{"id":797,"date":"2023-08-09T17:00:50","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T17:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-intel-gap.pantheonsite.io\/?p=797"},"modified":"2023-08-09T17:00:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T17:00:50","slug":"pc-gamers-best-indie-games-to-play-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/game.intel.com\/th\/stories\/pc-gamers-best-indie-games-to-play-in-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"PC Gamer\u2019s Best Indie Games to Play in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The best indie games could be ones that fill gaps the videogame industry\u2019s big-budget beefy-boys have missed, the kind of games that explore genres and styles that have fallen out of fashion because someone in marketing said they were irrelevant, or that explore ideas too \u201cout there\u201d to explain to the C-suite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BEST OF THE BEST<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Or the best indie games could be the ones that are the most personal\u2014that reveal something intimate about their developers and make us feel the kind of human connection you don\u2019t get in games made by gigantic anonymous teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They might even let us recognize something of ourselves, and learn that something we thought was freakish is actually a shared experience, helping us feel less alone. Or they might highlight a viewpoint we hadn\u2019t considered, explaining why someone we disagree with feels the way they do and expanding our understanding of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This list of the best indie games on PC contains games of all those kinds of games, across all kinds of genres. You\u2019ll find indie open world games as well as indie metroidvanias, and relaxing, cozy indie games. And now that the semantic satiation is setting in, you\u2019ll have come to realize that the word \u201cindie\u201d doesn\u2019t really mean anything, and all games are beautiful no matter what label we apply to them. Wait, hang on a second. It just means \u201cindependent\u201d and describes games that were made without outside interference. Now that\u2019s settled, on with the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Short Hike<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

PC Gamer\u2019s got your back Our experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you. Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Short Hike<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Image credit: Adamgryu)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2019 | Developer: Adam Robinson-Yu | Steam<\/a>, itch.io<\/a>, GOG<\/a>, Epic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A soothing little game about climbing a big mountain, A Short Hike lives up to its name by letting you wrap the whole thing in just a couple of hours. On the way up the mountain you meet a heap of different animal-folk who want to chat, play a game, teach you a new way of getting around, or maybe ask for your help, but it\u2019s up to you how much time you spend wallowing in this heartwarming world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as these sidequests, you discover sideways jaunts around the landscape where coins and the golden feathers that make you better at climbing and gliding might be hidden. While you are a bird-person, you\u2019re one who can only jump and swoop rather than fly, because that would make the whole \u201cclimbing a mountain\u201d thing a bit trivial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clich\u00e9d as it sounds, A Short Hike really is about the journey rather than the destination, letting you decide whether you want to dedicate yourself to finding seashells, learning to fish, or getting to know a turtle athlete. That said, the destination\u2019s worthwhile too, and even if you hare straight to the top there\u2019s still a feeling of accomplishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Relaxing walking game A Short Hike has a 99-person multiplayer mod now<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Umurangi Generation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A dark street outside a building labeled Gamers Hideout<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Image credit: Origame Digital)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2020 | Developer: Origame Digital | Steam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Umurangi Generation will make you a better photographer. That\u2019s a guarantee. An urban photography sim set in a cyberpunk Ao Tearoa, Umurangi hands you a handheld camera that\u2019s a work of art on its own\u2014a wonderfully tactile, physical object that slowly bulks out with more lenses, features, and post-processing effects. Umurangi Generation is a game that loves photography, though it will never judge you for taking a bad shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What it does judge, loudly and proudly, is the absolute state of the world. Umurangi Generation is an unrepentantly anti-colonial, anti-cop protest piece set in the middle of the apocalypse. It\u2019s a sci-fi setting where kaiju are killing us and the UN\u2019s Evangelion-like protector mechs are doing no better that nevertheless deals with real-wold political issues, firing shots at the global response to the 2019 Australian wildfires, police response to the 2020 George Floyd protests, and the complacency of videogames in propping up violent power structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Umurangi Generation is a stylish urban photography game set in a \u2018shitty future\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proteus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Twisted Trees)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2013 | Developer: David Kanaga, Ed Key | Steam<\/a>, itch.io<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking simulators\u2014and we use the term affectionately here at PC Gamer\u2014can sometimes feel like lectures you experience while holding down the W key. Proteus doesn\u2019t because its story is one you tell yourself. It dumps you on a procedurally generated island and sets you loose to explore, climbing hills and chasing frogs, free to wander wherever you will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a story in it, in the sense that there\u2019s a specific sequence of events you can experience. It\u2019s a subtle story, though. (One hint: it involves the standing stones.) If you want it there\u2019s a build-up and climax there, but even if you never uncover that secret story, just strolling over the islands of Proteus listening to their soundtrack\u2014which changes based on where you are and what you\u2019re doing\u2014provides a sense of satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Proteus is the best song I\u2019ve ever played<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE BEST INDIE ADVENTURE GAMES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Forgotten City<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Dear Villagers)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2021 | Developer: Modern Storyteller | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a>, Epic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point in The Forgotten City you have the option to say, \u201cThere\u2019s no shame in building on the works of people who came before you.