2024 was an interesting year for games. While it’s true there haven’t really been the typical triiple-A standouts we see year after year (See: Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, The Last of Us Part 2), it’s also been one of the highest scoring years of recent memory, especially for indie games. A quick scroll down Metacritic’s Best Games of This Year list will net you over 150 individual titles all scoring above 80. Straight up, it’s been another good year for good games.
Nowhere is this more true than with the litany of independent titles, ranging all the way from sci-fi visual novels like 1000xResist to psychological horror games about interstellar delivery personnel in Mouthwashing. And while I wish more jurors played those unique oddities I think are some of this year’s best, the nominations The Game Awards has selected are indicative that Indies are still producing some of the best experiences video games have to offer.
Related
What We Might See Announced At The Game Awards (And What We Probably Won’t)
Kingdom Hearts fans, read it and weep.
The question is: which of them will be crowned the best of the bunch?
UFO 50
UFO 50 is perhaps the most interesting title in the mix; an impressive collection of ’80s-inspired arcade games designed by just six developers from Mossmouth (one of which is none other than the legendary Derek Yu). But it’s because of its vast library of games – a whopping 50 of them – that left me skeptical of just how resonant any one of these digital cartridges would be.
I’m happy to say I was proven wrong. Many games, like Bushido Ball and Night Manor, captivated me beyond what I could’ve imagined. There’s just so much on offer in any one of these ‘cartridges’. It feels like many of them – whether it’s a golf RPG or 2D platformer – could be released as full-fledged standalone titles. Even if not every game in the collection was for me, it’s the feeling this game evokes – of trying out games at a cousin’s house while sitting on the floor in front of a CRT screen – that makes UFO 50 feel like more than the sum of its parts. There’s real nostalgic power in that.
But it’s this same mass library that has me hesitant to claim UFO 50 will ultimately take home the Best Indie award. Despite the quality among the sheer quantity, there are just stronger competitors with singular focus this year that elevate their own respective genre.
Neva
Out of all the Indie games nominated this year, Neva gives me the most pause. For all intents and purposes, it looks and plays like a stand-out title in any year, especially 2024. Its watercolor aesthetic paints an added texture onto the screen, as if the very edges of my monitor burst into a digital canvas. Its mix of mystical design and challenging platforming was as much gripping to traverse as it was awe-inspiring to move around in. And its tense combat remained unrelenting, always underscoring the fragility of the game’s central characters. On paper, it’s good stuff.
And yet, there’s something about its thematic simplicity that feels more trite than powerful as you play through its prescient ecocritical narrative. I know I’m alone here, as many have praised the emotional relationship you develop with Neva, your wolf companion, over the course of the game’s length. Impressive to do in a game that’s as short as this one.
Still, I’m not sure Neva takes home the win here either, with the game in much tighter competition over in the Best Art Direction category. That’s not to say a win here would be undeserving; I’m just left wishing I loved Neva as much as everyone else.
Animal Well
Animal Well is perhaps the most impressive Metroidvania since Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight. It’s even more impressive considering it was made by just one person, Billy Basso, over the course of seven years. But, most impressive is that it’s actually not necessarily a Metroidvania at all, but rather, a massive puzzle platformer with no combat – just Frisbees, firecrackers, and yo-yos.
It’s this deceptive simplicity that gets thumbsticks through the door – anyone can jump across gaps and find switches for locked doors – but it’s the overarching complexity of the game’s puzzle design that goes toe-to-toe with the likes of The Witness. The more you learn the ins and outs of the game’s puzzle interconnectivity, the more the layers of the world start to peel themselves back the deeper you go. And it’s this interplay that makes Animal Well all the more satisfying to try and crack.
And yet! I don’t think Animal Well gets the win here either, despite how lauded it was at release. Six months removed, I fear Animal Well has resigned itself in the zeitgeist of gaming as the sleeper hit for niche jurors and an even less resonant title with the larger general audience.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
Lorelei and the Laser eyes is a puzzle masterpiece. An all-consuming mystery of the surreal you must unravel by entering into a dialogue with cerebral puzzles and some insidious cosmic unknown. It is midnight shots of espresso as you stare at scratches from a journal in an attempt to sleuth out any connective tissue that just might make sense. It’s a must-play video game.
The less I say about Lorelei, the better. Much like Animal Well, it’s the way the game continuously opens up discursive knowledge checks with both its puzzles and narrative that makes it one of the best indie games in years. For fans of David Lynch – charming characters, obtuse plot, and a maddening setting – it’s hard to find a better video game embodiment of the great director’s style than this.
I want Lorelei and the Laser Eyes to win. It’s not just the best indie game this year, I’d go so far as to say that it’s the best game this year period. Nearly seven months after from launch, I still find myself yearning to go back and decode and decode and decode.
Balatro
Balatro is gaming perfection. An all-encompassing mathematical infatuation that’s less time wasted and more time well spent. An endlessly replayable roguelite deckbuilder so deceptively simple you fail to realize it has consumed you until it’s already 3 AM and you’ve got to be up in the morning for work. But, you know, if you set the game to 4x speed, you might be able to squeeze in just one more run before bed.
There’s a real genius to Balatro’s design. An educational experiment consisting of hundreds of lines of ‘If’ programming constructs turned monumentally successful video game. A cathartic symphony of serotonin-boosting sound effects that makes your brain go brrr as you watch score multipliers turn past arabic numbers into scientific notation. It’s poker solitaire that lets you become God.
The fact that Balatro is up for Game of the Year (and could possibly win) is enough incentive to make me think it wins the Best Independent category. There’s just no skirting around its sheer cultural dominance as one of this year’s it games to play. It’s a game that has become more than just a game. A breakthrough that feels as colossal to the independent scene as Thatgamecompany’s Journey did all the way back in 2012. Made all the more impressive even because, it too – like Animal Well – was made by a single developer, LocalThunk.
For anyone still skeptical about Balatro’s chances, one only needs to give the game a fair shake. I guarantee you’ll never look at cards the same way again.
Next
TheGamer Game Of The Year Hub – 2024
Looking to gorge yourself on GOTY lists? Then you’ve come to the right place! Here you’ll find GOTY lists written by TheGamer’s insightful staff.