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[zkylon]

I think diplomacy mod is included in Floris mod, or at least that is what the wiki implies.

oh cool. will try it next.

I'm really super hyped for mount & blade 2...

 

[Weltall Zero]

I added a deadline for the tally to the OP.

I've also realized, much to my consternation (those damn newbie first threads) that I haven't made multiple posts after the OP, meaning I won't have enough space for the list and descriptions when the tally is done :/ . I'm thinking of solutions but I'm not liking any of them. Making a new thread is probably pushing it considering I shouldn't have made a voting thread in the first place. Posting late in the thread and linking from the OP seems sloppy. I'm even considering asking the first few posters to post chunks of the list, but that seems like a pain in the ass. Ideas?

 

[Toma]

I added a deadline for the tally to the OP.

I've also realized, much to my consternation (those damn newbie first threads) that I haven't made multiple posts after the OP, meaning I won't have enough space for the list and descriptions when the tally is done :/ . I'm thinking of solutions but I'm not liking any of them. Making a new thread is probably pushing it considering I shouldn't have made a voting thread in the first place. Posting late in the thread and linking from the OP seems sloppy. I'm even considering asking the first few posters to post chunks of the list, but that seems like a pain in the ass. Ideas?

I think its not unusual to make a new thread once the voting has been done. So just feel free to create a new thread once the voting is over. New news, new thread, right?

 

[Toma]

See my edit. I dont think its a problem if you make a new thread vor the results of the voting.

 

[Weltall Zero]

See my edit. I dont think its a problem if you make a new thread vor the results of the voting.

I hope so. I t would be really great to have mod confirmation for all of this, though. Well, tallying is still a ways off, so I guess there's time.

 

[Visualante2]

Pretty lame requiring 5 responses, given some console owners might have only tried Braid or a couple of indie games.

Minecraft
Darwinia
Portal
Cave Story
Machinarium
The Binding of Isaac
Thirty Flights of Loving
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Bejeweled 3
Passage

 

[Weltall Zero]

Pretty lame requiring 5 responses, given some console owners might have only tried Braid or a couple of indie games.

Then they're not exactly the best qualified to pick the most essential indie games of all times, are they now? >

Edit: Also, I can't really accept Bejeweled 3 for the same reason as Plants vs Zombies; Popcap has a staggering 400 employees.

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

Alright, here's my full list.

Cave Story
Bit Trip Runner
World of Goo
Super Meat Boy
VVVVVV
Minecraft
Limbo
Bastion

 

[zkylon]

I added a deadline for the tally to the OP.

I've also realized, much to my consternation (those damn newbie first threads) that I haven't made multiple posts after the OP, meaning I won't have enough space for the list and descriptions when the tally is done :/ . I'm thinking of solutions but I'm not liking any of them. Making a new thread is probably pushing it considering I shouldn't have made a voting thread in the first place. Posting late in the thread and linking from the OP seems sloppy. I'm even considering asking the first few posters to post chunks of the list, but that seems like a pain in the ass. Ideas?

make a new thread, maybe ask a mod first, but I'm sure they'll be fine with it.

 

[jim2point0]

I don't play a lot of indie games... but I think these are pretty fantastic.

1. Bastion. One of the best games I've ever played, let alone indie games....
2. Terraria
3. The Binding of Isaac
4. Teleglitch. Sort of a Roguelike. Hectic shooting action. Nice pixel art style.
5. Capsized
6. Anomaly series

Look forward to seeing the results

 

[Raxum]

Top Ten:

