The 15 Best Indie Games of 2023

Following a stellar slate of titles in 2022, indie developers had a bit of a tough act to follow for 2023. Thankfully, indie games proved to be as fruitful as AAA titles for some of the year’s best gaming experiences, including several releases serving as the debut games from new studios that should now be on players’ radars. From thoughtful meditative adventure games to hyperactive retro platformers and everything in between, it’s almost as if the indie label successfully catered to just about every type of player in 2023, and many of these same titles can stand toe-to-toe with the best AAA games from a year jam-packed with landmark releases.

All too often, gamers overlook indies when they offer some of the most diverse experiences in the industry. The lack of a publisher and a more constrained budget often means developers have to get more creative and, oftentimes, the only real limit in indie games in the imagination. This is what has seen these indies compete in a landmark year, as 2023 will go down in history as one of the best years of gaming yet. These are the 15 Best Indie Games of 2023, presented in alphabetical order.

Blasphemous 2

The original Blasphemous ended up being one of the best indie metroidvanias the year of its release and helped establish the Soulslike Metroidvania subgenre, along with Hollow Knight. That its sequel arrived this year when many were hoping for Hollow Knight: Silksong only helped it to stand out more, and Blasphemous 2 is an excellent example of a sequel done right. Continuing the story of the Penitent One (based on the developer’s choice of canon ending), Blasphemous 2 introduces new weapons, each with its own slate of traversal abilities, and a more non-linear approach to how players tackle its massive world and intimidating enemies. And, lest it be forgotten, Blasphemous 2 has some of the best boss encounters of any game in 2023, pushing both player skill and the edges of sanity to their limit.

Cassette Beasts

So successful is the Pokemon franchise that it’s quite common for studios to attempt their own “Pokemon clones.” That’s usually a bad thing, as few are done right and many feel too derivitative, but that’s not the case with Cassette Beasts. Thankfully, Cassette Beasts is both a reminder of the charm and whimsy of the best Pokemon games as well as an interesting evolution of a decades-old formula. Monster-collecting games are nearly ubiquitous with the Pokemon franchise, but Cassette Beasts stands apart thanks to its clear sense of style and unique mechanics. With an appealing visual style, interesting evolution and fusion mechanics of the titular cassette beasts, and a phenomenal soundtrack, fans of Pokemon or just monster-taming RPGs, in general, owe it to themselves to try Cassette Beasts.

Chants of Sennaar

Chants of Sennaar is one of those rare indie games that seems to routinely blow away everyone who gets the chance to play it, and getting to experience its unique take on the puzzle genre makes it easy to see why. Using language as a framing device for its narrative and puzzle design, Chants of Sennaar is a game all about communication. In addition to delving into the idea of how communication unites people and leads to a greater understanding and shared empathy, Chants of Sennaar brilliantly displays how language and communication can be used as a problem-solving tool. The game has an immediately recognizable and visually arresting art style, an impactful message highlighting the importance of cultural diversity, and some truly incredible and head-scratching puzzles.

Cocoon

The Winner of The Game Awards 2023’s Best Debut Indie Game is Geometric Interactive’s Cocoon. Much like Chants of Sennaar, Cocoon presents players with a wholly unique take on the puzzle genre, and its mind-bending use of perspective shifts and art style give the game a distinctive visual identity. Cocoon is a game about discovering worlds within worlds, and the pedigree behind the title (which includes Jeppe Carlsen of both Limbo and Inside) helps to present its signature ideas and mechanics with the kind of polish one would expect of a AAA release. With some truly innovative design and several moments that will make players audibly say “Wow,” Cocoon is a standout puzzle game and one of the year’s best debut titles.

Dredge

Dredge was a highly-anticipated game long before its release thanks to an incredible Steam Next Fest demo in late 2022. Part survival-horror game and part fishing simulator, Dredge is the exact kind of left-field experiment in genre mixing on which the indie game scene thrives, and in execution, it’s astoundingly addictive. Like Vampire Survivors before it, Dredge is one of those indie titles that players have to be careful with, lest they end up sinking several hours into a single session. It’s a perfect game for both the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch as well, with its excellent visuals and lighting truly shining on a handheld console. The game has already received The Pale Reach DLC this year and a crossover with Dave the Diver is set to arrive soon, meaning anyone who hasn’t played Dredge yet has the perfect excuse to see what all the hype is about.

El Paso, Elsewhere

El Paso, Elsewhere is likely a game that many may have missed thanks to the timing of its release date, but that by no means makes it any less of an incredible title from 2023’s legendary release calendar. Part Max Payne and part From Dusk Til Dawn, El Paso, Elsewhere proudly displays its love for Remedy’s Max Payne but also leans more heavily into the supernatural by having the player fight all manner of vampires and other monsters. Thankfully, El Paso, Elsewhere‘s liberal use of dive-rolling and bullet-time shooting stand the test of time, being just as fun today as they were back in 2001.

