Favorite Indie Games of 2014?

Hey, ok, so lists are terrible. In times of need, however, they're pretty effective. I've felt pretty overwhelmed with triple AAA games lately, having played both Mordor and Destiny in the past month or so. I really like smaller, independent games, but they obviously manage to slip under the radar more easily.

Are there any small games of 2014 you'd be willing to nominate as worth visiting before the year closes out? I really loved Nidhogg, Jazzpunk, and Transistor. I'm down for anything, really. I've been eyeing Lifeless Planet and Qora as two potential games to visit. Hopefully this'll turn into a great thread for others who may be looking for recommendations.

Ones that I think are worth mentioning (I'm excluding relatively big indie games and crowd-funded stuff):

• Ether One
• Rogue Shooter: The FPS Roguelike
• LYNE

Not indie games, but not AAA games I really enjoyed:

• Heavy Bullets
• Jazzpunk

Shovel Knight would be my top pick of the year so far.

NIdhogg, Mount Your Friends and Lovely Planet are my top three. I haven't touched Lifeless Planet or Jazzpunk though, and would like to.

I haven't played it yet, but everything I see and hear about Shovel Knight looks great.

Just glanced at Ether One's steam page. This looks right up my street.

It's really great. It feels somewhere between Gone Home and Myst. It's a huge shame that it's flown under the radar for most people.

Shovel Knight, since every time I think about it I grin. Luftrausers was hard to put down for a while there, along with OlliOlli. Rogue Legacy had me hooked for the 10 or so hours it took to beat. Oh, and the Oddworld remake was a nice update.

Transistor is currently my favourite game this year.

Audiosurf 2 is pretty rad if you like playing Mono. Shovel Knight was pretty fun but it just didn't click for me. Starbound is super interesting but nowhere near done. Assault Android Cactus is a surprisingly great twin stick shooter. Abyss Odyssey is cool but not for me. Roundabout is really funny and has Medibot in it.

The top 3 I'd recommend are The Banner Saga (my personal GOTY), Abyss Odyssey and Crawl (this is early access though). It released late last year, but if you haven't had a chance to check it out, I'd also highly recommend Paper Sorcerer.

Transistor and Jazzpunk are the only two I have played this year, really interested in Ether One and Shovel Knight though.

Yep, Banner Saga is really great. I have a few gripes, but overall, I loved it.

Looking at my list of games played in 2014 and cutting it down to the indie games that I liked would leave me with:

• OlliOlli
• Icarus Proudbottom's World of Typing
• Fuck Everything

I'd say Abyss Odyseey

but I don't know if that "counts" because Atlus published it.

Banished. Unless something comes out that utterly destroys my free time, this one's a walkaway choice for me. I love city builders without a ton of resource management and this was a good 'un.

Im loving Crypt of the Necrodancer, great addictive soundtrack and a neat rouge-lite

I played that and jeez that game is terrifying. I want to say the part that makes me cringe but just mentioning it might get me banned, haha.

There's been a lot of indie games this year, I think most games I've played this year are indie. Games like Wasteland 2, Divinity: Original Sin, Dragonfall, Broken Age and the upcoming games Pillars of Eternity and Massive Chalice are technically indie games, thanks to Kickstarter.

Smaller favorites: Full Bore, Journal, FRACT OSC, Desert Golfing.

Free favorites: Heroine's Quest, Mimicry Man, Universal History of Light, Curtain, lisa, Icarus Proudbottom's World of Typing.

Also, a bit of a nitpick but Jazzpunk isn't really an indie game because it's an Adult Swim Games joint, isn't it?

Fenix Rage easily. What a great game.

my favorite would be jazzpunk. but its the only indie game of 2014 I've played. Also the only video game of 2014 I've played.

Yeah, you're right. It shouldn't be counted.

Does Divinity: Original Sin count?

If not, probably Floating Point and Luftrausers.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Of games that are not Jazzpunk and Transistor, I recommend Lovely Planet. It's a very hard and extremely cute Super Meat Boy-style FPS.

@beachthunder: While technically correct, I think this person is just looking for small games.

Adult Swim Games is an indie publisher just like Devolver.

@corevi: I guess it counts as an indie-sized publishing company, it's just that my mind still associates them as a subsidiary of Time Warner by proxy.

I'm really enjoying Lovely Planet. The difficulty curve caught me off guard at first, but working my way through the tougher levels and trying to 100% the game has been a blast.

Shovel Knight and Heavy Bullets are both good as well, but SK has a severe lack of difficulty that made it a little bit boring for me. Even NG+ isn't that bad.

