Steam is a marketplace that serves as a platform for developers from all walks of life to release their games, hoping that someone will download and enjoy them. No matter if it’s in written form, movie format, or video game, creative freedom is a big driver of innovation, and Steam has allowed imaginative minds to present their creations to the world.
Some of the best games of the last decade have been created by independent developers who have had to rely on creativity, ingenuity, and hard work to get their games out to the market without huge budgets or the burden of expectations. Many of these indie games have been genre-defying masterpieces, while others have been fun little experiments that anyone can get into.
A few of the best indie games on Steam include Undertale, Among Us, Cuphead, and Firewatch, but there are many more available and ready for the taking.
Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is a beautiful nice-feely indie game on Steam ideal for the kind of gamers that want to sit back and relax instead of yell at the screen every death or so. The music is amazingly composed and complements the cheery atmosphere of the farm life.
You start in your grandfather’s farm plot with a few tools and some coin. The objective is simple, to turn the abandoned land into a proper farm. There are many possibilities at your disposal to create this dream farm; raising animals, growing crops, and crafting items are a few of the elements available that will keep your mind at peace and your heart full.
Discover the many ways you can improve the farm as the progress you make warms your heart in this charming and lovely experience of a game.
Celeste
Another emotionally-charged tale but told in a very unique yet effective way. Celeste follows Madeline’s story, a young girl dealing with depression and anxiety who sets herself the goal to climb the mountain to overcome her internal struggles.
The way this story is presented is unique in the sense that it’s a platformer, and not many platformers take themselves as seriously as this one. However, Celeste does a great job at balancing out the fun that this kind of game inherently has along with a serious narrative.
The environment changes frequently enough to keep you on your toes and inspire you to reach the next step. While the gameplay itself is simplistic in nature, the way you play allows you to grow accustomed to every new technique introduced without it feeling like it’s shoving new stuff in your face so you won’t get bored. Instead, Celeste keeps it balanced with a gradual difficulty curve.
Undertale
Undertale is a very peculiar RPG that charmed the hearts of thousands of players around the world back when it came out in 2015. You play as an androgynous human that fell on a cave and found a world inhabited by monsters.
These are not the scary type of monsters (though there are a few of those). These are the wacky, hilarious, full of personality kind of monsters that will take you on a journey that will show you that not everything is solved with violence, which, to be fair, is a novel concept for a video game.
Created mostly by one person, Undertale is a demonstration of creativity at its fullest potential, where the game will play with your expectations at every turn. If you’re lucky enough to have not played or seen any footage of this game before, then I highly recommend you to play it as blind as you can and enjoy the ride.
Cuphead
This indie game on Steam started as a small project between its developers and grew into an amazing game over the course of five years. Cuphead is a run and gun action that emphasizes boss battles. It’s a challenging endeavor that will put your reaction skills to the test with every level and boss.
The visuals are stunning, based on classic 1930s era cartoons with smooth movements and exaggerated choreographies. The hand-drawn animations and the jazz music blasting your ears will make you nostalgic for an era you never lived in.
Cuphead can be played solo or in local co-op. Both are equally challenging endeavors, earning Cuphead the nickname of the “Dark Souls of Indie Games.” And while most gaming news outlets have used that term so loosely that it has lost meaning, it does have some merit here in the sense that Cuphead does not hold your hand, and every victory will be earned through trial and error over repeating deaths.
If you crave the challenge and can appreciate the amazing aesthetic, then Cuphead is the best game for you to try out.
Untitled Goose Game
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you were an annoying goose whose sole purpose in life is to make life difficult for every one you cross paths with? Me neither, but the developers of Untitled Goose Game did and somehow managed to capture it in video game format.
Untitled Goose Game is the kind of game that nobody asked for, but that we all needed. It is a fun travesty over a small town where you, playing as a goose, will have the privilege of ruining people’s day in all sorts of creative ways.
While the price is a bit steep considering the game’s length, I would say it’s worth the countless laughs you’ll get out of this game. Not to mention that it has also included a two-player co-op, which adds a layer of replayability and fun to be had.
Firewatch
Firewatch is a whole different beast from all the other games on this list. For one, it has a slow pace; it relies on the player to be patient and invest themselves in the characters of the game and their interactions. The gorgeous scenery serves as the background of an engaging story that will have you ponder about human nature and the mistakes we make.
This single-player, first-person experience plays with your expectations in more ways than you’d think at first glance. The story is a slow burn that unravels beautifully as you play it. The characters are flawed yet likable, and the visuals alone will have you glued to the screen.
Firewatch rewards exploration, and the choices you make subtly tailor the story, maybe not in the way an RPG would, but enough to have you play it more than once to uncover several missed clues or hidden dialogue that will add to the bigger picture and make the mystery more clear. Definitively a must-play for lovers of single-player, personal narratives.
Papers, Please
What on the surface might sound like a pretty mundane, pixelated job simulator Papers, Please actually turns out to be an amazingly executed thriller that will have you question every decision you make. You are the immigration inspector of a dystopian communist state whose job is to manage the flow of people entering the border.