\u201d It\u2019s a sensible thing to say in the moment, when you\u2019re in a Roman city that, like everything Roman, is indebted to the Greeks, who were indebted to the cultures who came before them. It\u2019s also apt because The Forgotten City was once a Skyrim mod<\/a> before being retooled into a standalone adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it has been substantially retooled, to the point it\u2019s worthwhile even if you played the original. This is no longer just a sidequest in an open world fantasy RPG. It\u2019s a self-contained time travel adventure through history in which you\u2019re trapped in a cursed Roman settlement, where everyone will be turned to gold as punishment if any one citizen sins. You\u2019re the only person guaranteed to escape this, being hurled back in time to the moment of your arrival to have another go at preventing the disaster each time it happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it happens, you too are building on the work of others\u2014only some of those others are you from a previous loop. You carry items and knowledge with you each time the cycle resets, and can use them to save lives, alter destinies, and open new spaces. Each time you jog by the eerie golden statues of those who suffered the curse before the current inhabitants moved in, their heads sometimes spookily turning to regard you, you\u2019re using the lessons of the past to shape the future. It\u2019s a perfect match of theme and gameplay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Purple carrots and horrifying toilets were key to making The Forgotten City\u2019s ancient Rome believable<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spider and Web<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Andrew Plotkin)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 1998 | Developer: Andrew Plotkin | itch.io<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the ultimate in lo-fi games: a text adventure. The work of interactive fiction mastermind Andrew Plotkin, in Spider and Web you\u2019re a spy breaking into a mysterious, high-tech facility. The puzzles you solve as you work your way through its corridors and past its cameras and alarms are contextualized by being told in flashback. What\u2019s happening is a story you reveal under interrogation, having been caught and held captive in the same facility you tried to infiltrate. The interrogator will even interrupt when you start going the wrong way or screw up a puzzle, saying, \u201cThat\u2019s not what really happened!\u201d He\u2019s essentially the meanest hint system ever conceived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing you\u2019ll get caught adds a sense of doomed inevitability to the whole thing. Only that\u2019s not all *Spider and Web has to offer. Eventually you\u2019re going to catch up to the present, and where things go after that is genius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winner of five Xyzzy Awards including Best Game, Spider and Web is clever, full of surprises, and free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: The joy of text\u2014read any good games lately?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Red Strings Club<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Devolver)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2018 | Developer: Deconstructeam | Steam<\/a>, itch.io<\/a>, GOG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Red Strings Club is a cyberpunk game about three underdogs. Akara-184 is a genderless android who crafts cybernetic upgrades to make humans fitter, happier, and more popular on the internet. Bartender Donovan\u2019s job is also to make people happy, because that\u2019s how bars work. He\u2019s an information broker on the side, manipulating customers by mixing drinks that accentuate personality traits he exploits to keep them talking. Brandeis wants to make people happy too, in his case by bringing down the corporations. He\u2019s a freelance hacker in a cyberpunk dystopia. That\u2019s what they\u2019re supposed to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These three playable characters all work hard for what they\u2019ve got. Their work is represented by minigames, which are sometimes frustrating, but are just things they have to do to survive while tangled in a corporate conspiracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That conspiracy involves a plan to mind control people to do away with negative emotions. Just like the main characters, the antagonists want to make people happy, they just have a different way of doing it. The Red Strings Club exploits this theme for all it\u2019s worth, asking questions about when it\u2019s OK to mess with people\u2019s emotions and how, in our own small ways, we probably do that every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: What The Red Strings Club teaches us about conversation<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE BEST INDIE RPGS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Disco Elysium<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: ZA\/UM)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2019 | Developer: ZA\/UM | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a>, Epic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disco Elysium looks like a certain kind of fantasy game, the kind that says, \u201cWelcome to Top-Down Town, here\u2019s a world full of people to talk to and stats to raise, and a secret about your past to uncover maybe!