Editor's note
Final draft after 10 revisions:
Dear readers and friends, on the occasion of the Spring Festival, INDIENOVA Top 10 Indie Games of the Year are back with you. What are some of the best titles in the indie game world in 2024? Let's take a look! (Note: In no particular order)
In the end, it was decided to use the first draft:
It is said that after ten years and three years of this century, a family in the capital is happy to have a son, named NOVA. The boy has been playful by nature, and has been fond of electronic games since he was three years old, especially indie games. In the year 2025, the Year of the Snake is approaching, NOVA felt that there were a lot of good trips in the past year, so he worked with all of you to play a number of masterpieces, and after a few days of selection and writing, it became "Jiachen Top 10 Independent Games", with the spirit of respect for independence, and there is no intention of superiority. Later, there were good deeds who wrote (oil) poems:
One office, two small departments. Planning for the whole of March, tangled up for four or five weeks.
Six or seven rounds of deletion and revision, subjective eight or nine points. On Chinese New Year's Eve, the top ten achievements of the year.
Why eleven cases, but don't ask......
However, the space of the main article is limited, and there are many pearls left in the sea, but NOVA is fortunate to have the help of partners from afar, and has formed four "Jiachen Independent Game Selection", which will include nearly 50 works, which will be presented together on the occasion of the Chinese New Year.
Here's wishing you all a Happy Chinese New Year's Eve!
"The Joker Cards" (Balatro)
Among this year's indie games, Clown and Animal Wells are the twin feathers, not only in their respective categories, but also balanced in all aspects. The difference is that "Animal Well" has some requirements for operation and is relatively picky for players, while "Joker Card" can be used with a hand, exuding a taste suitable for all ages.
The rules are simple enough to be one of the big reasons why Joker is so popular: give each hand a multiplication scoring formula based on the rarity of Texas Hold'em cards, build the game with roguelike decks, and make a big fuss about the multiplication formula itself (multiplier vs. multiplier) and resource management (money), and that's it. Depo is only a packaging element in this work, and it must be said that the connection between "Joker" and gambling probably only exists literally.
Joker is the kind of game that's perfect for a permanent body-worn device. Taste a game anytime, anywhere, and you can play it; rack your brains to challenge high scores, there are you to play; Pursue all the achievements of the whole collection, and more for you to play. The development team has done an excellent job of encouraging players to challenge and extend their playtime: for a single game, the 8 antes required to pass will be difficult without being too demanding, allowing players to create their own ideas and have a variety of decks to play. Antes 9 to 13 increase in difficulty, and hands with no chemistry tend to stop there, and challengers need to run a potential genre to keep up. Since then, the ante has become exponentially more difficult, and it takes skill and luck to play a game in endless mode, and to create certain limits to build.
Most of the Joker games that players have come to expect can be roughly divided into two strategic phases. When the pressure of maintaining points in the early stage is not large, "grain and grass" go first - taking into account the functional cards that can bring monetary income, and do not let go of every cent of interest. After completing the initial accumulation, turn at the right time, spare resources, search for key cards, and build a punching system. Of course, it would be best if there were some synergies that could be used to achieve sustainable development early.
With a concise and clear design logic, Joker embodies a wealth of replayability, including decks, tarot cards, planet cards, phantom cards, coupons, blinds, labels, wax seals, versions, and ...... Multiple random elements can't help but weave a common and new gameplay experience. And among these elements, the "clown card" is the core of the core, just as in the colorful poker world, the "clown card" has another layer of identity, that is, "king".
《动物井》（Animal Well）
Animal Well is a Metroidvania-like title. In the game, players will explore the world as a small circular creature, collect 4 flames scattered throughout the map, light the lights in the hall, and defeat the final boss. The "Ability Lock" design is the "basic exercise" of silver-like games, and Animal Well is no exception, but in this game, many puzzles have more than one solution, so players have a high degree of freedom in the order in which they can obtain items, and they also enjoy more possibilities in terms of route planning.
