Following a stellar slate of titles in 2022, indie developers had a bit of a tough act to follow for 2023. Thankfully,indie gamesproved to be as fruitful as AAA titles for some of the year’s best gaming experiences, including several releases serving as the debut games from new studios that should now be on players' radars. From thoughtful meditative adventure games to hyperactive retro platformers and everything in between, it’s almost as if theindielabel successfully catered to just about every type of player in 2023, and many of these same titles can stand toe-to-toe with the best AAA games from a year jam-packed with landmark releases.
All too often, gamers overlook indies when they offer some of the most diverse experiences in the industry. The lack of a publisher and a more constrained budget often means developers have to get more creative and, oftentimes, the only real limit in indie games in the imagination. This is what has seen these indies compete in a landmark year, as 2023 will go down in history as one of the best years of gaming yet. These are the15 Best Indie Games of 2023, presented in alphabetical order.
Blasphemous 2
The originalBlasphemousended up being one of the best indie metroidvanias the year of its release and helped establish the Soulslike Metroidvania subgenre, along withHollow Knight.That its sequel arrived this year when many were hoping forHollow Knight: Silksongonly helped it to stand out more, andBlasphemous 2is an excellent example of a sequel done right. Continuing the story of the Penitent One (based on the developer’s choice of canon ending),Blasphemous 2introduces new weapons, each with its own slate of traversal abilities, and a more non-linear approach to how players tackle its massive world and intimidating enemies. And, lest it be forgotten,Blasphemous 2has some of the best boss encounters of any game in 2023, pushing both player skill and the edges of sanity to their limit.
WHERE TO PLAY
The second scripture in the Blasphemous series portends the return of The Penitent One, with a story that continues from the free Wounds of Eventide DLC for the original game, where The Heart in the sky heralded the return of The Miracle and foretold the birth of a new miracle child.Awakened in a strange new land, and displaced from his final resting place, The Penitent One is thrust back into the endless cycle of life, death, and resurrection, with no other option than to explore this perilous new world and uncover its long-forgotten secrets.Hordes of grotesque enemies stand in your way, awaiting final judgement by the brutal hand of the Penitent One, with titanic twisted bosses also lurking in the darkness, waiting for their chance to return you to the grave from whence you came.Taking them down won’t be easy, but with Blasphemous 2 offering more chances to customise and improve your skill set, along with several new unique weapons to wield with righteous zeal and unending fury, victory might just be within grasp.Ultimately, only one thing is certain… Penance Never Ends
Cassette Beasts
So successful is thePokemonfranchise that it’s quite common for studios to attempt their own “Pokemon clones.” That’s usually a bad thing, as few are done right and many feel too derivitative, but that’s not the case withCassette Beasts. Thankfully,Cassette Beastsis both a reminder of the charm and whimsy of thebestPokemongamesas well as an interesting evolution of a decades-old formula. Monster-collecting games are nearly ubiquitous with thePokemonfranchise, butCassette Beastsstands apart thanks to its clear sense of style and unique mechanics. With an appealing visual style, interesting evolution and fusion mechanics of the titular cassette beasts, and a phenomenal soundtrack, fans ofPokemonor just monster-taming RPGs, in general, owe it to themselves to tryCassette Beasts.
Welcome to New Wirral, a remote island inhabited by strange creatures you’ve only dreamed of, nightmares you hopefully haven’t, and a cast of brave folks who use cassette tapes to transform for battle. To find a way home you’ll need to explore every inch of the island, and record monsters to your trusty cassette tapes to gain their abilities! Transform into monsters using… retro cassette tapes? Faced with the constant threat of monster attacks, the residents of Harbourtown, New Wirral choose to fight fire with fire. Record a monster to tape, then play it back to take on its form for battle! Fuse monster forms. Getting close to your companion has benefits–while transformed you’re able to combine your strengths to gain the upper hand in battle! Any two monster forms can be fused to produce unique, fully-animated new fusion forms. Explore a rich open world. Certain monster abilities can be used in human form. You’ll need these to help you get around, solve puzzles, and locate dungeons. Glide, fly, swim, climb, dash, go invisible, or turn magnetic! Travel alongside a diverse cast of human companions. Never fight alone! Form bonds, spend time together, and help your selected partner complete personal goals to become a better team. Master a deep battle system. Take advantage of elemental chemistry to apply extra buffs or debuffs alongside your attack, or even alter your opponent’s elemental type!