\u201d It is one of those, a CRPG in every sense that matters, but one that draws from literary fiction and crime thrillers more than trilogies that have dragons on the cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its setting is the run-down corner of a modern city, a Disco Borough that is both stuck in the past and desperate to forget its own history of revolutionary uprising just as you, the archetype debauched detective, have tried to escape from and forget your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every word of Disco Elysium is worryingly well-written, and there\u2019s enough humor in it to take the edge off the miserablism. When first announced, it was called \u201cNo Truce With the Furies\u201d, which is a quote from an R. S. Thomas poem called Reflections. Aptly, Disco Elysium holds up a mirror to other RPGs and finds them wanting. You\u2019ll wish they were all this confidently capable of handing out life-lesson wisdom instead of experience points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: We talk to Disco Elysium\u2019s incredible narrator, who recorded 350,000 words of dialogue and has never acted before<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recettear: An Item Shop\u2019s Tale<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Carpe Fulgur)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2010 | Developer: EasyGameStation | Steam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recettear is the reason there are so many whimsical games about running a shop that sells swords, potions, and rations to adventurers, about imagining life on the other side of the videogame buy-and-sell menu. What\u2019s it like to be the person who has to keep a Thirsting Blade in stock just in case a wealthy murderhobo happens by?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing as the protagonist combo of shopkeeper Recette and finance fairy Tear, you\u2019re not just buying stock, haggling over prices, and rearranging the shelves. You\u2019re also tagging along on Zelda-style dungeon crawls with select heroes, ones who sign a contract to split the loot if you provide them with better gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is such a sensible economic reality for a town near a dungeon that I\u2019m surprised it took a parody to think of it, but that\u2019s Recettear all over. It makes fun of fantasy clich\u00e9s while building a setting that ultimately makes more sense than the things it parodies. Even the way the dungeon reconfigures and restocks itself between delves is explained. That\u2019s somebody\u2019s job too, because of course it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Recettear: An Item Shop\u2019s Tale is still the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Divinity: Original Sin 2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Larian)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2017 | Developer: Larian Studios | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your party of adventurers in Divinity: Original Sin 2 may include a skeleton who wears a bucket over his head as a disguise, a cannibal elf, a dwarf pirate captain, and a fire-breathing lizard prince. By the end of the game, one of them will be a god.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original Sin 2 takes the traditional map-hopping fantasy quest structure and adds a mind-bending array of abilities (enough to fill multiple hotbars), sidequests that feel like tonal breaks from the main storyline yet also seem like they matter on their own (even if the questgiver is a chicken named Big Marge), and a huge amount of personality. Every party member has their own thing going on, their own plot to follow and life to live, and can even replace the protagonist if you die. They can also be selected to take the lead in conversations, although saying hi to people as the skeleton without putting a disguise on first will raise some eyebrows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plenty of developers have resurrected the bones of the isometric RPG and added modern skin to it, but only a handful of those games work as both reminders of the old days and great RPGs worth recommending to people who don\u2019t have nostalgia goggles strapped on. Original Sin 2 is one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: How Larian revised Divinity: Original Sin 2\u2019s final act<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pyre<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Supergiant)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2017 | Developer: Supergiant Games | Steam<\/a>, itch.io<\/a>, GOG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pyre is a true ballad of a game, a mythical, musical journey through purgatory by way of wizard basketball. Win or lose, every match pushes you forward, adding another twist to a story that is as bittersweet as it is heartwarming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exiles playing this ancient sport in a bid to escape their purgatory call themselves the Nightwings. They\u2019re a tightly knit family, and though your goal is to bring every one of them home, you only get to choose one of them to leave at the climax of each tournament. Having to say fond farewells to your favorite party members never fails to punch you in the gut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Different as they are, Supergiant\u2019s games all explore tolerance and the ways we deal with disaster<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE BEST INDIE PUZZLE GAMES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Strange Horticulture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Bad Viking) Release date: 2022 | Developer: Bad Viking | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a>, Epic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Recettear, Strange Horticulture is a game about running a shop that\u2019s actually something quite different. You don\u2019t have to worry about balancing the books at all. You sell plants with unusual properties, and you can\u2019t order those wholesale. Instead, you have to solve a riddle revealing a map location somewhere in England\u2019s Lake District where you\u2019ll find a fungus that moves on its own, or a flower whose stem gives off light when burned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each customer presents a puzzle as well. Whether they want flowers for a wife\u2019s birthday or a herb that adds mental clarity, you\u2019ll have to figure out which of your unlabeled stock would be best for them. As is traditional in these games you inherited the shop, which explains why it\u2019s disorganized and nothing has nametags. You\u2019ve got to crack open a book and examine diagrams, read descriptions, and eliminate the unlikely to deduce which deciduous is correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s more to puzzle out beyond the best plant for treating a rash as well. There\u2019s a mystery you\u2019ll get drawn into as investigators who are digging into a series of unusual crimes involving ritual murders and the local druids turn to you for your expertise in poisons and cures, and that turns out to be a mystery every bit as strange as your horticulture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: How Strange Horticulture\u2019s devs went from Flash to one of the best games of the year<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hidden Folks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Adriaan de Jongh, Sylvain Tegroeg)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2017 | Developer: Adriaan de Jongh, Sylvain Tegroeg | Steam<\/a>, itch.io<\/a>, GOG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hidden gem of the hidden object genre is Hidden Folks. In its daunting crowd scenes, jungles, and cityscapes you\u2019re asked to find specific people, animals, or tiny objects with the aid of a simple clue for each. The art is hand-drawn and the sound effects are mouth-made, an orchestra of brum-brums and ook-ooks giving extra hints and making it fun to click on every squiggly thing just to see what noise it makes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s something you don\u2019t get in Where\u2019s Wally, or Where\u2019s Waldo as it may be known where you grew up. The pictures in Hidden Folks are highly interactive, busy dioramas full of activity. There\u2019s an X on the ground? Click it to dig up whatever\u2019s buried there. Bamboo forest? Click to chop it down and reveal whoever it\u2019s hiding. Soon the puzzles become multi-step affairs and you\u2019re growing wheat to make a scarecrow appear, then sending boats downriver, operating machinery on a factory floor, and manipulating traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter how layered and complicated Hidden Folks gets, the cheery \u201cnoot-noot\u201d of the car horns remains a delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Hidden Folks is the hidden object game I\u2019ve been waiting for<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilmot\u2019s Warehouse<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Finji)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2019 | Developer: Hollow Ponds, Richard Hogg | Steam<\/a>, itch.io<\/a>, Epic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stock arrives in your warehouse. The items are unnamed, just colorful square pictures. Each image might be specific or it might be abstract, a sun or a heart or a shape that looks kind of like an alien bug\u2019s face or a pair of Band-Aids. It\u2019s on you to decide where to store them in the warehouse, categorizing them with an eye to being able to find them again quickly\u2014because when your co-workers arrive you\u2019ll have a time limit to find the items they request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They demand stock wordlessly too, with pictographs and numbers. Somebody wants three explosions. Where did you put those? \u201cI put the explosions next to the fire,\u201d you think, as if that\u2019s a perfectly normal thought and not a health-and-safety lawsuit waiting to happen. Fulfilling orders faster earns stars to buy upgrades, like a speed boost or the removal of a pillar to make more space in your warehouse (surely undermining the structural integrity of this storeroom full of explosions and what might be alien bug faces).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The puzzles you solve are ones you make for yourself, each category-creating decision coming back to haunt you later. More than a puzzle game about inventory organization, Wilmot\u2019s Warehouse is a personality quiz. Are you the kind of person who sorts things by theme? Do barbecues belong near food, near things that are hot, or near generally summer-related objects? Do you organize by color, or by the number of sides a shape has? You\u2019re inventing meaning as you go, playing with semiotics while pushing squares around. Like Tetris, that other classic game of moving blocks, after playing Wilmot\u2019s Warehouse you\u2019ll see the world a little differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Deleting clutter: why we like games about cleaning up messes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Papers, Please<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: 3909)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2013 | Developer: Lucas Pope | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most interesting things games can do is let you feel like you\u2019ve lived someone else\u2019s life. The rubber stamps and bureaucracy of Papers, Please really do make you empathize with the life of a border guard under a totalitarian regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morality\u2019s a thing games don\u2019t do well nearly as often, but by letting you master increasingly complex regulations\u2014Papers, Please has a great difficulty curve, something many indie games struggle with\u2014it gives you power over the hapless citizens who line up to present their documentation. It motivates you to judge them harshly because if you don\u2019t, the income you need to support your family will be docked, but also because the detective work of uncovering fraud is shockingly enjoyable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You discover a contradiction in someone\u2019s papers and feel great, then realize what that will mean for the human on the other side of the counter trying to get home and then you feel awful. Sure, it is a game about paperwork, but it\u2019s such an intense game about paperwork that when you\u2019re rewarded by being given the key to the gun cabinet you\u2019ll want to hand it back out of fear for what you\u2019ll have to do with it. You\u2019ll want to tell a videogame you aren\u2019t interested in having a gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Great moments in PC gaming: Dealing with Jorji Costava in Papers, Please<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE BEST INDIE ROGUELIKES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hades<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Supergiant Games)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2020 | Developer: Supergiant Games | Steam<\/a>, Epic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The roguelike for people who don\u2019t like roguelikes, Hades makes death a reward rather than a punishment. Each run, you murder-dash