Terraria
I have spent ridiculous amounts of time in this game, building things in 2D, metroidvania is a fun playstyle for it and I loved collecting things.
Path of Exile
After playing it a fair way through closed beta and now in open beta, I think I can honestly say this is one of my most played games. At the moment the balance is a bit weird, but the devs are good at listening to their fans. Needs some work but definitely top ten material.
FTL
This game is amazing by itself, played through it a great many times trying to finish it, and then I found the FTL: Infinite mod and played that for a long time. Fun game, definitely worth the time.
Bastion
Very popular indie game, somewhat speaks for itself. Fun to play, perfect voice-acting, good story.
Mount and Blade: Warband
Somwhat difficult to play until you get a hang of the combat system, I still love this game. Being able to raise your own army, eventually take over a castle and then become a lord and rule over sections of land. So many hours spent on this game.
Eufloria
A nice change of pace from my usual games, the zen of breeding flower seeds to travel to other asteroids and plant flowers, all while fighting against other coloured flowers. Beautiful game.
Din's Curse
This is a very interesting dungeon crawler, fun classes to play, constantly upping the challenge and allows even the village to be attacked. Really enjoyed the small amount of time I put into this and am looking forward to putting more into it at a future date.
Really Big Sky
Fun side-scrolling shmup with some crazy graphics and a good soundtrack. Definitely worth a play.
Minecraft
Ridiculously popular now and definitely speaks for itself. Spent far too much time with this game, but I just can't stop building things.
Project CARS
Not sure if this counts as Indie in particular, which is why it is last, but this game is amazing. Awesome graphics, fun to play racing, all round good game. Disregard if it isn't Indie.

Honourable mentions:
Towns - Probably alone here, considering the reviews, but I really enjoy Towns, despite it occasionally being frustrating
Gnomoria - Also a good town building game, but I just can't justify it being in my top ten
Dungeon Defenders - Good game in general, until you get to the higher difficulties and try to get new gear...5 hours per dungeon?! WHAT
Tomes of Mephistopheles - Great foundation of an idea, but they stopped development of it (I think) so it's stuck in eternal alpha
Kenshi - Though still in alpha, it has some amazing ideas: army building, equipping whole armies, building a town/fort for yourself. Just a bit too early and controls can be a bit weird for me to put it in my top ten.
Nitronic Rush - Old-school arcade-style racing, I forgot how much I missed the crazy races you could have in those games.
Super Meat Boy - While I enjoyed this game, it never really caught me completely. I think I just had too much difficulty with it.
Recettear - Loved the game, but it just didn't hold me in to playing it.
Waves - Fun game, really enjoy jumping in to play a round or two while waiting for friends to get ready for mp games.

Edit: Overgrowth - If Project CARS doesn't make the cut for indie, I'd like this to replace it, really good game, only doesn't quite make the top ten due it still being an alpha.

 

[Dash Kappei]

So wait, Journey is considered indie now? What about Trials HD?

 

[timetokill]

So wait, Journey is considered indie now? What about Trials HD?

no way man, that game is about motorcycles and shit

journey is so artsy though so of course it's indie!

 

[Deleted member 125677]

So wait, Journey is considered indie now? What about Trials HD?

no way man, that game is about motorcycles and shit

journey is so artsy though so of course it's indie!

RedLynx Ltd is owned by Ubisoft.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Bastion is now one dollar minimum at the Humble Bundle site. If you don't yet have it, you will now stop reading this and proceed to buy it (feel free to pay the price you consider fair).

This is not an optional thing. In fact, as far as "things" go, this is the opposite of optional.

 

[Deleted member 59090]

I guess my list would look something like this:

Braid
Dungeons of Dredmor
Frozen Synapse
FTL: Faster Than Light
Hotline Miami
Miasmata
Pathologic
Probability 0
Proteus
The Void

 

[Toma]

I guess my list would look something like this:

Braid
Dungeons of Dredmor
Frozen Synapse
FTL: Faster Than Light
Hotline Miami
Miasmata
Pathologic
Probability 0
Proteus
The Void

Great list overall, so I am not trying to shit on you or anything. But I am curious what people see in Probability 0 to rank it this highly? Any explanation?

 

[Deleted member 59090]

Great list overall, so I am not trying to shit on you or anything. But I am curious what people see in Probability 0 to rank it this highly? Any explanation?

Yeah I saw you being puzzled about it in your own thread.

