One of my favorites of the year that didn’t make this list was Crypt Custodian. It’s a solid top-down Metroidvania with a fun assortment of abilities, a story that is equal parts melancholy and humorous, and a simply outstanding soundtrack. The others that really clicked with me were Balatro, Animal Well, and Minishoot’ Adventures. I also admired UFO 50 even though only a small handful of the games really stood out to me.
1000xRESIST not being here really taints my view of this channel - I absolutely adoer how well researched usually the information on games is... but skipping 1xR is a complete crime that I dont understand, it is not even a discussion on 'should this be in top 25', it's a discussion on whether this game takes the indie GOTY or not. Absolute steal
Nine Sols is my goty. I'm a simple person, maybe I'm just stupid and ignorant, but I'm not into games that go to crazy. or I enjoy, but not for much time. Like with Balatro and animal well that just grab my attention and interest for very little time even if I think they are good. But I need my action. Nine Sols is just made for me. Even the convoluted silly story I think is amazing. Really good stuff. I hope for more games like this. And less rogue like deck building for the future in indie games.
Just sounds like you enjoy action more than strategy and exploration. Or at least like a lot more action paired with your exploration than animal well has.
Man i love your indie game recommendations I've sub to you for years now, I've played so many great game through the years and im excited to see more games next year
Thanks for making this list clemmy! I felt like going into this year I wasn't excited for anything. But after watching this, I can see there's so many cool looking games that I want to play!
I remember seeing Songs of Conquest when it revealed at the 2019 PC Gaming Show. I was just getting back into the HOMM style of game, after 15+ years of not playing them, when Age of Wonders 3 went free-to-keep for a few days in July, and have had it on my wishlist ever since. I want to get around to playing it eventually, but I’ve got 8 games in my Steam shopping cart at the moment and several others in my existing backlog, so it’ll have to wait; maybe next year. And hey, here’s another example of an indie game being announced five years ago, and only just now releasing as a finished product. See? Long-awaited titles do come out.
The only AAA game I have paid money for in recent years is Elden Ring. Everything else is Indie games. Some really good stuff being made. Keep up the great work Clemmy. You're a source of treasure mate!
I'm happy with how many of these I've enjoyed. It's nice playing games that absolutely blow me away even after all these years. Thanks for the channel, you're a big reason I knew about some of these games.
Pretty solid list. There are a few on the list that didn't click with me however. Also, I did purchase some your top ten and haven't played them very much..... too many games.
Lorelei is immediately one of the best puzzle games ever released imo. And it flew completely under the mainstream radar, especially after annapurna got the stray boost last year it's insane that they didn't promote this more.
@@coldDriveright, I forgot about the whole annapurna debacle. That's a shame they couldn't market Lorelei if that's the case. From the first trailer I had to play it and was so pleased with every part, even when I was at my most confused lol
I liked the list, there are a great Number of games I played or I want to play! From Minishoots adventures, to Nine Sols and over. What's missing Is The Rogue Prince of Persia, but I hope it's just because is still in early access 😊 otherwise Is highly recommended, It has evolved a lot since its First release
@@PrimeFlash93 The developer is Evil Empire, a small studio of 70 employees and only 20-ish people are working on THE ROGUE, so this is definitely an indie title, as anyone agree. Ubisoft is just the publisher and this doesn't make the game less indie at all. EE has the ability to get their partnership, but Ubisoft is not involved in the development of the game at all. They only give the rights for Prince of Persia franchise. EE were even able to avoid the Ubi Connect requirement for the game on 1.0. You were right about Prince of Persia The Lost Chrown, which is not the game I'm talking about.
Would be great to have time stamps :) I have been looking for skyrim-like and Valheim-like, but it seems that these are really uncommon, despite how successful they are. Tainted grail: the fall of avalon, outward 2, alkahest and the wayward realms seem to be the only ones of of thousands of indie studios..
Outside the rouge-lite realm, the games I most liked was Crypt Custodian followed by Mini Shot Adventures. This was a year that I felt kind disapointed by my favorite genre (metroidvania), I really think Nine Souls and Anima Well super overrated, it's like after Aeterna Noctis none metroidvania is good enough. But it turns out that I fell for the rouge-lites, they're indeed very fun to play and there's a lot of good names, it's even hard to chose one, so if people say's Balatro is the goty I can't deny. And who knows, maybe in two or three years I stop think that this huge amount of sandbox titles is nonsense and I start to enjoy the genre! =D
Secrets of Grindea looks amazing but all that junk 5:49 I hope is only background and not actual objects. I hate it when pixel RPGs add junk that only gets in the way and forces you to move to one side, you know what I mean? We should be able to walk in a straight line.
lol i kept thinking in the past few years that theres way too many games, i cant keep up and its easy to miss great games, you said 15,000 releases in 1 year 😅 thats way too many no wonder i cant keep up...
i think nine sols is one of the best too. balatro was relatively fun but imo very overrated. It's just another roguelike deckbuilder genre game really.
