing art / story
Dammit now that I've thought about it I'm gonna have to stay up and beat it sometime this week aren't I. Best free game out there
Tactical Breach Wizards
The whole defenestration trilogy is amazing
Yep, agree. Heat Signature was also fun, but getting rather repetitive.
Another Crab’s Treasure.
Oh, haha, a souls game but with crabs, funny parody haha!
Except, no, while it does seem like it would be compared to SpongeBob humor, and it does self censor “shit” to “ship”, the themes of the story go well beyond just “Crab must find his stolen shell!”
It takes time to ramp up but in some ways it feels like a better-written game than most Soulslikes (to me, that’s not a high bar given the way many of them wrap their lore in many layers of obfuscation that you don’t get to enjoy in the moment)
Watching speedruns and trying NG+ is also a lot of fun.
i love its anticapitalist take on ocean pollution. unironically smart stuff
Swapper
Not my actual favorite, but it's very high on my list, and I didn't see it posted yet.
Banished, you can't get more Indie than just one guy's passion project.
I don't know what it is about that game but it really struck a chord with me and I've come back to it over and over. It's my favorite game to play when I'm sick and can't do anything. It's relaxing and peaceful and cozy while also being complex and ruthlessly challenging at the same time, so it's like spinning plates. Seems easy when you get the hang of it but it can all come crashing down if you make a bad enough mistake. It's spawned some copy cats, and I've tried them, but the original just gets me somehow.
Pyre is my all time favorite, it's the only game i've ever platinumed and still kept playing to see a few more permutations. But by terms of sheer hours put in? Rimworld.
Dungeons of Dredmor! Just a really solid, straightforward roguelike with a ton of stuff and a cheeky sense of humour.
The vast majority of my favourite games have been listed, many multiple times, so I'm gonna go with some I didn't see, though I didn't look exhaustively, here we go:
Quite a hidden gem in my opinion, almost no one I mention it to has heard of it. 2D platformer with an amazing story and some interesting gimmicks. One of the most surprising and unforgettable indie games I've played.
Ninja action-platformer that is way more than it first appears if you stick with it. Hilarious writing, great controls, and amazing music. Genuinely one of my favourite games.
Almost entirely unique in it's idea. It's a pinball-metroidvania where you're a postman dung beetle, and it really works. Gorgeous world, super chill vibes, clever puzzles... What metroid prime pinball should have been.
I'm still stuck in Horace! Such a great game.
I liked Horace okay at first, but it definitely gets bastard hard in a hurry.
I really love Supraland, but it’s hard to convince people to try it for some reason.
Isn't there still a demo? I bought it the minute I reached the end of the demo.
Just played through both of these, they were so good.
Most of my picks have been mentioned already, but I had a blast with Mullet Madjack. A tongue in cheek riff on 80s anime in a boomer shooter where you have 10 seconds to live, but each enemy kill gives you 2 more seconds of life.
Rogue Legacy
I haven’t seen it mentioned and feel like it should count, since it really just had a solo programmer working with a graphic designer and musician, but RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 took a big chunk of my gaming time.
I really like Isle Wars and Scorched Earth
I'll have to go with Selaco, it's not even finished (in fact it's approximately half done) but it feels more complete than any mainline Halo game after H:Reach. Looks better too.
The Binding of Isaac is already a famous title that has influenced so much of the roguelike/twin-stick-shooter genre. This game has permanently altered my taste in video games.
The game I’ve enjoyed as much as TBoI is Tiny Rogues. It’s much smaller, but still fantastic with rich build variety while never losing the need for skill and good reactions.
Stolen Realm is a turn-based tactical RPG that takes place in procedurally generated dungeons that play like little roguelike runs with overarching character progression. It’s multiplayer, but you can also just control up to six characters on your own too. It does eventually feel pretty repetitive and there are points that seem impossible to win, but it’s a unique game where you continually build that roguelike power fantasy and just progressively become more powerful to the point of it feeling game breaking.
Going Under is an adorable roguelite where you fight through various levels themed around a blend of corporate stereotypes and fantasy creatures like a crypto company run by skeletons or a delivery company run by goblins. The combat is a vaguely souls-like with an emphasis on weight and timing, but your weapons are office items found in each room that break down very quickly.
Webbed is a cute puzzle/platformer where you play as a little spider on a quest to save your spider boyfriend. The main gimmick is that you can shoot webs to create platforms, pull things, attach things to each other and more. It’s a short and sweet game that’s still decently challenging. It’s the only non-roguelike indie I recommend and it’s that good that I love it despite it being in a genre I rarely play and almost never finish.
Gotta go with Dwarf Fortress. Been playing on and off for the past 10 years at least, it's just endless !!FUN!!