through the Greek underworld on your way to the surface, fighting shades and earning boons from the distant gods of Olympus in hectic, varied battles. Though you return to the palace you started from each time you fall, you\u2019re not beginning over. The immortal son of a god, your deaths and resurrections are all part of the story, pushed forward by characters having new things to say after each death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cast are an engaging, well-voiced set of myths and monsters with centuries of implied soap opera behind them. The half of Hades where you\u2019re not frantically dashing between shades with sword or spear or infernal cannon has you hustling between NPCs lapping up the next chapter of their sagas\u2014or your romance with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it\u2019s off to battle once again, with some upgrades. Hades is paced so well you\u2019re always getting a new weapon or kind of boon just when you get stuck. You might suspect it\u2019s going easy on you, that the upgrades are carrying you rather than your own skills growing, but trying a run without them disproves that. Even with the basic blade and no buffs, you\u2019ll bash better and slash smarter than you did before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll still die in the end, though. And when you do, you\u2019ll be eager for another round of chats with gods and monsters like Megaera the Fury, a skeleton just called Skelly, and Thanatos, the romanceable personification of death. In Hades, death really is a reward rather than a punishment. And he\u2019s pretty hot too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: 8 things every Hades player should know<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter the Gungeon<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Devolver)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2016 | Developer: Dodge Roll | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a>, Epic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter the Gungeon is an arcade roguelite about shooting bullets with other bullets. In other words, the enemies are ammunition. As whichever of its several distinct characters you choose, you\u2019ll dodge-roll, kick furniture, and, most importantly, destroy bullets with bullets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter the Gungeon may be part of an absurdly packed genre, but it stands out as something special. Not only does it nail the essentials\u2014shooting, movement, sheer variety of weapons and items\u2014it doesn\u2019t overcomplicate. Other arcade-centric roguelites have had a go at mixing compelling action with a simplified approach to the genre, and end up feeling repetitive, like a jumble of the same rooms. The weaponry keeps Enter the Gungeon fresh where others get lost in repetition. There are hundreds of weapons, ranging from a simple bow and arrow through to guns that shoot bees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, there\u2019s a gun that shoots guns that shoot bullets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Thanks to its huge expansion, I no longer suck at Enter the Gungeon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dungeons of Dredmor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Gaslamp)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2011 | Developer: Gaslamp Games | Steam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you never beat or even meet Lord Dredmor, Dungeons of Dredmor is still a joy to play for its writing, humor, and surprisingly deep and amusing lore. The absurdity goes a long way to soften the blows of its difficulty. You can build a Vampire Communist who wields Egyptian Magic, Fungal Arts, or Emomancy to fight hordes of weird robots, carrots, genies, and whatever the hell diggles are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generating a random character and pushing the usefulness of absurd skills like Fleshsmithing, Killer Vegan, and Paranormal Investigator is always a thrill, even when you die on the first or second floor. It\u2019s a system that rewards inventiveness. While you can manually select your skills, making the best of random ones is far more satisfying, and like the optional but actually totally necessary permadeath, makes every round feel genuinely different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Exclusive Dungeons of Dredmor wallpaper<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE BEST INDIE STORY GAMES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Butterfly Soup \/ Butterfly Soup 2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Brianna Lei)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release date: 2017 \/ 2022 | Developer: Brianna Lei | itch.io<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butterfly Soup was 2017\u2019s best visual novel about teenage girls discovering their queer identities while also playing baseball. In 2022 it got a sequel covering a second semester of the school year and focusing on the second of its two pairs of lead characters, filling in parts of the story that were cut from the original for scope. Both halves of Butterfly Soup are hilarious, and as detailed and true about what it\u2019s like to be a teenage outsider as they are about baseball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Brianna Lei\u2019s Butterfly Soup is a triumph for queer storytelling<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Be or Not To Be<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Tin Man Games) Release date: 2015 | Developer: Tin Man Games | Steam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from the pick-a-path book To Be or Not To Be: That is the Adventure, which was itself adapted from Hamlet, this is a version of Shakespeare\u2019s play where you\u2019re the one who gets to decide whether Hamlet ultimately bes or, er, does not be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hell, you can ignore Hamlet completely to make Ophelia or the ghost of Hamlet\u2019s dad into the star of the story, and wander off-script to defeat pirates, punt Yorick\u2019s skull, and have Hamlet either go back to school and befriend a total jock named Macbeth or kill Claudius and earn 3,500 XP for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Indies with \u2018choose your own adventure\u2019 descriptions are getting trademark infringement notices<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her Story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Sam Barlow) Release date: 2015 | Developer: Sam Barlow | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