@@mick2287 and even the legendary slay the spire did not even come close to winning a single game of the year award and remained a niche indie game. imagine that. I also don't really think it's "extremely well done". The strategies to break the game are very straightforward and works on almost any deck. I got bored of it after a few sessions, while the diverse builds in slay the spire kept me entertained for a while longer. Speaking as someone who has pretty much played almost all the good deckbuilder games over the last decade, it didn't really stand out to me over every other deckbuilder. There have been tons of deckbuilders that are similarly enjoyable that you can find recommended on this channel, but have received nowhere near the commercial fame as balatro.
Thronefall is by far my favorite. I have 140 hours and it's still by far the most fun. It's the perfect balance of simple yet deep, and can be played for 10 minutes or 3 hours.
I am getting a bit sick of pixelated art. Some of it is well done, but a lot of it is not and you just have a mess of pixels that really hurt readability of the game. HOMM3 is from 1999, and it has way better readability than the pixelated mess of Songs of Conquest.
Animal Well, Minishoot Adventures, UFO 50, Nine Sols & Dungeons of Hinterberg are at the top for me. I hope the western indie scene isn't crushed by the weight of economic factors in the coming years. Western AAA industry is on the verge of collapse -- with just a small handful of good games making it to release every year -- and ripples are being felt all over the videogame sector. It feels like the number of great indie games and good indie games has shrunk somewhat in the past 5-6 years, as creative developers struggle to get their games finished and released. I know several such devs: for some, the economics of today are OK; for others, really grim. For my part, I find myself playing far fewer indies today than in 2018-2021... Thanks go to Clemmy and other channels/outlets like his, who keep us laypeople apprised about all (or most) of the indie games worth paying attention to.
You've not played it have you? It's nothing to do with gambling. You do not gamble even in game currency and you do not even play against the computer. It's no more of a gambling game than Slay The Spire of Magic The Gathering. It's a deckbuilding game themed around poker... but it isn't actually poker. Last time I checked, you can't manipulate the deck in poker to change your odds and improve synergies.
That’s like people in the early 2000s saying call of duty will create killers. Balatro isn’t the issue, loot boxes and shady monetization are the next gen casino zombie practices.
Not sure if you are a troll or just misguided but the game has nothing to do with gambling and there are many shittier elements of the gaming world to be concerned about if you care about the effects it has on human lives. If you were just trolling, just simply saying something you didn't mean for a reaction, I'll be honest I'm not sure when that lost its negative connotation. It sucks ass. It's lying but not for personal just gain, just to harm others. So whichever you were doing maybe you could learn something and delete it.
Is this list tailored for a specific demographic? Most of them look like free mobile games. And there's a ton of games that got left out. Anomaly Agent, Arco, Iron Meat, and Turbo Kid just to name a few. Something else is going on here, yes? Welp, can't make demands. Just expressing disappointment that a channel I look up to came up with this list. It's very weak.
The Plucky Squire, Conscript, Skald, Caves of Qud, Zero Sievert, Bloodless, Antonblast, Death of A Wish, Until Then, Fallen Leaf, Dungeons of Hinterberg, Felvidek. Where are they? I'm massively confused now.
It's almost like he has a taste? They're not journalists, they're allowed to have opinionated lists, and sometimes the most played thing isn't exacly the most well made product. Also, how are you so confused about this? Do you know him by chance? Or did you think he rates these games based on criterias that now seem contradictory to you?
I was also disappointed with the video selection-everything feels overly sweet and lacks character. I can’t imagine how they could leave out the masterpiece "Arco," which deserved to be on the list, if not in the top spots!
Why would you even compare them? They are completely different games, genres and styles. One is a bite sized rouge-lite poker game, the other is a 3D platformer tribute to PlayStation. Both are incredibly good games.