I'd say the game is a mix of Demon's Souls and a twin stick shooter/bullet hell where on one hand everything you do has to be very deliberate - your punch has a short range so you either hit or get hit, your ammo is somewhat limited and the projectile is small so you have to aim it dead on and on the other hand it escalates very quickly with multiple enemies, enemies that follow you, shoot at you etc making it a very oppressive environment to be in, especially when you add the music which basically becomes a siren at this point. It gives me a similar adrenaline rush as Hotline Miami but here the stakes feel that much higher because you can't just zone out and brute force your way through it by constantly respawning.
It's this sense of oppression that I'm not sure I've felt in a video game before.

I've only recently discovered it when everyone started talking about Starseed Pilgrim but ever since then I go back to it every single day.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Yeah I saw you being puzzled about it in your own thread.

I'd say the game is a mix of Demon's Souls and a twin stick shooter/bullet hell where on one hand everything you do has to be very deliberate - your punch has a short range so you either hit or get hit, your ammo is somewhat limited and the projectile is small so you have to aim it dead on and on the other hand it escalates very quickly with multiple enemies, enemies that follow you, shoot at you etc making it a very oppressive environment to be in, especially when you add the music which basically becomes a siren at this point. It gives me a similar adrenaline rush as Hotline Miami but here the stakes feel that much higher because you can't just zone out and brute force your way through it by constantly respawning.
It's this sense of oppression that I'm not sure I've felt in a video game before.

I've only recently discovered it when everyone started talking about Starseed Pilgrim but ever since then I go back to it every single day.

I'll have you know I had Probability 0 bookmarked from a bit back, and your writeup has convinced me to stop delaying trying the demo. Impressions later today if I have the time to post.

Edit: OK, just finished the demo (although apparently I did that by dying past the fourth checkpoint). Pretty cool game, upgrades give it an strategic edge that's different each playthrough, I like it. I want to replay it later and choose the "advanced upgrades", since there seems to be just enough checkpoints in the demo to see them after that.

All in all a pretty good indie game, with definitely a bit more than meets the eye. Blizniak, have you tried Super House of Dead Ninjas? It has a couple of similar premises to this, and I found it quite neat:
http://games.adultswim.com/super-house-of-dead-ninjas-action-online-game.html

 

[O.DOGG]

Blizniak, have you tried Super House of Dead Ninjas? It has a couple of similar premises to this, and I found it quite neat:
http://games.adultswim.com/super-house-of-dead-ninjas-action-online-game.html

I've been playing SHODN a little the past couple of days and I like it very much. It seems with patience one could get quite skilled at this game though I'm very far from that point. I like the art, the sounds and the overall feel of the game is awesome.

 

[ScOULaris]

Not nearly enough love for Knytt, Knytt Stories, and Within a Deep Forest in this thread.

Those three will probably remain Nifflas' best works, judging by the bland direction he has decided to take with his most recent releases.

Besides that, my top indie games are pretty common picks:

- Spelunky
- Binding of Isaac
- FTL
- Hotline Miami
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent
- To The Moon
- Super Meat Boy
- Braid
- VVVVVV

PS - I am finally going to try out Frozen Synapse over the weekend, and that has as good chance of earning a spot on my list.

 

[Toma]

PS - I am finally going to try out Frozen Synapse over the weekend, and that has as good chance of earning a spot on my list.

Good man. Dont be afraid to dabble into the MP.

 

[Weltall Zero]

I just realized that I had ommited Aquaria from my "honorable mentions" list, when it would be on the top five of said list. This is probably because it was one of the first indie games I played. It's amazing that half of Aquaria and the entirety of Spelunky come from the same guy, Derek Yu.

Edit: And Jamestown too, damn. I'd say "my memory isn't what I used to be", but my memory has always been lousy as hell... or so I recall.