Chants of Sennaar
Chants of Sennaaris one of those rare indie games that seems to routinely blow away everyone who gets the chance to play it, and getting to experience its unique take on the puzzle genre makes it easy to see why. Usinglanguage as a framing devicefor its narrative and puzzle design,Chants of Sennaaris a game all about communication. In addition to delving into the idea of how communication unites people and leads to a greater understanding and shared empathy,Chants of Sennaarbrilliantly displays how language and communication can be used as a problem-solving tool. The game has an immediately recognizable and visually arresting art style, an impactful message highlighting the importance of cultural diversity, and some truly incredible and head-scratching puzzles.
Cocoon
The Winner of The Game Awards 2023’s Best Debut Indie Game is Geometric Interactive’sCocoon. Much likeChants of Sennaar,Cocoonpresents players with a wholly unique take on the puzzle genre, and its mind-bending use of perspective shifts and art style give the game a distinctive visual identity.Cocoonis a game about discovering worlds within worlds, and the pedigree behind the title (which includesJeppe Carlsen of bothLimboandInside) helps to present its signature ideas and mechanics with the kind of polish one would expect of a AAA release. With some truly innovative design and several moments that will make players audibly say “Wow,“Cocoonis a standout puzzle game and one of the year’s best debut titles.
From Jeppe Carlsen, the lead gameplay designer of LIMBO and INSIDE — COCOON takes you on an adventure across worlds within worlds. Master world-leaping mechanics to unravel a cosmic mystery.Worlds within WorldsCOCOON is a unique take on the puzzle adventure genre, where each world exists within an orb that you can carry on your back. Wrap your head around the core mechanic of leaping between worlds—and combine, manipulate, and rearrange them to solve intricate puzzles.Alien MachineryInteract with alien environments and biomechanical devices left behind by an ancient civilization. Journey through unique and diverse biomes, from industrial structures to massive organic caverns, and discover how they are connected to one another.Orb AbilitiesEach orb has an ability that can be unlocked, thereby turning the orb into a unique tool for you to utilize within other worlds. Use these abilities to uncover hidden pathways and objects, fire projectiles to trigger switches, and more.Monstrous GuardiansMighty guardians protect every world, and you must face them in fierce battles. Each fight is unique and requires you to master new and satisfying mechanics.
Dredge
Dredgewas a highly-anticipated game long before its release thanks to an incredible Steam Next Fest demo in late 2022. Part survival-horror game and part fishing simulator,Dredgeis the exact kind of left-field experiment in genre mixing on which the indie game scene thrives, and in execution, it’s astoundingly addictive. LikeVampire Survivorsbefore it,Dredgeis one of those indie titles that players have to be careful with, lest they end up sinking several hours into a single session. It’s a perfect game for both the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch as well, with its excellent visuals and lighting truly shining on a handheld console. The game has already receivedThe Pale Reach DLCthis year and a crossover withDave the Diveris set to arrive soon, meaning anyone who hasn’t playedDredgeyet has the perfect excuse to see what all the hype is about.
Captain your fishing trawler to explore a collection of remote isles, and their surrounding depths, to see what lies below. Sell your catch to the locals and complete quests to learn more about each area’s troubled past. Outfit your boat with better equipment to trawl deep-sea trenches and navigate to far-off lands, but keep an eye on the time. You might not like what finds you in the dark…Starting from your new home in the remote archipelago, ‘The Marrows’, take to the water and scour the depths for curious collectables and over 125 deep sea denizens. Explore each area while completing quests and visiting neighbouring island regions – each with their own unique opportunities, inhabitants, and secrets.
El Paso, Elsewhere
El Paso, Elsewhereis likely a game that many may have missed thanks to the timing of its release date, but that by no means makes it any less of an incredible title from 2023’s legendary release calendar.PartMax Payneand partFrom Dusk Til Dawn,El Paso, Elsewhereproudly displays its love for Remedy’sMax Paynebut also leans more heavily into the supernatural by having the player fight all manner of vampires and other monsters. Thankfully,El Paso, Elsewhere’s liberal use of dive-rolling and bullet-time shooting stand the test of time, being just as fun today as they were back in 2001.
Jusant
After wowing audiences for years with its excellentLife Is Strangeseries and penchant for compelling narratives in games, developer Don’t Nod surprised everyone this year by releasingJusantand showcasing just how multi-faceted the studio is.Jusantis a game about climbing, sure, but the simple act of climbing and reaching the various checkpoints and remnants of civilization that exist along the way combine to create one of 2023’s most zen-like gaming experiences. Some of the best games pick one key mechanic and hyper-focus on it to have it become the star of the show, andJusant’s ability to replicate the thrill of climbing in a piece of interactive media is one of 2023’s many triumphs.
