In an industry once dominated by large studios with multimillion-dollar budgets, the rise of indie games over the last decade has been groundbreaking, allowing small teams push gaming in new directions. Some standout indie games master and refine their respective genres, while others flip conventions on their heads and open new doors for more games to succeed them.
Several successful indie games were released prior to 2008, including Cave Story and Alien Hominid, but 2008 was the year that kicked them into the mainstream. Games like Braid and Castle Crashers, spurred on by Xbox's first Summer of Arcade promotion, began to normalize the idea of purchasing small, downloadable games over larger ones sold on disc.
Choosing the most important indie game of each year since 2008 is not purely about popularity - though there is some intersection - and there are cases when multiple influential titles were released in the same year. 2016, for instance, saw the release of No Man’s Sky, The Witness, and Inside - all significant indie games that pushed the boundaries of their genres. But certain indie titles did more for the industry as a whole, at times even popularizing or establishing new genres of their own.
[Warning: SPOILERS for several games follow.]
Most Important Indie Game Of 2008 - Braid
Braid is the indie classic that arguably started the meteoric rise of the genre. Developer Number None managed to create a game that blended intricate puzzles and a complex story in a way that felt fresh. The story sees the player going to save a princess; however, the twist ending reveals that when rewinding the journey, the player had actually been the pursuer and the knight was the one saving the princess. This directly challenged the idea that players always control the hero in a new way. In a now archived post about Braid's success, developer Johnathon Blow states that Braid was the second highest-selling Xbox Live Arcade game in 2008 and that success brought more attention to what indie games had to offer.
Most Important Indie Game Of 2009 - Minecraft
Minecraft seemingly took no time at all to establish itself as something special. The mechanics were accessible and nuanced, its simplistic art design quickly became iconic, and Minecraft's truly open world let players both escape from the real world and create their own. It was a game that became attractive to all ages, especially to those who grew up with LEGO and had a fascination with building.
Minecraft has added a lot since its release, but the core of its design remains the same. It brought open-world survival games into the limelight, inspiring many other games that would come after it, and had a huge impact on the industry by proving that a developer can also publish their own game and achieve success. In 2019, Minecraft was a top contender for Game of the Decade, and remains the best-selling game of all time (so far).
Most Important Indie Game Of 2010 - Super Meat Boy
This year saw the release of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which played a huge role in revitalizing the horror genre as well as raising multiple Let's Play YouTubers to stardom, such as Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie. However, the brutally hard platformer Super Meat Boy not only revitalized its genre and gained some mainstream recognition through YouTube channels like KidsReact, but it also started to bring more mainstream attention to the speedrunning community and established extreme momentum and precision as staple mechanics which can still be seen in contemporary platformers like Celeste and Ghost Runner.
Most Important Indie Game Of 2011 - The Binding Of Isaac
One of Super Meat Boy’s developers, Edmund McMillen, released an equally important title the following year named The Binding of Isaac. This game is special because of the way it blends genres and uses their design to tell its dark story. The Binding of Isaac is first and foremost a danger-filled Zelda-style dungeon crawler and it uses that identity as the metaphor for Isaac’s struggle with mental health. It also embraces roguelike mechanics that, while not the focus of The Binding of Isaac, introduced the idea to younger audiences that would come to popularize the genre in later years.
Most Important Indie Game Of 2012 - Hotline Miami
Hotline Miami is a prime example of providing a fresh experience to a known formula by using its bold aesthetic to emphasize the gameplay. The bright neon lights, fast movement, and excellent soundtrack slam players with a wave of adrenaline which feeds back into the high-octane action of the gameplay. It’s dedication to the aesthetic of 1980’s America also provided an introspective look into the ultra-violence that permeated pop culture at the time. It’s that blend of tight and memorable gameplay with a nuanced commentary on its subject matter that made it so special and inspired a wave of 80s inspired games.
Most Important Indie Game Of 2013 - The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable is all about challenging the mores of gaming. The player is given instruction by the narrator; however, they are also encouraged to make their own decisions even though they have no free-will. The Stanley Parable managed to put the limitations of games on display in a way that inspired both designers and players to rethink how games can be made. The effects of this can be seen in future indies like Superliminal and event parts of AAA games like Ellie’s break from established mechanics to watch the giraffes in The Last of Us.