 

[Deleted member 59090]

Blizniak, have you tried Super House of Dead Ninjas? It has a couple of similar premises to this, and I found it quite neat:
http://games.adultswim.com/super-house-of-dead-ninjas-action-online-game.html

Damn this is pretty awesome. I'll definitely get the steam version. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Grampa Simpson]

Approving of this thread. I want to go back to my gaming heydays, back to 1992. I think this thread is where I can find the inspirations for that.

 

[Platy]

I just want to say that I realized that I missed a game with LOTS of hours on my steam backlog !

Nimbus is VERY good and greatly underlooked because it was never on a Humble Bundle

It is a plataforming, physics puzzle, 2d glider game that is hugely gamey =D

 

[szaromir]

RedLynx Ltd is owned by Ubisoft.

It wasn't when Trials HD weas released. Though I don't know if it could be considered indie even back then.

So I decided to add my top 10 indie games after all, although I don't have that much experience with them in general.

Bastion
Blackwell series from Wadjet Eye Games (not Blackwell Asylum)
Braid
Dishwasher series
Eufloria
FEZ
Miner Dig Deep
RUSH
Space Chem
VVVVVV

 

[irfaanator]

cave story, braid, bastion, dustforce, ftl, jamestown, and mark of the ninja. I'm not a big fan of the trail and error games like smb, but dustforce has probably the best music track I've heard and the game is fun.

edit: also spacechem

 

[Toma]

It wasn't when Trials HD weas released. Though I don't know if it could be considered indie even back then.

So I decided to add my top 10 indie games after all, although I don't have that much experience with them in general.

Bastion
Blackwell series from Wadjet Eye Games (not Blackwell Asylum)
Braid
Dishwasher series
Eufloria
FEZ
Miner Dig Deep
RUSH
Space Chem
VVVVVV

cave story, braid, bastion, dustforce, ftl, jamestown, and mark of the ninja. I'm not a big fan of the trail and error games like smb, but dustforce has probably the best music track I've heard and the game is fun.

edit: also spacechem

You guys should give the Factorio Demo a try if you liked SpaceChem:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=527028

 

[Weltall Zero]

Damn this is pretty awesome. I'll definitely get the steam version. Thanks for the recommendation.

Sure thing! Glad to be of service.

Approving of this thread. I want to go back to my gaming heydays, back to 1992. I think this thread is where I can find the inspirations for that.

There are several indie games that do just that. Could I interest you in Locomalito's games? They're all amazing games in the spirit of games from different eras. Best of all, they're free.

Hydorah:

Maldita Castilla:

(yes, the game includes a burned-in arcade screen filter, you can disable it. ).

I just want to say that I realized that I missed a game with LOTS of hours on my steam backlog !

Nimbus is VERY good and greatly underlooked because it was never on a Humble Bundle

It is a plataforming, physics puzzle, 2d glider game that is hugely gamey =D

Feel free to edit your tally to include it! I won't tally until the end.

cave story, braid, bastion, dustforce, ftl, jamestown, and mark of the ninja. I'm not a big fan of the trail and error games like smb, but dustforce has probably the best music track I've heard and the game is fun.

edit: also spacechem

This may seem a bit anal, but could you please edit your list to put them in a single line each? I'm considering how to do the tallies, and this would help me with some of the automation. Thanks!

 

[Hawkian]

Journey
Braid
Limbo
Bastion
Terraria
N+
FTL
Machinarium
Dust: An Elysian Tale
Mark of the Ninja

Apparent key to getting into Hawkian's top 10: name your indie game with one word or fewer, or make it about ninjas (ideally both).

 

[O.DOGG]

Journey
Braid
Limbo
Bastion
Terraria
N+
FTL
Machinarium
Dust: An Elysian Tale
Mark of the Ninja

Apparent key to getting into Hawkian's top 10: name your indie game with one word or fewer, or make it about ninjas (ideally both).

Make sure you play Super House of Dead Ninjas then. So much fun!

 

[Pappasman]

Cave Story
VVVVVV
Bastion
Dustforce
Journey

Can't wait to see the finished list!

