Best Year For Indie Games

The rise of indie games has only been a good thing for the video game industry, as it opens the doors for anyone to work on their own title while also allowing for tons of amazing games that just couldn't be made by a AAA company. Some of my favorite gaming experiences from the last few years were indie games, so I wanted to reflect on how indie games became as big as they are know, highlight some games that I think are worth checking out, and ultimately answer the question: What was the best year for indie games?

2008: With the release of the original Spelunky along with Braid, I think it's fair to say that 2008 was the first year where indie titles really started to gain attention outside of the odd Cave Story. While neither of them would qualify as one of my all-time favorites, the influence of Spelunky and Braid cannot be understated. Meanwhile, World Of Goo also came out and became the headlining title for Nintendo's Wiiware service, which would eventually help to kickstart the 8-bit resurgence with games like Mega Man 9. I still love World Of Goo, it's such a simple but fun title with a lot of charm. Other games worth noting include Castle Crashers, the hilariously difficult QWOP, and popular rhythm game Audiosurf. My personal favorite indie game from 2008, however, is Touhou 11: Subterranean Animism, which just so happens to be my favorite in the series. Between plenty of truly influential titles and one of my favorite games of all time, 2008 was a pretty alright year for indie games, even if it was just the beginning.

3/5 Stars

2009: 2009 wasn't quite as big as the year that came before in terms of indie games, but it still had some pretty notable stuff. We got the visually stunning Machinarium, the nearly iconic Canabalt, and the simplistic Flower. It was a good year for mobile indie games, with the releases of Angry Birds and the absolutely fantastic Plants Vs Zombies, which might be my favorite indie game of the year. But probably the biggest thing about 2009 are actually the indie games that are yet to come. The original Meat Boy came out in 2009, as did the very first version of Minecraft. I wouldn't call 2009 one of the best years for indie games, but between Angry Birds, Minecraft, and Meat Boy, it still holds a ton of importance for at least laying the groundwork for some of the biggest video games of all time.

2/5 Stars

2010: All the groundwork that had been laid in 2009 finally got paid off in 2010. While Minecraft still hadn't officially released, it was gaining popularity by the day. Meat Boy's success paved the way for the release of its phenomenal sequel Super Meat Boy, a game that established the "rage platformer" formula that so many of my favorite games follow. However, my favorite game from this year was actually the inventive gravity-shifting platformer VVVVVV, which did technically have its beta version released in 2009, but I'll count it as a 2010 game. Outside of that, Vlambeer released their first game Super Crate Box, Playdead released the haunting Limbo, and we also got Amnesia: The Dark Descent, an apparently good horror game that I have no intention of playing since I'm not great with that kind of stuff. We still haven't gotten to the point where indie games are releasing nearly daily, but it's another solid year with some really notable titles like Super Meat Boy, Limbo, and VVVVVV.

3/5 Stars

2011: Minecraft has finally released, and so did Terraria! Both games are easily some of the biggest of all time (Minecraft still being the best-selling game ever made), and are still being played by tons of people today. Additionally, Supergiant Games made their debut with the great Bastion. Keep this company in mind, they'll be very important around ten years later. We also had the releases of Frozen Synapse, The Binding Of Isaac, and Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. I don't want to bring up Touhou too often since that series gets a game nearly every year, but 2011 had the release of Ten Desires, which is another one of my personal favorite games. I'll be frank and say not many of these games are actually my cup of tea, but Minecraft alone should be enough to make this another pretty great year for indie games.

3/5 Stars

2012: I think 2012 was the year that indie games started to come out really regularly. We got Fez, Mark Of The Ninja, FTL: Faster Than Light, Hotline Miami, Journey, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Thomas Was Alone, Dustforce, Super Hexagon, and the much improved Xbox Live Arcade version of Spelunky. Fez is now one of the most iconic indie games of all time, but I actually think Hotline Miami had the biggest impact here. While they got their start with the Serious Sam games, I think Hotline Miami was the point where publisher Devolver Digital started to become really well-known. I also think Journey should be worth noting for being just the most beautiful game ever. Overall, 2012 not only had a lot of indie games, but a lot of great ones too. Definitely one of the better years for indie games.

4/5 Stars

2013: 2013 was another pretty solid year for indie games, though probably not as noteworthy as 2012. We got Papers Please, Don't Starve, Rogue Legacy, Guacamelee, Antichamber, and The Swapper. None of these games are groundbreaking, but they're all really solid in their own right. Ridiculous Fishing came out in 2013, and is easily my favorite of Vlambeer's titles for its ridiculous premise. Towerfall came out for... ugh... the Ouya, and mercifully managed to survive the whole ordeal so that its developers could make Celeste in a few years. And we also got The Stanley Parable, which is absolutely genius in its writing and usage of multiple endings. All in all, a solid year, but it pales in comparison to what comes next...