Most Important Indie Game Of 2014 - Shovel Knight
Shovel Knight brought the action-platformer into the modern day. It refreshed the genre by embracing the games that came before it, such as Mega Man and even Super Meat Boy, with its precise platforming and movement mechanics. What made it really stand out was its art style. The vibrant colors and iconic character designs would make a significant impact on the gaming community, and Shovel Knight started showing up in other games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Most Important Indie Game Of 2015 - Undertale
Undertale is in a similar position to Minecraft in that it’s become a cultural phenomenon. The 2D RPG takes the conventions of the genre and completely flips them on their heads, highlighting the biases players have developed over the years. For instance, players have been conditioned to fight enemies, but Undertale makes a point of showcasing the emotions and motivations of each enemy to encourage a more peaceful solution. It's mechanics like these, alongside Undertale's memorable cast and pixel art, that made it such a beloved game. Like Minecraft, it’s a title that redefined a genre and challenged the expectations what gaming experiences could offer.
Most Important Indie Game Of 2016 - Stardew Valley
The release of Stardew Valley led to a revitalization of the farming sim genre, provided a platform for players to just chill out and unwind, and served as a testament to what a single person can achieve. Seemingly inspired by games like Minecraft and Animal Crossing, sole developer Eric Barone set out to make a game that would be a good alternative to Harvest Moon and provide players with everything that Harvest Moon didn't. This meant focusing on player freedom, more inclusivity with gender and marriage, and providing players a laid-back farming experience that didn't ask too much of them. All of this made Stardew Valley an instant success that is still going strong.
Most Important Indie Game Of 2017 - PUBG
While not the first of its kind, PUBG (as Player Unknown's Battlegrounds has become popularly known) brought the battle royale genre to the forefront. It featured a huge map littered with weapons, gear, vehicles, and everything else that players would need to duke it out until one remained. While games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone would come to be the faces of the genre, PUBG is the game that truly started the trend.
Most Important Indie Game Of 2018 - Frostpunk
Like 2010, this year saw significant releases such as Celeste, which balanced ultra-difficult platforming with difficulty adjustment options and showed that platformers have the ability to tell a beautiful story about identity and mental health with nuance and respect. Frostpunk, however, released without as much attention even though it elevated the city-building genre to new and more complex heights. Frostpunk takes the experience of the totalitarian border inspector simulator Papers, Please and applies it to running an entire city in which the survival of hundreds is on the line and the biggest hurdle to success is the player's morality and the sacrifices they are (and aren't) willing to make. Both of these releases act as reminders that video games are fully capable of being art that tackle difficult subjects and do so with care.
Most Important Indie Game Of 2019 - Disco Elysium
Disco Elysium is yet another game that uses its platform to tell a hard and powerful story. To do so effectively, Disco Elysium created an experience that, as PCGamesN’s review puts it, “set new genre standards for exploration and conversation systems.” It’s still too early to see how this title will affect the world of narrative-driven games, but there’s no doubt that systems like its award-winning dialogue boxes will be greatly expanded on and experimented with over time. As it stands, few other games have explored narrative in the same way, and its writing has captured the attention of many.
Most Important Indie Game Of 2020 - Among Us
With the COVID-19 pandemic causing fear, loneliness, and lockdowns across the world, the rise of Among Us provided millions of people with a way to stay connected. Among Us took the formula of tabletop games like One Night Ultimate Werewolf and adjusted it with smart design choices such as not being able to talk until after someone is killed, allowing players with a bad poker face to maintain their ruse for a longer period of time. Even well into 2021, Among Us is still going strong as shown by the 15 million downloads while it was free on the Epic Games Store.
Among Us didn't just effect players, however, as it caused a surge in popularity for party games like Fall Guys. While games like Hades and Ori and the Will of the Wisps represent important milestones in indie games in 2020, Among Us represents a historic moment, as it helped people stay connected and happy while the world went into isolation.
Most Important Indie Game Of 2021 - Valheim
While it may be too early to say what 2021’s most important indie game is, Valheim is certainly proving itself capable of potentially taking the title. Even though it still hasn’t officially released, Valheim has been praised for its survival system and polished world. This is especially important given that a game developed by 5 people is managing so much positive press prior to an official release, while AAA studios still sometimes struggle with game systems even after launch. As it continues its development, Valheim certainly has the potential to bet yet another indie title that comes to define a genre, something indie games are increasingly able to do.
Source: Archive.org, PCGamesN