PC
Mobile
PlayStation
Xbox
Nintendo
Mar
Best Indie Games of 2023
08 Mar, 2023
What are the best indie games of 2023? Find out here, including Humanity, Dredge, Sea of Stars, Darkest Dungeon II, 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!
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.
Dave the Diver
Platforms: PC
Dave the Diver has earned a solid fan following over its Early Access period, winning players over with its exploration and management RPG experience. You play as the titular Dave the Diver, who explores the mysteries of the deep Blue Hole by day, and then runs a sushi restaurant by night.
The game features rogue-lite gathering gameplay, where you have to catch fish and items before your oxygen runs out. There’s over 200 sea creatures to find, and a number of storylines and side-quests to get wrapped up in.
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.
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.
Venba
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch
Venba is a short narrative cooking game that has you following the life of an immigrant mother in Canada. The game features several authentic South Indian recipes, along with Tamil music and culture, all of which follows a story of family, love, loss, and culture.
Already playing Venba? Check out our walkthrough to find out how to prepare the games many recipes!
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.
Viewfinder
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5
Viewfinder messes with your perception as a first-person puzzle game, where photographs and pictures that you hold up can be brought to reality in an instant.
As you reshape the world in this way, you will also uncover mysteries across the game’s multiple hub worlds and find new puzzle mechanics and variations to explore.
Already playing Viewfinder? Check out our walkthrough to get the low-down on how to clear the game’s many puzzles!
Darkest Dungeon II
Platforms: PC
The original Darkest Dungeon is a classic in the tactical roguelike genre, and its developer Red Hook Studios has descended into the dark even further with Darkest Dungeon II, described as a “road trip of the damned”. Your four heroes now adventure in stagecoach and engage in wicked, nightmarish battles as they attempt to avert the apocalypse.
With refined rules and stats all round, Darkest Dungeon II will challenge you to make difficult decisions, all as your heroes struggle both against their enemies… and their friends.
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