Ask ten people for the best indie games of all time and you will get eleven lists, all of them angry. Indie games are personal. A strange mechanic, a particular art style, or a story that catches you at the right moment can matter more than any sales chart.
Here are thirteen picks across different genres, from 2008 to 2024. The order is a recommendation, not a scientific measurement of greatness. Each earns its place for a particular strength—and each is a better fit for some moods than others.
What counts as indie?
Independence is not the same thing as working alone. These games come from a mixture of individual creators and independent studios, sometimes with publishers, contractors, or other collaborators. A recognizable creative direction does not mean nobody else helped.
For this list, the useful connection is independent development rather than a strict team-size or budget limit. A farming game, an intricate detective story, and a cruel little cave simulator can all belong here without pretending they were made under identical conditions.
1. Hollow Knight (2017)
Team Cherry’s hand-drawn adventure sends you beneath Dirtmouth into a sprawling insect kingdom. Exploration and demanding combat support each other: new abilities open routes, and unfamiliar corners offer reasons to keep investigating.
It is an excellent starting point if you want a world to get lost in and bosses that expect practice. It is a less obvious choice if getting lost is the thing you dislike. The bugs are beautiful; their hospitality needs work.
2. Disco Elysium (2019)
ZA/UM’s detective RPG turns conversation and the protagonist’s unruly inner life into major parts of play. Its 24 skills do more than modify numbers: they influence the information and impulses competing for attention.
It is often described as having no combat, but the developers explain the distinction more carefully: violence is handled within the same narrative and skill systems, rather than through a separate traditional combat mode. Choose it for reading, role-playing, and awkward decisions. Your own brain is already a difficult colleague; this one holds meetings.
3. Celeste (2018)
A pixel-art platformer about climbing a mountain and, less literally, facing a difficult relationship with yourself. Celeste pairs precise movement with a story centered on Madeline’s journey.
Its short challenges make repeated attempts part of the rhythm, while Assist Mode offers ways to adjust the experience. It is also a natural fit for the kind of route practice discussed in our guide to speedrunning. Hard game, soft heart—and a strong reason to try one more room.
4. Hades (2020)
Supergiant’s Underworld escape game brings Greek mythology, rapid combat, and continuing character relationships into the same loop. A failed attempt sends you back, but the surrounding story keeps developing.
The appeal is that restarting can give you something to look forward to as well as another challenge. Choose it if you want action with familiar faces between runs. Death is an interruption, but rarely an empty one.
5. Stardew Valley (2016)
ConcernedApe’s country-life RPG gives you an inherited farm and a community to get to know. Crops, fishing, relationships, and exploration compete for your in-game days.
It can be a comfort blanket, or an elaborate schedule you have voluntarily created for yourself. Both approaches are available. Pick it if you enjoy building routines and watching small efforts accumulate; resist the temptation to treat every day as a performance review. The parsnips do not need a quarterly report.
6. Undertale (2015)
Toby Fox’s RPG makes an unusual offer: you do not have to kill your enemies. Encounters combine dialogue, choices, and attacks to dodge, giving personality a place usually occupied by another damage calculation.
It is funny, strange, and better approached without a detailed account of its surprises. Choose it if you enjoy a game that pays attention to how you treat its characters.
7. Outer Wilds (2019)
Mobius Digital’s solar-system mystery takes place within a repeating time loop. You explore changing environments, interpret clues, and gradually understand how discoveries connect.
Knowledge is the crucial progression, rather than a ladder of stronger weapons. That is also why it is worth avoiding detailed guides at first. You do have instruments and a ship’s log to help you investigate; this is not a demand to memorize an entire solar system unaided. Choose it for curiosity, and be prepared for some unsettling places.
8. Braid (2008)
Jonathan Blow’s puzzle-platformer uses the ability to rewind time as a foundation, then changes the rules around it. The original game’s description outlines variations including objects that resist rewinding and time linked to movement.
Its painted world, with art by David Hellman, gives those abstract puzzles a distinctive setting. Choose it when you want a problem that changes once you understand its rules.
9. Spelunky (2008; remake 2012)
Derek Yu’s cave exploration game combines changing layouts with hazards and creatures that interact in dangerous ways. The original version and the 2012 remake are distinct releases; the latter was built with collaborators including Andy Hull.
It is a strong pick if you enjoy learning through failure and slowly recognizing how a system behaves. The comedy often comes from a disastrous chain of events that you can trace back to one very confident decision. Usually yours.
10. Inside (2016)
Playdead’s follow-up to Limbo is a dark puzzle-platformer built around movement, observation, and an increasingly disturbing environment.
Choose it for visual storytelling and atmosphere rather than a long explanation of the world. It is the kind of game where describing every memorable scene would be a disservice. “Short, grim, and worth approaching unspoiled” is enough of a briefing.
11. Return of the Obra Dinn (2018)
Lucas Pope sends you aboard a vanished merchant ship that has returned without its crew. Your role is an insurance investigator, which proves considerably less restful than that job title might suggest.
You reconstruct identities and fates from fragmentary scenes, voices, and visual clues. The stark two-color presentation is not just decoration: it makes careful looking part of the pleasure. Pick it if you want deductions you can explain, rather than a mystery solved mainly by clicking everything.
12. Balatro (2024)
LocalThunk’s poker-inspired deckbuilder turns familiar hands into a starting point for increasingly unlikely combinations. Jokers and upgrades change what your deck can do, making the fun less about ordinary poker strategy than building a scoring machine.
It won Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie Game, and Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2024. Pick it if you like experimenting with combinations and watching a plan become ridiculous. Set your own stopping point before “one more run” starts negotiating.
13. Animal Well (2024)
Billy Basso’s labyrinthine puzzle game asks you to investigate a world whose objects can be more useful than they initially appear. It trades much of the usual combat emphasis for observation, experimentation, and secrets.
The official site credits Basso as the sole developer and Dan Adelman for business and marketing. That is a useful example of how a largely individual creative project can still involve essential support. Choose it if you enjoy asking “what else can this do?” and then discovering that the answer is inconveniently large.
Honorable mentions
Thirteen slots is cruel. Cuphead deserves consideration for its cartoon art and demanding bosses; Cave Story for its compact adventure; Hotline Miami for frantic action; and The Binding of Isaac for the combinations and surprises in its repeated runs. The last two are especially dark choices, so check whether their material suits you.
Where to start
Pick by mood. For a place to settle into, try Stardew Valley. For precise platforming, Celeste. For exploration, Hollow Knight or Outer Wilds. For deduction, Return of the Obra Dinn. For action between conversations, Hades; for conversations that are the action, Disco Elysium.
Before buying, check the edition and platform requirements. An older release or a pixel-art style does not automatically mean a game will run well on any old device.
There is no need to complete the whole list. The best choice is the one whose particular obsession sounds appealing to you. Your backlog already has enough ambition.