3/5 Stars

2014: Where do I even start with this year? Oh, I know where: Shovel Knight. I definitely remember how much buzz that game got, and I think it showed a lot of people how much potential the indie game scene has. It definitely helped peak my interest in games that weren't made by Nintendo, that's for sure. The other big game for me was Freedom Planet, which is still one of my favorite games of all time. We also got the first Five Nights At Freddy's game, and say what you will, that game got huge. And that's still barely scratching the surface, as we also got Shantae And The Pirate's Curse, Subnautica, Luftrausers, OlliOlli, Threes, Transistor, The Talos Principle, Monument Valley, Nidhogg, Goat Simulator, Octodad: Deadlist Catch, and Duck Game. From those last few, it seems like developers felt more comfortable being weird and wacky with their games this year, which is always a good thing. But I think overall, 2014 was the year of stories. Games like Shovel Knight, Flappy Bird, and Five Nights At Freddy's all became known for the fact that they were made by either a small team or just a single person, and still became successes in spite of it. I think that inspired a lot of people to take up game design, it definitely did to me.

5/5 Stars

2015: Oh, 2014 wasn't good enough? How about 2015, the year of Undertale! I don't need to explain how influential and big Undertale is, and it's still one of my favorite games ever made. We also got Rocket League this year, which is now one of the defining E-Sports games. Ori And The Blind Forest and Crypt Of The Necrodancer also came out this year, and are both fantastic titles, and we also got another one of my favorite Touhou games in Legacy Of Lunatic Kingdom. OlliOlli and Hotline Miami both got sequels, Downwell helped make roguelikes accessible for people who just couldn't get into Spelunky, and I known a bunch of people who are still really into Kerbal Space Program. Not to mention Nuclear Throne, Her Story, Axiom Verge, SOMA, and N++. I think 2014 was more impactful, but in terms of the games, 2015 is easily one of the best years for indie titles.

5/5 Stars

2016: 2016 wasn't a very good year for Nintendo or video games in general, which explains why it was the year I got Steam and really started to get into the indie scene. The most noteworthy game from this year was Stardew Valley, a farming simulator that really took the world by storm. Some big indie titles got their long-awaited followups like The Witness for Braid, Inside for Limbo, and Shantae: Half Genie Hero, my personal favorite game in the series. We also got No Man's Sky, but maybe it's best we don't talk about that initial release. There was also Enter The Gungeon, Oxenfree, Darkest Dungeon, Owlboy, Hyper Light Drifter, Furi, Superhot, ABZU, Overcooked, Thumper, Slime Rancher, and Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight. There was definitely no shortage of great games on offer this year, but I also wouldn't call any of them my personal favorites. Being stuck between the Undertale year and one of the best years in video game history can make 2016 feel a bit lacking by comparison, but it did serve one important role. As most AAA companies were busy transitioning consoles or preparing for big releases in the coming year, 2016 proved that indie games alone could carry a year.

4/5 Stars

2017: There's no sugercoating it, this is one of the greatest years in video game history. Not just for indie games, but for the industry as a whole. Thankfully, the release of the Nintendo Switch and 2017's many big releases didn't limit the amount of fantastic indie titles. As a matter of fact, some of the biggest games of the year were indies. For starters, we got Hollow Knight, one of the greatest metroidvanias ever made. Cuphead finally came out after years of hype and absolutely lived up to it all. What Remains Of Edith Finch and Night In The Woods both gave great story-driven experiences, and Doki Doki Literature Club took the medium in a completely new and terrifying direction. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice proved you can make an indie game that looks like a AAA release, and Hat In Time managed to rival the latest Mario game in sheer platforming prowess. Shovel Knight got its big Specter Of Torment update, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap got an amazing remake from Lizardcube, and Playtonic released its first game in Yooka-Laylee, which wasn't amazing but it was a solid stepping stone for its much better sequel. Not to mention games like Snake Pass, Slay The Spire, Pyre, Little Nightmares, Golf Story, Nidhogg II, Rain World, The End Is Nigh, and Flinthook. Where 2016 proved indie games could sustain a year, 2017 proved that indie titles could stand up with the best that the AAA companies had to offer.