Jusant is a brand-new action-puzzle climbing game and a meditative journey to the top of a tall tower. Challenge yourself at your own pace, explore different paths, and unravel the secrets from a bygone civilization.Master your climbing tools and watch your stamina meter to successfully navigate this mysterious and changing tower. As you go higher and hone your skills, you’ll have to figure out how best to use the tools at your disposal to get to where you want to go. Explore alternative paths to find clues about what happened here.Play at your own pace. As you climb, you’ll come across breathtaking biomes full of flora and fauna, accompanied by a peaceful and atmospheric soundtrack. Brace yourself on arid, windy slopes, seek refuge in tunnels lit only by bioluminescence, and more.Meet the mysterious Ballast. This creature will help guide you throughout your journey by waking nature along your path and helping to reveal clues that will help you piece together the tower’s past and reach the top.
The Last Faith
Along withBlasphemous 2,The Last Faithis one of the best indie Metroidvanias to release in a year that was stacked with quality entries in the genre.The Last Faithis perhaps the closest thing fans will ever get toa 2DBloodborne, and developer Kumi Souls errs more on the “vania” side of Metroidvania thanks to injectingThe Last Faithwith a dark, Gothic atmosphere and emphasis on melee combat. If there is a flaw to the game, it’s that it doesn’t innovate as much as it refines, butThe Last Faithsuccessfully combines several disparate elements of its various influences to become something greater than the sum of its parts.
The wicked and the blessed will be judged the same - let nothing stand in your way.Often brutal, always empowering, The Last Faith is an unholy alliance of metroidvania and soulslike.The Last Faith thrives on merciless and precise combat, with a huge range of custom executions to perform.Discover a formidable arsenal of melee weapons, arcane spells, and long-range firearms, allowing you to carve a path your own way.Nonlinear exploration is at the core of The Last Faith. Gorgeous pixel art depicts an imposing gothic landscape. Journey along snow-dusted mountains and castles bathed in moonlight. Discover and upgrade a formidable range of tools for destruction.Step into The Last Faith’s ravaged world as Eryk, who awakens with no recollection of his immediate past. Soon he will discover he is in a race against time as his mind and conscience begins to deteriorate. His desire for salvation from this affliction sets him on a cursed mission that crosses paths with ancient religions and divinities.
Lethal Company
It’s a shame that a game as widely popular and nearly instantly successful asLethal Companyreleased so late in the year, practically guaranteeing the game’sabsence from The Game Awards, but its lack of official accolades has done little to dissuade the fervent player base the game continues to hold. Currently holding a 98% “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on Steam and an average player count of over 70,000 Steam users, it’s safe to say thatLethal Company’s early access launch has been a rousing success. Part survival horror game and part scrap-collecting mining simulator,Lethal Companyis one of those nearly-perfect cooperative games that is just begging to be played with a group of friends and all the lights turned off.
You are a contracted worker for the Company. Your job is to collect scrap from abandoned, industrialized moons to meet the Company’s profit quota. You can use the cash you earn to travel to new moons with higher risks and rewards–or you can buy fancy suits and decorations for your ship. Experience nature, scanning any creature you find to add them to your bestiary. Explore the wondrous outdoors and rummage through their derelict, steel and concrete underbellies. Justnevermiss the quota.These dangers prey upon the vulnerable and lonesome, and the protection of your crew may be your only hope. You can guide your crewmates from your ship, using the radar to call out traps and using the ship’s terminal to access remotely locked doors–or you can all go in together. The Company store has many useful tools for the job, including lights, shovels, walkie talkies, stun grenades, or boomboxes.Things get dangerous at night. Communicate with your crewmates to carry all valuables to the ship before things get too dangerous, and try not to leave anyone behind.
Pizza Tower
Much likeLethal Company,Pizza Towerhas consistently remained one of 2023’s highest-rated indie games on Steam, due in part to its incredible visual style and absolute banger of a soundtrack. Underneath its presentation, though, is a rock-solid retro platformer that has more than its fair share of similarities to the cult-classic GameCube gameWario World. A frenetic platformer that feels like playing a hyperactive cartoon,Pizza Towerfollows a long lineage ofexcellent indie Twitch platformers such asSuper Meat BoyorCelestebut does so all while retaining its own distinctive identity.
