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The best Indie Games for PC come in so many different forms that it’s hard to say what the word “indie” means anymore. It can mean that small teams like Devolver or Raw Fury publish pixel-art games made by small groups. It can mean that well-known developers leave their companies to crowdfund huge passion projects that are as big as blockbuster movies.
If we look back at the history of gaming, we can see that most of it has been made up of games made by AAA studios. When games were mostly sold in stores and the digital age of gaming was just a dream, there was no such thing as an indie game. There was no clear way for brave small studios to get into the business.
Most of the time, this makes these developers useful to bigger studios instead of making their own projects. Here is a detailed list of the best Indie Games for computer that have ever been made. So, you’ll spend less time looking for information and more time getting to know these hidden gems. But enough talking, here are the indie games we think are the best ever.
Best Indie Games For PC
Terraria
This sandbox game has been very popular since it came out in 2011 as “2D Minecraft.” This spellbinding indie game is great because there’s always something to do. You can make it your own by setting goals, like building Terraria houses, fighting one of the many Terraria bosses, or even going deep into the dangerous dungeons.
When you finish goals, NPCs become available, and you build your own village to house them. Each NPC has a different purpose, like a Wizard making potions or a Nurse healing you. If you get to the end, you don’t have to worry because there’s an expert level with even more bosses, enemies, biomes, and items.
The Binding of Isaac Rebirth
The Binding of Isaac Rebirth is the follow-up to the first game, which had the same idea. It is a randomly generated action RPG with roguelike elements. The game follows Isaac through an unknown world as he runs away from his religious Christian mother, who wants to sacrifice him, through a trap door in his bedroom.
As Isaac, you get superhuman abilities and find hidden treasure as you fight off hordes of enemies, find secrets, and try to get to safety. This game is hard because it has a maze of rooms and different kinds of monsters, but it’s worth fighting your way to one of the many endings it has to offer.
Proteus
We call these games “walking simulators” with affection, but sometimes it’s hard to get into their stories. They can feel like a let-down. Proteus doesn’t because the story it tells is one we all know. It drops me off on an island that was made by a set of rules and lets me look around, climbing hills and chasing frogs.
There is another story in it, though, so you can experience a series of events. It’s a quiet one, though. If you want them, there’s a buildup and a climax, but just taking a stroll through its islands was enough to make me happy.
Into the Breach
In the future, huge bugs will come out of the ground and destroy the world, and the only people who can save us are mech pilots from an even further future who come back to save us. You are humanity’s last chance as a group of three pilots in cool-looking vehicles.
You can see what the bugs will do one turn ahead of time, so you can move out of their way so they fight each other or move into their path to stop them from destroying a building full of people. Overall, it is one of the best Indie Games for PC that you can download from Google Play Store.
That Dragon, Cancer
That Dragon, Cancer is a beautiful, heartbreaking, and ultimately inspiring game by Numinous Games. It tells the story of how the Green family dealt with their child’s cancer. Ryan and Amy Green’s 1-year-old son Joel was told he had cancer that would kill him, but he lived for four more years after that. Through a point-and-click adventure game, That Dragon, Cancer shows bits and pieces of what the Green family went through while Joel fought cancer.
Quadrilateral Cowboy
You play a hacker in the 1980s in Quadrilateral Cowboy. You and other agents work together to get into buildings and steal important papers. But as a hacker, you don’t have to go inside to do your job. Instead, you help by typing commands into a computer terminal to open doors, turn off cameras, and move other things.
Heist jobs are time-sensitive, so you have to be smart and quick-thinking to do well. Before each mission, you can do a “virtual reality” simulation of what will happen. This lets you devise plans and determine what each agent will do and how they will do it.
Cursed to Golf
As soon as you play Cursed to Golf for five minutes, you know it’s something special. After a few hours, it feels like not only one of the best independent games of the year, but also possibly the best golf game ever. Cursed to Golf may be one of the strangest games of 2022, with elements from 2D animation platformers, roguelikes, and Scotland’s most famous sport, but it’s a simple idea that’s been done brilliantly and beautifully. It’s a hole-in-one for Chuhai Labs.
Trombone Champ
Trombone Champ is not only the funniest game of 2022 but has also shown that it is much more than just a rhythm game with a single joke. The brainchild of developer Dan Vecchitto, aka Holy Wow Studios, Trombone Champ blew up social media as soon as it came out, in part because the funniest instrument in the orchestra was being used to ruin songs like “God Save the King” and “Have Nagila.” Since the game came out, Vecchitto has stayed committed to by regularly putting out free updates.
Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is one of the most relaxing, fun, charming, and rewarding games out there, and it was all made by one man. Let’s start with an independent game that breaks many rules. You might think that this game is just a copy of Harvest Moon, but it’s so much more than that.
This game is a dungeon crawler, a chance to explore in a relaxing way, a source of surprisingly dark and touching stories, and, most importantly, a game that can be played over and over again thanks to a brilliant, addicting gameplay loop.
Undertale
Some games come along and do something totally new and different. But we can’t think of another game that does that as boldly as Undertale. Undertale is a role-playing game (RPG) that takes its art style from games like the Earthbound series.
It tells a unique story that makes fun of the gaming world and teaches you to play differently by throwing popular gaming tropes out the window. The game will teach you how to make friends with your enemies and turn combat into a team effort.
Final Words
Our list of the best Indie Games for PC has something for everyone, including engaging roguelikes, beautiful puzzle games, and hard platformers. A decade ago, digital distribution caused a big indie boom, but it turned out to be more of a Big Bang, sending small-team development in many different directions that are now hard to classify. We have a lot to choose from when making our list of the best independent games because there are so many of them.