Best Indie Games of 2023

What are the best indie games of 2023? Find out here, including Season, Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania, Children of Silentown, and more.

Whether you’re playing on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch – we’ve rounded up a collection of this year’s best indie games. Playing to indies’ strengths, our list goes across genres, styles, and even countries of origin to present a selection of diverse voices in the industry. Our picks will be updated regularly, so be sure to check in regularly throughout the year. Did we miss an indie game that you think should make it to the list? Be sure to let us know!

Season: A Letter to the Future

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5 A mysterious cataclysm is going to wash the world away, and that’s what spurs Estelle to leave her home and explore the world. She documents her experiences by audio, video, writing, drawing, and photography – all for a future generation. Season: A Letter to the Future is an adventure game from the developers of Darwin Project, and it’s received praise from reviewers for both its visuals and its storytelling.

Patch Quest

Platforms: PC Patch Quest puts you on the strange, forgotten island of Patchlantis, where your only hope of surviving vicious monsters is to master the lasso. This cute roguelite title takes from both metroidvania games and monster-catching games (think Pokémon), where you can explore a labyrinthine world and capture any monster. At the same time, you’ll have to get good if you want to beat the game’s deadly bullet hell gameplay.

A Space for the Unbound

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch Head back to the 90s in this Indonesian adventure game, where high school sweethearts Atma and Raya help their friends overcome their inner demons and face the end of the world. A Space for the Unbound carries an emotional story that deals with topics of anxiety and depression, built within a rather unique rural Indonesian atmosphere. There’s a lot of cats, by the way. And you can pet all of them. Just throwing that out there.

Phantom Brigade

Platforms: PC The best chess players can see moves before they’re made, but tactical RPG Phantom Brigade requires you to see the future as a matter of course. In it, you control a band of outnumbered and outgunned mech pilots fighting to retake their homeland. However, achieving success requires you to use your mobile base to your advantage and engage in tactical battles that involve predicting enemy actions and preparing countermeasures. The game has been received to high praise for its tactical gameplay, making it one of this year’s highlights as far as strategy games go.

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch Modern indie classic Dead Cells has yet another piece of downloadable content, this one fresh out of the gothic oven but evoking a rather traditional taste. The Return to Castlevania DLC takes you to a mysterious castle, where you must assist Richter Belmont by slaying undead minions and strike at Dracula himself. Here, you’ll get to wield classic Castlevania weapons, fight original monsters, listen to classic Castlevania melodies and fight three new bosses in an original storyline, all with that Dead Cells backbone in place.

Pharaoh: A New Era

Platforms: PC If you’re a veteran of city building games, you might recall the 1999 classic Pharaoh, sister game to Caesar series. Pharaoh: A New Era is a full-on 4K remake of that classic, helmed by indie devs Triskell Interactive (of Lethis fame). Build your ancient Egyptian city along the banks of the Nile, where as Pharaoh, it’s your responsibility to make your city safe, prosperous, and able to withstand crises both internal and external. Slick, remade graphics are accompanied by modernized gameplay, which takes you through 4000 years of history through 50 missions.

Children of Silentown

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch It may not be Halloween anytime soon, but that didn’t stop Daedalic Entertainment’s latest published title – Children of Silentown, a spooky adventure game set in a village enclosed by a thick forest, where people are going missing, but villagers are forbidden from entering the forest. You play as young Lucy as she investigates the mystery of Silentown, and solves puzzles along the way. As she gets to know her fellow villagers better, she begins to uncover a secret that she was not meant to know. Spooked yet?

Plan B: Terraform

Platforms: PC (Early Access) Congrats, you have your very own planet to play with! Bad news is, it’s got nothing on it – except a lot of valuable resources. In Plan B: Terraform, you manage these resources and put yourself to the task of terraforming a planet by extracting minerals and growing the population in to a lush and vibrant world of millions. The game features real-time simulation of a number of scientific concepts, including greenhouse effects, water cycles, temperature, and vegetation. It’s presently in Early Access, where it is expected to stay for the coming year or longer.

The Pale Beyond

Platforms: PC The Pale Beyond is a narrative survival game where you play as first mate on an expedition to the frozen wasteland of the South Pole. Far from civilization and with a missing captain, you must manage resources to effectively survive in the sparse and dangerous conditions you are trapped in. Apart from keeping your crew fed and in good spirits, you will also have to prevent mutinies and make difficult decisions as they emerge. Interested in learning more about the best free indie games on Amazon Prime and how to play Amazon Prime games for free? Check out this article on Into Indie Games.

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Thanks for reading our article Best Indie Games of 2023, for more interesting articles on the indie games industry, check out the links below. 

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