Creating video games without financial support from huge publishers is a tough business. The chances to recover the initial investment costs are meager, but some daredevil creative teams and individuals risk everything to make their mark in the history of video games. Indie Games selected the brightest indie titles that will never die due to their soul and unique artistic solutions.
Undertale
Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale, created the entire design of the game, composed the soundtrack, and did the programming all by himself. He drew inspiration for visuals and gameplay from the Mario & Luigi series, Earthbound, and Touhou Project series for the bullet-hell encounters. In Undertale, you have the absolute freedom of choice that affects the narrative dramatically. Every character you meet has an ambiguous nature, so you have to decide which kind of individual approach is the best. There are 3 main progression threads, such as friendly, neutral, and aggressive. Besides, you can mix behaviors to make the plot completely unpredictable.
Cuphead
It’s a unique example of how creative a family can be. Studio MDHR, where the abbreviation stands for the Moldenhauers family. These crazy guys mortgaged their house to invest in a platform video game. Fortunately, the risk was worth the reward. It’s one of the most memorable games ever created. You play a cartoony boy, Cuphead, and his brother who got into trouble with the Devil. To save their souls, they have to defeat over 30 bosses and return their debt. The entire play looks like an American cartoon from the 1930s. In fact, Chad Moldenhauer, the artist, used only watercolors and Photoshop to create every object. IndieGames.Download recommends Cuphead for the most impressive handmade graphics ever.
Garry’s Mod
Facepunch Studios from Walsall, England, is famous for 2 sandbox games – Rust, and Garry’s Mod. While the first title has similar features with numerous survival games, the second is running unopposed. Garry’s Mod is a Source-powered sandbox in which you can manipulate objects and characters in order to play any scenario that comes into your head. The toolbox includes instruments for building, coloring, scripting, and even facial animation. Due to Steam Workshop support, you can create levels, and share them with the multimillion society. Don’t feel like making something? It’s not an issue because you can download over 1.3 million user-created GMod games in any genre and setting that you can imagine!
Terraria
Since 2011, Terraria has gained popularity on PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, iOS, Android, 3DS, Wii U, and Switch with over 27 million copies sold. Some call Terraria a Minecraft clone, but it came out a few months earlier that year. In this 2D survival sandbox, you will meet numerous D&D-style monsters, endless dungeons, and rare NPCs. Every time you start a new game, the whole universe is procedurally generated from Hell to Heaven. You can explore it in any direction to mine resources, find valuable loot, fight with monsters, and build save-houses. With multiple updates and add-ons, you will never have a shortage of things to do here.
Hotline Miami Series
This Swedish top-down shooter is an embodiment of the retro-wave culture in the world of video games. It has glitchy pixel visuals, gorgeous retro-wave soundtrack, and a unique neo-noir atmosphere. You play a nameless killer who receives missions to fight against Russian mafia in 1989 Miami. You have to complete dozens of bloody objectives wiping out entire bases of criminals. The second chapter rotates around the war between USSR and the USA, which ends up with nuclear conflict.
After All This Time? Always
All these indies are cultural phenomenons with massive fan-bases all over the world. They are not as realistic and expensive as projects by EA, Ubisoft, or Sony, but they have something to carry through decades. It’s all about atmosphere, creativity, and firm aftertaste.
Author’s Bio
Victoria Clark
Victoria writes for IndieGames.Download from the date of its creation. She’s a journalistics graduate and an indie development enthusiast. Her PC is full of training projects in Unity and Game Maker Studio.