English cop show The Bill, back when it was good, would sometimes dedicate half an episode to just an interrogation. A guest star suspect would be given the chance to stamp their mark on the show. That\u2019s Her Story, only instead of being about cops it\u2019s about someone, years after the police interrogation was recorded, searching through video clips of it by entering keywords. While Her Story plays out in those videos and that search bar, it\u2019s also played on note paper you inevitably fill with conspiracy scribbles like you\u2019re Charlie from It\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In tech, skeuomorphic design\u2014making your music player look like a cassette tape, for example\u2014is now seen as quaint and frowned on. But it\u2019s a rare concept in games, and Her Story uses it to great effect. Its old computer\/CRT interface is a marriage of aesthetic and design that\u2019s immersive in a subtle, well-earned way, making Her Story enrapturing from its first moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: The story behind Her Story<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Night in the Woods<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Finji) Released: 2017 | Developer: Infinite Fall | Steam<\/a>, itch.io<\/a>, GOG<\/a>, Epic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As endearing feline Mae Borowski, you return to Possum Springs, the sleepy rural town of your childhood, after an unsuccessful college stint. It\u2019s a twist on the familiar \u201cYou can\u2019t go home again\u201d story that becomes more and more Stephen King as it goes on. The town is on the decline, and so too, it seems, is Mae\u2019s future. Things haven\u2019t quite turned out the way anyone had hoped they would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exploring the township of Possum Springs is a joy in itself, but it\u2019s the way Night in the Woods weaves a universal coming of age tale around a puzzle-laden adventure that is remarkable. The bits where you play bass with your old band are pretty great too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Night in the Woods brings hope and joy to the rural apocalypse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE BEST INDIE SIM GAMES AND SURVIVAL GAMES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stardew Valley<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: ConcernedApe) Release date: 2016 | Developer: Eric Barone | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are few games that delight in the way that Stardew Valley does. Stardew took the formula of the Harvest Moon series, which so many grew up loving, and brought it to PC after we went too long without a farm-life sim to call our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, Stardew Valley strips away many of Nintendo\u2019s puritanical hangups\u2014same-sex marriage and sexual innuendo aren\u2019t too taboo to be included, for example\u2014while maintaining the wholesome charm of tilling fields, planting seeds, and growing crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a vibrant town full of people to get to know, mines full of slimes to explore, and tons and tons of fish to fish. If you let it, Stardew Valley can become a life-devouring forever game. You\u2019re going to make a lot of mayonnaise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: The best Stardew Valley mods<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t Starve \/ Don\u2019t Starve Together<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Klei) Release date: 2013 \/ 2016 | Developer: Klei | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klei\u2019s 2013 survival game Don\u2019t Starve is a playable Edward Gorey book where you\u2019ll probably get eaten by dogs or starve during the long winter\u2014a possibility the name does warn you about, to be fair\u2014while you\u2019re still learning how the ecosystem of its unusual world works. You discover the importance of the wild beefalo herd, and the value of dealing with the Pig King. And then you do it again, with friends, in multiplayer spin-off\/sequel **Don\u2019t Starve Together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survival games that followed Don\u2019t Starve filled their servers with desperate lummoxes flailing at trees and rocks and each other. Don\u2019t Starve Together made multiplayer survival into something that\u2019s not as easy to meme, but a lot more fun. Sure, you can play competitively, but it\u2019s best as a co-operative village simulator where you start by pooling your rocks to make a firepit and eventually you\u2019re taking down bosses then crafting statues to commemorate your victory in the town square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Don\u2019t Starve Together\u2014the first five days<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subnautica<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Unknown Worlds) Release date: 2018 | Developer: Unknown Worlds | Steam<\/a>, Epic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depending how you feel about diving, Subnautica can be either a wonderful opportunity to explore an alien aquarium or a super tense survival game. Even in the freedom or creative mode, with the hunger meters turned off so you don\u2019t have to regularly grab fish and eat them as you swim past, its depths contain claustrophobic tunnels and terrifying beasts big enough to swallow you whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To its credit, Subnautica works as both a straight-up horrorshow about struggling to make it day by day in a hostile alien ocean, building a base and taming your surroundings, and as a chill way to drift around meeting strange sea creatures. And maybe eating them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Reviewing the critters of Subnautica: Below Zero<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frostpunk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: 11 bit studios) Release date: 2018 | Developer: 11 bit studios | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a>, Epic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It feels strange to play a citybuilder that\u2019s not open-ended and doesn\u2019t let you tinker with your city forever. It also feels strange that no matter how efficiently you design your city, your residents may well kick your ass out due to events that take place elsewhere. Frostpunk does things differently, and that\u2019s one of the things that makes it great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frostpunk is both grim and beautiful, a blend of