Top 20 Best Indie Games of the Century (So Far)
Script written by Caitlin Johnson
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down the greatest indie games released since the year 2000.
#20: “Minecraft” (2011)
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Starting life as the creation of a single developer, “Minecraft” has grown into a gaming behemoth since its original release. It’s now become a cultural touchstone for an entire generation of kids, as “Minecraft” has gone beyond just being a game and is widely used as a learning aid in schools. It’s a quality game that is fun for people of all ages, and just as fun playing solo as playing co-op with your friends. It’s only gone from strength to strength since being bought by Microsoft, and though that could mean it’s not an indie game anymore, it’s important not to forget where it came from.
#19: “Journey” (2012)
Nobody expected “Journey” to be one of the most profound games ever released in the PS3 era back in 2012. You take on the mantle of a strange, lone traveller in a vast desert, platforming and solving mysterious puzzles. Sometimes, you come across other travellers in the same spaces as you, seemingly going on the same journey independently. At the end of the game, though, you find out that those travellers weren’t NPCs at all, but other players, appearing in your game seamlessly. Aside from the technical achievement of seamless multiplayer like this back in 2012, seeing the big list of names at the end as it shows you everybody you helped and who helped you is deeply moving.
#18: “Sea of Stars” (2023)
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Easily the best indie game to come out in 2023, “Sea of Stars” is a modern take on turn-based combat. Initially funded through Kickstarter, the game was in development for about three years until launching to critical acclaim. If you loved classic RPGs like the older “Final Fantasy” games or “Chrono Trigger”, “Sea of Stars” was made for you. With loveable, well-written characters and beautiful, retro graphics, you really can’t go wrong. If you’ve ever wished that studios would keep making games like this, full of heart and charm, and you haven’t played it yet, you’re missing out. And unlike plenty of modern RPGs, “Sea of Stars” actually respects your time and doesn’t drag on for 100 hours or more.
#17: “Cuphead” (2017)
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Provided you can beat the tutorial, you’ll find an excellent game waiting for you beyond. “Cuphead” had a lot of attention before it came out because of its animation style, with about 45,000 hand-drawn frames of animation designed to emulate classic, early cartoons in the 1930s. The music is also reminiscent of the period, with one of the best soundtracks in any video game ever. If you’re looking for a challenge, it’s perfect, with frenetic, run-and-gun gameplay that can take a long time to master because of its refreshingly high difficulty. But no matter how hard it is, you’ll never stop having fun, because it’s so superbly designed.
#16: “Subnautica” (2018)
If you’ve got a fear of the ocean, beware: “Subnautica” is one frightening game. You play as the last survivor of a spaceship when it crash-lands on an ocean planet. Everything becomes a potential crafting material, something you need to survive as you have to monitor hunger, thirst, and oxygen. Contend with dangerous, oceanic fauna as you build machines that can take you deeper and deeper into the sea – unravelling the mysteries of the planet as you do. “Subnautica” is beloved, and if you want to explore the depths of the sea without worrying about being crushed alive, you can even play it in creative mode.
#15: “Outer Wilds” (2019)
One of the best time loop games ever made, “Outer Wilds” gives you a wooden spaceship and sends you out to explore – with the catch that every 22 minutes, the sun explodes. You’re trying to solve the mystery of the time loop and of the civilization that came before, the Nomai. Knowing any more than that will ruin the sense of vastness and exploration, and that’s the whole joy of playing. You get to travel to the various planets and unearth their secrets and the only limitation is your own knowledge. Go into it knowing as little as possible and just enjoy the ride, since you’ll never be able to truly re-experience it.
#14: “The Stanley Parable” (2013)
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On the face of it, “The Stanley Parable” has a straightforward concept. You’re a character in a video game and a narrator is describing what you’re going to do; you can choose to obey the narrator or disobey. But the genius of the game emerges when it becomes clear just how much choice is accounted for in the narrative. Just when you think you’ve outsmarted the game and done something it can’t account for, you’re proven wrong, in this masterful commentary on the nature of video games. It’s got over a dozen different endings to see, especially if you play 2022’s lauded “Ultra Deluxe” version. Not bad for a ”Half-Life 2” mod.
