The 10 best indie games from 2024

When it comes to indie games released in 2024—well—we truly ate this year. Small studios and one-man developers are holding their own when crafting meaningful, entertaining, and thought-provoking experiences that will be hard to top in 2025. It’s difficult to pick the best of the best as each entry offers an immersive world with strengths, differences, and few weaknesses.

But here it is, our 10 best indie games that released in 2024.

Honorable mentions

Before we get into our list, here are our honorable mentions:

• Funeralopolis: A short free-to-play retro horror experience with excellent worldbuilding, cinematics, narrative, and atmosphere.
• INDIKA: There is nothing quite like INDIKA.
• Pacific Drive: A unique take on survival horror blending the cozy and anxiety-inducing gameplay for a surreal experience.
• Tiny Glade: The prettiest building game you’ll ever play.
• Shadows of Doubt: A randomly generated detective game with survival elements and the freedom to go and do whatever you want, whenever you want.
• Fear the Spotlight: Great LGBTQIA+ representation that doesn’t force the narrative. A retro-style horror with a dark story behind its adorable appearance.
• The Plucky Squire: The perfect blend of 2D and 3D puzzle platforming.
• Abiotic Factor: A fun survival horror experience that resembles Half-Life with the freedom to do whatever you want.

Now, let’s dive into our top 10.

Best indie titles of 2024

NEVA

• Release date: Oct. 15, 2024
• Platform: Windows / macOS / PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 5 / Xbox Series X/S / Nintendo Switch
• Price: $19.99

Hit by a loss from the onset, NEVA is a beautiful tale that delivered both in its style and story. Spanning across four seasons, each quarter houses its own beauty and challenges to admire and learn from. NEVA demonstrates the circle of life through the mix of good and evil energy. Alba and Neva grow stronger as you progress through the story, displaying the strength and resilience these characters have, while simultaneously showing us the inevitability of time and aging.

Hades II

• Release date: May 6, 2024
• Platform: Windows / macOS / PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 5 / Xbox One / Xbox Series X/S
• Price: $29.99

Perfecting the Roguelike genre, Hades II switches the narrative on its head. Rather than ascending Hell in the desperate attempt to escape it, our protagonist’s goal is to descend to its very depths—giving us new maps, enemies, and bosses to face. It’s flawless in its design and combat, holding onto its roguelike polish that offers experimentation, thus strengthening its replayability. Just like the first game, beating this game quickly won’t come easy, but the further you get the more rewarding it feels.

Thank Goodness You’re Here!

• Release date: Aug. 1, 2024
• Platform: Windows / macOS / PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 5 / Nintendo Switch
• Price: $13.99

Like a scene out of Interdimensional cable, Thank Goodness You’re Here packs joke after joke, delivered by its simplistic cartoonish characters and excellent voice acting. Quintessentially British, Thank Goodness You’re Here is a breath of fresh air and a throwback to what feels like simpler times. The strange town of Barnsworth features an abundance of quirky characters and a ridiculous amount of content to whack and get distracted by—making time spent completing this game a longer endeavor than others. But the truth is… we never wanted our trip to Barnsworth to end.

Until Then

• Release date: May 23, 2024
• Platform: Windows / Linux / PlayStation 5
• Price: $19.99

There’s something truly special about side-scrollers when they cover real themes we all inevitably deal with in our lifetime. It’s games like these that demonstrate the power of a story and that all media is capable of leaving an impact. We’ve all dealt with Until Then‘s themes: friendship, loss, and growing up. Hopefully we’re fortunate enough to not experience these in the same order. What’s remarkable about Until Then is how reading words on a screen, paired with gorgeous, pixelated animation and calming, yet sentimental music can garner such weight and tremendously impact us the way this game did.

Mouthwashing

• Release date: Sept. 26, 2024
• Platform: Windows
• Price: $12.99

Horror walking simulations take note, this is how you craft an excellent narrative without giving anything away until the climax. Keeping you on your toes throughout, Mouthwashing is a perfectly crafted psychological horror, and one that will stay with me for many years to come. Interestingly, 2024’s indie horror has been far darker than previous years, with more psychological concepts detailing trauma and the wickedness of others. A sickening story, Mouthwashing tricks us into a fall sense of security, and betrays us at the final hurdle.

Crow Country

• Release date: May 9, 2024
• Platform: Windows / PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 5 / Xbox Series X/S / Nintendo Switch
• Price: $19.99

There’s been many fantastic retro-style horror games that came out 2024, but Crow Country takes the top spot as a love letter to Resident Evil and Silent Hill. The setting is compact as you navigate around an abandoned theme park where monsters start spilling out onto the exits, trapping you inside. Crow Country shines with its elaborate puzzles and an environment that subtly changes, giving you reason to back-track without ever feeling repetitive. Quirky characters and monsters resembling that of Silent Hill 3 makes Crow Country an absolute pleasure to play through.

Animal Well

• Release date: May 9, 2024
• Platform: Windows / PlayStation 5 / Xbox Series X/S / Nintendo Switch
• Price: $24.99

Created by a single developer, Animal Well is a Metroidvania without the combat. Focused on puzzle-platforming, Animal Well sees you play as a innocent, fragile character whose goal is to venture into four corners of the complex labyrinth laid out before them. The puzzles perfectly blend into the labyrinth as if it was made for it with the freedom to explore and figure out how to get to a new area without any hand-holding. The ultimate puzzle-platformer, every block is perfectly and purposely placed to challenge your curiosity.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

• Release date: May 16, 2024
• Platform: Windows / PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 5 / Nintendo Switch
• Price: $24.99

Invited to an abandoned hotel filled with puzzles that mess with time and our sense of reality, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes demands your attention the moment you enter. The true meaning behind using your brain at 100 percent, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes traps you within its box and puts you through gruelling tests. A setting reminiscent of Resident Evil (1996), no two puzzles are alike, making it impossible to get familiar with. The labyrinth that entraps Lorelei captures your imagination too, where its complex puzzles stay with you as you become hellbent on finding the solution long after exiting the game.

Balatro

• Release date: Feb. 20, 2024
• Platform: Windows / PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 5 / Xbox One / Xbox Series X/S / Nintendo Switch
• Price: $19.99

Meant to be in work tomorrow? Call in sick. Oh, you have children? Forget about them. All that matters is Balatro. Extremely addictive from launch, Balatro demands your full attention as the more you play, the more decks you unlock. Combining poker with roguelike elements, Balatro‘s simple design makes it easy to digest and hard to put down. Lose yourself in the world of ethical gambling where you aren’t playing for real money, saving your ego and dignity in the process. So if you’re looking for a new way to escape reality and to save some coin in the process, then welcome to Balatro. But be careful, you may find it’s the end of 2025 by the time you log off.

Nine Sols

• Release date: May 28, 2024
• Platform: Windows / PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 5 / Xbox One / Xbox Series X/S / Nintendo Switch
• Price: $29.99

Created by the developer of Detention and Devotion, Nine Sols is a masterful Metroidvania with stunning visuals and fluid, effortless combat that resembles Sekiro. Addictive, its Soulslike gameplay and gorgeous aesthetic makes it hard to put Nine Sols down once you get started. While Nine Sols happily punishes those who aren’t used to the timing window of each enemy, the combat is a delight to master and feels rewarding every time you defeat one of the awe-inspiring bosses.