However, the part that impressed me the most was the ARG gameplay, and here are two of them, both of which are rabbit puzzles:
The first is a rabbit mural. Players chiseled through the ground will be rewarded with a strange 4x4 image, but not exactly the same image for each player - each image can be treated as a piece of a puzzle that players will need to share and communicate with in the community to put together a complete picture and rescue the rabbit. Personally, I think the ingenuity of this session is that it allows players to discover the ARG elements naturally: players will instinctively share strange pictures they encounter, and stimulate others to share and explore, and finally work together to solve the puzzle.
The second is hardware interaction: if the player's computer is connected to a printer, they can interact with the in-game printer and print out an origami drawing of a rabbit (which is quite difficult). Playing the flute according to the number on the folded rabbit can successfully rescue a rabbit. Through this process, the 'virtual' of the game and the 'real' of reality are fully combined, which greatly improves the fun of solving puzzles, and the player starts spontaneously, and the sense of interaction is stronger. Of course, considering that some players are not in a position to print, the development team also thoughtfully designed another solution: a barcode is hidden in a place overgrown with weeds, and a set of numbers that can save the rabbit can be obtained through simple processing. This also confirms what was said at the beginning: many puzzles have more than one solution.
From the perspective of personal play experience, "Animal Well" is a silver-like masterpiece with a lot of ghostly creativity. Although the price is not low, the dozens of hours of process (without looking at the guide) and the extremely rich puzzle gameplay make it worth the money, players who like silver-like and puzzle games should not miss it!
《沉没意志》（Minds Beneath Us）
Of the 2,213 Steam reviews of Will to Sunk (as of January 2025), the most frequently mentioned adjective is "delicate". It's a word that is rarely used to describe sci-fi-themed games, because compared to other games of the genre that are keen to depict the bizarre and cold of the futuristic world, Will to Sunk goes against the grain and tells a warm story.
Set in a futuristic world where a large number of jobs are replaced by artificial intelligence, many people at the bottom will have to rely on a new industry — a computing network that uses the human brain to provide computing power — to make ends meet, consuming their lives in exchange for money. From the perspective of the consciousness body MBU, players will experience an unforgettable adventure with the host Dai Shijie, protect their lover, and gradually get closer to the hidden truth. The choices made by the player will change the direction of the story in a small way.
The best part of this work is the scriptwriting. Although the story is set in the future, many of the dilemmas depicted in the game are in line with contemporary times, so that players will not only stay at the level of "imagination" when playing, but will also be easier to substitute the story and resonate with the characters. On the other hand, unlike many titles that are obsessed with didactic and hard-plugged settings, leaving players with the pressure to unilaterally digest the text, Will to Sunk is more about asking questions or various "trolm puzzle" hypotheses and leaving them to the player to ponder.
In addition, the character creation of "Sunken Will" is also very outstanding, each character has flesh and blood, regardless of whether it is closely related to the main plot, the portrayal of the production team can be described as nuanced; At the same time, the lively, non-dramatic dialogue can also make the player patiently read through such a large volume of text. The supporting characters with different personalities and positions work together to create an unforgettable group drama, and when players help them solve puzzles one by one and receive positive feedback from each person, it is easy for players to feel happy from the bottom of their hearts.
Let's talk a little bit about fine arts. In "Will to Silence", cinematic camera movements, the use of light and shadow and color abound, and the wonderful battle animations and marquee performances are all amazing. Personally, I like the deliberate blank space of the character's face: for the development team, it saves a little bit of work; For players, on the one hand, it allows the eyes to have a "breather" instead of constantly switching between text and pictures, and on the other hand, imagination is the best catalyst, the player's brain will automatically fill in the character's missing expressions, so that the emotions conveyed through words and deeds are more relevant to each player's thoughts.
To answer questions such as how to move people's hearts in a narrative game, how to enhance immersion with smooth writing and vivid character building, this work is a model. As a story-driven game with text as the main emotional carrier, Will to Sink proves that narrative games are not a "last resort" with insufficient technical skills, but a seed of potential that can blossom and bear fruit if treated with care.