#13: “The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth” (2014)
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This rougelike isn’t for the faint of heart, as not only does it have challenging gameplay but also a very distressing story in which you use tears as weapons. We play as Isaac, who’s being mistreated by his devoutly religious mother. You’ll unlock more characters and items the more you replay the game and the more different endings you reach, adding to the game’s already impressive replay value. Its various expansions also add more content, bosses, and endings to the game, and if you play it with all the expansions, it has more than twenty conclusions. It’s very impressive that a game with such dark subject matter can be so much fun.
#12: “Shovel Knight” (2014)
In this 2D platformer, it’s up to you, the brave Shovel Knight, to defeat the villainous Enchantress and her Order of No Quarter to ultimately save the world – and that’s just the main campaign. Meant to emulate old-school Nintendo games, “Shovel Knight” executes this mandate perfectly. By collecting treasure you’ll be able to buy more items and permanent upgrades to mix up the gameplay, and there’s also an interesting risk-reward mechanic here because destroying checkpoints nets you more gold. The charming story and superb character designs for the various knights will keep you coming back to “Shovel Knight” and its numerous campaigns time and time again.
#11: “Braid” (2008)
One of the earliest indie games to really take the world by storm, “Braid” launched on the Xbox Live Arcade way back in 2008. At the time, indie games still weren’t really a thing on consoles, since it was so much harder before this era to make and distribute games alone. “Braid” changed all that. It was a confounding platformer with a time manipulation mechanic and a plot twist nobody saw coming buried at the end. “Braid” is now most famous as a key example of a game where YOU were the villain all along, subverting your expectations about being a young hero trying to save a princess from her dangerous captor.
#10: “Inside” (2016)
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Two years after “Braid”, another indie game made waves when it appeared on Xbox Live Arcade: “Limbo”. It was also a puzzle-platformer, made entirely in black and white. You play as a young boy who is subjected to increasingly violent deaths every time you make a mistake. Six years on, and it would be followed up with “Inside”, which was even more disturbing – but also more interesting. Again, you’re playing as a boy, but this time you’re trying to break into and then out of a strange research facility full of sinister experiments. And who can forget THAT ending? Certainly, it was one of the grossest moments in video game history.
#9: “Hollow Knight” (2017)
A Metroidvania with Soulslike elements, “Hollow Knight” has been popular ever since its release. With a unique art style built on hand-drawn animation – much like “Cuphead” – “Hollow Knight” is as relentless as it is beautiful. You play as the Knight as it journeys around Hallownest, travelling through various biomes and fighting an array of now-iconic bosses. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart, since if you die, you then have to defeat your own shade to get your full health back, but it’s deeply rewarding, nonetheless. Getting to grips with the atmosphere and lore of the world as you slowly get enough skill and power to take on tougher bosses is huge fun.
#8: “Fez” (2012)
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Yet another example of how great Xbox Live Arcade was back in the day, “Fez” remains an icon of the era. When it begins, you think it’s going to be another 2D platformer, but it’s got a major twist: the entire stage can rotate, which makes the confounding puzzles a joy to solve. This makes the puzzles both surprisingly simple and surprisingly complex; you’ll be wracking your brain to work out exactly how to navigate this strange world and its shattered boundaries of perception. It’s a shame that the lead developer, Phil Fish, quit gaming entirely before the sequel could be released.
#7: “Papers, Please” (2013)
While most video games are designed to be fun, that’s not the case with “Papers, Please”, developed entirely by now-legendary indie developer Lucas Pope. In “Papers, Please”, your job is to man a border crossing and deny or allow people access into your country, Arstotzka. But if you don’t process enough people, you won’t get enough pay to feed your family back at home – and if you process the WRONG people, the consequences will be severe. The point of the game is to explore how ordinary people can be manipulated into doing evil things, and it achieves this masterfully. Pope would go on to make the equally acclaimed and dastardly complex puzzler, “Return of the Obra Dinn” in 2018.