 

[Weltall Zero]

Apparent key to getting into Hawkian's top 10: name your indie game with one word or fewer, or make it about ninjas (ideally both).

That's a pretty awesome set of criteria! Although FTL is technically "Faster Than Light". Well, you could argue it has ninja mantises. From space!

Make sure you play Super House of Dead Ninjas then. So much fun!

:O I'm playing this RIGHT NOW. What are the odds? Well, not right now, obviously, but I was two minutes ago (beat the boss of floor 150 on my second try from 250, heh) and it's still open on another tab.
Hawkian, seconded, awesome game. Use XPadder, of course.

Edit: Played a bit more. Made it to floor 14, from 150. I just learned about the charged jump... from reading the in-game comic, of all things.

 

[Hawkian]

Well it has ninjas AND it's Super, so...

 

[wanders]

I swear I always mention this game but is always ignored. It needs the attention it deserves:

0space

One of the best multiplayer indie games I have ever played. Actually its the most played multiplayer game by our group (4 player split screen!). Anti gravity Sci fi shooter with simple but tight controls. No health; one shot and you're dead so it makes every bullet matter. Genius game design all around.

PLAY THIS GAME

IT IS FREE

 

[Weltall Zero]

Well it has ninjas AND it's Super, so...

I love how the loading screen is a shrinkwrapped SNES cart box.

I swear I always mention this game but is always ignored. It needs the attention it deserves:

0space

Looks great, will try a bit later.

 

[Flightmare]

To the Moon, the only game that have made me cry
Journey, it's simply beautiful
Flower
Magicka, I rarely have as much fun as when I'm playing magicka with 3 friends
Mighty Switch Force: Hyper Drive edition

 

[Berto]

Top 10 with no particular order (apart from Amnesia)

Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Machinarium
Braid
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery
World of Goo
VVVVVV
Frozen Synapse
FTL: Faster than Light
Hotline Miami
Dear Esther

Honorable mentions:
Super Meat Boy
Minecraft
Bastion

 

[Weltall Zero]

To the Moon, the only game that have made me cry
Journey, it's simply beautiful
Flower
Magicka, I rarely have as much fun as when I'm playing magicka with 3 friends
Mighty Switch Force: Hyper Drive edition

I hear ya. I hear ya so much.

 

[O.DOGG]

Man, SHODN is so much fun, I'm considering changing my vote.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Man, SHODN is so much fun, I'm considering changing my vote.

Go ahead! You can edit your posts as often as you want until I start tallying. That said, I've tried not to unfairly favor games that I played recently too much. Although I did include Desktop Dungeons...

House of Ninjas is truly great for a flash game. There's also a couple of games there on AdultSwim that have been recommended earlier and that aren't half bad, like Give Up Robot 2.

Downloading 0space. It's quite funny that when I watched the trailer I immediately thought of Ender's Game zero-g battle school (particularly regarding mental orientation). Sure enough, in their page they acknowledge the book as a source of inspiration.

Edit: 0space was really fun, truly feels like an Ender's Game sim battle. It's pretty raw yet, though, with plenty of crashes and error popups (particularly when writing/reading score files, it seems) and no single player option at all (not even bad AI for the other players ). I had to conscript my GF to try it.

 

[papasmurf1038]

The lack of Ikiki games (and freeware games generally!) listed in this thread so far is super disheartening to see, Nikujin and Teppoman 2 are almost certainly my favorite ninja games of all time.

Top Ten:

- Nikujin
- Teppoman 2
- Mighty Jill Off
- Flywrench
- Clean Asia
- Alabaster
- Howling Dogs
- Dys4ia
- Lyle In Cube Sector
- Wine and Roses

Other Great Indies:

- Cart Life
- Digital: A Love Story
- Democracy 2
- Hero Core
- Proteus
- Brogue
- Tower of Heaven
- Photopia
- Galatea
- Within a Deep Forest
- Knytt Stories
- Iji
- Buntan
- RunMan: Race around the World
- Legend of Princess
- Noitu Love 2
- Chalk
- Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars
- Redder
- Where Is My Heart?
- Oh No Spaceman
- SpyParty
- Super Crate Box

 

[Weltall Zero]

The lack of Ikiki games (and freeware games generally!) listed in this thread so far is super disheartening to see, Nikujin and Teppoman 2 are almost certainly my favorite ninja games of all time.