5/5 Stars

2018: This is my favorite year for indie games. Better than 2014, better than 2015, and even better than 2017. I realized just how good of a year it was when I realized that the majority of games in my Top 10 list for that year were indie titles. Let's get the obvious out of the way, Celeste came out this year, and it's my favorite indie game of all time. We also got The Messenger, Iconoclasts, Touhou Luna Nights, and CrossCode, all of which would easily count as some of my other favorite indie games of all time. Games like Into The Breach, Return Of The Obra Dinn, Dead Cells, and Gris are also worth noting for their sheer critical success. As a matter of fact, between those four games and Celeste, this might be the best year for indie games critically. Guacamelee and Overcooked both got great sequels, Beat Saber became the VR game to own, Yoku's Island Express somehow managed to prove that you can make a pinball metroidvania and have it work, and we got the first chapter of Undertale's excellent sequel Deltarune. Not to mention Moonlighter, Donut County, Wandersong, Minit, Moss, Just Shapes & Beats, and Dandara, among many others I can't even begin to mention. Oh, and there's the fact that Hades and Among Us both had their initial releases in 2018, and would both become two of 2020's biggest titles. Just listing all the games out like this makes it all the clearer, 2018 is hands-down the best year for indie games especially on a quality level.

5/5 Stars

2019: The momentum from 2017 and 2018 still hasn't slowed, and while I wouldn't say this was as good of a year as those two, it still had a ton of fantastic titles. Untitled Goose Game, Disco Elysium, Katana Zero, Outer Wilds, Baba Is You, A Short Hike, Ape Out, Wargroove, Sayonara Wild Hearts, My Friend Pedro, Bug Fables, Superliminal, Gato Roboto, Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair, and Dicey Dungeons all came out in 2019. While I wouldn't call any of these games truly influential, there's such a strong variety that there's bound to be something you end up liking. Personally, I ended up loving Baba Is You, A Short Hike, Katana Zero, Bug Fables, and Yooka-Laylee this year the most. 2019 was also a pretty good year for indie game crossovers, as Zelda crossed over with Crypt Of The Necrodancer in Cadence Of Hyrule, Toby Fox ended up making a bunch of music for Game Freak, and we got Sans in Super Smash Bros. There isn't much else to say, 2019 was just a really solid year for indie titles.

4/5 Stars

2020: Despite the fact that this year has generally been pretty awful, it somehow managed to be a really good year for indie games. The biggest one is definitely Supergiant's Hades (told you they'd be important), a game so unanimously praised that it won nearly every award imaginable. And then there's Among Us, which rivaled Animal Crossing as the quarantine video game, managing to overtake the already really fun Fall Guys in popularity. And say what you will about Genshin Impact, you can't deny it's probably the most ambitious gotcha game ever . Then there's the sequels. Spelunky 2, Ori And The Will Of The Wisps, and Shantae And The Seven Sirens came out this year and they're all fantastic. As for the original titles, we got Spiritfarer, Ooblets, Carrion, The Pathless, Bugsnax, Ikenfell, Phasmophobia, Umarangi Generation, Alwa's Legacy, and Going Under. And those aren't even my favorite indie games of the year! One Step From Eden is my favorite roguelike ever made and is a game I haven't stopped replaying to this day, and Omori managed to barely edge in my pick for Game Of The Year after coming out on the last week of December. Similarly to 2016, while the general video game industry and world as a whole was pretty much in disarray, leave it to the indie titles to carry the otherwise awful 2020 as best they could.

5/5 Stars

2021: After a really impressive streak of fantastic years, 2021 wasn't quite as strong for indie games, though by no means bad. Death's Door, Eastward, Cyber Shadow, Loop Hero, Everhood, TOEM, Here Comes Niko, Demon Turf, Sable, Kena: Bridge Of Spirits, Phoenotopia: Awakening, and Kaze And The Wild Masks all came out this year to pretty great reception. It was also a really solid year for sequels, as Touhou made its big comeback with a whopping two new titles, and both Little Nightmares and Axiom Verge got followups. Personally, my favorite indie game of the year was the effortlessly charming and accessible Chicory: A Colorful Tale. However, you can also tell that this is the year where the pandemic really hit indie developers, as many games ended up getting pushed to be released in 2022, and the long-awaited sequel to Hollow Knight is still MIA. But honestly, I'm fine with getting a much calmer year for indie games seeing as we were getting amazing game after amazing game pretty much nonstop for seven straight years.

3/5 Stars

So what was the best year for indie games? For me, it was 2018. There were so many phenomenal games that year, several of which ended up becoming some of my favorites of all time. But there are other great choices as well. 2014 gave the indie game scene a big boost of recognition, 2015 had the releases of Undertale and Rocket League, 2017 had too many amazing entries to count, and 2020 was a year pretty much carried by indie games. It all shows that it's really worth looking into indie games if you haven't already. There are so many amazing and well-polished experiences despite their small development teams, and you're bound to at least find a few that you'll come away loving. Whether its the retro throwbacks, avant-garde art pieces, or single-developer passion projects, indie games can prove to be even better and more impactful than their AAA counterparts.

My general ranking of indie game years would probably be:

2018 > 2017 > 2020 > 2014 > 2015 > 2019 > 2016 > 2010 > 2008 > 2021 > 2013 > 2011 > 2009