#6: “Stardew Valley” (2016)
Inspired by “Harvest Moon” and “Animal Crossing”, “Stardew Valley” was developed entirely by Eric Barone, better known as ConcernedApe. The cosy game to end all cosy games, “Stardew Valley” sees you taken away from the hustle and bustle of the big city and its faceless corporations, as you inherit your family’s farm and begin to get it back on its feet. Provided you don’t side with Joja – and, let’s be honest, nobody does – you’ll see Pelican Town brought back to life by your efforts. You can invest in dozens of different ways to make money, from becoming an artisan to a fisherman to a spelunker, and you can even get married, settle down, and have kids.
#5: “Celeste” (2018)
Another retro-styled 2D platformer, “Celeste” is truly a modern masterpiece. You play as Madeline, who’s very good at parkour but not AS good at facing her personal demons. That’s what the whole game is about, as Madeline decides to climb Mount Celeste to regain some control over her life, facing her evil counterpart Badeline as she does. With themes of mental illness, “Celeste” is a profound experience at its heart, as well as having exceptionally fun, well-designed platforming gameplay – and one heck of a soundtrack. It’s also got very customizable difficulty options, meaning that whatever your skill level, you, too, can reach the summit of the mountain and find a resolution.
#4: “Super Meat Boy” (2010)
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The predecessor to “The Binding of Isaac”, “Super Meat Boy” was yet another titan of Xbox Live Arcade back in its glory days. With an ingeniously gory premise, “Super Meat Boy” became notorious for its difficult but addictive gameplay loop. You’re tasked with mastering the very unforgiving platforming controls to make it through increasingly deadly levels. 300 times, you’ll reach your beloved Bandage Girl only to have her whisked away again by Dr Fetus. This forces you to complete yet another level in the meat grinder mountain until you can finally rescue her from his clutches. You’ll have a whale of a time overcoming these challenges.
#3: “Undertale” (2015)
It’s hard to put the legacy of “Undertale” into words. After all, this is the game that MatPat gifted the Pope a copy of in 2016 to prove the value of video games as an art form. It took the world by surprise when it came out, because of its loveable characters, tricky gameplay, and of course, that iconic soundtrack. It was made almost entirely by Toby Fox, who only occasionally commissioned other people to create for it, composing all the music himself. Everybody has a favorite “Undertale” character and a favorite song, and if you played the genocide route first, those revelations about your murder spree will never leave you.
#2: “Hades” (2020)
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Supergiant Games was already an indie darling, but this reached new heights with the full release of “Hades”. It had already become popular in early access, but in 2020 the complete game dropped on PC and Switch, becoming a mammoth hit and a contender for game of the year. “Hades” is, for all intents and purposes, a perfect game. Its rougelike gameplay is fast and fun, and even when you fail to escape, you’re always learning new things and getting new lines of dialogue from its roster of well-written characters. The art is all gorgeous, too, with beautiful environments and character portraits that make “Hades” consistently enjoyable no matter how good you are at it.
#1: “Disco Elysium: The Final Cut” (2021)
If you’re only going to play one RPG in your whole life, make it “Disco Elysium”. It’s impossible to overstate the critical acclaim this game has received since it came out, first only on PC but eventually coming to consoles as well. The first thing you notice about the game is its art style, evocative of oil paintings, and the second thing you notice is the superb writing, which is arguably unlike any writing seen in the medium before. Through the alcoholic, amnesiac main character, “Disco Elysium” explores myriad political ideologies and belief systems, everything from communism to one man’s unshakable belief in cryptids. It’s a human and heartbreaking masterpiece wrapped up in a murder mystery.
Let us know in the comments which of these indie darlings is your all-time FAVORITE.