My indi GOTY is Frogmonster, Lorn's Lure, Rise of the Golden Idol, Animal Well and maybe UFO 50, tho UFO is obviously give and take. Mini & Max was incredible. Minishoot kinda dissapointed me being too basic and too easy mostly, Tactical Wizards was pretty fun. Songs of conquest i found to be boring and unimaginitive tbh. Shogun Showdown was really fun. Drova is a cool Gothic thowback, still need to play Nine Sols. Oh and Crab was pretty good, kinda fell off in terms of difficulty in the second half mostly, but still i enjoyed it alot.
One of my favorites of the year that didn’t make this list was Crypt Custodian. It’s a solid top-down Metroidvania with a fun assortment of abilities, a story that is equal parts melancholy and humorous, and a simply outstanding soundtrack.
The others that really clicked with me were Balatro, Animal Well, and Minishoot’ Adventures. I also admired UFO 50 even though only a small handful of the games really stood out to me.
Solid list. But shoutout to 1000xRESIST, my undisputed game of 2024, also an indie, yet very much not this channel's vibe.
Indeed missing from the list IMHO.
Absolutely +1
1000xRESIST not being here really taints my view of this channel - I absolutely adoer how well researched usually the information on games is... but skipping 1xR is a complete crime that I dont understand, it is not even a discussion on 'should this be in top 25', it's a discussion on whether this game takes the indie GOTY or not.
Absolute steal
Other greats released this year: Skaald ; Void Sols ; Caves of Qud ; Zero Seivert ; Flowstone Saga
Nine Sols is my goty. I'm a simple person, maybe I'm just stupid and ignorant, but I'm not into games that go to crazy. or I enjoy, but not for much time. Like with Balatro and animal well that just grab my attention and interest for very little time even if I think they are good. But I need my action. Nine Sols is just made for me. Even the convoluted silly story I think is amazing. Really good stuff. I hope for more games like this. And less rogue like deck building for the future in indie games.
Balatro fell flat for me so while I did think it was neat the attraction disappeared within an hour or 2.
So I agree with your statement.
For me Nine Sols its the Indie GOTY too! Animal well 2nd and Balatro 3r
AMEN
Looks similar to hollow knight but more fluid, which one do you prefer?
Just sounds like you enjoy action more than strategy and exploration. Or at least like a lot more action paired with your exploration than animal well has.
Surprised you didn't mention Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus
It's just a HK clone
@@blackman4001 hk?
@@jwbartle Hollow Knight
@@jwbartle Hollow Knight
Happy Holidays Clemmy!
Same to you my friend. Hope you have been well
Man i love your indie game recommendations I've sub to you for years now, I've played so many great game through the years and im excited to see more games next year
You do such a fabulous job on every video and when I hear you’re voice I now I’m in for a great video…
Great list! Drova Forsaken Kin was my game of the year. Loved it.
Thanks for making this list clemmy! I felt like going into this year I wasn't excited for anything. But after watching this, I can see there's so many cool looking games that I want to play!
Echo point nova is pretty much everything I've ever wanted in a video game, I'm sold
I remember seeing Songs of Conquest when it revealed at the 2019 PC Gaming Show. I was just getting back into the HOMM style of game, after 15+ years of not playing them, when Age of Wonders 3 went free-to-keep for a few days in July, and have had it on my wishlist ever since. I want to get around to playing it eventually, but I’ve got 8 games in my Steam shopping cart at the moment and several others in my existing backlog, so it’ll have to wait; maybe next year.
And hey, here’s another example of an indie game being announced five years ago, and only just now releasing as a finished product. See? Long-awaited titles do come out.
The only AAA game I have paid money for in recent years is Elden Ring. Everything else is Indie games. Some really good stuff being made. Keep up the great work Clemmy. You're a source of treasure mate!
I'm happy with how many of these I've enjoyed. It's nice playing games that absolutely blow me away even after all these years. Thanks for the channel, you're a big reason I knew about some of these games.
Incredible list, incredible year of Indie games carrying this entire medium for me. Thanks Clemmy!!! Indie games have never been better!!!
Pretty solid list. There are a few on the list that didn't click with me however. Also, I did purchase some your top ten and haven't played them very much..... too many games.
Shout out to Songs of Conquest, my GotY 2024 easily, DLC just landed this week, must play to any HoMM 3 fan.
Mechabellum is top 1 for me I played it too much and still at it.
From my point of view - Another crab's treasure should be way higher 🙂 What a nice game
Secrets of grindea deserves more love i cant believe its not more popular !