《尘埃终须落定》（No Case Should Remain Unsolved）
Arguably, "The Dust Must Settle" is one of the best indie narrative sketches of 2024, developed by our old friend Somi. If you've followed his previous works, you'll know that he's a developer who likes to combine short stories with unique gameplay, such as the gameplay in each of the "Guilty Trilogy", which is not only full of novelty, but also serves the story. "The Dust Must Settle" also continues this style, while bringing more surprises.
This game tells the story of a missing child, and the player's role is actually recalling a fragmented story, and you need to recall conversations with different people, get new keywords, and trigger new conversations. One of the clever aspects of the gameplay is that the dialogue that the player gets each time is not necessarily from the speaker that the system displays by default, and the chronological order of the dialogue is also chaotic. All the player has to do is unlock new dialogues as they deduce who they come from, sorted chronologically.
If I had to summarize the best aspect of this game, it would be the integration of gameplay, story development, and gameplay. For a game with suspense elements, developers need to carefully design when to give new clues to ensure the best reading rhythm for the player. And "The Dust Must Settle" is similar to the archival sorting and archiving gameplay, which not only gives players a lot of freedom, but also seems silky and powerful in terms of plot promotion. Somi will bury the contradictions in some paragraphs precisely, and when the player realizes the contradiction, they will naturally start to recall the meaning of all the previous texts, and when the player understands the truth and gives the correct solution, the positive feedback is extremely large. At the same time, in order to ensure that the player follows the development of the plot, Somi also sets up some plot-locked questions, which themselves are also a kind of hint and insurance, to ensure that the player's reasoning is not too far from the truth. And when players peel back the cocoon and realize the biggest narrative in the game, they will definitely be impressed by the story that takes less than three hours to complete.
The ending setting of this work is also very interesting. The general ending has presented the story in its entirety, and when the player fully restores the story, the true ending will allow the player to review the whole picture of the case from another perspective, which is also a new experience. The whole case ends up with white lies and love – once again showing Somi's thinking about the real world and his personal style.
With these excellent qualities, "The Dust Must Settle" has won numerous awards in the past year, and has also received extremely high praise from players. If you are a lover of narrative games, this work is definitely not to be missed.
《Rusty's Retirement》
Rusty's Retirement is a pixel farm-themed tabletop idle game with a compact interface that takes up only a small area at the bottom or side of the screen, making it easy to play when you're not working, studying, or doing other entertainment.
The basic flow of the game is the same as in most farming simulators: sowing, irrigating, harvesting, and cultivating new land. The difference is that in this game, the protagonist Rusty needs to deliver the mature crops in the warehouse to special equipment (the crops are transported to the warehouse to earn income) in order to produce the core resource "biofuel".
At the beginning of the game, the protagonist is left to do all of this alone, and the player needs to manually seed seeds and adjust Rusty's work priorities, which makes one wonder: where is the "retirement" feeling? However, players' doubts will soon be dispelled. As resources become more abundant, players can build robots (powered by biofuels) to assist Rusty, from planting seeds to producing biofuel. Eventually, players will be able to fully automate production, completely free of hands, and then they will be able to watch the numbers on the stats board continue to rise, and of course, along with the sense of accomplishment of starting from scratch. However, perhaps from this point on, the player's interest in playing will wane.
Once certain conditions are met, a new map is unlocked, and the player can build a farm from scratch, but the difference between the maps is not significant. Still, the game stayed with me for almost 120 hours of my leisure time. By the way, the game also has a winter update in late 2024, including new crops and new maps, so players who are interested may want to give it a try.
《冰汽时代 2》（Frostpunk 2）
In 2018, after the release of the original Frostpunk game, players were impressed with its unique survival and city-building gameplay. After 6 years, 11 bit studios brings the highly anticipated sequel "Frostpunk 2", which continues the theme of "human survival in extreme environments" and the core gameplay of survival management, but through a more complex system and a richer narrative, it creates a more complete and immersive post-apocalyptic experience.
Compared to its predecessor, Frostpunk 2 has a significant increase in depth and breadth. The introduction of a new resource, oil, is not only an important factor in keeping the city running, but also brings a new route of industrial development, which also puts more pressure on the player's decision-making: resource management expands from coal and timber to oil and industrial development, and there is a need to balance short-term survival and long-term benefits in harsh weather conditions.