Saw someone else out urquan masters, so I'll put Caves of Qud and Rain World. they both of some of the best pixel art ever, and caves of qud has some the most dynamic story telling in anything I've played
I'm pretty excited about the upcoming "Free Stars: Children of Infinity." I backed them on Kickstarter.
I have a personal soft spot for Doki Doki Literature Club because it got me into programming when i was young, but that's far more sentimental and to be honest i wouldn't play it again as an adult really. If i had to pick something functionally though I'd say Project Zomboid. there's a fuck ton of fun to be made in that, especially with Multiplayer. Even in singleplayer i like to turn on a NPC mod and assemble my own makeshift Walking Dead cast
Just looking though some of my higher playtime games, here's a few I haven't seen mentioned: (I think they're all indie or small studio)
Gunfire Reborn - Roguelike fps with infinite replay.
Troubleshooter Abandoned Children - XCOM style battle system with a really really fun way to customize how your character fight. Story is pretty lame though (I ended up skipping it) and it's pretty grindy.
Thronefall - Pretty challenging base defence.
The last spell - Turn based base defence with lots of different ways to build your characters.
Ratropolis - Roguelike real-time card strategy base defence. Pretty good, although not well balanced at highest difficulties.
Some I really appreciate that I'm not seeing on this list:
I'm currently enjoying Blue Prince which is a fairly new rogue-like puzzle/mystery game it's hard to explain without spoiling but it's worth looking up.
Portals of Phereon is one of my absolute favorites. It's a fairly deep tactical RPG thing with loads of replayability. It's kind of like a Pokemon x FF Tactics but with monstergirls and it's also currently free while it's in development. Be aware it's extremely NSFW and horny, which I suspect is the main reason it's not as popular as some of the others listed (IE rimworld, stardew valley, etc.) however the horny is such a key point to it's original gameplay and world-building that it wouldn't be the same without it.
Thea: the awakening is a decent tactical RPG. I love it for it's original battle mini game, crafting system and world-building. It unfortunately has some balance issues and jankiness that prevents it from being an all time favorite, but it's definitely one I would encourage at least trying.
Thought of a few others:
I was getting into Blue Prince, then I think I got a little annoyed with a puzzle involving a time lock, that claimed you could set it to open at a future date/time and it would stay for one hour. Fun, inventive way to get people to plan ahead.
But no, then I wasted several out of game days planning only to find that it's referring to in-game time; something that has not plainly existed through any of the other mechanics thus far. I'll likely get back to it, just think they could've chosen the orientation of "big picture" puzzles like that a bit better.
Oh I agree, but that one didn't seem to bad to me due to the clocks depicting an in-game time that were everywhere. The ones that I almost rage quit on were: ::: spoiler possible spoilers
Celeste is one of my favorite games period, and it qualifies. The gameplay parallels the story better than any other game I've ever played or seen played, and the soundtrack, art, and characters are amazing. Top tier gameplay and a great story to go with it.
Alternatively, if you're looking for absolutely unhinged strange gameplay made by a programmer rather than a game designer, check out Fractal Block World. It's pretty fascinating!
Rimworld
Undertale
Can't really add much to all of the great games already mentioned. But I'll add one, because it was one of the best games I played in recent memory. Chants of Sennaar. Where to even start? Point-and-click adventure/puzzle game that is all about language puzzles. With great visuals and music. Really dig the eurocomics inspired style. I don't know why, but this game really touched me - maybe it's because the game is about uniting people in an age of discord.
Sticking only to ones I haven't seen mentioned:
Ones I have seen mentioned but can't bear not to mention:
Clonk Endevour is not my favorite game, but I played it a lot with friends when I was younger. You can play with 2 or even more people, with just a monitor and a keyboard! Also it's so old it should run on any potato.
edit: real answer is Slay The Spire
edit2: ah shit now all of a sudden all the good indie games I played pop up in my head. Project Kat I enjoyed. Synthetik was awesome. Caves of Qud hasn't been mentioned yet (didn't play it much though).
Currently it’s Bellwright, among many other titles. what particularly tickles me about it is the shitty ai voices they used for the npcs. I am not pro ai by any means, but nothing makes me happier than hearing “all in a good days of work.” delivered constantly, in the most off-kilter reading imaginable.
Gunpoint. Charming, atmospheric, doesn't outstay its welcome.
Great music too
Can't believe none of these haven't been mentioned yet: Starsector Kenshi Graveyard keeper Battle brothers Ghost of a tale
Super Daryl Deluxe
That game has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard in a game.
hypnospace outlaw
Magicraft.
I remember playing an RPG back in the day called “Dink Smallwood” on my old Macintosh laptop, it was one of the few games that were Mac compatible. Really funny and self aware dialogue, pretty great! I found out there’s an app version of it for mobile
Available for PC too: https://www.gog.com/en/game/dink_smallwood_hd
Minimetro and Cultist Simulator are my go to "comfy" games, but cultist simulator really does get you feeling like you're chasing a mad eldritch horror when playing at times. It's deliberately obtuse and odd, and then a revelation of the truth takes you over and you push on beyond your wildest expectations.