Feed the deep for me as well! I had a great time playing it
mullet madjack is the game version of a sugar rush.
My best indie game of 2025 will be Tinkerlands, if it ever releases...
I'm surprised Until Then, Enigma of Fear or Crow Country were not on the list
My Top Games, another great year for Indies
4 Thank Goodness You're Here
3 Animal Well
2 Satisfactory
1 Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
Lorelei is immediately one of the best puzzle games ever released imo. And it flew completely under the mainstream radar, especially after annapurna got the stray boost last year it's insane that they didn't promote this more.
@@coldDriveright, I forgot about the whole annapurna debacle. That's a shame they couldn't market Lorelei if that's the case. From the first trailer I had to play it and was so pleased with every part, even when I was at my most confused lol
I liked the list, there are a great Number of games I played or I want to play! From Minishoots adventures, to Nine Sols and over. What's missing Is The Rogue Prince of Persia, but I hope it's just because is still in early access 😊 otherwise Is highly recommended, It has evolved a lot since its First release
Yes Prince of Persia from that famous indie developer Ubisoft
@@PrimeFlash93 The developer is Evil Empire, a small studio of 70 employees and only 20-ish people are working on THE ROGUE, so this is definitely an indie title, as anyone agree. Ubisoft is just the publisher and this doesn't make the game less indie at all. EE has the ability to get their partnership, but Ubisoft is not involved in the development of the game at all. They only give the rights for Prince of Persia franchise. EE were even able to avoid the Ubi Connect requirement for the game on 1.0.
You were right about Prince of Persia The Lost Chrown, which is not the game I'm talking about.
Would be great to have time stamps :) I have been looking for skyrim-like and Valheim-like, but it seems that these are really uncommon, despite how successful they are.
Tainted grail: the fall of avalon, outward 2, alkahest and the wayward realms seem to be the only ones of of thousands of indie studios..
bookmarks?
For me:
3- Balatro
2- Animal Well
1- Nine Sols
hurray!
I liked echo point nova but they need to smooth out the framerate.
my game of the year was either Mobius machine or biogun or biomorph
For me Antonblast.
I was JUST wondering when this video would come out from you yesterday! The universe listened and delivered 😁
Outside the rouge-lite realm, the games I most liked was Crypt Custodian followed by Mini Shot Adventures.
This was a year that I felt kind disapointed by my favorite genre (metroidvania), I really think Nine Souls and Anima Well super overrated, it's like after Aeterna Noctis none metroidvania is good enough.
But it turns out that I fell for the rouge-lites, they're indeed very fun to play and there's a lot of good names, it's even hard to chose one, so if people say's Balatro is the goty I can't deny.
And who knows, maybe in two or three years I stop think that this huge amount of sandbox titles is nonsense and I start to enjoy the genre! =D
I supposed you tried Prince of Persia the lost crown ?
Secrets of Grindea looks amazing but all that junk 5:49 I hope is only background and not actual objects. I hate it when pixel RPGs add junk that only gets in the way and forces you to move to one side, you know what I mean? We should be able to walk in a straight line.
I said so 😎
Yay 22:06 Nine sols
👍インディーゲームは、いいぞ。(いいぞ。)
All the originality in gaming is with indie games; AAA games today are no different than what they were in the PS3 generation.
lol i kept thinking in the past few years that theres way too many games, i cant keep up and its easy to miss great games, you said 15,000 releases in 1 year 😅
thats way too many no wonder i cant keep up...
i think nine sols is one of the best too. balatro was relatively fun but imo very overrated. It's just another roguelike deckbuilder genre game really.
It’s an extremely well done roguelike deck builder though. Very few are of around that quality besides Slay the Spire.
@@mick2287 and even the legendary slay the spire did not even come close to winning a single game of the year award and remained a niche indie game. imagine that. I also don't really think it's "extremely well done". The strategies to break the game are very straightforward and works on almost any deck. I got bored of it after a few sessions, while the diverse builds in slay the spire kept me entertained for a while longer.
Speaking as someone who has pretty much played almost all the good deckbuilder games over the last decade, it didn't really stand out to me over every other deckbuilder. There have been tons of deckbuilders that are similarly enjoyable that you can find recommended on this channel, but have received nowhere near the commercial fame as balatro.
Thronefall is by far my favorite. I have 140 hours and it's still by far the most fun. It's the perfect balance of simple yet deep, and can be played for 10 minutes or 3 hours.
anyone else feel like this year is not that strong of a list?