Jusant

After wowing audiences for years with its excellent Life Is Strange series and penchant for compelling narratives in games, developer Don’t Nod surprised everyone this year by releasing Jusant and showcasing just how multi-faceted the studio is. Jusant is a game about climbing, sure, but the simple act of climbing and reaching the various checkpoints and remnants of civilization that exist along the way combine to create one of 2023’s most zen-like gaming experiences. Some of the best games pick one key mechanic and hyper-focus on it to have it become the star of the show, and Jusant‘s ability to replicate the thrill of climbing in a piece of interactive media is one of 2023’s many triumphs.

The Last Faith

Along with Blasphemous 2, The Last Faith is one of the best indie Metroidvanias to release in a year that was stacked with quality entries in the genre. The Last Faith is perhaps the closest thing fans will ever get to a 2D Bloodborne, and developer Kumi Souls errs more on the “vania” side of Metroidvania thanks to injecting The Last Faith with a dark, Gothic atmosphere and emphasis on melee combat. If there is a flaw to the game, it’s that it doesn’t innovate as much as it refines, but The Last Faith successfully combines several disparate elements of its various influences to become something greater than the sum of its parts.

Lethal Company

It’s a shame that a game as widely popular and nearly instantly successful as Lethal Company released so late in the year, practically guaranteeing the game’s absence from The Game Awards, but its lack of official accolades has done little to dissuade the fervent player base the game continues to hold. Currently holding a 98% “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on Steam and an average player count of over 70,000 Steam users, it’s safe to say that Lethal Company‘s early access launch has been a rousing success. Part survival horror game and part scrap-collecting mining simulator, Lethal Company is one of those nearly-perfect cooperative games that is just begging to be played with a group of friends and all the lights turned off.

Pizza Tower

Much like Lethal Company, Pizza Tower has consistently remained one of 2023’s highest-rated indie games on Steam, due in part to its incredible visual style and absolute banger of a soundtrack. Underneath its presentation, though, is a rock-solid retro platformer that has more than its fair share of similarities to the cult-classic GameCube game Wario World. A frenetic platformer that feels like playing a hyperactive cartoon, Pizza Tower follows a long lineage of excellent indie Twitch platformers such as Super Meat Boy or Celeste but does so all while retaining its own distinctive identity.

Pseudoregalia

Pseudoregalia is one of the most impressive indie titles of 2023 and a wonder of a debut from a solo developer, making Rittz’s next game Elektroknietic one to watch. In addition to its incredible level design and ambitious approach to being a 3D Metroidvania in a development scene saturated with classic 2D takes on the genre, Pseudoregalia nails its movement and traversal, feeling like it could be a hidden gem many players missed from the PS1 or Nintendo 64. Both movement and combat are precise and fluid, and the low-poly 3D visuals help the game to immediately stand out in a sea of pixel art contemporaries.

Ravenlok

Ravenlok‘s most distinctive feature is its incredible visual style, presenting a unique take on a fantasy world using voxel-art graphics contrast against a 3D-rendered player protagonist. A bit of a cult-classic indie title from 2023, Ravenlok presents players with a fun and quick take on an action RPG that can easily be completed in an afternoon or two, and its bite-sized nature is perhaps one of the greatest parts of its appeal in a year jam-packed with lengthy game releases and an ever-growing backlog. As the saying goes, big things come in small packages, and Ravenlok is an excellent smaller adventure that’s a perfect fit for the Game Pass service.

Sea of Stars

Perhaps unsurprisingly, developer Sabotage Studios did it again with its second title Sea of Stars, making the developer a two-time winner at the Game Awards in just as many releases. The genius of Sea of Stars lies in the way that the game effortlessly captures the pacing and heart of the SNES’ best RPGs, all while providing one of the most compelling stories available in video games this year, indie or otherwise. Yes, the game has its inspirations on display loud and clear for anyone who grew up during the 16 and 32-bit eras of gaming, but the reverence with which it honors the past while simultaneously innovating and presenting a new experience makes it an unmissable game for fans of The Messenger, Chrono Trigger, and quality RPGs in general.

Venba

Indie games are often a great resource to see how developers approach worthwhile topics and social commentary in the realm of interactive media, and Venba is one of the most refreshing and rewarding indie games of 2023 in this regard. Communicating valuable insight to players on the special relationship that food has with human connection and its place as an expression of love by simply preparing a meal for family, Venba also features one of the best interactive narratives to examine the immigrant experience.

Viewfinder

One of the mid-year highlights of 2023 is the excellent puzzle-platformer Viewfinder. Indie developers are no stranger to the puzzle genre, as evidenced by the number of puzzle games on this list, but Viewfinder‘s unique mechanic of using photographs as a means to traverse between perspectives and dimensions produces some truly astounding moments, cementing it both as one of the best indie games of 2023 and one of the best indie puzzle games, period. Hype for the game was steadily generated following an excellent showing from its Steam demo, and the official 1.0 release is an impressive debut title from Sad Owl Studios.