Slay the Spire and Hollowknight have both been mentioned enough in other posts in case anyone reading this is somehow unaware of either of them.
Faster than Light and Into the Breach are both excellent games. FtL is rng mitigation and crisis control par excellence. ItB is basically chess, and you play out the turns as best you can. It's rewarding, but once you get good you need to ramp up the difficulty somewhat to keep it fun.
I want to like Into the Breach but it's too stressful. Like, when I fuck up in FTL and the crew dies it sucks, but when I fuck up in Into the Breach and all those civilians die? Oof. They were counting on me!
Yes, it hurts seeing those 3 or 4 digits numbers.
But once you've finished a run once or twice, you'll get more options and be able to turn it essentially into Sudoku or some other solitaire puzzle and do most levels perfectly once you know what's going on and having a few more options.
NaissancE
That game is something else. Music by Pauline Oliveros is half of the game's magic.
Factorio, hands down
600 hours and counting. The space age expansion basically quadrupled the content, and is the first time I've played the game 100% vanilla with no mods in probably 10 years. Great times.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. If that doesn't count. Will....HoloCure or Noita or Parking Garage Rally Circuit.
Holocure is amazing! I don't even watch Vtubers I just looked at the highest rated games on steam and found it. Within the first 3 weeks I put in 100 hours
Clair Obscur really isn't an indie game.
I loved a tiny one called The Last Day of June.
It was on PlayStation Plus and it really had a great story.
Dota.
Ok, I know what you're saying, "But Valve makes Dota2" which, yes, this is true. But the OG game came about from gamers just loving games and making a custom game. I think it's peak "indie" in it's origin. Which went off to spawn several clones (League of Legends, Heroes Of Newerth, Heroes Of The Storm, Smite, Pokemon Unite, Paladins, etc.). Dota2 by far has the most hours played of any game.
Don't think I can go back to dota, deadlock is really great though.
The Cat Lady and the other games from Harvester Games 👀
Anything of Soldak - https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/soldak/ : 2 series - space shooters Drox and hack n slash Dins - Super coarse graphics, action, fighting, but their living worlds, like nowhere else. No other game where worlds freely grow based on player actions. Did You ever left main quest for exploration, lvling up or side games, oh well, here, world will not allow You to, as enemies won't stay idle or wait for You, they do their business.
Orb of Creation - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1910680/Orb_of_Creation/ Semi-clicker (intense clicker, not much of idle) and immersive mage simulator, where You don't make Your mage-avatar, but are the mage. Still beta, but already big.
I suppose I've plugged it recently, but Another Crab's Treasure.
It opens pretty plainly as an ocean-based Soulslike parody with a simple story premise and some self-subverting humor in the dialog with other crabs. As you go on though, every 20th conversation becomes really pointed and real-world-connecting, going beyond just "pollution bad". It's not quite Spec Ops: The Line, but it at least has something to say about society.
The combat is frustrating but addictive, much like Souls games - and it's okay with handing off a number of allowances like accessibility modes and tip systems. It's even helpful that, if I die to a glitch or something bogus, I can actually just choose to re-obtain my microplastics (souls) through a menu.
FlyKnight and ATLYSS, I think. Kinda retro but actually really good and very affordable.
Synthetik is my top steam game with, like, 900 hours.
Minecraft (the old one)
I really liked What Remains of Edith Finch.
It was more of an experience and really struck some emotional chords, leaving me write emotional at the end.
Really beautiful and melancholy experience.
Stardew Valley
Crimzon Clover: World EXplosion. Top 3 shmups of all-time and best shmup on Steam, IMO.
You might like !shmups@lemmus.org
Absolute favorite is Outer Wilds. The only thing I don't like about it is that I can't experience it again. A true masterpiece of a game.
After that, probably Noita for sheer insanity. Deeply unfair, but getting a god-run going is that much sweeter. It took me ~100 hours to beat it the first time, now I can consistently win if I try but I'm addicted to doing stupid things to see what happens.
More people need to know about (and play) CrossCode.
Yeah, I took a look because of your comment. Sounds like something I should try. The art is certainly appealing to me. Appreciative that more games are putting out demos lately.
I just beat StS Ascension 20 for the first time this week 💀
Man, I struggle with A3. I can't imagine A20.
Congrats! It is brutal, isn't it?
I loved cross code....except the puzzles. Im just not s puzzle person.
I'm so glad someone's mentioned CrossCode! Such a wonderful experience from beginning to end. The world really feels alive with every inch of a mal being used to either enhance the story or hide a puzzle! I loved seeing chests and figuring out how to get to them across several maps.
I'm really looking forward to their next project, Alabaster Dawn. I hope it's just as good!