Chapters, please
I am getting a bit sick of pixelated art. Some of it is well done, but a lot of it is not and you just have a mess of pixels that really hurt readability of the game. HOMM3 is from 1999, and it has way better readability than the pixelated mess of Songs of Conquest.
Animal Well, Minishoot Adventures, UFO 50, Nine Sols & Dungeons of Hinterberg are at the top for me.
I hope the western indie scene isn't crushed by the weight of economic factors in the coming years. Western AAA industry is on the verge of collapse -- with just a small handful of good games making it to release every year -- and ripples are being felt all over the videogame sector. It feels like the number of great indie games and good indie games has shrunk somewhat in the past 5-6 years, as creative developers struggle to get their games finished and released. I know several such devs: for some, the economics of today are OK; for others, really grim. For my part, I find myself playing far fewer indies today than in 2018-2021...
Thanks go to Clemmy and other channels/outlets like his, who keep us laypeople apprised about all (or most) of the indie games worth paying attention to.
GoTY cannot be a gambling simulator. I will not be trained to be next gen casino zombie
You've not played it have you? It's nothing to do with gambling. You do not gamble even in game currency and you do not even play against the computer. It's no more of a gambling game than Slay The Spire of Magic The Gathering. It's a deckbuilding game themed around poker... but it isn't actually poker. Last time I checked, you can't manipulate the deck in poker to change your odds and improve synergies.
@LeviClay bruh...c'mon..😆
That’s like people in the early 2000s saying call of duty will create killers. Balatro isn’t the issue, loot boxes and shady monetization are the next gen casino zombie practices.
@richardgranger9587 political speech. A vehicle for the time. I'm talking about predatory culture
Not sure if you are a troll or just misguided but the game has nothing to do with gambling and there are many shittier elements of the gaming world to be concerned about if you care about the effects it has on human lives.
If you were just trolling, just simply saying something you didn't mean for a reaction, I'll be honest I'm not sure when that lost its negative connotation. It sucks ass. It's lying but not for personal just gain, just to harm others.
So whichever you were doing maybe you could learn something and delete it.
Is this list tailored for a specific demographic? Most of them look like free mobile games. And there's a ton of games that got left out. Anomaly Agent, Arco, Iron Meat, and Turbo Kid just to name a few. Something else is going on here, yes? Welp, can't make demands. Just expressing disappointment that a channel I look up to came up with this list. It's very weak.
The Plucky Squire, Conscript, Skald, Caves of Qud, Zero Sievert, Bloodless, Antonblast, Death of A Wish, Until Then, Fallen Leaf, Dungeons of Hinterberg, Felvidek. Where are they? I'm massively confused now.
So you have a different taste in games than he does....and? I think it is cool that he highlights some different games.
It's almost like he has a taste? They're not journalists, they're allowed to have opinionated lists, and sometimes the most played thing isn't exacly the most well made product.
Also, how are you so confused about this? Do you know him by chance? Or did you think he rates these games based on criterias that now seem contradictory to you?
@@dinoooooomjournalists are also allowed to have opinionated lists just fyi.
I was also disappointed with the video selection-everything feels overly sweet and lacks character. I can’t imagine how they could leave out the masterpiece "Arco," which deserved to be on the list, if not in the top spots!
Balatro > Astro Bot
Why would you even compare them? They are completely different games, genres and styles. One is a bite sized rouge-lite poker game, the other is a 3D platformer tribute to PlayStation. Both are incredibly good games.
@@LordLOC because they are both games
@@Jackfromshackmost likely because they were at the game awards.
But the guy is right, they're too different to be compared directly
@@dinoooooom Jeff Kelley awards not have any sense. But you can compare any game with any game no matter what. No one should stop you
My indi GOTY is Frogmonster, Lorn's Lure, Rise of the Golden Idol, Animal Well and maybe UFO 50, tho UFO is obviously give and take. Mini & Max was incredible.
Minishoot kinda dissapointed me being too basic and too easy mostly, Tactical Wizards was pretty fun. Songs of conquest i found to be boring and unimaginitive tbh. Shogun Showdown was really fun. Drova is a cool Gothic thowback, still need to play Nine Sols. Oh and Crab was pretty good, kinda fell off in terms of difficulty in the second half mostly, but still i enjoyed it alot.
balatro is trash
mal video
i'm not gonna lie, these look boring as hell.
Such year, such games
What exacly?
thank you
You're welcome