Board 8 > Favorite Indie Game?

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Vote for your option manually if it isn't included in the poll.

Top 10 list would be appreciated

Since I have literally no AAA game I want to play right now. I'm exploring the indie scene of gaming so yeah this can be a scouting topic as well.

This is the list of Indie games I've beaten from best to worst

01. Cuphead
02. Shovel Knight
03. Ori and the Blind Forest
04. Braid
05. Plants vs. Zombies
06. Undertale
07. INSIDE
08. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
09. Cave Story
10. Firewatch
11. Her Story
12. What Remains of Edith Finch

Currently playing
- Celeste

Tried playing but didn't like it
- Hollow Knight (5 hours)
- Dead Cells (1 hour)
- Salt and Sanctuary (1 hour)
- Super Meat Boy (About 1 hour)
- Gone Home (10 mins I think)
- Night in the Woods (30 mins)
- Guacamelee (1 hour approximately)

La-Mulana

HM to VVVVVV
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Raiders of the Lost Ark on Atari
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Kerbal Space Program

HM: Crypt of the Necrodancer, Factorio, VVVVVV, Terraria
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7 votes, 7 different answers.

I've put well over 1000 hours into Rocket League.
It's that.
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Night in the Woods is probably my favorite and What Remains of Edith Finch is up near the top so I'm pretty sure my opinions aren't similar to yours
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yea looks like you aren't one for narrative indie games, Night in the Woods is definitely my favorite.

Of all the gameplay focused ones, I've easily put the most time into Binding of Isaac and all its iterations.
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Shantae series
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I pretty much only play indie games these days here's my personal top 20 of series you didn't include

Fez
Rhem series
La Mulana 1+2
Terraria
Antichamber
Snakebird
Baba is You
Spelunky HD
VVVVVV
Slay the Spire
The Witness
Impresja
Obra Dinn
Environmental Station Alpha
Escape Goat 1+2
Starbound
Quern
Rogue Legacy
The Talos Principle
Slime Rancher

There's probably a few I'm forgetting or aren't thinking of "indie" right now but oh well. Exact placement on my list may change based on my mood because I'm indiecisive and don't feel like making things too exact right now. Honestly my top 5 are all practically equal. Obduction would probably be real high on my list but my PC sucks so I haven't played it yet.
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Top 5 off the top of my head

The Stanley Parable
Superhot
Shovel Knight
Prison Architech
Plants vs Zombies
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Here are some of my favorites (in order most to least, but still like all of them obv)

The Witness
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Return of the Obra Dinn
Rogue Legacy
Braid
Shovel Knight
Spelunky
Hexcells
VVVVVV
Papers, Please
Cuphead
FTL
Binding of Isaac
Battleblock Theater
The Stanley Parable
Axiom Verge
Dead Cells
Guacamelee/Guacamelee 2
Into the Breach
Baba is You
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Very close between Hollow Knight and Shovel Knight.
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Here's an approximate top ten:

1. Outlast 1 & 2
2. Hotline Miami
3. Stay Out of the House
4. The Glass Staircase
5. Dusk
6. Claire
7. DreadOut
8. Remothered: Tormented Fathers
9. Faith 1 & 2
10. Dreaming Mary
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Castle in the Darkness
Of games not on that list.
Because Rocket League isn't really an Indie anymore
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ive put too many hours into isaac to not pick it
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I tried all the so called 2D Dark Souls clones like Hollow Knight, Salt & Sanctuary and Dead Cells and none of them were even remotely comparable in quality. Granted I do prefer 3D over 2D gaming by a wide margin, there have been amazing games of the same genre like SoTN and Super Metroid and those indie games I mentioned, frankly, weren't anywhere close to that level.

Hollow Knight had a bit of promise but the slow plodding pace, terrible map mechanics and uninspired environment eventually led me to quitting the game with absolutely no regrets.

You've only played like 20 indie games ever?
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Bastion
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foolm0r0n posted...

You've only played like 20 indie games ever?