The game's social system has also been upgraded, with multiple new policy trees, each with unique risks and rewards. Players must balance the consumption of different "resources" more finely, especially in the face of sudden crises, and proper planning and long-term development become crucial.
Frostpunk 2 also introduces an important mechanic – the voting system. Unlike its predecessor, where players unilaterally set their policies, this game's voting system gives city dwellers a say in certain major decisions, voting based on their needs, emotions, and beliefs. At the same time, the voting results will also be affected by the living standards of residents, working conditions, factional positions, as well as recent events, the number of personnel, the direction of development and other factors, players have no full control over the voting results, but they can take actions before the vote, such as modifying policy details or implementing temporary measures to ensure that the voting results meet expectations - the voting results not only affect whether the policy can be implemented smoothly, but also have a chain reaction on the morale, trust and factional relations of residents - once the policy vote fails, Players will most likely need to find other solutions, otherwise it may lead to social unrest. Together, these new elements enhance the game's strategic depth and decision-making challenge.
In addition to the core gameplay, the narrative of "Frostpunk 2" still maintains a high standard, continuing to carry out a deep analysis of human nature: this story takes place decades after the previous game, and although human beings have partially adapted to the cold environment, internal and external troubles are still emerging. Not only do players need to be responsible for their cities, but they can also explore the outside world through the courier system, and then manage multiple cities and influence the fate of external forces and humanity as a whole. In the face of a shortage of resources, should you choose to sacrifice the few, or do you want to ensure the dignity of everyone as much as possible? Players can be seen as tyrants because of a policy, or they can lead to the collapse of society due to indecision. This progressive moral pressure keeps players in a constant conflict between humanity and morality.
At the sensory level, the visual performance of "Frostpunk 2" is even better. Weather effects such as aurora and fog are more delicate and dynamic, and the visual impact and oppressive feeling when a snowstorm hits are shocking; The city's architecture is more detailed, especially at night, when illuminated, exuding a grim beauty from the era of the Industrial Revolution. On the other hand, the soundtrack is still composed by the well-known composer Piotr Musiał, and the musical style is mainly tragic, but the melodies of some key scenes are more tense, which not only sets off the tension of the game, but also can arouse strong emotional resonance among players.
This game also adds Chinese voice support, which undoubtedly shortens the distance between the game and the Chinese player community. In addition, I have to say that the plot of this work has been changed to a regular hexagon, and players finally don't have to have a headache due to the placement of buildings that are always misaligned.
Of course, Frostpunk 2 still has some shortcomings. First of all, the early pace of the game is slow, and the guidance is not detailed and clear enough; Secondly, the more complex game logic also brings some problems, such as too many types of resources, the superposition of policies and faction conflicts, and the emergence of dynamic events, which are easy for players to be tired of coping. In addition, the trigger mechanism of some random events is not balanced, which may cause players to be hit continuously in a short period of time, especially in high difficulty mode. Finally, compared to the previous game, I personally think that some of the design of this game has been regressed, such as the readability of the UI and the logic of the values.
Overall, the evolution of Frostpunk 2 is mainly reflected in the depth of the system, social interaction, narrative expansion, and technical performance, providing a richer strategic experience through a deeper narrative and atmosphere shaping on the basis of continuing the core spirit of the previous game. Despite a few minor flaws, it's still a must-have survival strategy masterpiece and a winter ride worth immersing yourself in.
《缄默祸运》（Mouthwashing）
The space sci-fi genre, especially the story of survival in an enclosed space set on a space ship, has always fascinated me. "Silent Misfortune" reminds me of "Alien: Death Ship", a movie released this year that has a lot of similarities.
Unlike the alien monsters and intense chases in the Alien films, or the 60-second game where you gather supplies in space and seek to survive, Silent Misfortune begins with a spaceship accident that is about to run out of supplies and seems powerless. It is worth mentioning that the story of the game is set at a point in time when unmanned spaceships are about to replace traditional spaceships, and the player is in the last human-driven cargo ship, and the plot unfolds in this desperation.