survival and crisis management that leaves you facing tough choices, sometimes unthinkable ones, as you attempt to build a city that will protect your residents from a world gone cold. You\u2019re not just trying to keep them warm and fed, but to keep them hopeful, and that\u2019s no simple matter when the only thing more bleak than the present is the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to building, gathering resources, and sending expeditions out into the frozen world, you have to grapple with laws that may save your citizens\u2019 lives while also eroding their freedoms. There\u2019s rarely a moment that\u2019s free of tension and worry, and rarely a choice that you won\u2019t second guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Frostpunk developers on hope, misery, and the ultimately terrifying book of laws<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE BEST INDIE STRATEGY GAMES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Into the Breach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Subset Games) Release date: 2018 | Developer: Subset Games | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a>, Epic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the future, giant bugs crawl out of the ground and ravage the world. Our only hope: mech pilots from an even more distant future who travel back to rewrite history. As a band of three such pilots in vehicles that would make really cool toys, you are humanity\u2019s best chance for a better tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately you can see what the bugs plan one turn ahead and dodge out of their way, perhaps leaving them in positions where they\u2019ll hit each other instead of you, or you might dodge into harm\u2019s way to protect a building full of civilians they were about to demolish. Into the Breach is a mech versus monster dance-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s conveniently bite-sized too. The maps are small, load fast, and only have to be protected for a few turns. Into the Breach is a rare tactics game that feels worthwhile even if you\u2019ve only got minutes spare to play it. If you do have hours to spare, you can play a full run, save the world, then take your favorite pilot and leap back into a different timeline to do it all again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Our biggest screw-ups from Into the Breach<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chaos Reborn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Snapshot Games) Release date: 2015 | Developer: Snapshot Games Inc. | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plenty of games say, \u201cThat thing in Magic: The Gathering where wizards duel with summoned creatures would be cooler if you could move them around on a grid.\u201d Chaos Reborn does so with seniority, as it\u2019s a remake of a ZX Spectrum game that was inspired by 1980 wizard-duel game Warlock. It\u2019s the same idea, though\u2014a card game where maneuvering matters. Drawing the best hand doesn\u2019t help much if your wizard and their lions get trapped by a well-placed Gooey Blob spell, or those elven archers get enough height advantage to rain deathsticks on your elephant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though there\u2019s a law mode that does away with randomness, in chaos mode most spells have a percentage chance to cast. It becomes a game of risk management and mitigation, like Battle for Wesnoth or Blood Bowl, where you might spend your turn safely summoning a goblin, or choose to roll the dice on getting a sapphire dragon. Each wizard can manipulate probability by spending mana to boost the odds, or push a fluctuating meter toward law or chaos for a better chance of casting spells of the matching kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or they can just lie. Any summon spell in your hand can be cast as an illusion, which has a 100% chance of working and functions exactly like the skeleton or pegasus you would have cast if you\u2019d come by it honestly. Unless an opponent risks wasting their turn disbelieving it, that is. If they\u2019re right, the illusion vanishes and the disbeliever gets another action. If they\u2019re wrong, they\u2019ve lost their chance to cast a spell this turn. With that clever twist, Chaos Reborn becomes a brilliant bluffing game. Poker for wizards. Hexers Hold \u2018Em.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: How X-COM\u2019s Julian Gollop improved on the board games he loved as a kid<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Invisible, Inc.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Klei) Release date: 2015 | Developer: Klei Entertainment | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Invisible, Inc. gives you near-perfect information, just like Into the Breach. Your cyborg spies can see the vision fields of guards and observe them to predict their movements, and can hack data terminals to find maps of the facility they\u2019re busting into. Pressing the alt key highlights all the geometry so you can tell whether that lamp counts as something you can hide behind. Set up an ambush to tase a guard when they walk through a door and it\u2019s guaranteed to work, no chance to miss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That makes some incredible moves possible. You\u2019re able to plan audaciously, agents spending their action points to run rings around security, handing off items to each other as needed like they\u2019re characters in a cool heist movie casually tossing tools before they hack a turret or break into a safe. And yet, it doesn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The security rating goes up the longer you spend in a level. The ability to rewind and undo a turn is limited based on the difficulty setting, and guards have heart rate monitors that set off an alarm if you kill one. Tasing them is safer, but only keeps them down for a couple of turns unless you dedicate one of your precious agents to sitting on the body at the end of each turn. Invisible, Inc. gives you all that information because you\u2019re going to need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Best Design 2015 \u2013 Invisible, Inc.