Yup. My total tally of games beaten is over 1100 but my indie games resume leaves much to be desired.

Cuphead is the best indie game I've played so far but it barely cracks my Top 200. It is a very good game but can't match the best AAA games out there.

I've decided to play more Indie games this year, hence the scouting topic here.

Undertale's the only one of these I've played. It was pretty good.
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Rocket League
A Hat in Time

Those are the only two I've liked, but I haven't played that many to be honest
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Isaac
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Ori and the Blind Forest
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Super Cloudbuilt

For ones you don't have listed. Cloudbuilt is the only one of the three that's 3D though.
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1. Cave Story
2. Furi
3. Rocket League
4. Bastion
5. Crypt of the Necrodancer
6. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
7. Hotline Miami
8. VA-11 HALL-A
9. Shovel Knight
10. Hyper Light Drifter

votes the binding of isaac rebirth
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I would say go on https://itch.io/ and try random Featured games and also some Fresh games that catch your eye, for like 5-10 minutes. It's not about finding your next favorite game or anything, but more about getting a feel for what the non-AAA landscape is like.

Then you can search by tags and categories and try the highest rated ones that show up.

Basically it's about finding games in a super specific weird niche that you are interested in, instead of just playing every popular thing like we do in AAA.
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Spelunky
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If I had to make a top 10 of my favorite indie games, it would be something like this:

1. Night in the Woods
2. Terraria
3. Stardew Valley
4. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
5. Tales of Maj'Eyal
6. Doom (not an indie-published series, but the first game was, and that's good enough for me)
7. Race the Sun
8. VVVVVV
9. Plants vs. Zombies
10. Tabletop Simulator (less of an actual game and more of a platform; good if you have board games you're interested in playing with friends)

I would also reiterate foolmo's advice that indie gaming isn't necessarily about playing the most popular and acclaimed releases, but about playing the ones you're interested in.
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Shovel Knight.

It's not just the best Indie game I've played, it might be legitimately one of my top 25 games ever.
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An Untitled Story is still probably my favorite. Undertale was damn good though.
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MysticBrohan posted...

ive put too many hours into isaac to not pick it

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1. Journey
2. Octodad: Dadliest Catch
3. What Remains of Edith Finch
4. Return of the Obra Dinn
5. A Hat in Time
6. INSIDE
7. Hollow Knight
8. Gone Home
9. Papers, Please
10. Night in the Woods

HM:
Braid
The Stanley Parable
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
The Unfinished Swan
Her Story
Celeste
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Rocket league isnt really indie.

Regardless all of those are lightyears ahead of undertale, Celeste & Cuohead being the best 2
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Hollow Knight. Can't wait for the sequel
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I'd have a hard time doing a top 10 (although Celeste is #1 for sure), but here's the first ones that come to mind when I think about indie games I've played and enjoyed.

Celeste
Iconoclasts
La-Mulana/La-Mulana 2
Bastion
Pyre
Furi
Shovel Knight
To The Moon
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VA-11 HALL-A
Undertale
To The Moon
Journey
Plants vs. Zombies
Aviary Attorney
Blackwell series
Bastion
Orwell
Thomas Was Alone
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MetalmindStats posted...

If I had to make a top 10 of my favorite indie games, it would be something like this:

1. Night in the Woods
2. Terraria
3. Minecraft
4. Stardew Valley
5. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
6. Tales of Maj'Eyal
7. Doom (not an indie-published series, but the first game was, and that's good enough for me)
8. Race the Sun
9. VVVVVV
10. Plants vs. Zombies

I forgot about Minecraft somehow.
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My favourite... I have no idea. Here's some recs though

Rabi-Ribi (shockingly well-designed and expansive metroidvania (it's no shovel knight but easily one of the biggest nonetheless) with some bullet hell-esque bosses on the side. facilitates nonlinearity with all sorts of secret paths, controls are really slick and there's a lot of hidden tech (both intentional and not, and they've gradually added more areas to the game reliant on both). Probably the game I am proudest to say I have backed)

