PC
Mobile
PlayStation
Xbox
Nintendo
Mar
Best Indie Games of 2023
What are the best indie games of 2023? Find out here, including Slay the Princess, Dredge, Sea of Stars, Cocoon, 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!
Cocoon
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch
Cocoon is the newest puzzle game directed by Jeppe Carlsen of Limbo and Inside fame. Its wordless narrative has you exploring several worlds, each of which is contained in an orb. The game’s puzzles require you to use these orbs to your advantage, while also hopping in and out of the worlds they hold.
Cocoon’s mind-bending style has been likened to Valve’s 2007 classic Portal, and the game has also won acclaim for its elegant design and visuals.
Stuck in Cocoon? Be sure to check out our walkthrough of the game here.
Blasphemous 2
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch
Blasphemous 2 is an action-platformer in the Metroidvania vein, where you once again play as the Penitent One – protagonist of the first game – as he is thrust once again into a cycle of life, death, and resurrection.
With brutal combat, a vast world to explore, and grand and intense boss battles to fight, Blasphemous 2 is violent, gothic, and thoroughly a Soulslike that improves on its original.
Slay the Princess
Platforms: PC
Disturbing and existentially horrifying visual novel Slay the Princess has a story that reacts to your choices, and a simple thing to ask of you: to slay the princess.
With hand-penciled art and full voice acting, Slay the Princess is described by its developers as “The Stanley Parable meets Call of Cthulhu with a dash of Disco Elysium”. Caught between romance, horror, black comedy, and time loops, Slay the Princess has been turning heads both within and beyond the horror game community.
Sea of Stars
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch
Sea of Stars is a turn-based RPG set in the universe of the 2018 action-platformer The Messenger. This new JRPG-style adventure inspired by classics like Chrono Trigger and Breath of Fire.
With emphasis on both adventure storytelling and strategic combat, Sea of Stars features many side activities as well, including sailing, cooking, and fishing.
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.
Gravity Circuit
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch
Gravity Circuit is a 2D action-platformer that hearkens back to classics in the genre from the 80s and 90s. You play as the war hero Kai as he channels the power of the mysterious Gravity Circuit and fights to take down the evil mastermind behind the Virus Army.
Apart from blasting your enemies with punches and combos, you’ll also be saving innocent civilians and uncovering new powers over the game’s 12 stages.
Humanity
Platforms: PC, PC VR, PS4, PS5, PSVR, PSVR 2
Guide massive crowds of people as a glowing dog in this puzzler that moonlights as an action-platformer. In Humanity, your goal is to lead people to the light in each level, which requires placing commands and having them follow the path you set out for them.
With brainy puzzles that will test your wits and strategy-infused action that will test your quick thinking, Humanity is a ‘born classic’, as we’ve said in our review of the game.
Chants of Sennaar
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch
Chants of Sennaar is a puzzle adventure about deciphering languages and fostering inter-communal communication. Set on a strange tower home to different, disconnected peoples, the game has you solving puzzles and figuring out the meanings of the glyphs used by the inhabitants of the tower.
Along the way, you’ll also uncover the cultures and histories of the tower – and perhaps break down the walls that divide the peoples who live in it.
Already playing the game? Be sure to check out our walkthrough so that you don’t miss a thing! If you’ve already beaten the game, be sure to check out our in-depth analysis of the game’s inspirations and languages!
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
Platforms: PC, Switch
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a narrative game where you play as an exiled witch named Fortuna, who lives on an asteroid and forms a pact with a forbidden creature.
In this witchy adventure, you will create your own customized Tarot deck and use them to tell fortunes. As you reconnect with your witch friends, you will also be involved in a complex web of interests and get involved in a political plot that will determine the future of the Cosmic Witch society.
Dredge
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch
If you prefer your spooks to distinctly nautical in theme, then get on board for Dredge, a fishing adventure game where you explore an archipelago, fish sea creatures, sell em for cash and upgrade your boat, and uh… be wary of the horrors of the deep when you’re out in the dark.
There’s plenty of mysteries to find in Dredge, and you will have to navigate your intrepid fishing trawler through the waters to find them. That is, of course, assuming the mysteries don’t find you first.
Thanks for reading our article Best Indie Games of 2023, for more interesting articles on the indie games industry, check out the links below.
INDIE DEV INTERVIEW: SIR IAN LIVINGSTONE