The Most Important and Influential Indie Games

Indie games — titles made by smaller teams with often equally small budgets operating outside the AAA publisher system — have been around almost as long as the medium of video games has existed. However, a special class of indie titles developed throughout the mid-2000s into the mid-2010s has achieved somewhat legendary status thanks to how influential they've been not just on their respective genres, but on the industry at large. What were formerly niche experiences geared toward innovation and iteration on well-tread genres have become titles whose critical and commercial success rivals that of many AAA games, with several of the best indie games going on to win Game of the Year accolades or, in the case of one incredibly important title, become the single best-selling video game of all time.

• Release Date — July 21, 2010
• Developer — Playdead
• Publisher — Playdead, Microsoft Game Studios
• Genre — Puzzle Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 90% (Universal Acclaim)
• Steam User Score — 91% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — Android, iOS, PC, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One

Playdead's Limbo is an incredibly atmospheric and unsettling puzzle platformer that only continues to get further under your skin the longer you play it. In addition to being one of the flagship indie titles exclusive to the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade at the time of its release (along with other hugely important indie titles like Fez and Braid), Limbo's success would help establish Playdead as a studio to watch (which it would legitimize with its Game of the Year-nominee follow-up, Inside) and the atmospheric indie puzzle platformer as an entire subgenre.

• Release Date — December 20, 2004
• Developer — Studio Pixel
• Publisher — Studio Pixel, Nicalis, NIS America
• Genre — Metroidvania
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 92% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DSi, PC, Nintendo Switch, Wii

Without Cave Story, there would likely never have been groundbreaking indie games like Axiom Verge and Hollow Knight to usher in the current modern renaissance of the Metroidvania. As one of the earliest titles on this list, Cave Story also represents a major turning point in how the industry looked at the legitimacy of indie games, with its critical and commercial success proving that projects from solo developers or small teams, who would only continue to improve the title through successive years of iteration, could stand toe-to-toe with AA and AAA gaming experiences.

• Release Date — June 26, 2014
• Developer — Yacht Club Games
• Publisher — Yacht Club Games
• Genre — Action Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 90% (Universal Acclaim)
• Steam User Score — 95% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Platforms — Nintendo 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, Wii U, Xbox One

Yacht Club's Shovel Knight is viewed as a modern masterpiece for a reason. Other indie games had come along and attempted to recapture the magic of the NES' classic titles, but none did it so succinctly and purely as Shovel Knight. While Shovel Knight wears its Mega Man, DuckTales, and Castlevania influence loudly and proudly, though, it's also a title that clearly benefits from the enhancements of modern game development tools and design philosophy, making it an important stepping stone for indie games' mainstream appeal and an exemplar for all other developers looking to make retro-inspired titles.

• Release Date — August 7, 2018
• Developer — Motion Twin, Evil Empire
• Publisher — Motion Twin
• Genre — Action Roguelike, Metroidvania
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 97% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Platforms — Android, iOS, PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

Along with Supergiant's Hades, no other action roguelike is as influential and important as Dead Cells. As a standalone title, Dead Cells is a content-rich experience that established how most indie developers approach their titles as ongoing projects, constantly adding new content for either completely free or at a very reasonable price point and making sure to rebalance and tweak the base game regardless of whether players opt in for DLC. But if we zoom out the lens to think about Dead Cells' impact on indie game development as a whole, it's astounding to see how many modern action roguelikes take a page from it in terms of how they structure their core gameplay loop and progression curve.

• Release Date — October 23, 2012
• Developer — Dennaton Games
• Publisher — Devolver Digital
• Genre — Action, Shooter
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 97% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Platforms — PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Before Hotline Miami, there was an overwhelming sense of indie games being these all-ages friendly, charming experiences. Dennaton Games came along with Hotline Miami and shattered that image, paving the way for a whole host of hyper-violent and stylish indie action games to follow in its wake. Beyond its place as a foundational indie action game, though, Hotline Miami helped prop up Devolver Digital to become one of (if not the) most important indie publishers; a position it continues to hold to this day.

