Indie Games

[belak]

I know that the Humble Indie Bundle brought a lot of attention to some great games, such as Braid, World of Goo, Trine, VVVVVV, The Binding of Issac, Gish, Super Meat Boy, Cogs, etc.

Anyone have some other hidden gems like these that I haven't heard of yet that haven't been in these bundles?

[Masakari]

I could seriously go on and on. And I think I have, numerous times.

If you were looking for specific genre ones, let me know. But yes, there are a lot of good indie games.

[belak]

I'm not really sure where to start...

I guess platformers (like Super Meat Boy) and anything really calm and chill (like Eufloria).
Someone should just compile a massive list of good indie games, though I know it would take a lifetime to read through. Hehe.

[Zork Nemesis]

Honestly, indie games are everywhere if you know where to look. Some recommendations I have.

If you're looking for platformers, look into Cave Story. It's a very well known Metroid-style adventure/2d platformer that's all over the place. You can find the free download by searching for it, or (it's totally worth it) pay the small fee for the plus version on Steam.

In terms of adventure, I enjoyed Aquaria as well. It has that Metriod feel again, but this time you're underwater and swimming everywhere. It's a very deep game that's got a great story behind it.

Chill games, I suggest Rush or Toki Tori, they're relativly self-paced puzzle games that are well worth the time. Audiosurf can be this too depending on your music selection.

Some other suggestions:
Chime: a puzzle game that's somewhat similar to Lumines, if you've played that.
Machinarium: point-and-click-ish adventure game that has a beautiful soundtrack.
Ben There, Dan That/Time Gentlemen, Please!: Two games that were built to both honor and parody the point-and-click adventures of old (specifically Lucasarts titles such as Sam & Max). Five bucks for the two, and I think BTDT is free anyway if you know where to look; I know I got it free from a PC Gamer disc.
Universe Sandbox: Kind of technical, but it effectly lets you do anything you want with celestial bodies. Feel like throwing Jupiter at Mars? Go right ahead and watch the ensuring chaos that's caused by Jupiter's gravity. There's lots of fun stuff you can do with it.
Shatter: I bought this a couple years ago for the first Steam Treasure Hunt, it's a lot like Breakout. Very visually appealing though.

Oops, i'm slipping, I totally forgot about Terraria. Adventure platforming yet again, but in a randomly generated massive world. Functions similar to a 2D Minecraft, but much more emphasis on exploration rather than construction.

[belak]

I just realized how many games I end up getting/playing. Aquaria is awesome, as well as Machinarium... I've played Audiosurf as well... And Terraria...
I think I got Toki Tori with one of the latest Humble Bundles, but haven't played it yet...
I haven't heard of Rush, Chime, or Universe Sandbox though. I'll have to look into those. I've heard of Cave Story, but never really got a chance to try it out...

Altogether, I think I'd have to say I play too many games... Heh.

[frostdillicus]

I could seriously go on and on. And I think I have, numerous times.

If you were looking for specific genre ones, let me know. But yes, there are a lot of good indie games.

I saw the thread title and thought to myself, "If Masakari hasn't posted already he might lose his hipster status."

Good thing you did. God forbid we ever lose our resident hipster.

[Bronze Fox]

Iji and Hero Core are probably two of my favorite free indie games.

[Last of The Finest]

One of my favorite indies is Dungeons of Dredmor. It has a great sense of humor, and rogue style dungeon crawls are awesome. Amnesia is great horror. The sense of dread just continually builds. Atom Zombie Smasher is pretty fun.

If you're looking to get a bunch of indie games at a good price, you can't go wrong looking at the humble bundles, indie royale when it's up, and Indie Gala.

[Will T.]

Others have already mentioned Toki Tori, Machinarium, Terraria, VVVVVV, Atom Zombie Smasher, and Audiosurf, so I'll simply echo their recommendations.

Here are a few not yet mentioned (or maybe they were, and I missed it) that I can highly recommend:

Beat Hazard - Picture the classic Asteroids combined with Audiosurf's "Powered By YOUR Music" twist. Your weapon power adjusts based on the intensity of the music you pick. The DLC is well worth getting - M4A support is really nice if you have a lot of iTunes music (kinda wish that wasn't charged for, but at only $1.00 I can't complain too much), and Beat Hazard Ultra contains so much new content that it could have been released as its own game. If you don't have the base Beat Hazard yet, both DLCs come out to a total of $2.99 in the Complete package.

RUSH - From the makers of Toki Tori. Guide self-propelled colored cubes into corresponding holes using puzzle pieces. This one frustrated me a lot while playing through it with a few "Who would think to try that?!" moments, but I also had a lot of fun with some of the levels.

EDGE - Also from the makers of Toki Tori. I like this one better than RUSH. Control a single cube and navigate a series of ever-more-difficult platforming-ish levels.

Puzzle Dimension - Very similar to EDGE gameplay-wise (but this one came out first! ). Levels are much less linear, and instead of a cube, you have a sphere, and it can jump in addition to rolling through the tile-based levels. Dodge things like sand traps (can't leave the tile except by jumping), ice (can't stop or change direction until you hit a non-ice tile), and flaming/crumbling tiles (both become inaccessible after you cross them once). There's also some awesome disorienting gravity-based weirdness in the level design.

Cthulhu Saves the World - A wacky but dramatic RPG about H.P. Lovecraft's monster, Cthulhu. He has to save the world to re-gain his stolen powers so that he can use them to destroy the world. The core adventure is of decent length, but there is also a lot of content to discover after completing it, such as an alternate version with entirely different party members and bosses. Probably my favorite RPG ... but this comes from someone whose RPG experience consists of this and the Paper Mario games. This one is only $2.99, and comes with another RPG by the same devs, so it's a steal!

Delve Deeper - A turn-based strategy game that plays a lot like a board game. Place tiles in the map to dig a gold/diamond/mythril mine (you can build a different map every time - no two games are the same!) and guide a team of 5 dwarfs to collect the most gold while avoiding (or full-on assaulting) various monsters and even other dwarf teams. There's some super-cheap DLC for it which adds several new maps and relics to find (relics get you big points during a game, and there are many unique ones to collect).

[belak]

Just tried out Chime yesterday... was definitely awesome... just wish it had more than the 5 songs...

Also, figured out I already had Cave Story+... hehe. There goes my time for the next few weeks...

[Soup Nazi]

Oh I love Edge. I have it on my iPod actually. And Amnesia is just crazy scary. I stopped playing a few hours in out of fear, and havnt gone back yet. Has anyone mentioned Limbo? It's a super great platform game, which won many awards.

Hmm... Here's a simple, stupid, and free one: Toblo! It's ridiculously childish CTF action.

If you always wanted Minecraft to be a FPS, try Ace of Spades. It's really fun and easy to pick up, just beware, it's 12-year-old greifer central sometimes.

I'll think of more

[Zork Nemesis]

I'm gonna go ahead and add Tobe's Vertical Adventure to this list. It's a platformer that was originally a flash game that attempts to (and does very well) to recreate the look and feel of 16-bit platformers (specifically SNES and Genesis looks; the "retail" copy of the game looks like a Genesis case). It's only 16 levels long, but it makes up for the shortness with two different playable characters, two-player local co-op, and plenty of things to shoot for 100% with (collectables and the like). Plus time attacks.