Games

Synthetik is my top steam game with, like, 900 hours.

Magicraft.

Minecraft (the old one)

Banished, you can't get more Indie than just one guy's passion project.

I don't know what it is about that game but it really struck a chord with me and I've come back to it over and over. It's my favorite game to play when I'm sick and can't do anything. It's relaxing and peaceful and cozy while also being complex and ruthlessly challenging at the same time, so it's like spinning plates. Seems easy when you get the hang of it but it can all come crashing down if you make a bad enough mistake. It's spawned some copy cats, and I've tried them, but the original just gets me somehow.

Can't really add much to all of the great games already mentioned. But I'll add one, because it was one of the best games I played in recent memory. Chants of Sennaar. Where to even start? Point-and-click adventure/puzzle game that is all about language puzzles. With great visuals and music. Really dig the eurocomics inspired style. I don't know why, but this game really touched me - maybe it's because the game is about uniting people in an age of discord.

Some I really appreciate that I'm not seeing on this list:

I'm currently enjoying Blue Prince which is a fairly new rogue-like puzzle/mystery game it's hard to explain without spoiling but it's worth looking up.

Portals of Phereon is one of my absolute favorites. It's a fairly deep tactical RPG thing with loads of replayability. It's kind of like a Pokemon x FF Tactics but with monstergirls and it's also currently free while it's in development. Be aware it's extremely NSFW and horny, which I suspect is the main reason it's not as popular as some of the others listed (IE rimworld, stardew valley, etc.) however the horny is such a key point to it's original gameplay and world-building that it wouldn't be the same without it.

Thea: the awakening is a decent tactical RPG. I love it for it's original battle mini game, crafting system and world-building. It unfortunately has some balance issues and jankiness that prevents it from being an all time favorite, but it's definitely one I would encourage at least trying.

Thought of a few others:

• Reus (2nd one's alright, first one's excellent)
• Library of Runia
• Book of Hours
• Kenshi (saw it listed one other time, but it deserves a lot more love)

Just looking though some of my higher playtime games, here's a few I haven't seen mentioned: (I think they're all indie or small studio)

Gunfire Reborn - Roguelike fps with infinite replay.

Troubleshooter Abandoned Children - XCOM style battle system with a really really fun way to customize how your character fight. Story is pretty lame though (I ended up skipping it) and it's pretty grindy.

Thronefall - Pretty challenging base defence.

The last spell - Turn based base defence with lots of different ways to build your characters.

Ratropolis - Roguelike real-time card strategy base defence. Pretty good, although not well balanced at highest difficulties.

Swapper

Not my actual favorite, but it's very high on my list, and I didn't see it posted yet.

I really liked What Remains of Edith Finch.

It was more of an experience and really struck some emotional chords, leaving me write emotional at the end.

Really beautiful and melancholy experience.

Check out Tunic. I would recommend going blind.

Used to play battlefield 2, BC2 and 3 alot. Then I stopped playing online games and recently started playing "Ravenfield". It's succesfully filling the void, there are even battlefield maps and some vehicle/heli/jet/tank mods and ignoring the fact that it looks like battlefield heroes (very indie-style graphics), the physics/handling feels pretty close, especially when flying heli and shooting rockets

The vast majority of my favourite games have been listed, many multiple times, so I'm gonna go with some I didn't see, though I didn't look exhaustively, here we go:

Horace

Quite a hidden gem in my opinion, almost no one I mention it to has heard of it. 2D platformer with an amazing story and some interesting gimmicks. One of the most surprising and unforgettable indie games I've played.

The Messenger

Ninja action-platformer that is way more than it first appears if you stick with it. Hilarious writing, great controls, and amazing music. Genuinely one of my favourite games.

Yoku's Island Express

Almost entirely unique in it's idea. It's a pinball-metroidvania where you're a postman dung beetle, and it really works. Gorgeous world, super chill vibes, clever puzzles... What metroid prime pinball should have been.

I have a personal soft spot for Doki Doki Literature Club because it got me into programming when i was young, but that's far more sentimental and to be honest i wouldn't play it again as an adult really. If i had to pick something functionally though I'd say Project Zomboid. there's a fuck ton of fun to be made in that, especially with Multiplayer. Even in singleplayer i like to turn on a NPC mod and assemble my own makeshift Walking Dead cast

Dyson sphere program is still one of my enduring favorites.

Saw someone else out urquan masters, so I'll put Caves of Qud and Rain World. they both of some of the best pixel art ever, and caves of qud has some the most dynamic story telling in anything I've played

Slay The Spire Fury Ori And The Blind Forest

Undertale

i'm not sure The Ur-Quan Masters counts as indie

Factorio.

Dota.

Ok, I know what you're saying, "But Valve makes Dota2" which, yes, this is true. But the OG game came about from gamers just loving games and making a custom game. I think it's peak "indie" in it's origin. Which went off to spawn several clones (League of Legends, Heroes Of Newerth, Heroes Of The Storm, Smite, Pokemon Unite, Paladins, etc.). Dota2 by far has the most hours played of any game.

I play, almost exclusively, non-AAA games. Some gems, known and hidden:

• Autonauts and Autonauts Vs Piratebots - Cute automation games
• Spelunky - Elegantly simple and well executed platformer
• BPM: Bullets Per Minute - Rhythm FPS. Others have tried. None I have found have been as good.
• Immortal Redneck - FPS roguelite
• Ziggurat - FPS Roguelite
• Receiver II - Unique FPS roguelike. Every part of everything that moves is simulated. The hammer on your gun hits a firing pin which hits the primer on the cartridge. You can get stovepipes, misfires, double feeds, etc. You don't reload by hitting 'reload' but go through the full manual of arms in a shooter where the tolerances for failure are fairly slim.
• Valley - running game. The feeling of letting a hill propel your running to otherwise impossible speeds, bottled. Nice little story too.
• Dredge - Lovecraftian fishing game.
• Tunnet - lovecraftian network technician simulator. Build a network to allow communication between computers in an underground society with unspeakable horrors occasionally destroying your mind/body.
• Opus Magnum - Programming puzzles
• Vagante - roguelike with tight tolerances
• Ruiner - Cyberpunk slash n dash with a soundtrack half by Sidewalks and Skeletons. Very fun.
• Tails Noir - Detective story. Normally find the anthro thing a bit tiresome but this was pretty good. Well written.
• Elderborn - First person brawler
• Webbed - be a peacock spider. Rescue your lady spider. Help insects. Fight a bird. Dance.
• A Story About My Uncle - Movement game. Jump, dash, grapnel. Simple and elegant.
• Tormentor X Punisher - Top down twin stick shooter. Everything dies in one hit. All the enemies, and you.
• Tin Can - Survival game in which you try to keep up an escape pod long enough to be rescued, which is hard when it seems to have been made by the lowest bidder's lowest bidding subcontractor and maintained with all the loving care of a convenience store bathroom.

I loved a tiny one called The Last Day of June.

It was on PlayStation Plus and it really had a great story.

hypnospace outlaw

A Hat in Time

UFO 50

Outer Wilds

Hylics

Hylics 2

Pizza Tower

Celeste

It's hard to pick one lol

Can't believe none of these haven't been mentioned yet: Starsector Kenshi Graveyard keeper Battle brothers Ghost of a tale

• Vintage Story
• Project Zomboid
• Stonks 9800
• Zero Hour
• The COMA
• Phantom Brigade
• SCP 5K (still in Early Access, long way to go, rip lol)