Thanks! It's interesting that in your lists (which combined contain more than 35 games) you haven't listed any of the "usual suspects" that pop up regularly in most people's lists. Particularly, your lists and mine (including my honorable mentions as well) haven't got a single game in common! (I do own and like Noitu Love 2, though) Out of curiosity, have you actually played most of the more visible games and simply found them not to be to your liking?

Also, are those naked ninjas?

 

[mambadragon]

Starseed Pilgrim
FTL
Hotline Miami
VVVVVV
Braid

 

[Weltall Zero]

I think that, although individual lists seem to have a lot in common to each other, an "uncommon" game or two (ex. Starseed Pilgrim in the previous post) creeps into each one of them often enough that the tally will be quite interesting. By this I mean that when reading all the lists one after another, there may be a sense of repetition (because the repeated games stand out the most), but the "hidden", less frequent games in each one will be what makes the middle tiers of the tally fun.

I'm really hoping to get a list as amazing as the RPG one, and I would be lying if I said I'm not excited to see the results.

 

[papasmurf1038]

Out of curiosity, have you actually played most of the more visible games and simply found them not to be to your liking?

I've definitely played a bunch of the more acclaimed stuff like VVVVVV, Journey, Mark of the Ninja, Braid, and so on. I really enjoyed most of those games! I just like all the stuff in my top ten even better, and figured I'd list less visible favorites of mine for the honorary mentions. Those "hidden" games you describe can be super fun to discover, so I thought it might be worthwhile to throw in some of the lesser-known classics.

Also, are those naked ninjas?

Haha yeah, all the little guys in Ikiki's games are always naked for some reason. Maybe clothes would get in the way of the perfectly-tuned action.

 

[MikeDip]

My top 10:

Spelunky (A roguelike-like platformer)
Desktop Dungeons (A puzzle game, very good)
Unreal World RPG (Best roguelike I've played)
Rogue Survivor (A roguelike based on zombies, very well done)
Iji (A metroidvania)
Cave Story (Cave story)
Hydorah (A shmup, great music and level design)
Hero Core (Another metroidvania)
Kyntt Stories (A metroidvania with a level editor so other people can make metroidvanias)
An Untitled story ( A metroidvania)

Honorable mentions:
All of the trilby games (Mostly point and click, and a stealth game)
Eternal Daughter (A metroidvania)
Aquaria (A metroidvania)
Recettear (You run an RPG item shop!)
Seiklus (An exploration game)

I seem to really enjoy metroidvanias

 

[megalowho]

Top 10:

VVVVVV
Cart Life
Fez
FTL: Faster Than Light
King of Dragon Pass
Gemini Rue
Digital: A Love Story
Mark of the Ninja
Bastion
Little Inferno

I'll add a bit about Little Inferno, since I don't see it popping up too often - a calming, funny, disturbing 'burning stuff in a fireplace' simulator. Highlights the absurdity of the F2P energy loop while still implementing a fun take on it. Becomes a bit of a puzzle game as you decipher item combinations, the commentary isn't insufferable and the game has a few curveballs up it's sleeve. Played it on an iPad, the touch element adds a lot.

Enjoyed, but left off the list:

Antichamber
Super Hexagon
Hotline Miami
Cook, Serve, Delicious!
To The Moon
Thirty Flights of Loving
Gravity Bone
Audiosurf
Braid
Jamestown
La-Mulana
Canabalt

 

[almostheathen]

Super Meat Boy
Mark of the Ninja
Nation Red
They Bleed Pixels
Avadon: The Black Fortress
The Binding of Isaac
Terraria
Legend of Grimrock
Hotline Miami
Dungeons of Dredmor