The Game Awards 2024 will take place on December 12, and are sure to draw attention from all corners of the gaming world. There’s no doubt that 2024 was a solid year for video game releases, and independent developers are no small part of this. Brand-new indie games have been some of the most talked about releases this year, but only one can come out on top at The Game Awards 2024.
Best Debut Indie is reserved for indie titles that were first released in 2024, as opposed to games that may have picked up steam in 2024, but were released in an earlier year. The Game Awards often crowd GotY nominees with big budget titles that dominate public conversation all year round, meaning that Best Debut Indie is often one of the most prestigious awards that smaller developers can hope to grab.
2024 Best Debut Indie Nominees
- Animal Well (Shared Memory/Bigmode)
- Balatro (LocalThunk/Playstack)
- Manor Lords (Slavic Magic/Hooded Horse)
- Pacific Drive (Ironwood Studios/Kepler Interactive)
- The Plucky Squire (All Possible Futures/Devolver Digital)
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Animal Well
Animal Well is the first game developed by Shared Memory and published by Bigmode. Bigmode was founded in September 2022 by the popular YouTuber videogamedunkey, also known as Jason Gastrow, alongside his wife Leah. This has given Animal Well a great deal of publicity before it even hit shelves, and makes it a solid contender to win Best Debut Indie right off the bat.
Animal Well has much more going for it besides the team behind it, although that has certainly been a boon. Animal Well received near-universal acclaim upon its release, and has already been lauded as one of the very best Metroidvanias of recent years. Although it may at first appear smaller than its big budget peers, Animal Well conceals a very dense world design that keeps the gears turning. By blending puzzles seamlessly into exploration, and removing combat wholesale, Animal Well is an unforgettable experience.
Hatch from your flower and spelunk through the beautiful and sometimes haunting world of Animal Well, a pixelated wonder rendered in intricate audio and visual detail. Encounter lively creatures small and large, helpful and ominous as you discover unconventional upgrades and unravel the well’s secrets. This is a truly unique experience that can make you laugh in fear, surprise, or delight.
- Released
- May 9, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Shared Memory
- Publisher(s)
- Bigmode
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- ESRB
- E For Everyone Due To Mild Fantasy Violence
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- How Long To Beat
- 7 Hours
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium
Balatro
Balatro takes roguelike deck-building, a genre made popular thanks to indie classics like Slay the Spire, and combines it with a unique poker flavor. Despite some gameplay elements feeling familiar, the entire system disguises a wealth of complex mechanics that make it addictive to engage with. Balatro struck gold with both commercial and critical success upon its release, and remains a popular game on online platforms such as Twitch.
Balatro is perhaps the only game in this category to surpass Animal Well in terms of sheer publicity, and it’s almost difficult to determine how much leverage one game may have over the other. Balatro is the only title this year to be nominated for Best Debut Indie and Game of the Year, a rare feat accomplished only by other undisputed gems such as Hades. Between this and a recent crossover, Balatro is in outstanding company, and certainly makes a strong case for taking home Best Debut Indie.
Balatro is a poker-inspired roguelike deck builder all about creating powerful synergies and winning big.
The poker roguelike. Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos.
Combine valid poker hands with unique Joker cards in order to create varied synergies and builds. Earn enough chips to beat devious blinds, all while uncovering hidden bonus hands and decks as you progress. You’re going to need every edge you can get in order to reach the boss blind, beat the final ante and secure victory
Strategy
Digital Card Game
Roguelike
- Released
- February 20, 2024
- Developer(s)
- LocalThunk
- Publisher(s)
- Playstack
- Engine
- LÖVE
- ESRB
- E For Everyone
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Manor Lords
Manor Lords is a bit of a dark horse in this race, embracing a genre and style of presentation wholly unlike the other contenders. Considering what Best Debut Indie represents, this is far more to its benefit than not. Manor Lords is a medieval city-builder through and through, and even includes real-time tactical combat for the purpose of defending one’s lands.
Manor Lords boasted more than three million wishlists on Steam before its early access release, which made it one of the most evidently anticipated games of 2024. Furthermore, Manor Lords is also up for nomination in the Best Sim/Strategy Game category. Perhaps the best quality of Manor Lords is its sheer ambition, with Manor Lords still receiving hefty updates dedicated to improving immersion and building even more content for players to dive into.
Manor Lords is a strategy game that allows you to experience the life of a medieval lord. Grow your starting village into a bustling city, manage resources and production chains, and expand your lands through conquest.
Inspired by the art and architecture of late 14th century Franconia, Manor Lords prioritizes historical accuracy wherever possible, using it to inform gameplay mechanics and visuals alike. Common medieval tropes are avoided in favor of historical accuracy in order to make the world feel more authentic, colorful, and believable.
Manor Lords provides a gridless city-building experience with full freedom of placement and rotation. Building mechanics are inspired by the growth of real medieval towns and villages, where major trade routes and the landscape influenced how settlements formed and developed.
