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These are 10 best indie games of the decade
Over the past 10 years indie developers have delivered some absolutely incredible video game titles. Here's our pick of the very best examples of the decade.
Indie devs have been responsible for some of the most memorable gaming experiences over the past 10 years. And no, we're not just talking about that belligerent goose. From climbing physical and emotional mountains to tending farms and witnessing some truly nightmarish body horror, we've been spoilt for choice, with indies spanning from the beautiful to the horrific, or the downright odd. Here's our pick of the best of the decade.
Inside
Playdead – PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, iOS
Escape the horror of Inside
© Playdead
Nobody expected Playdead to go back to the same well for its follow-up to the sinister Xbox Live platformer Limbo, but they did and came back with a pail full of gold yet again.
Inside starts out in a similar fashion, with a small boy in a dark, 2D world. He's not dead, though, at least not yet: what starts out as a jailbreak from an authoritarian, Orwellian factory, like a less flatulent version of the meatpacking factory from Abe's Oddysee, descends into something so much more sinister, as he tries to avoid drowning, being shot, torn apart by dogs, or used in medical experiments. It's best we don't say much more. Play with the sound up and the curtains closed.
Celeste
Matt Makes Games – PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
It's something of a shame that sometimes a game's difficulty level becomes a go-to descriptor. Celeste, from stellar indie dev Matt Makes Games, suffered a little from this fate, with the incredible twitch platformer being described as stunning, but difficult. What that description misses however is just how breathtakingly beautiful, moving and fun Celeste actually is. Besides, do you think climbing a mountain should be easy?
Celeste follows teen Madeleine as she attempts to climb the titular mountain, wrestling with her anxieties both about the climb itself and of a more personal nature. As these anxieties externalise into forces supernatural and otherwise, the player is tasked with scaling levels of ever-increasing difficulty, requiring a level of concentration and dexterity capable of testing the skills of any gamer. Frustration is always offset by the sheer tightness of the controls, though, and the speed in which you can try again. It also ensures that every stage conquered feels incredibly rewarding.
Brilliantly tackling sensitive subjects of depression, anxiety and coming to terms with your own insecurities, Celeste shows that a tough reputation means nothing. It's the beating heart beneath that counts.
Journey
Thatgamecompany – PC, PS3, PS4, iOS
For a game that lasts barely three hours from start to finish, Journey has left a lasting legacy on indie gaming. Aside from accidentally starting a thriving sub-genre of gentle puzzle games where someone in a red cloak wonders around a bit, it was Sony's big response to the flourishing indie scene on Xbox Live in the early 2010s: its own exclusive, made by a tiny team, which set the battleground for the decade to come.
Journey is a delight from start to mysterious finish. All you can do is jump, shout and walk towards the top of the mountain in the distance. Along the way, other players on the same journey will appear, helping you onwards. Don't ask why, that’s for all the games Journey inspired to answer. Just let it wash over you and enjoy the experience.
The Witness
Thekla – PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One, iOS
Ready for some brain teasers?
© Thekla
Not many video games require you to break out a notebook, least of all one with ruled graph paper, but if you want to witness The Witness for yourself, you'll either need some, or an eidetic memory. You choose.
This abandoned, mystery island is packed full of grid-based puzzles that start out simple, but without so much as a single written clue, escalate, iterate and evolve until you're looking for shapes in waterfalls and passing clouds. We've never raged so hard at a game, nor taken so much pride in overcoming a particular puzzle as in The Witness – that god damn stick on the floor. A remarkable, worthy follow-up to Jonathan Blow's equally intellectual Braid, you owe it to yourself to see this one through to the end.
Stardew Valley
Sickhead Games – PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Sometimes it's about the journey, rather than the destination. That's certainly the case with Stardew Valley, which is essentially all journey. Having had a farm bequeathed upon you by your dying grandfather, your office drone heads to rural pastures to get up early, plant seeds, tend the soil and just generally do farm things. Cool! Only, it really is. Stardew Valley is deceptively huge in its ambitions – requiring the player to build relationships, contend with the brutal realities of corporate greed and, of course, ensure your farm proves fruitful.
You can explore monster-ridden caves, charm or neglect local townsfolk, fish and do so much more. Stardew’s many treasures are all so thoughtfully built, with just the right mix of grind and strategy, that it proves an exceedingly hard game to capture. Perhaps easiest, is to say that Stardew Valley, more so than any other game, captures the importance of community and the value of being a part of it. Just don't forget to water your cabbages.