• Release Date — August 6, 2008
• Developer — Number None
• Publisher — Number None
• Genre — Puzzle
• Review Aggregate Score — 93% (Universal Acclaim)
• Steam User Score — 93% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Jonathan Blow's Braid is one of the earliest examples of an indie game becoming a mainstream commercial and critical success, helped in large part by its use as the flagship title for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. Because of Braid's acclaim, it would help pave the way for other now-legendary indie titles like Super Meat Boy, Fez, Limbo, and many others who initially called Xbox Live Arcade their exclusive home before migrating to PC and other platforms. On top of its importance in the realm of indie game dev, Braid also happens to be one of the best and most ingenious puzzle platformers ever made, cementing itself as a modern classic in its genre alongside the likes of Hollow Knight and Shovel Knight.

• Release Date — February 24, 2017
• Developer — Team Cherry
• Publisher — Team Cherry
• Genre — Metroidvania, Soulslike
• Review Aggregate Score — 87% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 97% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

With the Metroidvania being one of the most popular genres for indie game development, it's hard not to look back at Hollow Knight as the spark that ignited that fire. Released alongside similarly-minded titles from the 2010s like Ori and the Blind Forest, Guacamelee!, and Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight exhibited a level of polish that most other modern Metroidvanias had struggled to achieve, and it accomplished an almost impossible feat: it ended up standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the classics that inspired it like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. That many modern indie Metroidvanias list Hollow Knight as an influence is no coincidence.

• Release Date — December 6, 2018
• Developer — Supergiant Games
• Publisher — Supergiant Games
• Genre — Action Roguelike
• Review Aggregate Score — 93% (Universal Acclaim)
• Steam User Score — 98% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Platforms — iOS, PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Lots of indie games had come close to winning multiple Game of the Year honors before Hades, but Supergiant's award-winning and best-in-class action roguelike is one of the few indie titles to practically sweep the honor from just about every major ceremony or outlet. Playing Hades is all it takes to understand why, as it lands at a perfect intersection between gameplay, presentation, and story in a way the best games do. What makes Hades important in the general landscape of game development, though, is the importance of Early Access for the game's refinement and iteration between its initial release and 1.0 launch, teaching a valuable lesson about how crucial player feedback can be when shaping a creative vision.

• Release Date — February 26, 2016
• Developer — ConcernedApe
• Publisher — ConcernedApe
• Genre — RPG, Simulation
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 98% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Platforms — Android, iOS, PC, PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

Similar to how we can thank Hollow Knight for the onslaught of indie Metroidvania titles, we have ConcernedApe's Stardew Valley to point to as the genesis of the modern "cozy game" craze. Before Stardew Valley's release, if you had asked the average gamer about titles like Harvest Moon, most would've likely not been aware of that franchise or its addictive mix of RPG gameplay and farming sim mechanics. Stardew Valley took that basic template and brought it to a general audience, introducing a whole new generation of players to both the games that inspired it and a slew of newer FarmPGs that reignited the gaming zeitgeist's interest in low-stakes, cozy interactive experiences.

• Release Date — November 18, 2011
• Developer — Mojang Studios
• Publisher — Mojang Studios, Xbox Game Studios
• Genre — Survival, Crafting
• Review Aggregate Score — 93% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — Android, iOS, PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

It's almost hard to believe that Minecraft technically counts as an indie game, but before Microsoft's acquisition of developer Mojang, it was an indie title that defied all expectations to become the best-selling video game of all time. Minecraft is at least partially responsible for a massive paradigm shift in the gaming industry, where titles with creative sandboxes and bustling online communities began to take precedence over self-contained, single-player experiences. Additionally, the power of Minecraft as both an educational tool and a doorway into game development can't be overstated, helping to foster and cultivate future generations of creators in profound ways.