From boots to barley and hides to honey, Manor Lords features a great variety of goods fitting of the era. Materials need to be transported and processed into finished products through production chains, and you must balance the basic needs of your people against the desire to produce luxury items to ensure happiness, manufacture trade goods for export, or forge arms and armor to aid in your conquests.
- Released
- April 26, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Slavic Magic
- Publisher(s)
- Hooded Horse
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- ESRB
- t
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair
Pacific Drive
Pacific Drive can be considered a bit of an underdog at the moment, but still very much keeps up with the competition. For one, Pacific Drive has been a long time coming, with development reportedly beginning all the way back in 2019. This has given it plenty of time to build a name for itself, which was likely made that much easier thanks to Pacific Drive‘s rather specific line of focus.
Pacific Drive is marketed as a survival game, and this is accurate all the way down to a characteristic obsession with atmosphere. However, such simple terms almost sells the game short, which is strongly defined by the player’s interactions with their car. Players customize the vehicle, make regular repairs, and otherwise bond alongside it. This and other elements create complex systems which could unfortunately become Pacific Drive‘s undoing, with some critics believing the gameplay to be as obtuse as it is enjoyable.
Pacific Drive is a first-person driving survival game with your car as your only companion. Navigate a surreal reimagining of the Pacific Northwest, and face supernatural dangers as you venture into the Olympic Exclusion Zone. Each excursion into the wilderness brings unique and strange challenges as you restore and upgrade your car from an abandoned garage that acts as your home base. Gather precious resources and investigate what’s been left behind in the Zone; unravel a long-forgotten mystery while learning exactly what it takes to survive in this unpredictable, hostile environment.
DRIVE TO SURVIVE
It’s you and your station wagon against an unforgiving, vicious world. It’ll take more than a fresh set of tires to keep you alive, on and off the road. Your faithful wagon can be upgraded and reinforced to protect you, but the car is going to take a beating. Keep your gas tank filled and your panels intact to withstand the radiation permeating the Zone. You’ll be pushed to your limit – making repairs on the fly, scavenging materials wherever you can, and adapting your rolling fortress to tackle the many life-threatening dangers that lurk in the shadows.
- Released
- February 22, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Ironwood Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Kepler Interactive
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Fantasy Violence, Language
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
The Plucky Squire
The Plucky Squire is a nice change of pace from the irreverent tone featured in many other games published by Devolver Digital. Still, Devolver Digital should be a familiar face for anyone that keeps track of indie publishing year over year. The game features work from the art director of Pokemon Sword and Shield, which is all the more impressive thanks to The Plucky Squire‘s own art direction.
The Plucky Squire‘s storybook visual style is a charming hook that pervades the entire game’s design. After all, the game’s story heavily involves the protagonists of a 2D fairytale discovering the wider world around them, and delving into 3D themselves. This allows The Plucky Squire to juggle two incredibly distinct settings, which is perfectly befitting an adventure game of this nature.
The Plucky Squire follows the magical adventures of Jot and his friends – storybook characters who discover a three-dimensional world outside the pages of their book.
When the malevolent Humgrump realises he’s the villain of the book – destined to lose his battle against the forces of good for all eternity – he kicks the heroic Jot out of its pages and changes the story forever.
Jot must face challenges unlike anything he’s ever seen if he is to save his friends from Humgrump’s dark forces and restore the book’s happy ending.
Jump between 2D and 3D worlds in this charming action adventure – solving puzzles, boxing badgers, flying with a jetpack, and enjoying many more delightful and surprising mini challenges as you become the hero of a living storybook.
- Released
- September 17, 2024
- Developer(s)
- All Possible Futures
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ // Fantasy Violence
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
- How Long To Beat
- 8 Hours
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium
Final Prediction
Plenty of solid games have been released throughout the year, and this is as true for the indie scene as it is for any other corner of the gaming world. Among the five nominees, two front-runners have seemingly pulled ahead. The competition is so fierce that it’s nearly a toss-up, but only one of the two can be crowned as the Best Debut Indie Game of 2024. Each nominee has its merits, but Animal Well and Balatro are no doubt at the front of a neck-and-neck race to claim this award.
Although Animal Well has certainly been giving it a run for its money, it’s hard to deny that Balatro seems very likely to pull ahead at this point. While other games in this category have earned additional nominations as well, Balatro‘s Game of the Year Nomination is undoubtedly the main factor drawing attention to the contenders for this award. While a nomination is one thing, Balatro also has a decent chance of actually winning Game of the Year.
Public votes are only a small percentage of the final count, but this could still guide the priorities for the Game Awards 2024, and hint at where this award may land. Finally, one must consider that these awards not only nominate a game’s quality, but celebrate its impact throughout the year. Balatro is almost unrivaled in this regard, both among indie games and beyond. Between its other nominations, incredibly unique gameplay and presentation, and sheer relevance to the gaming community, Balatro is the best pick to win Best Debut Indie Game of 2024.