Murasaki series (very polished physics-based puzzle/bullet hell shmup hybrid with excellent art and music. This and a few other games below count under the (safe part of the) Japanese doujin gaming scene more but I love it too much to not mention. $5 in english, free in japanese)

Orange Juice games (Suguri series is a novel as heck shmup series, complete with bullet-absorbing dash mechanics, healthbars, and a fluid as fuck top-down arena fighting game hybrid spinoff subseries, and it also has a top tier OST, but Flying Red Barrel and the QP/Xmas Shooting series are very strong, distinctive shmup experiences too. Also 100%OJ is an excellent online board game with a thriving community, and 200% Mixed Juice is a fun and short (like 5 hour) jrpg also with (pokemon-style) multiplayer)

Touhou games (core games are vertical bullet hell shmups with very particular quirks and a mesmerising aesthetic. There are also canon fighting games which vary a bit but I consider all pretty fun. and then there are literal thousands of fangames which often riff on countless other series with varying results. Some actually rule a lot)

Obra Dinn (novel puzzle game with a striking aesthetic. Its structure is really something else)

Super Hook Girl series (maybe the best swinging-based platformer. Has 2 games and a rpg-ish spinoff)

ESA (also big on swinging except it's also a great metroidvania)

Umihara Kawase (the OG indie hook game series. Doubles as a weapon here. Latest game on switch has guest characters and is apparently structured like a metroidvania with quest-based progression. I am excited.)

Va-11 Hall-A (strong and novel writing from some... Venezuelan folks or something like that. Mostly a visual novel but with interactive elements that tie into nonlinearity. Writing is superb and captures a very powerful mood spot on. Very unlike traditional vn writing. The folks had done a few other things prior but they all sucked. Check out the alpha, prototype and prologue releases of it if you like the game though)

Wuppo, and also Pikuniku (fun "weird" games that are kind of light metroidvanias with a good sense for humour. Both are relatively short, wuppo is definitely the more fleshed out of the two. I like both though)

Terraria (if you like the idea of a fun exploration-based 2d platformer with bosses and quests and crafting and building and a good sandbox then hey you should've played this years ago)

Interloper (now this one's an odd one to list but it's a pretty novel game that tried to do a fresh spin on the RTS genre. It's a 1v1 arena rts that kind of fits in the same vein as those ones you see on mobile nowadays, but without sacrificing tactical area control and other elements of traditional real time strategy games. Matches are designed to take only around 2 to 5 minutes so it's fun. Also it's completely free now.)

All of the games from askiisoft (tower of heaven, pause head, overpowered and katana zero are all fun, relatively short 2D platformer/action games with at least one really fun gimmick that makes them all worth playing. First few are flash games.)

Frog Fractions series (they are both experiences to say the least. 1's a flash game. 2 has some issues but ut has some goodass stuff in it)

Nearly out of characters so I'm not going to go through them all but I'm going to add that stuff like Umineko and Higurashi also count. Also DDLC, which is free.

Fez
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Wow. So Undertale is king of indie everywhere huh

Just want to give Hotline Miami some love since it was only mentioned once.

Fantastic game
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Just beat Celeste. Fun game.

Would probably rank it right below Undertale for #7 but I still have post-game and cleaning up on strawberries in some of the previous chapters.

I'm putting this in alphabetical order, but I am not 100% sure if all of these are indie. I'm also limiting myself to stuff from the past 10 years or so because or I would have mostly SNES and N64 games on this list:

A Hat in Time
AER: Memories of Old
Aliens Go Home Run
Braid
Chime
Hexcells
Hotline Miami
Mercury Hg
Mini Metro
Minit
Monument Valley 1 + 2
Mu Cartographer
Nex Machina
Ori and the Blind Forest
Outland
Peggle
PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate
Rocket League
SteamWorld Heist
The Gardens Between
The Sexy Brutale
Tokyo 42
Unholy Heights
VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action
Why Am I Dead At Sea

25 is a good cutoff point.
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