In this game, you rely solely on your analytical abilities to figure out who gets to cross the border and who doesn’t. Between the sea of people, you’ll find regular citizens, average workers, poor families looking for a place to live, along with smugglers, terrorists, and spies. So, as you can imagine, this is not going to be an easy task.
Of course, some rudimentary systems will help you search and inspect travelers, but these are fallible, and so are you.
Binding Of Isaac
Binding of Isaac has a close place to my heart, and I’m sure the same applies to many. This indie horror RPG shooter with Rogue-like elements has you playing as a little boy, Isaac, as he descends into the madness of the Underworld (or his own mind, depending on your interpretation). There’s a lot to love about this little jewel, either the creepy stylistic design, the addicting gameplay, or the crude, dark humor that permeates it.
Binding of Isaac brims with personality as it takes you on a journey full of horrific, nightmarish creatures, bizarre power-ups and abilities, and a randomly generated world that will have you exploring every inch of it.
A game made for completionists, no two runs will be the same since rooms, monsters, items, and abilities change every time you start. There’s a lot of content to uncover, characters to unlock, powers to use, and monsters to defeat. Not to mention the number of different endings for each successfully completed run will have you playing for hours on end.
Among Us
Every Youtuber’s wet dream, Among Us offers a lot of replayability with the setting alone. In this indie game available on Steam and mobile, you play as either one of the members of a space ship trying to complete tasks and figure out who’s the impostor, or as an impostor where you’ll have to systematically kill most crew members before they complete their tasks in order to win.
The one thing that makes this whole thing work as well as it does it’s the voting system. This is where all players will go to when reporting a dead body or in an emergency meeting. Here, all players will discuss their reasoning to figure out who the impostor is. And this is the moment to shine as an impostor since your job will be to mislead the crew members and make them fight amongst each other.
One of the most satisfying feelings you’ll ever get in gaming is to be able to convince a group of people that someone else has been killing everyone and manage to get them ejected to space instead of you. A bit cruel, I know, but still satisfying nonetheless. One of the best indie games out there with its simplistic setting and execution of ideas, and one that will probably ruin a few friendships along the way.
Hades
Combat against a variety of randomized enemies with different combinations of powers while you fight your way through the Underworld.
In Hades, you’re Zagreus, son of Hades, a charismatic and skilled demigod with a wide array of divine powers and abilities. You not only have godly powers at your disposal but can also wield six weapons with different variants.
Zagreus’ banter with the rest of the Underworld’s deities and underlings is as fun and engaging as the combat itself, with a lot of humor and personality mixed in.
Death is a feature that seamlessly merges with the game’s lore, as characters remember you and even tease you after you die. Instead of feeling like failed attempts like most other rogue-likes, every death feels like an opportunity to play the game a bit differently and learn from your mistakes in Hades.
Battleblock Theater
Battleblock Theater is a charming puzzle platformer where your goal is to clear several stages, each of which will have different challenges and secrets. The humor is spot-on, the visual style is charming, and the gameplay is addicting in a lot of weird ways.
This indie game on Steam can be played solo or in co-op, but I would highly recommend you to play it with someone you know as there are countless ways to mess with your friends.
The characters are hilarious, the stages are enjoyable, and all the weapons you unlock are fun to play with. Batteblock Theater is one of those games that’s hard to recommend because you can’t really describe exactly what’s so good about it and just have to urge people to play it themselves. And that’s what I’m doing right now, urging you to try it and enjoy it for yourself. Believe me, you will get more than a few laughs out of it.
Terraria
Terraria is a 2D pixelated sandbox adventure game reminiscent of Minecraft but with a lot more to offer. Crafting, exploration, building, resource management, and survival are integral to Terraria’s gameplay.
With only a handful of tools, you start out in a randomly generated world receiving you with open arms to explore. Fighting monsters and finding cool stuff to craft with are just the tip of the iceberg. The more you play, the more you discover about the world and the deeper (literally) you go into the rabbit hole.
The variety of mobs and enemies, along with the quirkiness of the situations, more than make up for the lack of story or direction. Terraria shows us that games don’t really need a direction for you to follow or a narrative to unravel. Games can just be games and still be brilliant.
Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight is a 2D platformer with Metroidvania-like features that presents you with a beautiful, distinct, and lore-rich world filled with bosses, secrets, and treasures to collect.
The melancholic atmosphere, mixed with the amazing art style, gives Hollow Knight a gothic yet cheerful personality that will suck you in from the first minute.
The music is integral to making you feel part of the world and the design of the areas where each one feels unique and stands out from one another.
The details of the world are also presented in such a way that the environment itself tells a story for you to piece together, so don’t expect any handholding. And this advice goes for the gameplay itself as well.
Hollow Knight has a difficulty curve, and it’s not ashamed to show it, letting you discover the mechanics of the game by yourself, making those ‘aha’ moments all the more satisfying.
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