During the game, players take on the role of a captain, first mate, engineer, medic, and trainee (these are the only five characters on the ship). Personally, I feel that "responsibility" is the central theme that runs through the whole book: in this small space society, each crew member has their own responsibilities. I love that at some point in the game, the "missions" that have been completed before are highlighted in turn along with the "responsibilities" mentioned in the game's storyline dialogue. Interestingly, the original title of the game, "Silent Misfortune", literally translated as "mouthwash", is exactly the cargo carried by the ship, and in some characters' inner monologues, "kill 99.9% of germs" is repeated - in addition to describing the function of the mouthwash itself, it is also a metaphor for the character's responsibility to remove harmful things in a crisis (I don't know if it is a small translation of the subtlety, "silence" reflects the situation of a certain character, and "misfortune" is subtly homonymous with "freight").
In addition, the game gradually unfolds the stories of different characters through jumping interludes and sub-narratives. Sometimes the plot is interrupted abruptly: at the climax of each bar, the picture suddenly freezes, repeats, and is accompanied by a disc-like sound effect, which adds to the tension. And as the plot progresses, the early foreshadowing is gradually revealed, and the fate of the characters and the key turning points are finally connected, which will bring players a sense of puzzle-solving satisfaction.
In contrast to today's trend of increasing attention to detail, photorealistic modeling, the game's charming PS1-style low-poly modeling art style enhances the overall atmosphere in some horror and thriller scenes. This low-poly style has always struck me, especially in the way the tension and horror associated with cutting the cake somewhere in the game is more powerful than the over-emphasis on realism and detail. Silent Misfortune deserves to be experienced by everyone who enjoys an immersive thriller story.
《闰跃之年》（Leap Year）
The Year of Leap Leap is a textbook "knowledge lock" Metroidvania game that will allow players to continue to develop new insights into the game's mechanics and enjoy the joy of epiphany in just 2 hours.
In Metroidvania-like games, it is common to see "ability locks", where players need to unlock certain abilities before they can travel to more new areas. For example, double jumps, air sprints, gravel, etc., are all common and easy-to-understand "ability lock" designs. In the same way, the "knowledge lock" requires the player to obtain a certain knowledge before they can travel to more new areas.
"Why did I jump on the spot and die?"
"Why did you jump like this and not die?"
"So I was able to jump like that in the first place?"
In Year of the Leap Leap, jumping becomes a puzzle, death provides guidance, and the presence of each platform has its own design significance. Needless to say, launch this 29MB mini-game and use Leap to collect all the 29 days of February in a leap year!
《骰子浪游者》（Diceomancer）
Among the many deck-building games, Dice Wanderer takes a bold break from the traditional gameplay of the genre: it breaks the rules and opens up a whole new dimension of strategy by adding the core mechanic of "Supreme Dice", which allows players to manipulate any value on the screen into a dice number.
Featuring a similar content framework and level pattern to Slay the Spire, the game is based on a wealth of cards and items, including a large number of original mechanics, and has a deep design. The special ability of "Dice Rewrites Everything" imaginatively expands the possibilities of combat: taking the seemingly invincible boss in the tutorial as an example, with the help of Supreme Dice, players can reduce the boss's HP to several hundred digits, and then modify its originally powerful defense to "weak"; In addition, with the modification, grenades that would have caused both losses will only cause minor damage to themselves. This way, players can end the battle cleanly. By growing up outside, players can further expand the scope of this special ability, for example, by changing the outcome of any event determined by the dice, and even when shopping in the store, they can modify the price of an item out of thin air, even if they are shy.
It should be emphasized that the number of times the Supreme Dice can be used is limited, and the number of points thrown may not always be favorable, so this seemingly open design is not actually equivalent to a built-in cheat tool, but a new strategic dimension derived from the traditional gameplay. It is precisely because of the existence of such an over-the-limit ability that the numerical design of the monsters in the game is quite "bold", coupled with complex and diverse entries and mechanisms, so that the threshold for getting started in this game is not low. However, once you are familiar with the core rules of the game and master the skills of using the Supreme Dice, players will immediately experience a unique type of fun.