Owlboy
D-Pad Studios – PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Much has been made of Owlboy's lengthy development process. Eight years went by from funding to release, with D-Pad Studios openly admitting the difficulties they faced in bringing the adorable avian-human hybrid to life. While we can't speak for those behind the game as to whether their experience was worth it, as players we can say that the wait absolutely was. A stunning, pixel-rich 2D platformer, Owlboy soars where many long-awaited games plummet, offering a tight, perfectly executed experience with very little fat and no sign that the long gestation period was fraught with difficulty.
The game tells the story of mute Otus (the titular Owlboy), who must work with his ragtag group of friends to combat space pirates and a mysterious set of McGuffins that could bring about the end of their stunning, floating world. A fun plot is far richer due to its emphasis on friendship and eventual acceptance, while the adorable characters, sharp writing and beautiful visuals add up to a game that more than earns its place on this list. Let's just hope that D-Pad don't make us wait another decade for the follow-up.
Firewatch
Campo Santo – PC, Mac PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Explore the wild in Firewatch
© Campo Santo
The mid-2010s saw a flurry of 'walking simulator' games, most of them far more involving than that terrible genre name suggests. None more so than Firewatch, a short, bittersweet tale about a man trying to find himself in the wilds of an American national park and the relationship he strikes up with a fellow fire warden entirely over radio. It's a remarkably involving story considering that during the game's short run time you never even see another human face, brought to life by a fantastic voice performance by Mad Men's Rich Sommer.
Perhaps what makes the game so memorable is the fact that we're not likely to see another game like it from its creators for a long time. Two years after launch, the small team at Campo Santo were acquired by Valve and just this month they confirmed that their next planned game was on hold whilst they worked on other projects for the giant publisher.
Bastion
Supergiant Games – PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Navigate the broken world of Caelondia
© Supergiant Games
Arriving right at the beginning of the decade on Steam, Supergiant Games' ace isometric action-RPG sees you take charge of a wordless hero fighting his way through a beautiful landscape, hoping to reassemble the broken world of Caelondia. The game offers fun, fast-paced combat, a beautiful art style in which the world assembles and falls away around you and a vast array of weaponry, items and customisation to make Bastion feel varied, even when you're cutting through swathes of enemies for the umpteenth time.
What sets Bastion apart from its genre contemporaries however is the game's voiceover. It's only when playing Bastion do you realise how little gaming has used the voiceover trope and none as well as this. Offering Cormac McCarthy-like asides in a gravelly voice, your omniscient narrator sews together the seams of Bastion's plot while offering humorous ruminations on almost your every action. It feels novelistic, as well as novel, and the story that unravels from the loquacious overseer is an eco-fable with a message worth listening to and questions set to challenge players. Put simply, Bastion is brilliant.
RiME
Tequila Works – PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
RiME is quite criminally underrated, a victim of some technical issues that mar the game's performance, but mostly plain bad timing. It arrived at the same time as Sony's criminally overrated The Last Guardian and shares some superficial similarities (A boy stuck on an island with fantastical winged creatures knocking around, puzzles to solve).
Given the hype surrounding the massively delayed PlayStation 4 exclusive, RiME never stood a chance. People wanted to love The Last Guardian and so they overlooked RiME. It's a pity, as RiME is an adept puzzle platformer that stands up on its own merit and hits you with an absolute gut punch of an ending so hard in the feels that the tears will come out, like it or not. Has a better story about family ever been told in a game? We're not sure.
Cuphead
Studio MDHR – Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
He's the boss
© Studio MDHR
We've never seen anything like Cuphead. Okay, that may not be true, because Cuphead looks very much like the 1930s golden age of animation-style Studio MDHR aimed to reproduce. What's closer to the truth is that we've never played anything like Cuphead. While its glorious art style sucks you in, the frenetically paced run-and-gunning, blink-and-you-die platforming and hellishly challenging boss battles take the game into a league of its own.
Yes, it's teeth-gnashingly tough, but it seldom feels unfair and there's very little to match the satisfaction of conquering a particularly malicious boss (we're looking at you, Dr Kahl's Robot), even if you've dented your controller in frustration in the meantime. Cuphead is a truly stunning achievement and, no, you've probably never played anything like it.