Velocity 2x

Totally counts answer: Betrayer

Totally doesn't count answer: CounterSpy

Looking at my WiP GotY list for this year...

• The Banner Saga
• Azure Striker Gunvolt

Do those count as indie?

Yeah, sorry everyone. I should have put "Favorite Small Games," but went with the synonymous-but-incorrect "indie." No disrespect meant for the actual indie titles here, which all seem very great.

I REALLY wanted to play Betrayer, but my computer chugs when I run it. I'm not sure if my GFX card is old or if the game has issues because I get so many different graphical glitches during it.

Pix the Cat is legit.

If we count small games and "faux-indie", I really likes The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Jazzpunk and Valiant Hearts.

That said, I think this year is inferior to last one for indies offering. Papers, Please and Kentucky Route Zero are two of my favorite games ever, and Gone Home is not far off. I don't feel like any games this year are on that level.

I'm hurt (and having a gross amount of anticipating) regarding the slow crawl of Kentucky Route Zero updates. I haven't played part III because I really want to experience it all at once.

@a_cute_squirtle: Yeah. I'm not ever sure it'll be ever completed. For me, episode 1 totally blew me away. Even if it about one hour long, it was my game of the year so I was already happy about my purchase, thought I would totally understand someone thinking the game is not worth it.

I just hope it gets finished one day so many people that want to wait until the end like you can finally play it.

P.S. Don't forget that there's two free chapters on their website. Both are incredible.

LUFTRAUSERS was pretty great for a while there.

I'll just take this as the Sub-Twenty Dollars games. Then again, there's some definitively indie/small/niche games that are 40 dollars. I dunnoshutupandlisten

1. Transistor

2. Shovel Knight

3. Abyss Odyssey

4. Valiant Hearts

5. Endless Legend

6. Velvet Sundown

7. Wasteland 2

8. The Banner Saga

9. Trials Fusion

10. Shadowrun Returns

11. The Last Federation

12. Gang Beasts

13. Expeditions: Conquistadors

@a_cute_squirtle said:

I forgot to include KRZ on my list, it's fair enough to want to wait for the whole thing to come out but Act III is so good. That one act alone is among my top 10 favorites for this year.

Shovel Knight is probably number one on my list, but I also just want to make sure Lethal League gets a mention in this thread - great game, not sure how it hasn't been mentioned yet.

The blurred lines between AAA and indie has become so small I can hardly tell the difference now a days. I'll probably go with Transistor but then I remember that game getting some heavy push from Sony earlier this year.

My top 3 list is the same indie or not:

• Broken Age: Act 1
• Octodad: Dadliest Catch
• Roundabout

Both because they're good and I didn't happen to play much else from this year, further along you've Icarus Proudbottom's World of Typing Weekly!, Nidhogg and Luftrausers. There's still a ton more I want to check out, a few of which have already mentioned. Honestly though, and fuck what some people think, this year has been especially great for games in this space. Just to lay out all the stuff that was at least pretty rad that isn't considered Triple AAA:

• Broken Age
• Octodad: Dadliest Catch
• Roundabout
• Nidhogg
• Luftrausers
• Sportsfriends
• Jazzpunk
• Transistor
• Valiant Hearts
• Super Time Force
• Shovel Knight
• Fract OSC
• The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
• Abyss Odyssey
• The Banner Saga
• OlliOlli
• Costume Quest 2
• Neverending Nightmares
• Hack 'N' Slash
• 6180 the Moon
• Mount Your Friends
• Wasteland 2
• Lethal League
• Heavy Bullets

That's not to mention some breakout Early Access hits like Gang Beasts, Crypt of the Necrodancer and Crawl. Technically indie or not, that's the list I think should rightly dominate what made this year awesome (or not if one is ignoring this stuff for one reason or another).

1001 Spikes without a doubt, I've played it so much I can almost speed run it competitively

I think you're the only other person who played Roundabout. Fantastically funny game.

I don't really know what indie games are at this point, but games I enjoyed this year that seemed kinda indie maybe and perhaps were released in 2014 are:

• 140
• Heavy Bullets
• Always Sometimes Monsters
• DreadOut
• Shantae: Risky's Revenge Director's Cut
• Jazzpunk

I'm glad to see Heavy Bullets getting a lot of love - that is such a great game.

After that stupid April Fool's day announcement I couldn't not pre-order, especially after Dan egged me on. My favorite part is that more than just being a funny game, it's actually a delight to play. Playing it at events I was a bit worried because I died quite a lot and suspected it might end up being frustrating. When I sat down to play it on launch day, it couldn't be further from that. The design and control come together to make that thing feel every bit as satisfying as it looks.