In addition to the creative gameplay, the text in the game is also very witty, and the developers are clearly well versed in Internet meme culture, and the plot is very down-to-earth with a lot of pop culture terms. In addition, the delicate hand-drawn graphics and expressive performances also add to the game experience. All in all, Dice Wanderer has a unique gameplay and is well worth checking out this year.
《背包乱斗》（Backpack Battles）
"Backpack Brawl" is a combination of auto-chess (Q pet big fight?) In the game of backpack finishing elements, players need to use the gold accumulated in each round of battles to buy suitable equipment, fill the backpack grid, and use the characteristics of different characters to arrange and combine various items to generate new powerful items, combine the strongest backpack, and defeat the opponent.
In the game, the position of the equipment in the backpack will determine its effect, and players need to plan carefully to maximize the effectiveness of each type of equipment in a limited space. It's important to note that backpacks aren't as full as possible, as there is an endurance system (blue bar) and too much gear will increase your stamina cost. In terms of core rules, backpack slats can be regarded as a building system in roguelike games, and in terms of gameplay content, backpack organization as part of the gameplay is probably not widely known until Diablo 2. "Backpack Brawl" combines the two on the outside, which is an effective innovation on the shoulders of giants, which greatly enriches the player's decision-making dimension and makes the game more playable. In addition, the synthetic gameplay added to the game on this basis further enriches the decision-making content and brings a strong sense of exploration to players.
Battles are played in an asynchronous PVP mode, where players need to match other players with backpack combinations built during gameplay, and only need to defeat their opponents 10 times before losing 5 times to win. Correspondingly, the results of PVP will be recorded in the rank system of the ladder, which can also stimulate the player's desire to win and accumulate motivation to play again.
Although Backpack Brawl is a bit weak as a roguelike game, the clever interaction and echoes between the systems make it stand out, and players who are interested in roguelike games may want to try this title with excellent core gameplay.
《小飞船大冒险》（Minishoot' Adventures）
Little Ship Adventure is an excellent game that combines top-down twin-stick shooter gameplay with the 2D The Legend of Zelda exploration mode.
Although the Chinese translation of the game may make players mistakenly believe that the protagonist is a spaceship, in fact, it is more like a weak car, and it can only drive on the ground in the early game. The developers even humorously designed an achievement, making fun of the embarrassment of the "little car" that would plunge headlong into a small puddle.
In the game, players take on the role of the Crystal Child, who receives an oracle and embarks on a journey to explore the continent, reclaim power, and save the world. This worldview and ability to unlock progressively, a map with rich puzzles, a maze full of hidden content, and a mechanic to collect 4-in-1 "Heart Fragments" to increase your life limit are reminiscent of classics such as The Triforce of the Gods.
This game pays special attention to the explorability of the map, which is quite similar to the design style of Metroidvania games. As the progression progresses, players will gradually unlock various abilities that will not only improve their character's performance, but also expand the areas they can explore: they can smash rocks that stand in their way and discover hidden secrets; Cross bottomless streams and enter new areas; Glide quickly across the water and search for treasure on the island. This progressively expanding exploration experience has resulted in strong positive feedback.
In terms of combat, the difficulty design of this game is relatively friendly, and the bullet hell mode is intuitive and clear, making it easy for even players who are not so familiar with traditional STG games to pick up. After defeating enemies, players can also level up to further enhance their performance, and combined with a wealth of passive items, they can significantly feel the growth of their character.
The game's attention to detail is also impressive. For example, the handling feel of the small spacecraft on different road surfaces is significantly different, and it will show obvious inertia on the water surface. These kinds of details not only make the game more realistic, but also put forward the requirements for the player to operate accurately in the racing mini-game.
The size of Little Ship Adventure is modest, and it takes about 10 hours to complete the full achievement. With a delicate feel, plenty of explorable content, and friendly combat difficulty, this game is a must-play for all tastes.