It is undeniable that during 2023 an obscene amount of great games have been released. That’s why it has been impossible to keep up with everything. Even more so if we talk about such a complex space to navigate as the indie scene. That’s why we made this list. To tell you which are the best indies of the year, in our opinion, and the reasons why you shouldn’t miss them.
A Space for the Unbound
Indonesia is far away from us, but A Space for the Unbound does the impossible: it makes us feel like we have lived there in a rural area in the late 90s. With fabulous art, beautiful music, and a story that touches delicate themes with immeasurable grace, A Space for the Unbound is one of the games that has gone unnoticed the most and deserves all its accolades. A small masterpiece that proves that gems are made in every part of the world. Not only in Europe, the US, and Japan.
Cocoon
Jeppe Carlsen, designer of two authentic wonders like Limbo and Inside, decided to take his time to make his magnum opus. And it has been worth it. Cocoon is a delicate, intelligent and extremely polished work. Its puzzles may seem simple at first glance, but they hide multiple layers and extreme delicacy behind them. And like the other great puzzle games of this year, a narrative much deeper than it seems.
Humanity
From Tetsuya Mizuguchi, creator of Rez and Tetris Effect, we expect nothing less than excellence. That’s why we weren’t surprised when Humanity offered us exactly that. Putting ourselves in the skin of a shiba-inu, we must guide humanity through its destiny, giving them directions on the ground so they know where to go. Easy to understand, not so easy to complete, and very difficult to fully conclude, it is a prodigy of puzzle design and, although it may not seem like it from the outside, one of the most heartfelt games of 2023.
Mediterranean Inferno
Visual novels have an unjustified bad reputation. Mediterranea Inferno proves it with an adventure about millennial anxiety, the consequences of confinement and the pandemic, and what it means to grow older in a society obsessed with youth. All with excessive imagery, heavily inspired by Dario Argento’s giallo, and LGBTQ+ culture. Do you need to be a millennial or gay to enjoy this game? No. Because even those who are not, will find something true resonating in the heart of Mediterranea Inferno.
Pizza Tower
Intense, complex, and for a very specific audience, Pizza Tower is the spiritual successor to Wario Land that we were all waiting for. As if a cartoon character were having an anxiety attack and decided to avoid it at all costs, everything in Pizza Tower is aggressive and hilarious. And at the same time, it is perfectly designed. An example of prodigious design and how a great game can be made that simply isn’t for everyone.
Pseudoregalia
Although platform games are still being made, a certain type of games in this genre were only made for a very short period of time. For example, Super Mario 64-style games were only made for a few years. That’s why it’s amazing to see a game like Pseudoregalia, which rescues that kind of design and takes it to a level where we break it with combinations of insane jumps. A prodigy that no lover of the early 3D platformers should miss.
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
The latest game from the Spanish developers Deconstructeam is probably their best game to date. Playing as an exiled witch on an asteroid, we will have to predict the future of other witches using tarot cards that we design ourselves. All of this leads to a stunning story, accompanied by amazing art, writing, and music, which speaks to both the game and the player.
Void Stranger
What starts as a simple game of pushing boxes to reach the stairs and keep going down, soon becomes something more. The puzzles become stranger, the narrative becomes obscure, and everything we took for granted becomes complicated. Throw away all the expectations you had before playing Void Stranger. Do you like puzzle games? Then play this game without knowing anything else. You won’t regret it.