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE BEST INDIE PLATFORMERS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rain World<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Videocult) Release date: 2017 | Developer: Videocult | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a>, Epic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you approach it with the wrong attitude, you\u2019ll hate Rain World. While it looks like a typical platformer, it\u2019s not: it\u2019s more like a punishing survival game. For the first hour or so the controls will feel fiddly and less intuitive than most 2D games. You have to learn them. Rain World is all about learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You play as a slugcat one tier above the bottom of the food chain who has to negotiate one of the most labyrinthine and hideously broken planets of any open world game in order to survive. Rain World is cryptic and uncompromising. Given the chance, it\u2019ll be one of the tensest and most atmospheric 2D games you\u2019ll ever play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to make it easier, options added post-launch allow that. Without them, Rain World is an exercise in wresting empowerment away from the player, determined to eschew any shred of the power fantasy so dominant in videogames. And yet it is logical\u2014not unfair, not poorly designed. It just doesn\u2019t care about you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Fans of survival sim Rain World have spent 5 years making an expansion so big, it\u2019s practically a sequel<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spelunky 2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Mossmouth, Blitworth) Release date: 2020 | Developer: Mossmouth | Steam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot has been written about the beauty of Spelunky\u2019s interlocking systems, about its propensity for creating stories, and about its tough-but-fair difficulty. That\u2019s all been said and written a hundred times before. What you might not know is that Spelunky is a touchingly beautiful game. It contains so much: so many stories, so many events, so many countless, frankly embarrassing, hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spelunky 2 is the same but more\u2014and while it might not have reinvented the particular wheel the original so lovingly crafted, it\u2019s a perfect opportunity to revisit and refine the format, a fresh dungeon-delver that will easily threaten to eat another hundred hours of your time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Spelunky 2 player breaks the world record for gold (by blowing everything up)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollow Knight<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Team Cherry) Release date: 2017 | Developer: Team Cherry | Steam<\/a>, GOG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Cherry didn\u2019t explicitly set out to make a game in the image of Metroid. They were making a 2D action game set in a gorgeous hand-drawn decaying bug civilization, but they were mainly concerned with building an intricate and interesting world and the rest simply followed from that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollow Knight rarely tells you where to go or what to do, making palpable the satisfaction and wonder of discovering new parts of the world and new abilities. And it just keeps going. The world is huge, more detailed than you ever expect it to be, and suddenly you\u2019re two dozen hours deep and wondering how much you still have to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Super Nintendo had Super Metroid. PlayStation had Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The PC has Hollow Knight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Why I love Quirrel from Hollow Knight<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celeste<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Image credit: Extremely OK) Release date: 2018 | Developer: Extremely OK Games | Steam<\/a>, itch.io<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celeste is a tough 2D platformer with a 16-bit retro aesthetic. What makes it special? The reasons are many and varied. Firstly, it carries itself differently to other deliberately difficult platformers like Super Meat Boy and N++. Its developer, Extremely OK Games, wants everyone to finish Celeste, not just Kaizo Mario World speedrunners, which is why the pacing is careful and the attitude is encouraging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The variety is what really elevates it. This is a game with set pieces that aren\u2019t just saved for the boss battles, and while it is fundamentally a series of platform challenge rooms, it does feel like you\u2019re navigating a world\u2014in this case, the mountain Celeste that lends the game its name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Celeste creator confirms that yes, Madeline is trans<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Author Jody Macgregor \u2013 Weekend\/AU Editor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jody\u2019s first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia\u2019s first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He\u2019s written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody\u2019s first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he\u2019s written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop\u2019s Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With contributions from Chris Priestman<\/a> Evan Lahti<\/a> Global Editor-in-Chief Shaun Prescott<\/a> Bo Moore<\/a> Wes Fenlon<\/a> Senior Editor Austin Wood<\/a> Staff writer, GamesRadar Christopher Livingston<\/a> Staff Writer Natalie Clayton<\/a> Features Producer<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The best indie games could be ones that fill gaps the videogame industry’s big-budget beefy-boys have missed, the kind of games that explore genres and styles that have fallen out of fashion because someone in marketing said they were irrelevant, or that explore ideas too “out there” to explain to the C-suite. BEST OF THE […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-showcase"],"yoast_head":"\nPC Gamer's Best Indie Games to Play in 2023 | Intel Gaming Access<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/game.intel.com\/th\/stories\/pc-gamers-best-indie-games-to-play-in-2023\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"th_TH\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PC Gamer's Best Indie Games to Play in 2023 | Intel Gaming Access\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The best indie games could be ones that fill gaps the videogame industry’s big-budget beefy-boys have missed, the kind of games that explore genres and styles that have fallen out of fashion because someone in marketing said they were irrelevant, or that explore ideas too “out there” to explain to the C-suite. 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